Who do you say that I Am?

The facts of His life are little in dispute. He was born under the reign of Augustus Caesar, and died under Tiberias, about 33 years later. He lived under the Roman occupation of Judea, within the political power of the Herodian dynasty, along the shores of the Sea of Galilee and around Jerusalem. He was an itinerant preacher/teacher who attracted and repulsed large groups, challenged the existing authorities (both religious and secular), and wound up crucified around the annual Passover celebration.

That we know this much about Him is startling: why would anyone care to notice or remember such a life? Why is He different? Why did eyewitnesses bother to record the events of His life, and historians and commentators note His passing? His claim to be the Jewish Messiah was hardly unique: as Tim Rice memorably put it “You Jews produce Messiahs by the sackful!” They came, they went, and their movements went with them.

Certainly not because of His religion. He practiced Judaism, an ethnically-based faith which rarely attracted converts, even if its precepts appeared laudable: circumcision for adult male converts is hardly an attractive selling point! Rome detested the Jews for their obstinant religious beliefs, even if they valued them for their commercial activities. No, this was not the reason for His prominence.

Two details of His life did court controversy: His birth and, ummm, re-birth. Some label the story of his Nazorean parents’ trip to Bethlehem a post-facto addition. Jews of his day circulated the story He was the product of the rape of His mother by a Roman soldier, which only seems to confirm the lingering issue: He was rarely referred to as “bar Yossef” (son of Joseph), so who really was His Father? And there’s that troublingly empty tomb. If that was a lie, it would have been easy for the authorities to counter. It was real, so the official line was “His disciples stole the body.”

Each age seeks to determine who He is, and then “discovers” He is…made in their image and likeness! Crusaders envisioned Him as a Warrior-King. The American Founding Fathers, mostly Deists, saw Him as a wise sage; Jefferson went so far as to correct the Bible by deciding which quotes were really His. Nineteenth century German historicists deconstructed stories about Him until He was a peaceful, romantic scholar, distrusting of organized religion…just like them. Baby boomers are quite familiar with His “surfer” personae (circa Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar): laid-back, groovy, not-at-all-uptight. Some militant fundamentalists see him, well, differently.

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All, like the the fable of the blind men and the elephant, grasp a piece of the truth, but not the whole Truth.

Although very popular, His “sage” personae is easily debunked. His sayings are a mass of contradictions, which any debater could attack (‘peace be with you’ vs ‘I come not to bring peace, but the sword’, for example). He summed up all the teaching as a command to “love one another,” but then said “if you love me, you will keep all my commandments.” His actions were even more confusing. The same Man who counseled turning the other cheek took a whip to the money-changers in the Temple. He said ‘not a part of the letter of the law would pass way’ but replaced whole sections of it with ‘nothing that comes from outside a man renders him unclean’ and acted accordingly. Faced with an adulteress, He never excused the sin; He called it what it was, then extended mercy, which was only God’s to give. He called peacemakers “blessed,” but praised a centurion for his faith: the extremity of this act is lost on us today, but put in the context of occupied Judea, it was like a concentration camp prisoner praising a guard!

If He cannot be passed off as one of many sages, there are no easy compromises about Him. On more than one occasion He publicly claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God: blasphemy to the Jews, treason to the Romans. This was madness or Truth. He died, never recanting the claim, even when a simple “I was misunderstood” would have spared Him.

Even today, You can’t ignore Him. Some Nones want to develop their own version of Him, complete with all-the-things-He-never-said-anything about, as if you could sanitize Him into a non-judgmental, peaceful, person of color: Jefferson smirks! No, even the way we count years (starting with BC and AD)* underlies His importance, not to mention His teaching is critical to the development of Western Civilization.

Ultimately, whether you are a believer, non-believer, spiritual-but-not-religious, or none, you still must answer “who do you say that I Am?”

Is He:

(1) a charlatan who pulled off the greatest hoax in the history of the world,

(2) a fool, manipulated into claims beyond His understanding, or

(2) the Almighty, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Choose carefully, and Felices Pascuas!

*I am amused that archaeologists and others seek to rebrand our measure of the years as BCE (Before the Common Era) and CE (Common Era). Note that the counting system still holds to His birth (more or less). I tell my friends we should embrace the change: just refer to it as Before the Christian Era and Christian Era. Problem solved.