Act 4 - Jesus: The Human Face Of God

A man who was derided by his people. Condemned to death. Crucified. Raised from the dead. A man who was not understood by those who came to know him. A man who was beyond his years and beyond society. A man who was God, the human face of God, and through him we come to know our true divine nature.

One of the early Fathers of the church, St. Athanasius captured the whole of the Jesus project with these words: "God became man so that man might become God." This idea is known as the Theosis, and it is a central Christian belief that undergirds the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. It represents the totality of the life of God among human beings, and it is only through this process that human beings might also become divine.

We cannot be God, but we can exemplify the attributes of the divine - after all, human beings are created in the image of the divine, and we have those divine qualities within us.

But there exists this glaring corruption that we couldn’t overcome on our own.

Jesus came to our rescue because we are all deeply affected by the actions of others, and sometimes we find that the results of other people’s actions make it hard, or even impossible, to do what is right. To some extent, this limits the freedom of everyone. And this freedom is essential to our work and life.

Only God the creator can restore the freedom to live in a way that is in harmony with God's will and nature. And through the incarnation, God did this by bringing into being God’s own life in the person of Jesus. Through the incarnation, God brought into being a life that will be perfectly in harmony with who and what God is. Jesus' life was a human life completely filled with divine life.

Jesus shows us what a human life is like when it is lived as it should be - it’s divine life. But Jesus does more than show us what the divine life is like. Because of his own perfect harmony with God’s will and goodness, he is able to offer himself to rejection and death, so that by his death there may be a restored relationship of love between God and humanity.

His passion and death was a voluntary submission to the journey to the cross, and by that, Jesus accepts all the suffering that is in consequence for human beings of their rebellion and weakness. Jesus pays the price of human betrayal and weakness. Jesus pays the price for human pride and disobedience. Jesus pays the price for human indifference and evil.

The difference that Jesus makes is that Jesus accepts his suffering as an act of love, and through that, Jesus changes what is possible for human beings. Jesus makes the case for us, that we can also accept suffering in all its shapes, sizes and form. That what we think is impossible, can be possible, and that we can tap into the silver-lining of all our sufferings.

Through his death and resurrection, Jesus releases a new energy of divine breath into the world, and this life transforming energy is the Holy Spirit. I remember the gospel text where it says Jesus breathed on the disciples: And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. That must have been a powerful moment for the disciples as well as an empowering moment for them, for whatever gift that they received, has been passed on to us.

One of our core Christian beliefs is that when we entrust our lives to Jesus, and identify with him, we can stand wherever in his stead and boldly speak his words as if he himself was speaking those words. We know we can do that because it is the Holy Spirit who has given us the freedom and power to speak, and the freedom to also live according to God’s will, reflecting God’s own character.

In view of the fact that we find ourselves in some sort of perpetual bondage, the kind of human fellowship or togetherness that was possible is togetherness in an inheritance of disharmony and betrayal.

But Jesus creates a new kind of fellowship, a relationship with himself that is going to be stronger than the deep currents that pull people towards destructive and self-serving behaviors.

Paul refers to this as the new creation. In this new creation, we are able to start all over again, and to show in our community life what humanity looks like when it is rescued from competitive selfishness, greed, pride and mutual fear.

There have been varied ways in which our understanding of Jesus is composed. Here are a few: one, Jesus taking the punishment for sin in our place. Two, Jesus offering himself as a sacrifice. Three, Jesus winning a victory over Satan and setting prisoners free. These varied compositions of our understanding of Jesus means that there is no one coherent way of expressing this core Christianity thought over what we believe Jesus did accomplish for us.

But in spite of this lack of language in understanding the uniqueness of Jesus’ role, here’s what is important in the life of Jesus, the completeness of divine love breaks into a world in which human beings are not free and not in contact with that love, and that love sets them free, free to live in accordance with the divine which is in them.

By approaching his death as an act of love for human beings and by speaking about his death as a sort of payment to the powers of evil that held human beings in bondage to sin, Jesus released people from the effect of sin and for the first Jesus opens the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

I’d like to share a story of Charles Templeton. Charles was an evangelist in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Charles over time, abandoned Christianity and became an agnostic. Fifty years after he abandoned Christianity, Lee Strobel had an opportunity to interview Charles.

Here is an account of part of the interview:

 “And how do you assess this Jesus?” It seemed like the next logical question—but I wasn’t ready for the response it would evoke.

Templeton’s body language softened. It was as if he suddenly felt relaxed and comfortable in talking about an old and dear friend. His voice, which at times had displayed such a sharp and insistent edge, now took on a melancholy and reflective tone. His guard seemingly down, he spoke in an unhurried pace, almost nostalgically, carefully choosing his words as he talked about Jesus.

“He was,” Templeton began, “the greatest human being who has ever lived. He was a moral genius. His ethical sense was unique. He was the intrinsically wisest person that I’ve ever encountered in my life or in my readings. His commitment was total and led to his own death, much to the detriment of the world. What could one say about him except that this was a form of greatness?”

I was taken aback. “You sound like you really care about him,” I said.

“Well, yes, he is the most important thing in my life,” came his reply. “I . . . I . . . I . . . ,”

He stuttered, searching for the right word, ‘I know it may sound strange, but I have to say . . . I adore him!” . . .

"Everything good I know, everything decent I know, everything pure I know, I learned from Jesus. Yes . . . yes. And tough! Just look at Jesus. He castigated people. He was angry. People don’t think of him that way, but they don’t read the Bible. He had a righteous anger. He cared for the oppressed and exploited. There’s no question that he had the highest moral standard, the least duplicity, the greatest compassion, of any human being in history. There have been many other wonderful people, but Jesus is Jesus….’

“Uh . . . but . . . no,’ he said slowly, ‘he’s the most . . .” He stopped, then started again. “In my view,” he declared, “he is the most important human being who has ever existed.”

That’s when Templeton uttered the words I never expected to hear from him. “And if I may put it this way,” he said as his voice began to crack, ‘I . . . miss . . . him!”

With that, tears flooded his eyes. He turned his head and looked downward, raising his left hand to shield his face from me. His shoulders bobbed as he wept. . . .

Templeton fought to compose himself. I could tell it wasn’t like him to lose control in front of a stranger. He sighed deeply and wiped away a tear. After a few more awkward moments, he waved his hand dismissively. Finally, quietly but adamantly, he insisted: “Enough of that.”

Yes, enough of that because sometimes it is too painful to look in the mirror or cast our minds back to reflect on the paths that we have taken because of pride. That very ailment which Jesus cures. If everything good he knew came from Jesus, what happened?

On Easter morning, God brought Jesus back from death to meet again his followers. Because of this single most important act of God, Christians know that this life is not a thing of the past. Jesus is still alive, and calls people to be with him just as he did during his life on earth.

It is with this call that he daily creates that community of fellowship that gives human beings the possibility of living differently, and in harmony with God.

Although Charles couldn’t hide his admiration for Jesus, buried deep within him was a sense of loss he may have experienced when he walked away from Jesus.

The good news is that Jesus never walked away from him, Jesus never walks away from us-Jesus always walks with us, and like Charles Templeton, we too do miss him. We miss him because we have come to know the sort of person he is, we miss him because we know the sort of things that he can do in our lives, we miss him because of the meaning he brings to our lives, and we miss him because of the emptiness we feel in our lives because of his absence.

Jesus, Son of the living God, have mercy upon us…

Manny+

(I plan to devote each week to an Act, so be on the lookout for Act V next week.)