Jesus as Emerging
Warning: Theological blabber ahead. Big words to make me look smart.
These thoughts are being carried over from my original post on “Creation as Emerging.” In my previous post, we discussed the idea of creation being seen in light of the word “good.” The term might be better understood in light of its original Hebrew mindset rather than a Greek understanding of the word. With that said, creation was considered good by God, meaning there was room for growth. Instead of understanding creation, in our Greek influenced reading of good, as static, perfect, constant, we should view creation as robust, dynamic, expanding.
So could we take this Hebrew view of “good” into our Christological understanding? I would say yes, but I need to explain. Was Jesus sinless? In my belief I understand him to be without sin. Could Jesus have sinned? Well that’s another entry for another day. If Jesus could be sinless, does that make him perfect? For me, I don’t think we should claim a view of Jesus as perfect in the Platonic sense of the word. Rather, he is growing, maturing, learning as a human being embodying the image of God in flesh. He “learns obedience” and is “perfected through suffering” (Hebrews language). So instead of Jesus being goodly perfect, maybe he was perfectly good (thanks Josh for the bad grammar). He is portrayed more in terms of his other worldly goodness than his other worldly perfection. Maybe the perfect person is the one who is good in every situation and context.
I say this because it can seem like churches paint Jesus as from some other planet, gazing beyond the person in front of him and never hesitating or struggling with temptation. I believe Jesus was fully God and fully man. Granted this is a huge mystery that baffles my tiny insignificant brain, but I think we should really show the human side of Jesus as much as we show him as this “perfectly” divine creature. So to be fully human (as Jesus was/is) is to reflect the image of God, thus the one who does not sin is more human than the one that does.
These thoughts are being carried over from my original post on “Creation as Emerging.” In my previous post, we discussed the idea of creation being seen in light of the word “good.” The term might be better understood in light of its original Hebrew mindset rather than a Greek understanding of the word. With that said, creation was considered good by God, meaning there was room for growth. Instead of understanding creation, in our Greek influenced reading of good, as static, perfect, constant, we should view creation as robust, dynamic, expanding.
So could we take this Hebrew view of “good” into our Christological understanding? I would say yes, but I need to explain. Was Jesus sinless? In my belief I understand him to be without sin. Could Jesus have sinned? Well that’s another entry for another day. If Jesus could be sinless, does that make him perfect? For me, I don’t think we should claim a view of Jesus as perfect in the Platonic sense of the word. Rather, he is growing, maturing, learning as a human being embodying the image of God in flesh. He “learns obedience” and is “perfected through suffering” (Hebrews language). So instead of Jesus being goodly perfect, maybe he was perfectly good (thanks Josh for the bad grammar). He is portrayed more in terms of his other worldly goodness than his other worldly perfection. Maybe the perfect person is the one who is good in every situation and context.
I say this because it can seem like churches paint Jesus as from some other planet, gazing beyond the person in front of him and never hesitating or struggling with temptation. I believe Jesus was fully God and fully man. Granted this is a huge mystery that baffles my tiny insignificant brain, but I think we should really show the human side of Jesus as much as we show him as this “perfectly” divine creature. So to be fully human (as Jesus was/is) is to reflect the image of God, thus the one who does not sin is more human than the one that does.
posted by c | 12:40 PM
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