Jesus – God? Man? God-man?

A few years ago, the sensation was the film by director Scorsese, The Last Temptation of Christ. There, Jesus is presented as an ordinary man who struggles with doubts about his own identity right up to the end. I confess that I haven’t seen the whole movie (I only lasted until halfway through), but even from what I have seen, I understand that the Jesus of the movie is not the same as the Jesus of the Gospels. The Jesus of the Gospels knew exactly who he was, and he was quite open about it. What did he say about himself?

First, it is necessary to realize what he never said about himself. Jesus never referred to himself directly as God. In such a strictly monotheistic country, this was unthinkable. The reason was simple: his hearers would have thought he had identified himself as Yahweh, and they would have stoned him to death with blasphemy. Moreover, Jesus did not even want to present Himself as the God of the Old Testament. He came as a servant and obedient Son…

Most often He referred to Himself as the Son – not the Son of God Son, but the Son of Man. Paradoxically, this title does not mean that Jesus considered Himself to be a man; quite the contrary. The prophet Daniel, in a vision, “saw in the clouds of heaven someone like the Son of Man coming. He was called the Ancient of Ages, and they brought Him before Him. He was given power, glory, and a kingdom for all people, nations, and nationalities to serve Him. Jehovah’s reign is everlasting, and it shall not pass away; His kingdom shall not pass away.” (Daniel7:13-14) Not surprisingly, Jesus got in trouble with the Pharisees for identifying Himself as the Son of Man…and not surprisingly, the people took this to mean that He was thereby proclaiming Himself the promised Messiah…

While in the Synoptic (i.e., Matthew, Mark, and Luke)it is mostly the title Son of Man that appears, in John’s Gospel Jesus is also presented in other ways. Nicodemus, a leading man among the Jews, speaks of himself as the only-begotten Son of God, or Son for short (John 3:16-18). To the woman of Samaria, he directly told her that he was the Christ (Jn 4:25-26). In his discourses with the Jews, he repeatedly speaks of God as his Father (which of course is also the case with the Synoptic), or he refers to Him as the One who sent Him. Moreover, in chapter 8 He says of Himself 3 times “I am” (Jn 8:24, 28, 58). In the Greek original, this is ego aim, which is also the Greek translation of the Hebrew YHWH in the NT. When the Jews heard this, they “lifted the stones to throw at Him” (Jn 8:59). The way He spoke of Himself was tantamount to blasphemy in their eyes – He was claiming to be God. Once more He tactically presented Himself – in Gethsemane, where they came to arrest Him; when the soldiers heard this, they “fell back to the ground” (Jn 18:6)…

Jesus also spoke of Himself in parables, especially in John. His words “I am the bread of life”(Jn 6:35); “I am the light of the world”(Jn 8:12); “I am the good shepherd” (Jn 10:11); “I am the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11:25) or “I am the way and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6) are well known. All these similes say something about who he is. He cares for us as a shepherd and cares for his sheep. He lightens the way we walk, and he is the way. He is the truth, which is not relative, but always true and unchanging. He also gives us eternal life.

There are still questionable statements in John that are contradictory at first glance. In one place, Jesus says: “I and the Father are one” (Jn. 10:30); this is supported elsewhere by, “…I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (Jn. 14:10). And immediately afterward he says: “…the Father is greater than I” (Jn 14:28). Does this contradict each other? Out of context, for sure. But what was Jesus talking about? In the first case, He was talking about the one essence He shares with the Father; hence the use of the middle gender (one). This does not mean that Jesus and the Father are the same people; after all, when Jesus died on the cross, the Father raised Him on Sunday morning. The second statement describes Jesus’ intimate relationship with His Father. And the third, perhaps the most controversial, again expresses that Jesus, while He lived on earth, was limited in part by His human body; thus God the Father was indeed greater at that particular time, but only at that particular time.

These statements do not belong in the mouth of the “good teacher of mankind,” as many people take Him to be. Jesus never represented Himself that way. He spoke of Himself as God the Son. As C.S. Lewis put it, Jesus was either the greatest fool that ever lived, the vilest liar deceiver, even the devil, or truly Lord and God. There is no other option. It is up to each one of us to choose who we believe Him to be. Who did His hearers say He was, and who did His closest disciples who knew Him personally think He was?