The other day I struck up a conversation with a fellow student in the Graduate School of Theology who is Catholic. As we often do in this world, somehow we landed on the subject of Christ. She made the comment that many people in her tradition struggle with the truth that Jesus was literally divine. "Can you believe that?" she asked. I replied: "Actually, most people I run into in my tradition struggle with the fact that he was literally human."
This somewhat amusing exchange reminded me of a quote from the great fifth century saint and Father Cyril of Alexandria, who in his theological masterpiece "On the Unity of Christ", wrote the following:
"Indeed the mystery of Christ runs the risk of being disbelieved precisely because it is so incredibly wonderful. For God was in humanity. He who was above all creation was in our human condition; the invisible one was made visible in the flesh; he who is from the heavens and from on high was in the likeness of earthly things; the immaterial one could be touched; he who is free in his own nature came in the form of a slave; he who blesses all of creation became accursed; he who is all righteousness was numbered among transgressors; life itself came in the appearance of death."
The insight that Cyril and the other Fathers of that era drew out of the Scriptures, is that Christ had to be both human and divine, otherwise we would be left in our sin - that precisely is the incredibly wonderful mystery of Christ.
I'm also reminded of a story told by a more recent saint, the late singer/songwriter Rich Mullins. Once a man approached him to say that he had used Mullins' "Awesome God" as the theme of a protest event. "What were you protesting?" Mullins asked.
"The movie "The Last Temptation of Christ," the man answered.
"Why were you protesting it?" Mullins asked.
The man replied, "Because it portrays Christ as human."
Mullins responded, "Oh. I thought that was the good news."
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7 comments:
I actually liked the Last Temptation of Christ....it's been awhile, so won't try to discuss it intelligently, but I thought it was very well done and indeed, did portray Christ as very human. A beautiful mystery indeed...I find that the more I grow in Christ, and the more I ponder such things as this, the more beautifully mysterious they become. MmK
Jackson, I'll never forget something Chuck Gutenson said to us in one of our first classes, it might have been KCW. It went something like... The less human we make Christ, the less our lives demand conformity to his. Perhaps one of the reasons we do not want Christ to be human, is that deep down we really are uncomfortable with what that would mean for us. Keep up the thoughtful insights!!
Good insight Matt. I believe it might have been Chuck Gutenson who first put me on to the true humanity of Christ. That may sound strange coming from a guy who grew up in the church, but seriously, in my tradition. I just never heard about it much. Or at least was never forced to deal with its true implications.
Another question for you or anyone else out there is: what would it mean for us if Christ was truly human?
Lash, your blogs are awesome. Your writing continues to amaze me.
My first experience of Christ as a human was at a church camp in Indianola, Iowa. Three male counselors wore white linen cloths around their waists, drizzled red corn syrup on their bodies and attached themselves, with ropes, to three crosses. As the campers and visitors, myself included, walked by them in the forest, I realized what Christ sacrificed for us. Before this He was a reason for the season (Christmas), the title of many songs and more important than the Easter bunny. At least our priest always mentioned that on Easter Sunday. "This holiday is more important than Christmas!" Huh? Whatever, I only get two presents at Easter.
Although we know God came to this earth in human form, it's very difficult to fathom anyone could be here without sin.
The closest I've ever felt to Christ was after watching "The Passion of the Christ" That's the first time I saw Him cracking a joke and blessing the bread and wine. Before that, Father Gubels broke the bread, blessed the wine and then proceeded to yell at people as they attempted to sneak out to avoid the closing song and horrific Iowa traffic. I don't think Jesus would do that.
Just recently in our Alpha class, the topic was that Christ walked this earth as fully human. The evidences always given for this discussion are the obvious - He had a human body, which experienced fatigue, hunger, pain. He had human emotions - anger, sadness, love. He had human experiences - temptation, loss, learning, labor, obedience.
In his "HUMANNESS" he lived these things...perhaps easy enough to grasp.
OK, so am I the only one to have always thought that only in his "GODNESS" was he able to do all the other things he did: like get up when it was still dark to go meet in prayer with his Father, forgive his enemies, love others more than himself, devote himself to a life of service to others, to always without fear or embarrassment be true to his calling, to resist temptation even when he was hungry, ignored, misunderstood, mistreated, or in pain, and to resist the human tendency to adore the world's pleasures over heavenly things.
So this morning on my walk, as I was thinking on this, the implication became clearer to me. He was able to do these things IN his humanness, meaning that even though I will never be perfect, my mere humanness is not an excuse to not be like Jesus. And the means to do that are already mine......like Jesus was, to be in constant communion with God and to practice God's presence ALWAYS. MomK
Hey~My blog-time has been sporadic of late, but your last posting was a perfect summation of what my time at ATS taught me about Jesus. I remember Palmer (in a class, not elsewhere, FYI) said during my first semester, "You always hear people saying that they want to become more like Jesus. What if maybe in order to become more like Jesus we had to also become more fully human, just as he was?" I'm sure I didn't do his statement justice, and you'll have to imagine the Texan accent that we all seem to have learned to emulate. Still, I remember his words stopping me cold. If I fully realize and affirm the humanity of Christ, then my life and my interactions with other people are completely changed. I keep signing off here by saying, "More later." I'm not sure exactly when this golden daybreak of "later" will actually occur, but I know it's not today. Gotta get back to work. :) Love ya'll and miss you both.
--mge
These are insightful posts regarding thr nature of salvation. The Eastern Orthodox tradition defines tradition as deification, which, loosely speaking, is the process of becoming more and more Godlike, participating in the divine. Jesus is the picture of fully deified humanity - therefore I think it can be said that he indeed did these extraordinary things that MMK mentions in his humanity, understanding that his humanity is different than ours in that he is fully participating in the divine and most of us are not to that stage, but this is (Prayerfully) where we are headed.
The curious thing about this, which Matt references, is that according to Scripture (and tradition), Jesus is not only the picture of deified humanity, he is the definition of, simply, true humanity. That is to say, the fuller we participate in the divine, the more fully human we are. We might say, then, that Jesus was truly human, precisely because he was truly God. And humanity as God created it was meant to fully participate in/commune with him.
Thus, to fully emulate the example of Jesus is to be fully human. To be fully human is to participate in the divine. And to participate in the divine is to be saved in the truest sense of the word.
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