If you’re like me, you wrestle greatly with the person that we believe Jesus to be. Before you pick up your pitchforks or click the little X in the corner, hear me out.
For some time even through my upbringing in the Catholic church and into adulthood, I viewed Jesus as mythical. I did not believe that there ever was a man name Jesus who could be both man and God. While not on the same scale, I would equate the stories about him to be biblical campfire stories…tell them often enough and they become true.
It was through Greg Boyd’s book “Letters from a Skeptic” that I first came to really see Jesus as a historical human being. Keep in mind, that this was during a time when I was pulling for his atheist father to convert him away from things that couldn’t be proven. But Boyd lays out the historical case for Jesus as written in the New Testament. Based on time frames and people witnessing events, there is a plausible historical case to be made for the fact that someone named Jesus lived during this time and was seemingly responsible for a variety of events. That was enough for me to move forward with the person of Jesus.
But does that make him God? There are men and women on the street corners all over North America that claim to hear from God and speak with the authority of God all the time. Are they prophets that we’re just ignoring? What makes this man so special?
As we are told, what made him special was that he actually is God. He’s part of the Trinity and came to Earth in human form; why he came is the subject for another entry.
Jesus as a part of the Trinity I understand as much as I feel I need to right now but there will be more learning. I will credit William Paul Young and his book and subsequent movie “The Shack” with simplifying this relationship. While fictional, Young’s description of the Trinity and how they all know what each other is thinking all the time is beautiful. The idea that they may know what’s to come but still want to see it through Mack’s eyes is exactly the way a parent feels with their child. I know what the result of looking in to the hose or blowing bubbles will be, but watching my kids experience it each time is something that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
So, while I can see Jesus as a part of God, I really struggle with this God/Man role. There are too many questions that I don’t believe I can answer. The ones I feel I can, seem to be seen as flat out wrong by the majority of both progressive and conservative Christians.
These questions may be future entries on their own as well while I work to unpack what they mean in my mind through the help of others with far greater minds than mine.
For now, I’ll focus on one: Was Jesus truly sinless as we are led to believe?
“There has only ever been one perfect human and that was Jesus.” This is what we are told very early on; but is it true? I will submit to you that I don’t believe it is.
For the purposes of this blog, I will define sin as “straying from God’s ideal” or “missing the mark.” Is it possible to be fully human and sinless? To never stray from the ideal?
Again, I’m no biblical scholar but I’ve read a bit. Luke 2:41-52 tells us about when Jesus was a 12-year-old boy and visiting the Temple in Jerusalem with his family. When his family left, Jesus stayed behind. It’s safe to assume that there was a large group that was travelling so the fact that he was not noticed is not completely out of the question, but that’s a separate parenting question. I propose that this was sin. Not telling his parents what he was doing and why he was doing it is far from honouring your father and mother. Yes, he told them that he was doing his “Father’s business” according to the KJV but much like with my own children, having a good excuse after the fact does not condone the worry caused and potentially putting his family in danger as they had to travel back for him.
There are limited stories in the bible about our “sinless” saviour but it’s glaring to me that the one that sticks out doesn’t paint the child in a great light within his own family. There will be debates on who is my brother etc. that can stem from this, but for a 12-year-old that hardly seems applicable yet.
I also question other innately human characteristics that many or most would deem sinful and whether Jesus did those things. Did he ever disobey his parents in any other instance? Were there ever times as a teen boy that he lusted after another (man or woman)? Did he ever wish bad things would happen to someone because they had done him wrong?
I’m not saying any of these things are true, but to be fully human, is it not possible that they are?
The next question that would come from this is Could Jesus Sin or a concept known as peccability.
Since we saw in the desert that Jesus did have the ability to be tempted, was he even able to submit to that temptation? If one does not have the ability to sin, is “sinless” much of a badge of honour? I’m “flightless” but, the fact that I do not have the ability to fly on my own should indicate that; without it being something to hang my hat on.
If Jesus did have the ability to sin, how is it possible to spend 30+ years as a human and never commit sin? I simply can’t accept the “because he’s God” arguments. It is my assertion that it is impossible to be both fully human and sinless.
I will end with a caveat though. I am far from fully understanding the breadth and depth of the Trinity and its impact on my life. I could be wrong about all of this but this is where I’m at in my processing of faith.
What about you? Do you think Jesus was sinless? Do the ideas here give cause to click an unfriend or block? Or do they want to make you dig in further? I’d love to hear either way.
Comments
Post a Comment