The Real Jesus

For too long now, people have studied the life of Jesus from the standpoint of some preconceived notion of Him or His mission and such an approach always tends to lead a person to erroneous conclusions.

The common concept or view of Christ today was given to the church by the priest of the dark ages, at a time when a religious ideal was wanted which should induce men to be content with slavery and suffering, and to bow their necks to every kind of wrong and oppression, administered ususally by the rulers and monarch of the time and often by the church itself.

The concept of the personality of Jesus was drawn directly and almost wholly from the book of Isaiah; the Christ of the church is the Christ of Isaiah, and our ideas of Him grew primarily from this perspective which was hardly an impartial study of the true character and history of His life.

Such passages in the prophecies of Isaiah as; "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid, as it were, our faces from him; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth," have been quoted to show His character, and the meekness and humbly submissive spirit with which He endured wrong and injustice; and we have had held us as the ideal man a despised, friendless, poverty-stricken laborer whom the upper classes regarded with scorn because of his lowly origin and station; who had no friends save fishermen, laborers, outcasts, whores and sinners; who was often shirtless and hungry, and who bore insults and persecutions with meek submission, and walked about in a scornful world with his hands always uplifted in loving benediction.

This character has too long been offered as the Christian ideal; Be meek, Be submissive, Be lamb-like or sheep-like. Bow your head before the persecutor, and offer your back to the shearer. Rejoice when you are fleeced; it is for the glory of God. It is a good religion for the man with the shears. This view of Christ was held up in the old fashioned orthodox pulpit as a weak character. He is not the kind of man we would nominate for president and his followers would have very little faith in him as a community organizer(no pun intended).

Well, who was the real Jesus? In the first place, Jesus could not have been despised because he was a carpenter, or the reputed son of a carpenter. Custom required every Jewish Rabbi or teacher to have a trade. You can read in the Talmud of Rabbi Johanan, the blacksmith, and of Rabbi Isaac, the shoemaker, both learned and highly honored men. Rabbi Jesus, the carpenter, would be spoken of in the same way. Considering his family connection and the culture, and the people of that time, Jesus could not have been despised for His birth and station. He was popularly supposed to be of royal blood, being saluted as the son of David; His lineage was well known. The people who cried "Hosannah to the son of David" knew that He was an aristocrat of the aristocrats; a prince of the royal house. He was not "lowly" in birth, nor was He supposed to be so. On this point I refer all of you Bible scholars to Matthew 9:27; Matthew 15:22; Matthew 20:30; Matthew 21:9; Mark 10:47.

Secondly, He was a highly educated man. Therefore he could not have been despised for his ignorance, for he was a very learned man. Whenever he went into a synagogue he was selected to read the law and teach the congregation, as the best qualified for that work. Luke says; "There went a fame of him through all the region round about, and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all." In those times of fierce religious disputation, no unlearned man could have held his own in such fashion. He must have been letter-perfect in the books of the Jewish law, for he was always able to rout his adversaries by making apt quotations from their own books. Even his enemies always addressed him as Master, or Teacher, acknowledging his profound knowledge and wisdom. On this point, read Matthew 13:54; Mark12:24-34; Luke 4:14-15; John 7:19-23; John 10:34.

Third, Jesus did not live in poverty, he had plenty. He was not despised for his poverty, for he had many wealthy and influential friends, and knew no lack of anything. Lazarus and sisters, whose home was always open to him, were people of consequence; for we are told that "many of the Jews" came to comfort the sisters when Lazarus died.

Luke says that Joanna, the wife of Chuza, the king's steward, and other women "ministered unto him of their substance"; that is, they were supporters of his work. The king's steward was a high official, and his wife would be a prominent lady. Joseph of Arimathea, who came to get the body of Jesus, was a well-to-do man. So, probably was Nicodemus. Jesus healed the sick in the families of rulers and high government officials, and they appear to have responded liberally in supplying his financial needs.

True, Jesus to our knowledge, never owned property and bought no real estate; but he dressed expensively, lived well and never lacked for money. Whe he was crucified the soldiers cast lots for his clothing because it was too fine a garment to cut up, as they would have normally done with garments of an ordinary man: and on the night of his betrayal, when Judas went out, it was supposed by the others that he had gone to give something to the poor. It must have been their custom to give away money, or how could such a supposition have arisen? Jesus wore fine clothes, had plenty to eat and drink, and had money to give away. Read Luke 8:1-3; Luke 5:33; Luke 23:50; John 11:19; John 19:23.

The last point I want to make is the fact, that Jesus was not humble, in the commonly accepted meaning of the word then or today. He was a man of the most impressive, commanding, charismatic and powerful personal appearance. He "spoke as one having authority" and "his word was with power."

Frequently, we are told, great fear and awe fell upon the people at his mighty words and works. In one place they were so frightened that they besought him to leave; and John tells how certain officers sent to arrest him in the market place lost their nerve in his commanding presence, and went back, saying "Surely, never man spake like this man."

On the night of his arrest a band of soldiers approached him in the grove and asked for Jesus of Nazareth; and when He answered "I am he," such was his majesty and physical presence that they prostrated themselves; "they went backward," the account says, "and fell to the ground" (John 18:6)

To be like the true Christ of the four Gospels, one must be learned, well dressed, well supplied with money, and of noble and commanding appearance, speaking with authority, and having tremendous magnetic power. It is time that the church reexamine their age old teaching about the life, character, and personality of Jesus. But, will they? Probably not.