Following on from our recent discussions about faith from an interfaith perspective, who is Jesus to you today?
Either he was the ‘Son of God’, a Prophet, an inspired man, or a failed insurrectionist.
Son of God
This title was one used commonly by the Roman Emperors at that time. But its origins could go back much further. The Epic of Gilgamesh records the battles which are similar to the Genesis stories from the Hebrew Scriptures. However Gilgamesh claimed to come from both human and divine descent. Greek mythology often speaks of the offspring of a divine being and a human. Roman Emperors took on such a mantle with many Emperors citing that they were ‘sons of’ the previous Emperor, who was divine.
To consider one as directly from God would be unthinkable for a Jew, because it brings God down to human level. Moreover, there may have been some confusion between Greek and Jew interpretations of using ‘son of God’.
The term ‘Son of God‘ was used to describe Adam (Genesis 5:1-3), those who ‘would be born again’, of Jews in the Hebrew Scriptures, and Jesus in the New Testament. Additionally those who were pious in the love of God, and also Angels. It’s quite an encompassing term.
The term “son” simply signified that he came from God and bore His image. But do you feel different about this?
In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus is deemed to be a prophet (Matthew 21:11) [1]. The Jews also reported that they believed that Jesus was a Great Prophet (Luke 7:16).
Prophet
“… if devout Jews who lived in daily association with Jesus for years were slow to arrive at a decision which Christians now absorb in infancy, it is foolish to think that a Muslim, whose mental processes are dominated by the Unity and Transcendence of Allah, can suddenly accept Jesus as the Son of God with the full connotations of Deity which we associate with the Persons of the Trinity….”
Matt Finlay, cited in Jesus, Son of God — a Translation Problem
by Arie de Kuiper and Barclay M. Newman Jr.
So who is Jesus to a Muslim?
In Islam, Jesus, is one of the five greatest messengers of God who are collectively known as the ‘Ul al-Azm or the Possessors of Steadfastness. Jesus is also a real person who lived in Roman Judea in the first century. Muslims share with Christians most of the basic outlines of Jesus’ story, though there are certainly differences. In Islam, as well as in Christianity, Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary and was without a father. But for Muslims, Jesus is neither God nor the Son of God. Jesus, like in the Infancy Gospels of Thomas, also speaks from the cradle:
“I am indeed the servant of God. He has given me the Book and made me a prophet; made me blessed wherever I am and advised me of prayer and charity as long as I live; and made me kind to my mother and never made me arrogant or disobedient.”
Surah Maryam 16:30
Also, Jesus is the only messenger who received the title of al-Masih, or Messiah, in the Qur’an.
Inspired Man
I’d like to quote Marcus Borg, an eminent theologian on his understanding of Jesus:
Jesus was from the peasant class. Clearly, he was brilliant. His use of language was remarkable and poetic, filled with images and stories. He had a metaphoric mind. He was not an ascetic, but world-affirming, with a zest for life. There was a sociopolitical passion to him – like a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King, he challenged the domination system of his day.
He was a religious ecstatic, a Jewish mystic, for whom God was an experimental reality. As such, Jesus was also a healer. And there seems to have been a spiritual presence around him, like that reported of St Francis or the present Dalai Lama. And as a figure of history, Jesus was an ambiguous figure – you could experience him and conclude that he was insane, as his family did, or that he was simply eccentric or that he was a dangerous threat – or you could conclude that he was filled with the Spirit of God.
[2] Marcus Borg, Jesus, (London : SPCK, 2006, 2011), p. 164, citing an interview with NBC’s Today Show in 1995.
Insurrectionist
Some of the disciples were from mercenary descent. Jesus speaks of a good shepherd laying down his life for others (John 10:11). John the Baptist was be-headed because of the possible instability his teaching was discerned to have caused. Bar-abbas, who was released at the time of Jesus’s trial in Jerusalem, was a known insurrectionist. There were many seeking to overthrow the Roman rule of Judea. Theudas is noted in around 46AD as another insurrectionist (Acts 5:36).
Could Jesus have been seen by many as ‘their’ potential key for overthrowing the Roman illegal possession of their homelands? The term Messiah also has military overtones. Originally a political king, the term became known as the “anointed one”. A great article by the easy to understand theologian, John J. Collins, discussing this in much more detail is here.
But was Jesus a Saviour?
The early church spent considerable energy in determining what many people today think as clear, obvious. They looked at what we now call the New Testament and those other Gospels, such as the Gospel of Thomas. They found that Jesus could be a sage, linking back to the Old Testament moments of God. Many believe the focal point was the death of Christ, on the cross – albeit a travesty for Jews, a curse (Deuteronomy 21:23). Others believe the focus is upon the resurrection.
In the 4th Century, a Bishop called Arius proposed that Jesus was a lesser God, due to that suffering on the cross: hence was not divine. Another Bishop, Athanasius, remonstrated that this was the divine indwelling as human. Therefore, Christ, both fully human and fully divine, as a result of death, enables humanity to be restored. The Council meetings at Nicea, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon still didn’t refer to Jesus as being in a personal relationship with us. Hence we have creedal statements which offer that link.
Liberation Theology
The arguments continued in the Enlightenment period of history. Many in more recent years have spoken of Liberation Theology.
Warning: what follows is controversial.
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Here, different communities see Jesus in their context: coloured, or female etc.
Some may be concerned with the nakedness of Christa. Jesus, on the cross, was probably naked. The Romans were ones to shame the ‘guilty’. They were aware that Hebrews would have been shocked at the human form naked, although Greeks and Romans may have admired the natural physique.
[/bg_collapse]Reflections
Does it come down to that personal relationship? Something that is not documented in a book.
For God so loved the world: God’s passion in for this world, not our worldliness, but God’s creation.
That he gave his only son: not as a bargaining chip with the Devil, or as a token for humanity’s errors, but that Jesus was part of our world, ‘incarnate’.
Everyone whom believes in Jesus: not the doctrines, nor the creeds, but ‘believing’. That combination of commitment and trust.
That they may not perish but have eternal life: not an afterlife, but ‘the life of the age to come’.
Our Discussions
Christian
It was apparent that what was taught in our earlier days, such as in ‘Sunday School’ was still our “go-to” starting point; however, our understanding of Jesus was much deeper now. This development of our knowledge of Jesus was part of our maturity (in life &) of our faith.
For some the concept of Jesus as part of a Trinity of God was conceptually difficult one to understand. This perspective, developed mainly in the 4-5th Centuries, sought to cease the divisions whether Jesus was human, divine or both. There was a consensus that Jesus pointed towards God but he was also ‘God on Earth’, and the Holy Spirit, was another way of describing God.
It was also felt that the use of the term ‘Son of God’ and also as ‘Saviour’ had been used as a defining rule against people: if you didn’t ‘acknowledge these you were no true believer’.
Some expressed concern that with Jesus as a man, God’s gender was also defined. The discussion touched upon the ways that people could resonate with Jesus, as one of colour, even as female.
Muslim
From an Islamic perspective, there was a distinct commonality observed with the life and actions of the Prophet. Jesus was not a son of God, but of Mary. Maryam receives considerable praise within the Quran. The Prophet was never seen on the cross – an illusion – but went straight to Heaven, to await the day of Judgement.
Others believed that Jesus was present with them using words that described him as their comforter, conscious, shepherd. The relationship with Jesus was key – one whom always walked alongside. There was a view that whether or not Jesus died on the cross was a “slight difference”. Jesus was one, amongst many, who lived a simple life of following God.
Julian of Norwich’s perspective
Conclusion
Just as God is our Father, so God is also our Mother. And He showed me this truth in all things, but especially in those sweet words when He says: “It is I”.
As if to say, I am the power and the Goodness of the Father, I am the Wisdom of the Mother, I am the Light and the Grace which is blessed love, I am the Trinity, I am the Unity, I am the supreme Goodness of all kind of things, I am the One who makes you love, I am the One who makes you desire, I am the never-ending fulfilment of all true desires.
“Revelations of Divine Love” by Julian of Norwich (1342-1416), (LIX, LXXXVI).
The group felt there were a variety of different views of Jesus, not only between Muslims and Christians. A commonality was noted – not seen often in the mainstream media – that the message of Jesus, from his life, was one of doing good to all.
There was an apparent difference in the understanding of sacred texts: whether we believed in them as literally or metaphorically true. Some held dear to the Jesus described exactly in the sacred writings, whereas others considered that their life, through that ever-present relationship with God, had developed their understanding.
Both faiths saw Jesus as leading us today, as a bridge with God. Through Jesus we are safe in that relationship, now and beyond.
So what are your thoughts?
Why not comment below, let’s continue this dialogue.
Bibliography
[1] Davies, Paul E. “Jesus and the Role of the Prophet.” Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 64, no. 2, 1945, pp. 241–254. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3262445. Accessed 26 May 2020.
[2] Marcus Borg, Jesus, (London : SPCK, 2006, 2011), p. 164.
A quote from James Cone may indicate a particular perspective regarding Jesus:
“The cross has been transformed into an ornament that Christians wear around their necks. Rather than reminding us of the cost of discipleship, it has become a form of cheap grace, an easy way to salvation that doesn’t force us to confront the power of Christ’s message and mission. Until we can see the cross and the lynching tree together, until we can identify Christ with a “recrucified” black body hanging from a lynching tree, there can be no genuine understanding of Christian identity in America, and no deliverance from the brutal legacy of slavery and white supremacy.”
James H. Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, xiv-xv
What are your thoughts about this?