Jesus Christ

• “Christians have no problem accepting Christ as holy, as God. But they always have problems accepting him also as a human being at the same time.” - Italy State Senator 
• Jesus, son of God, was a title given to him in the New Testament and by the early Church. It links to Christian doctrine of the trinity and incarnation. Jesus calls God ‘abba’ (Greek for father) and heavenly voices call Jesus ‘my son’ but Jesus does not refer to himself as ‘son’.  
• Problems with human:

  Paul wrote that humans have a sinful and corrupt nature so did Jesus share this nature?
• Problems with divinity:

  In order to save humanity from sin, Jesus had to be divine as only God has that redemptive power. If Jesus was God, did Jesus really suffer on the cross and actually die from crucifixion? Does this mean his resurrection was not real? 
• The Church says... 

  • The Church of Chalcedon in AD 451 
  • Christ has two natures which come together in one person 
  • “Truly God and truly man.” - Bindley The Oecumenical Documents of the Faith 1899 
• Theologian Karl Rahner suggests a genuinely human consciousness must have an unknown future so if Jesus has his father’s awareness of the time, he cannot be human.  

  • His solution 'Onion’ - Jesus had many layers (like an onion) so maybe Jesus’ human self-awareness was the top layer.  
• Gerald O’Collins challenges the possibility of answering these sorts of questions because understanding the inner experiences of Jesus’ life is very challenging particularly as he left no writings. 
• “What did Jesus know about himself and his mission?...He knew that he stood in a unique relationship to the Father and that as Son he had a mission of salvation for others.” - Collins 
• Hick recognised that if Jesus was only aware of God's will and God’s willingness to act – no different from many others: Moses, Jeremiah, Muhammed, Guru Nanak, St Francis etc. 

  • Hick’s conclusion is that Christianity, without the incarnation, becomes one of many religions that each perceive God in a different way. 
• C. S Lewis rejected anyone who accepted Jesus as a teacher but not the Son of God. 
• “A man who is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell.” - C.S Lewis 
• Jesus’ power to walk on water, his power to drive out demons, to recreate sight, speech and even life are things only God can do. This proves Jesus was God’s Son. Christians believe miracles happen today too through the Holy Spirit’s continued presence. 
• However, Hume’s Essays on Miracles argued that because we have no present day, direct experiences of miracles. It is not possible to say that Jesus walked on water – it is simply a misunderstanding. On the other hand, maybe, these miracles should be seen in a metaphorical or spiritual way rather than literal. 
• N. T. Wright discusses how Jesus cures people from groups that have been excluded from society. Jesus is reuniting the socially excluded, ritually unclean, separated groups back into a relationship with God. In Wright’s interpretation Jesus’ miracles show a greater authority than simply a power to alter the way the universe works. This leads onto liberation theology. 
• Examples of miracles:

  • Bleeding women
  • Healing the blind
  • Ressurection
• “Jesus was a great moral teacher” - Dawkins, Interview in the Guardian, 2011 
• Jesus as a moral teacher...

  • Sometimes seen as a Rabbi: a term of respect used for educated teachers who interpreted the law. 
  • Jesus clearly could read and spent a lot of time preaching in the synagogues.  
  • He used controversial or surprising stories, designed to get his listeners to think about their preconceptions. 
  • Teachings remain striking today 
• Key example of Jesus as a moral teacher is the Sermon on the Mount
• Jesus wanted to set the people free from social convention, religious restriction, political domination and often seen as a religious revolutionary: 

  • Someone who challenged the established religious authorities, institutions and rules with a radically different spiritual message that sought to break down the division between God and the people. 
  • He had arguments with the Pharisees and Scribes over religious laws, arrested by the Supreme Court of Justice in Jerusalem (the Sanhedrin) and was handed over to Pontius Pilate for execution. 
• Others see him as a reformer seeking political and social revolution:  

  • Liberating the people of Israel from Roman occupation (time of poverty, assassinations, murders and open military rebellions) 
  • One of the groups leading the open conflict = Zealots 
  • Some of Jesus followers had suspicious names. E.g. Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot (iscarri = ‘dagger man’ was another name for a Zealot). 
  • The way Jesus was understood by his followers changed over time - perhaps Early Church tried to hide Jesus’ revolutionary tendencies to evade persecution. 
• 'Black Messiah' - James Cone