Jesus Christ: Fully God, Wholly Human
One day, you had had the privilege to walk with Jesus along the shores of Galilee. The encounter was sublime. He asked you meaningful questions and you answered them truthfully. You both laughed as you reminisced the amusing experiences of your youth.
Suddenly, the laughter dissipates into the thin air as you ponder on your sins.
Looking at Jesus, you confessed, “Lord, forgive me. Deep within me is a greedy and a hateful heart. My body is profaned with lusts. I have feet that are quick to walk in wickedness. The chains of indulgence and pleasure kept me away from serving you. I am ashamed of what I have done and on what I had become.”
The wind gusted rowdily. You noticed that His gentleness was transformed into a rage. He looked at you with bloodshot eyes. Losing tact. He rebuked you:
“I instructed you to follow my example! Look at me, I was tempted to hate my brothers but I managed to overcome because I am filled with so much love from God. Lust was all around me, but thank God, I am God, I resisted all of them. I followed the will of my Father, I have not struggled, just a bit at that garden when I cried out, “Father take this cup away from me,” but because of my strong will, I reverted back to say, “But thy will be done.” Why? What is so difficult in following my footsteps? O you of little faith?”
What would you feel towards such reproach?
Of course, I believe that Jesus will never scold us in that way. Yet, His divinity is too much emphasized in schools and even in churches portraying Him as effortlessly shunning temptations. He is further depicted as a strong-willed superhuman with an absolute understanding of the truth. We crafted for ourselves a creed that God became a man to show-off His godliness and He forgot to empathize with our humanness. Therefore, Christianity became a religion of making oneself holy rather than a religion of compassion and love.
If this is the case, are we then inclined to believe that Jesus was really a God, who, like a very skillful actor, pretended to be a man? That his struggles weere craftily planned and executed? That His awareness of being a God made His ministry more comfortable and convenient?
Or. . .
Did he feel the truest form of human struggles, weaknesses and uncertainties?
I believe that He did- that the authentic Jesus is fully God, yet wholly human. In his novel, The Last Temptation of Christ, Nikos Kazantzaki, made this point in the prologue, “The dual substance of Christ- the yearning, so human, so superhuman, of man to attain God, or more exactly, to return to God and identified himself with him. . .” This gave me a new lense on how I see the Christ. It paved clarity to the mystery of His gentle presence that always seems to whisper, “My child, I understand.”
To be clear, I am not accepting nor advocating the novel as the new Gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, I disagree with most of the scenes. However, the principal matter is not about the story’s plot, but rather, the message, that Jesus, as fully God and wholly human, shared with all of man’s sentiments.
That is why we can always relate to Jesus. That is why He is our friend. That is why there is wisdom in building a PERSONAL relationship with Him. He is our brother who sympathizes with our humanness- not a boss who brags about his perfection over a flawed race.
This is the reason why Hebrews tells us that, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. . . Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Hebrews 2:14–15, 18).
What then makes Jesus wholly human?
Pondering on such thoughts in prayer, devotion and reading, I realized that there are three things that Jesus encountered to share with our humanness:
Jesus Struggling with Temptation
Jesus was able to sympathize with our sinful tendencies because just like us, He was tempted in every way (Hebrews 4:15). Yet, despite this pull to commit sin, He succeeded against it.
Since James 1:13 emphasized that God cannot be tempted, it is then reasonable to believe that Jesus was not tempted as a Divine, but rather, as a complete human being.
The first highlighted temptation of Jesus, according to the Gospels’ account, was after His baptism when the Spirit led Him in the desert, and for forty days He was tempted by the devil (Luke 4:2). The temptation enticed the starving Jesus to turn a stone into bread. The second one tried to allure Jesus with power and splendor. The third one challenges His deity. All of these, as interpreted by theologians, resembles the three temptations that we, humans, face: the lust of the flesh, the pride of life and the lust of the eyes. Yet Jesus, with fervent devotion to God, did not yield to any of it.
However, I am inclined to believe that these were not the first nor the only temptations that our Savior faced. He might have been battling such demons of lusts and pride every minute for the past twenty years of His life.
Possibly, during His silent years, He was tempted to flee from God’s purpose. This alluring desire might have become worse during His ministry were the Sadducees and Pharisees continuously persecuted and criticized Him.
His heart might have been broken with disappointment, after preaching John Chapter Six, because “many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more” (v.66).
How about the time that Judas betrayed Him? He could have been resisting the craving to condemn His unfaithful apostle.
At the very edge of death, nailed on that tree, he may have been contesting with the reasonable desire to despise the people who mocked Him, yet, in His struggle, He prayed, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing!”
Such was His battle against temptation. An intense clashing between His fleshly desire and God’s purpose. Yet, He, being human, hurdled temptation after temptation, resisting the insatiable and winning over it. Therefore, we are comforted, that our Savior is able to share with our struggles. We have hope, that as our Hero triumph over sin, we can also stand victorious.
Jesus Weeping Over his Weaknesses
Aside from being tempted, Christ shared with our own weaknesses and shortcomings. The feebleness of our humanity makes us vulnerable to temptation and further, to sin. Jesus, in His humanness, is vulnerable to wickedness. Therefore, He needs more than just Himself. Several accounts in the Gospels tell us that He was filled with the Spirit, earnestly praying and even asking the support of His comrades.
I imagine Christ, surrounded by an array of temptations, overwhelmed with such weaknesses, prostrate in prayer and would cry out to God, “Lord, I am not strong enough.” In these times of bold confessions, God would provide Him not with a surge of power, but a pinch of strength, just enough to keep Him moving. . . Just enough to let Him utter the same words of dependence.
It was recorded that He pleaded with God in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Father, if possible, take this cup away from me”. Yet, I imagine that this yearning was not only expressed in that Garden but rather, as He walked through the scourge from the Pharisees’ judgment until He was nailed on that tree. While carrying that large piece of log, He might have been uttering these prayers, “Lord take this cup away from me”, followed by this relentless commitment, “But your will be done, not mine.”
During those times of great despair, our Savior may have been beating his breast. Crying out for strength with each step He took. Stumbling several times because of the frailty of His flesh. Sorrowed deep within his heart because of helplessness. Yet He seeks strength through prayer, mumbling in His mind and begging God for a drop of might, to continue the bloody passion towards the place called Golgotha.
Seeing Jesus in this way made Him an epitome of true power. Not the power to instantly dissolve the difficulties of life, but the power of completely relying on God despite the overwhelming sufferings. A battle cry not through His own might but by drawing a drop of strength from His Father. Indeed, He sets an example for us to follow- that in times of trials, triumphs come not through our fists but through our knees.
Jesus Confused with Uncertainty
In the novel of Kazantzakis, Jesus was presented to be confused about the revelations of God. It is not written in the Gospel that He was, however, since the total wisdom of God is unfathomable to flesh, it is then reasonable to believe that Jesus, as wholly human, was limited in grasping these mysteries.
Maybe Jesus cannot fully understand His ministry nor His purpose. Possibly confused about what He is preaching to the crowd. He might not know everything, even uncertain whether he is saying the right words or not. Perhaps there were times where Jesus kept quiet during a confrontation, not really knowing what to say, but praying in His mind that God will provide Him words, and as expected, His Father does. And with those things, people wondered in awe. For the message was Heavenly but the messenger, completely human.
Despite Jesus’ limited understanding of the Word, He realized that obedience is nobler than wisdom. During those times of uncertainty, it is not the duty of God to explain, but rather, the duty of man to obey. He may have muttered to himself, “Everything comes from God. Whatever I have, whoever I am- I will still be His and just as He makes the void into perfection, His plans will gracefully unfold into a beautiful story.”
The Church is preaching that beautiful story today. That on that cross lies a Savior who obeyed. His obedience tore down the veil separating us from God, welcoming us into a fresh reunion with our Creator. We might not know the reasons behind our own tragedies, but rest assured, like Jesus on the lead, hardships are the pathway to peace. It is never about seeing the light on the other side of the valley, but rather, it is about believing that there is light ahead and in that belief, we choose to walk, to traverse uncertainty with the blessed assurance of a promised land.
The last temptation of Jesus, presented in the story, is living a comfortable life with a wife, children and family. Ideally, we all crave for such. To be reasonably happy with our life on Earth. Jesus felt that urge, that he needs to think of alternatives-taking the cross to save mankind or living life to save Himself. He hears voices from God. His calling is through the path of suffering and discomfort. The purpose is to salvage us from our sins. He cannot seem to grasp the revelation, but He was willing to obey. Willing to follow amidst his tendency to be tempted, to be flawed and to be confused.
Jesus was not a strong-willed superhuman determined to accomplish the will of His Father. But rather, a feeble man, toiling to take steps in walking along the path of righteousness. A man who wrestles intensely with his flesh until reaching the summit of Golgotha to proclaim, “It is finished!”
Jesus is our brother because he shared with what makes us humans. Jesus is our friend because he walked with us through our sufferings and joys. Jesus is our Savior because, despite all these intense temptations, weaknesses and uncertainties, he chose to obey and accomplish the mission to set us free.
Most of our spiritual revelations emerged not in the moments of strength and confidence, but rather in those moments where we are consumed with endless temptations, overwhelming flaws and misleading confusions. These moments are treasured by our Savior. He meets us where we are. He held our hands, He was there- He knows the way out.
Bibliography:
The Holy Bible
Holderness G. 2007. “Half God, half man”: Kazantzakis, Scorsese, and The Last Temptation. Harvard Theological Review
McKinley J.E. 2012. Jesus Christ’s Temptation. The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
