What kind of man is this! (2)

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him… Hebrews 5:7-9

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. John 1:1-14

Last time I shared a story of someone I knew who took a step forward in her spiritual life when she started to take seriously the fact that, apart from sin, Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine. The point was that taking that truth seriously makes him more real for us; we grasp that he has been through many of the experiences we know - growing, learning, suffering. He is not, so to speak, God-in-disguise, God merely pretending to be human.

That was the point where I ran out of space, so I never got onto the second thing I felt might be helpful. Putting it very simply, this is: Such verses as Hebrews 5:7-9 reassure us that we don’t have to understand in order to believe.

On one level such verses seem contrary to what we as Christians instinctively believe. Indeed, we might be tempted to throw up our hands almost in despair and exclaim: “How could he be both fully human and fully divine?” How could the perfect Son of God need to “learn obedience”? Was he ever disobedient! How could he be “made perfect”? Wasn’t he always perfect! Yes indeed. I think God fully understands such puzzlement and is not in the least offended by it. After all, if we are grappling with divine, ultimate truth we are bound to find that there are mysteries behind mysteries behind mysteries: so we might as well get used to it!

In the early centuries of the church’s existence the wisest heads set about the business of summarizing the essence of the Christian faith in what were known as “creeds” – summaries of what is essential to mature faith. (If the church you belong to is “liturgical” in its worship you will be familiar with such creeds.) It was no easy task to compose them; there were big disagreements over all matter of topics, some of which even became violent. Among these topics were what became known as “the Holy Trinity” (there is only one God, but he exists in three “persons”; how could that be?) and the one we’re talking about, the nature of Jesus’s “being” while on earth, where the mystery was how the human person and the divine person of Jesus could co-exist in one man without turning him into some kind of hybrid being.

Perhaps creating those creeds was necessary in order to safeguard biblical truth and to flag up possibilities of error. But the down-side is that it has proved fatally easy to slip into a false mentality: that assenting to the right formulas or doctrinal statements matters more than simply loving and trusting Jesus as the one who died for us, rose again, and who offers to come and live in us by his Spirit and make us new people.

The result is that there have always been Christians who define Christian faith so precisely and exactly – every i dotted, every t crossed – that they end up seeming to say “If you don’t agree with this, then sorry but you can’t be a true Christian”. (One wonders how many people down through the centuries have been put off coming to Jesus because they found it hard to grasp the mysteries in these creeds and statements.)

How did the first followers of Jesus – Simon Peter, James, John, and the rest – become believers? By suddenly understanding the doctrine of the Trinity? or that this man Jesus was in reality God in human form? Answer: No!

What happened was very different, very practical, very down to earth: they spent time with him, listened to his words and saw his deeds, and, though often puzzled by what he said, found his personality and his power irresistible. And so that memorable day came when he took them to  the region of Caesarea Philippi: “On the way he asked them, ‘Who do people say I am?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; still others one of the prophets’. ‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’ And Peter answered (and here comes a lightbulb moment if ever there was one!) “You are the Messiah...” (Mark 8:27-29).

The “Messiah”, of course, was the divinely anointed king who was predicted to come to Israel in the pages of the Old Testament. I can picture the apostles’ jaws dropping as Peter took a deep breath and blurted out the truth which they had all begun to suspect, but which none of them had yet dared to put into words.

It’s worth remembering that, historically, the Messiah was not thought of  as divine; great though King David was, for example, no-one ever suggested that he was God in human form. That conviction  would come later, after the miracle of the resurrection (and bolstered by the creeds). But it was simply a fact that the first “Christians”, who were all Jews and therefore firm believers in “only one God”, found themselves worshipping this man, contradictory though that may have seemed!

Where does all this lead us? Just here: if ever you have found believing in the deep mysteries of the Christian faith perplexing and confusing, even off-putting, be encouraged! Turn whole-heartedly to Jesus, a man with (no doubt) a tanned face and muscles hardened by his years working as a carpenter, a man who was at different times tired, puzzled, disappointed, angry, and ultimately killed by perhaps the most cruel method of execution ever devised by man, and accept with childlike simplicity that that death accomplishes the washing away of your sins and full reconciliation with God. Your life will never be the same.

The ”full package” – God and man in one person… that can wait. Just walk with Jesus, obey him, trust him, enjoy him. And the day will come when you will see him face to face. Yes, the very “man who is God”.

Lord Jesus, I do not claim to understand all that the Bible says about you, but I declare that I believe, with a simple, childlike trust. Please receive me, forgive my sins – and make me a new person, the person I was always meant to be. Amen.