Why Jesus Lived as a Human

Why Jesus Lived as a Human

Jesus was born the Son of God, through the Spirit of God falling upon the Virgin Mary. So, while his "bodily DNA" was totally from the Virgin Mary, his "soul DNA" is of God. He was born in a state of continual mental and spiritual communication with God the Father. How do we know this? Because as a twelve year old child he was able to answer the questions of the teachers at the Temple of Jerusalem in ways that amazed them. Luke 2:47 And all who were listening were amazed at his understanding and his answers. Read the translation of this passage that I've taken from the Amplified Bible, a lovely commitment to fully mine the meaning and implications of each word of scripture in the original Hebrew and Greek. (I enjoy reading in the original Greek, and I find that Frances Siewart and the Lockwood Foundation have done a wonderful job of annotating all the richness of the original words. I miss my New Testament Greek texts which are in storage at this time, and find the Amplified Bible a helpful tool, although it does not include the Catholic and Jewish books of the Old Testament that the Protestants exclude.) Here is the same Luke 2:47 And all who heard Him were astonished and overwhelmed with bewildered wonder at His intelligence and understanding and His replies. Think about it; these were the best of the teachers, in the very Temple of Jerusalem, who interacted with and instructed thousands of people in a given day, and they were astonished, overwhelmed, and bewildered at the knowledge of the twelve year old Jesus.

So he had unexplainable "understanding" and "answers" that amazed these learned men, who had seen it all and had argued with the best of adult men. This knowledge and understanding was provided to Jesus by God the Father. How do we know this? When Joseph and Mary found Jesus in the temple, after having been searching for him for three days, Mary asked Jesus how he could have given them such sorrow by disappearing. Here is Jesus' reply and his parents' reaction, Luke 2:49-50 And he said to them, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?" And they did not understand the word that he spoke to them. Here is the same passage from the Amplified Bible so we can mine all the nuance from his original words and interaction. And He said to them, "How is it that you had to look for Me? Did you not see and know that it is necessary [as a duty] for Me to be in My Father's house and [occupied] about My Father's business?" But they did not comprehend what He was saying to them.

Please note two very important points. Jesus himself clearly states that he is about his Father's (God's) business in his house. You truly get the flavor and nuance in the original language that the twelve year old Jesus seems to have completed a period of almost apprenticing with God the Father, and is now ready to speak and tend to God's business in the Temple of Jerusalem. The second point is that Mary and Joseph, despite knowing, of course, that Jesus was born of God to Mary in her virgin state, did not understand what Jesus meant about both the source of his knowledge and the true nature of his Father's business. Jesus was born in a human baby body, and like any child, had to be taught to walk, to learn speech, counting, reading, writing, and the Jewish Law at a child's level. But so clearly his knowledge of God is beyond anything he had been taught by human, that his parents and the teachers are at a loss to explain it. That is because Joseph and Mary were not privy to Jesus' internal dialogue through prayer and communication with God the Father. One can safely read a hint of exasperation in Jesus' words, that they could know the circumstances of his virgin birth of Mary and the Holy Spirit of God, yet not understand that Jesus had learned from God the Father his business and was now public ally declaring that duty was his. He does return home in obedience with his parents for, being a child, he was not old enough to fully take on the mantle of prophet and his Father's work. In that time in history and culture, it was widely practiced that a man was not really a scholar, spoke in public, or had gravitas in public opinion until he was around the age of thirty. (This is actually not such a strange concept to us in today's society, as the minimum legal age to be President of the USA is thirty. Plus it is around that age that the average scholar would have completed university through PhD, plus have some life experience or internship. Also if you think about it, it is the age that a father nowadays in a traditionally structured family would now have school age children of his own.) So there is no mystery about why Jesus did not commence his public ministry until he was around thirty years old. It is highly significant to his totally unique and never seen before "credentials" that he demonstrated his knowledge and duty to God the Father at the age of twelve in Jerusalem's Temple.

So if we have demonstrated that Jesus was the Son of God the Father and had access to God's knowledge, power, and guidance, why did Jesus live, for the most part, as a human man instead of a manifestation of God exercising omnipotent powers? First, let's look at examples of Jesus' life that show him living as a real flesh and blood man, and the benefits that were achieved by this.

o There are numerous references to him eating and drinking regular food. (And yes, for the childish at heart, he obviously went "to the bathroom" too.) In addition to showing solidarity with human beings and their struggle to feed and clothe themselves, Jesus used eating and food as the source of much of his teaching. His first miracle was to provide wine for an embarrassed host at a wedding who had run short (doing so at the request of his mother Mary, and giving all of humankind some of the most important words ever spoken, "Do what he tells you.") Jesus taught a lesson about timing when he cursed the fig tree that did not provide for him when it was needed. Jesus found his Apostles among those who sought food in what is one of the world's most dangerous, yet necessary, professions: fishing. He clashed with Jewish authorities when the Apostles gleaned for food on the Sabbath. He was able to preach about God as the vineyard while Jesus actually drank wine like any person, and so was able to make this teaching even more accessible in comprehension to his disciples. And it was in the action of eating and drinking at the Last Supper that he instituted the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. This was different than if God in his full form just added another tenet to the Law, another sacrifice, or another ceremony. This was truly the culmination of over thirty years of living and eating bread with people, on their couches, at their tables, in the meadows, and thus people knowing "Jesus is one of us" with then sanctifying priestly bread to show that even after he had died and risen, that he is always with humankind. So by putting yourselves in the shoes of how the Apostles and disciples felt, you can understand the necessity of this day to day eating and drinking coming to it's ultimate transformation when Jesus became the Savior on the cross.

o While sometimes Jesus used his God given abilities to know about far away events and people, again, he usually lived as a human and allowed the flow of events and information to transpire naturally. Two examples of him using his ability from God the Father are his knowledge of the immoral history of the woman at the well, and his calling of the apostle Nathanael. An example of him awaiting news as anyone else would was his grief at hearing of the death of his close friend Lazarus. It was when he heard the news that he immediately set off for the home of Lazarus to raise him from the dead in his tomb. There is also an example where Jesus is asked his opinion about two "events in the news" one could say, where there had been a revolt, and also a building accident. Jesus would wait for those types of conversation and react upon hearing news, just as everyone else did. It would have been counterproductive for Jesus to "short circuit" the full experience of humankind, enabling humans to be able to see Jesus as truly one of them, with their daily pains, challenges, and physical limitations (for example, to go cure Lazarus, he still had to hike a long distance. He did not "fly" or do "a long distance healing.") The point of Jesus was to live among people, to live as one of them, and to thus to teach them to know God through him and find the Kingdom of God by understanding and obeying God's will. Jesus showed that this was in everyone's reach and potential for understanding.

o One way that Jesus showed that God was within everyone's potential for understanding was to live as a human among all classes of people, breaking traditions and taboos of the time, including sinners. Jesus dignified the persons, NOT the sins, of the sinners with whom he interacted. He showed that they have human dignity and potential for repentance and achieve salvation if they heeded him and God's will. Remember in a previous post how God in his natural form met with Moses on a daily basis, and the care Moses had to take to remain pure, and how his very body glowed with change in proximity to God? Human sinners could not have the opportunity to know Jesus and believe as friends, not servants, if God appeared in his natural, unfathomable, glorious form. And the Book of Revelation, written by the Apostle St. John, shows that when Jesus Christ returns, it will be in his glorified natural form, for by then it is the end of days, when all about sin and salvation will have been decided. So Jesus made himself available, as a human, to break the oppression of class and sin, so that all could come to him, learn and be saved.

o In another solidarity with humans and sinners, Jesus allowed the devil to tempt him in the desert. In a way this is similar to God's conversation with the devil in the Book of Job. However, by being man in addition to God, Jesus allows humans to observe that he understands how temptation works, and how to respond to it. Similarly, Jesus allowed himself to wish that he did not have to go through the crucifixion. Jesus the son of God knew that he could request of God an army of angels to defend him, if he chose to, as he said to Pilate in John 18:36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my followers would have fought that I might not be delivered to the Jews." How do we know this meant God's angelic support rather than political or mundane military support? Because the night before in the garden where Jesus had his agony, when he prayed to God the Father for help, God did not send human followers but rather as stated in Luke 22:43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven to strengthen him. But the entire point of Jesus being born as the Son of Man, Son of God is to show that for those who believe in God and follow God's way, death does not prevail, and men of the law of God will rise again in God. And Jesus showed that temptation can be overcome by humans, no matter what the circumstances. Jesus lived as man so that he could live, preach, and die as a man, but then resurrect as proof of God's existence and mercy, and God's power over heaven and earth.

o Notice that during the forty days after his resurrection, but before he ascended into heaven, Jesus, even in his glorified body, still does some human things. He could walk through walls and appear out of the air at will, yet he took the time to walk along a road with disciples who were discussing his death. He didn't just zap into the air and flash some light and say "Here I Am!" He walked with them, instructed and comforted them, and at their invitation, when they arrived at their village, stayed with them to have bread in the evening. It is then when he blessed the bread that they recognized him. Jesus then disappeared and the disciples ran to tell the eleven Apostles that they had seen Jesus. How much more it meant to them that Jesus had spent one of his precious days with these disciples, rather than just demonstrated power and glory. His body bore the scars as signs of the salvation that he bought for the many, yet the body was now glorified and no longer bound to the injuries of earth. And in one of the many beautiful events of these times, Jesus in his glorified body appeared to the Apostles as they fished, preparing a fire for them on shore and cooking the fish that they caught (John 21:9). In fact, when he first appeared to the eleven Apostles, appearing in their midst, in addition to showing his wounds, Jesus allowed himself to be felt as proof of being real, and not spirit. He even asked for and ate a piece of broiled fish and honeycomb and gave them back the leftovers! (Luke 24:42). And yes, it would be safe to read a sense of humor in this encounter. Can you not imagine the amazed Apostles watching the resurrected Jesus eating, and then him wryly handing back to them the leftovers?

o Jesus also restored the dignity of the human body as a temple of the soul, containing God's spirit, showing that God resides in even the poorest and most downtrodden, by his example. Contrast this with today's coarse society's view of the human body, including even that of young children. By taking on the form of man, God showed that the body is not to be ashamed of, rather, people should be ashamed of sin.

o Also by living as a human man, Jesus showed that it is possible and desirable to be his "friend." Jesus taught the Apostles that he viewed them as friends, sharing his knowledge with them, and withholding nothing (no secrets, no arcane teachings for only the "elite.") Jesus told them that they were his friends, rather than servants, who are only told to come and to go. Jesus taught how to have fear and love of God through his own physical example, yet be his friend and treated as such, not as servants. Jesus prayed with the people, teaching them how to pray to God the Father, rather than having people pray to him. Jesus always directed all prayer from himself and toward God the Father, from whom all things come. (Likewise, despite false accusations to the contrary, Mary in her canticle the Magnificat, and in her words, "Do what he tells you" directs all prayer to God also. She only says that generations will view her as "blessed" and that she is, for she bore Jesus Christ, Son of God. Also note that during Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon Mary too, in the midst of the Apostles and disciples, hence she is the the Mother of the Church by virtue of bearing Jesus Christ and by her being Mother to those who evangelized and built the Church. Jesus stated at the cross of her, "Behold your mother.")

I could write a book on this subject, of course, but it's all there in the Bible, I'm just organizing it and putting it in context to give heart to people who have to listen to the dribble of the soulless who say that Jesus was "just some guy in sandals" and who think the Bible is not the result of many witnesses to events that did happen. Through Jesus Christ being bodily present as a living human man, he fulfilled the Law and Prophesy and initiated in its stead The New Covenant. (That does not mean that people should ignore the Old Testament, because if you seek to understand God, it behooves everyone to understand the teachings of the Old Testament.) While Jesus and the Apostles were observant Jews, the fulfillment of Jesus Christ's ministry was also the fulfillment of the Jewish laws and prophecies. Jesus with his body sanctified the institution of baptism as a sacrament (by being baptized by the amazed St. John the Baptist, and as the Holy Spirit spoke to behold Jesus the Son of God.) By living among humans Jesus instituted the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper, and through his body's death on the cross, and resurrection.