The Human Jesus
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Jesus Christ was partially divine and partially human. He was born of the Virgin Mary, a human, but he was also the Son of God. Jesus, however, proclaimed himself to be the Son of Man. He was a human man, but he was the ultimate among men, and thus was the Son of Man. Jesus displayed much divinity throughout his life, but the Gospel accounts of Jesus, mainly in the book of Luke, portray Jesus as a human. Jesus' humanity, like every person, consisted of birth and death, but Jesus also possessed fear, suffering, doubt, kindness, and a shared common heritage with common people.
The most significant human attribute of Jesus, in my opinion, was His birth and death. Jesus, like every human, was born to a mother, the Virgin, through a natural (yet divinely inspired) birth. Jesus grew up under Joseph and Mary, and went through childhood and the teen-age years, like living humans do. Jesus also was Baptized by John the Baptist, despite being the Son of God. Jesus' humanity required Him to be baptized, for he was not fully divine. Eventually all humans die, and death is part of the human condition. Jesus suffered though great pain until his death through crucifiction. Jesus, like all of man-kind, was similarly susceptible to pain, suffering, and death. Such pain, suffering, and death is essential to Jesus' humanity.
The human Jesus knew that he would die, and like most humans, he seemed to fear dying. Jesus' may not have feared death to a great extent, but nevertheless he did seem to hope to prevent or delay death for a period of time. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus predicted his passion three times and let His apostles know that he would be killed and resurrected. However, despite Jesus' sure predictions, he hoped to stifle his famousness and keep his miraculous acts secret. In Luke 9:18-21, Peter confessed to Jesus that he believed Jesus to be the Messiah. Jesus "rebuked" Peter, and told him to never reveal this truth. Furthermore, after some of His healings, Jesus instructed the recepient and witnesses to not reveal the sight. Jesus' clearly hoped to somewhat suppress the popularity he acquired at a rapid rate, and he realized that the spread of his actions and teachings would anger and offend those who would eventually kill him.
Jesus' furhter revealed his humanity through doubt, a truly human characteristic. Although Jesus' withstood punishment and suffering, all in the name of his Father, he doubted God while on the cross. Jesus knew he was about to enter "Paradise", but nonetheless cried out to God, "Why have you forsaken me?". At this moment, Jesus had doubted God and believed that God had left him to die. Even though doubt is not present very often in the accounts of Jesus, the mere portrayal of doubt near Jesus' death reveals his humanity.
Jesus portrayed his humanity not only through his personal characteristics and human condition, but also through the acts of healing and kindess he performed on the sick, dead, dying, and poor. Jesus healed scores of lepers, demonaniacs, diseased and sick people, and even raised some from the dead. Jesus possessed love and compassion for his fellow man, whom he understood because he, too, was human. Furthermore, he emphasized love and forgiveness for fellow man. He focused much of his teachings on how to treat human beings, and he taught his mass audiences to love their enemies and not judge others. (LK6) Jesus also used parables such as the parablef the good samaritan and prodigal son to teach the people love for fellow man words and perpectives that they would understand.
Jesus' humanity is also present in the common background and heritage that he shared with his audience. Jesus was Jew, like many people at the time,and thus related to all those around him in a religious sense. Jesus was also a carpenter and he was not rich, so his parables and compassion about and for poor people came from the heart. Jesus communicated with his audiences extremely well because he was a fellow human being, and he shared the lifestyle andbackground of those he preached to.
Finally, the human Jesus possessed reason, a critical component of humanity and free will. Jesus, was a "revolutionary" in his time, which angered many of the pharisees at the synagogues who devoutly followed Mosaic law, no matter the circumstances. Jesus countered the pharisees' committment, and used reason to defend his actions. Jesus did not fast like the Pharisees, but he defended himself, stating, "Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?" (LK5) Furthermore, Jesus worked and healed people on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees saw this as a violation of the holy day. Jesus used common sense and reason to defend his actions yet again, declaring that one should eat when hungry. The Pharisees' also rebuked Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath, but Jesus countered and asked, "Is it lawfulto do goodon than Sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than destroy it?" (LK6:9) Jesus expressed his humanity by using common sense and reason against tradition, and he demonstrated the ability of human reason and conscience to do good.
The images I chose t depict Jesus are directly related. The first image of Jesus is a rendition of the face that appears on the Shroud of Turin, which is believed to be the garment that covered Jesus in the tomb. The second image shows the progression from the Shroud to the rendition of Jesus. I chose this image because it may be the actual face of the human Jesus after death, and the image portrays Jesus in a real sense. The pictured Jeses is dark-skinned withbrown eyes and darkbrown hair. These traits are common for Midle-Eastern men, and I believe that this picture shows Jesus directly as who he may have been, without being glorified or elevated through art. The pictured Jesus also differs from the common pictures of Jesus,which portray Jesus as light-skinned andblue eyed. The pictures I chose just show Jesus, a human being just like the rest of humanity.
