Web Assignment 6
The Human Jesus

Jesus was fully divine and fully human, but his human aspects make Him attractive to us and help reveal how great a person He was. Like any human, Jesus was born of a woman and grew up just like the rest of us. While not much is known about Jesus's early life, we do know that he played with his friends a lot and was very curious as a child, having wandered into the Jewish Temple at an early age to ask the elders questions.

When Jesus began His formal and public preachings, he went out to people as another human being, seeking audiences and followers of God. He was a common man Himself, a carpenter and layman in the Jewish religion. Jesus taught people using stories, or parables, in order to convey His ideas. Jesus could relay quite tough teachings through simple stories that He as well as His audience could understand. For example, Jesus wanted to show the absolute forgiveness that God graces us with in The Prodigal Son. (Luke Ch. 15) The Jews that Jesus told this story were bewildered by how the father treated the son who returned home having spent all of his inheritance. With this Parable, Jesus helped many Jews to better understand God.

The reason so many regular and everyday humans were attracted to Jesus was His absolute humanity. Jesus hung out with people, went to many parties and conversed with people that the Pharisees thought were the scum of the earth. Jesus had many friends, the closest of these being His Apostles. Jesus liked to have fun and the Pharisees criticized Him for this, but Jesus responded by saying that the Pharisees criticize John the Baptist for avoiding fun, drinking, and parties while they also criticized Jesus for having fun, drinking, and going to parties and that there is a contradiction. How can they criticize both ends of the spectrum. Another time when the Paharisees questioned Jesus was when they pointed out how He always interacted with the "sinners" in the Jewish realm, these people being the "whores, grafters, and other social undesirables." (Understanding Jesus) Jesus again responded to their outcry by saying that a doctor (Himself) does not visit the healthy,(those avoiding sin) but visits the sick.(the sinners)

Jesus also had human emotions. He cried and mourned when his friend Lazarus died. He was happy many times in His life, especially when teaching people. He also was scared a lot and suffered as well. This last emotion helps us to be more open to Jesus. If he had not been scared or suffered all His life, then we would not be too likely to identify with a man that feels no pain. Jesus not only went through terrible suffering, but also died too. All humans die and thus, so did Jesus.

Jesus was truly a human being who was born, played, laughed, cried, suffered, and died. Jesus had all the traits of humans and truly was and is God, manifested in human form come to us to help us reach God and eternal life with Him.

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