Jesus the man

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15

Many years ago, when I was a very new minister, I tried to help someone in the church who had a serious mental health need. And I largely failed. Of course I was pleased when she told me a bit later that she had found help elsewhere, but also a bit sore (secretly!) that somebody else had succeeded where I had failed.

She had talked to another minister, and his advice largely boiled down to a simple suggestion: focus more on the human Jesus rather than the divine Jesus, on Jesus the man rather than Jesus the Son of God. I don’t think this advice solved all her problems immediately – in fact I know that it didn’t – but it certainly made a difference. She started to view Jesus through new eyes: perhaps rather as he may have been viewed by the people of Galilee during his earthly ministry.

She had absorbed so much teaching (not least from me) about Jesus as the second person of the trinity, as God in the flesh, that somehow it had created a distance between him and her, putting him, so to speak, out of reach.

As Christians we take delight in the dual nature of Jesus. Yes, he is indeed God in the flesh, God “incarnate”. But do we tend to forget or play down the fact that he is also fully human? This truth is spelt out in the verse above, Hebrews 4:15 (where “tested” could also be translated “tempted”). The old hymn echoes that verse: “Jesus knows our every weakness;/ Take it to the Lord in prayer”.

It's impossible to explain how one person can be both fully divine and fully human; but that is what the Bible tells us, and so we must try to hold the mystery in our minds. What we mustn’t do is turn Jesus into some kind of spiritual superman, God merely masquerading as a human being. But I suspect that, even if only subconsciously, that is what we tend to do. (I once heard it said that because Jesus was the Son of God “he would have known all 150 psalms off by heart”. But would he? Why? How? What evidence is there for that?)

The humanity of Jesus is a strand running through all four Gospels. Here are a handful of places where it is most clear…

In Luke 2:52 we read that “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man”. In other words, he was a normal child, needing to learn to read and write, plus also the niceties of social behaviour. Can you picture him as a boy at his desk in the synagogue school? playing in the street with his friends? growing up into adolescence and puberty?

In Matthew 4:1-11 we read that he was “tempted by the devil” (and what a fearsome temptation it was!). And let’s not say, “Oh yes, but being the Son of God he couldn’t have fallen!”, for a temptation you can’t fall to is, surely, no real temptation at all, but simply play-acting.

In John 2:16 we read about his anger at those he felt were desecrating the temple. True, it was a controlled anger (“zeal”), but in both actions and words he was pretty fierce.

In Matthew 23:13-36 he uses extreme language against those who were misleading the people: “fools”, “hypocrites”, “snakes”, “vipers”.

In John 4:6 we read that he was “tired” from walking from Judea through Samaria towards Galilee, and so sat resting by a well. John didn’t need to tell us about his tiredness, did he? But he had no qualms about doing so. He knew the human Jesus!

In Matthew 24:36 Jesus explicitly declares his own ignorance regarding the time of his return: “… about that day or hour no-one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father”. So no talk, please, about “Jesus, being God, knows all things”.

In Luke 19:41 he surveyed the beautiful but doomed city of Jerusalem and “wept over it”.

In John 11:33-35 he was “deeply moved in spirit and troubled” and “wept” at the tomb of Lazarus.

In Mark 14:34 he comes to Gethsemane to pray before his death and displays his need of the companionship and support of his disciples: “Stay here and keep watch with me” – and of his disappointment when they let him down: “Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour?” (verse 36). It’s wonderful to think of Jesus saying to these hopelessly fallible men, in effect, “I need you! Stay with me!”

And all this, of course, is before we get to Good Friday - the agony of crucifixion and the “cry of dereliction”: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

I wonder if just gathering these texts together will be helpful to some of us. I do hope so. Whatever, let them be a reminder to us that in all sorts of senses, Jesus is on our side!

Lord Jesus, please help me to read your word with openness and understanding, and so to see you as you fully are: both mighty and glorious, and also meek and humble. Amen.