Person of Jesus

• Ghandi


  - "if Christians would live according to teachings of Christ, everyone in India would be Christian today"

  - "I like your Christ, not your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ"
• Liberator


  Mark 5:24-34 (Bleeding Woman)

  —> let the bleeding woman touch his clothes and she was healed by her faith

  
  

  Luke 10:25-37 (Good Samaritan)

  —> parable told after being asked "who is my neighbour?"

  —> "go and do likewise
• Political Liberator

  - Jews expected the Davidic Messiah who would be a political and military leader

  —> "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword"- Jesus (Mark)

  - Jesus generally seen to be gentle, loving and peaceful

  - had some 'odd' friends: Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot (Dagger Man)
• Was Jesus a Zealot?

  - zealots wanted to overthrow the romans

  - SGF Brandon: Jesus was a political freedom fighter but the Bible toned down his actions

  - Reza Aslan: sees the Triumphant entry into Jerusalem as Jesus having political status, orchestrated to look like a prophecy fulfillment
• Disagreement that Jesus was a Zealot

  - Jesus resisted violence during arrest

  - never confirmed he was 'the King of the Jews'

  - did Judas betray him because he wasn't revolutionary enough?

  - said "blessed are the peacemakers"

  - more a social liberator?
• Social Liberator


  - at the time of Jesus certain groups were seen as inferior or polluting e.g menstruating women and prostitutes

  - Jesus spent time with those deemed inferior and challenged the stereotypes

  —> often used them as examples of moral righteousness e.g the Good Samaritan
• Robert Webb


  - Jesus' actions were seen as 'social banditry' - to free the poor peasants

  —> Richard Horsely (support):

  - Jesus crucified with bandits (was he seen that way?)

  - early Church may have tried to downplay his revolutionary tendencies
• Liberation Theology


  - popular view of Jesus as a rebel and revolutionary

  —> view often found in parts of the world with injustice, class inequality and exploitation e.g Latin America

  - Liberation Theology took inspiration from Jesus as a radical zealot, passionately fighting to end oppression

  - argue Jesus showed a 'preferential option for the poor
• Camillo Torres Restrepo (Catholic Priest)


  - "The duty of every Catholic is to be revolutionary. The duty of every revolutionary is to make the revolution"

  - "If Jesus were alive today he would have been a guerrilla"

  - joined the communist army in the war against the government in Colombia
• For Jesus as a Social Liberator

  - was concerned with challenging the social conventions and the welfare of the 'outcasts'

  - many Christians have been inspired to be involved in social change

  - Jesus was executed by authorities, seen as a challenge to political and religious leaders

  - rode a donkey into Jerusalem in a seemingly organised event and was crucified with "King of the Jews" over the cross
• Against Jesus as a Social Liberator

  - political liberation may have been his main focus

  - told his followers to pay tax

  - escaped when he realised people were trying to make him King by force (John 6:15)

  - didn't resist arrest and told his followers not to defend him with violence

  - chose a donkey not a military horse
• Jesus as Son of God

  For Jews:

  Referred to someone specially chosen by God, possibly with supernatural aspects

  
  

  For Gentiles:

  Referred to someone divine in the New Testament
• Miracles


  Nature - Mark 6:47-52

  - Jesus walked on water and stopped the wind

  
  

  Healing - John 9:1-41

  - healed the blind man with a mixture of mud and saliva

  - he performed this on the Sabbath

  - refers to himself as 'son of man
• Proof of Jesus as Son of God

  - Paul speaks of Jesus as 'God's own son' (Romans)

  - Jesus seems uniquely close to God

  - Jesus calls God 'Abba' meaning father

  - 'I am' statements in John e.g "I am the light of the world"
• John 1:1


  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
• Early Church


  - Jesus seemed to have a special knowledge of God but it creates a confusion as it suggests they are too separate beings

  —> developed the 'hypostatic union' doctrine, this stated that the two natures were united in one person
• Why is the Hypostatic Union so important?

  - Jesus had to be divine as only God had the power to redeem but also human to have suffered on the cross
• Problem with Hypostatic Union

  - if Jesus was human did he he have the same corrupt nature that humans have

  - how much emotion was genuine and could he fully know what its like to be human because he is omniscient
• Church's solution to Hypostatic Union issues?

  - the council of Nicaea and Council of Chalcedon confirmed that Jesus is truly divine and truly human (apart from original sin)

  - Jesus is of the 'same substance' as God

  - Jesus is capable of being tempted but also rejecting temptation
• Karl Rahner


  - his problem was that Jesus' genuine human consciousness must have an unknown future, God consciousness would know

  - his solution was that Jesus' consciousness was like an onion (with layers)

  —> his surface consciousness is his human emotion but deep down was aware of his divinity
• Gerald Collins


  - challenges Rahner saying that we cannot understand the consciousness of another human being

  - "Jesus knew he stood in a unique relationship with the father and that as the son he had a mission of salvation for others"
• Hume and Miracles


  - defines a miracle as a suspension of a law of nature by some volition of the deity

  —> cannot be certain Jesus performed miracles so should be sceptical
• Schillebeeckx


  Jesus' miracles should be read as metaphors e.g the blind man is a metaphor for being able to see clearly and understand
• NT Wright


  - it is significant that Jesus performs miracles on the socially marginalised

  —> it is symbolic of him bringing the lost back to God
• Resurrection


  - most significant event in Jesus' relationship with humanity

  - it is the beginning of a new relationship with God - overcoming sin and death

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• Wright and Sanders


  - resurrection has maintained the strength of the belief system (Christianity)

  - reveals new things of the nature of God, overcoming sin and suffering

  - gives Christians hope for the Kingdom of God and that death isn't the end
• Wolfhart Pannenberg


  - the resurrection is a sign of completion of creation and shows Jesus as God

  - resurrection confirms Jesus' identity as Son of God

  - 'doubting Thomas' —> says "my Lord and My God when he sees the resurrected Jesus