The Human Jesus

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Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine. Here I will focus on his humanity, for it is by his humanity that humans can approach him more easily. Jesus spent his life interacting humanly with the ordinary people around himself, and struggled with the same problems that all people do. Jesus lived as a common man among common men. He was not a member of a royal family on earth, did not spend his days in the courts of Roman rulers. He was a Jew, so the staying away from

Romans is not too surprising. Nevertheless, he did not spend his time in the homes of the high priests of the Jewish faith either. Jesus spent his brief public ministry among the common people who made up the majority of the population of Palestine. He went to parties at the homes of tax collectors, associated with prostitutes, ate with common sinners. Even though he was God, he was much more human than the pharasees who lived in their lofty temples and told the people how wrong they were time and again. Jesus understood the pain of the death of loved ones—he wept when his friend Lazarus died. Yes, Jesus had friends, the same as any person. He had his buddies and pals with whom he felt comfortable sharing his stresses and stories, the good and the bad. Jesus taught the people using stories and language his equals understood. Jesus interacted intimately and ordinarily with the people around him.

Jesus struggled in the same ways everyone does. As the Jews News points out, he was tempted by the Devil at his weakest time, just as we are tempted the most in our times of weakness. He struggled to find out how he was to do God’s will, just as all Christians do, often praying for guidance. Jesus was so afraid of afraid of pain, he sweated blood in his worry the night before he died. Jesus feared death as much as we do. If we believe now in Jesus’ humanity, then we believe he was tempted as well by the prostitutes with whom he associated. He struggled to control his anger and not let it grow to rage. And he would have struggled to keep his patience when in the crowds that treated him as a celebrity; the same crowds that one week after greeting him like a triumphant king condemned him to death with their cheers and watched him die a brutal death at their bidding.

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