If Jesus had the sort of superhuman command of the events leading to his death that John wants him to have -- then it wasn't a real death was it?
In death we lose the last pretence of controlling our lives. It is humiliation. Its is a stripping away of the last bits of who we are or try to be in this world.
By painting a Jesus with this much command John has given us a Jesus who is not human and who really could not have tasted death. The death becomes irrelevant in a way.
Hi David.
ReplyDeleteI agree ... before I was a christian, I used to think of Jesus that way - 100 % divine and with the emotional affect of a sock puppet. Who could have a relationship with that kind of God?
David, you've defined death in a rather limited way. I've known dying people who consciously gave up nothing, but joyfully looked forward to the glorious beyond.
ReplyDeleteBut my relationship with Christ is not based on a human or god like death, but rather on a very human life.
Crystal, Father Overberg's Incarnational theology seems to make the manner of Jesus' death less critical.
But my relationship with Christ is not based on a human or god like death, but rather on a very human life.
ReplyDeleteThsi I guess was my point. This gospel tries so very hard to discern the God shining through the human life that the life starts to look a little less human to me.
"tries so very hard ...": exactly the reason I'm more comfortable with a low christology.
ReplyDelete