Who is Jesus #2

 Jesus in a paragraph, sentence, word:

Jesus is the human savior that God sent down to repair the sin humanity has inflicted upon the Creator. Jesus was born, lived and died a mortal death, but experienced an immortal resurrection and continuously consulted supernatural beings such as the Holy Spirit and God. Jesus was persecuted by his own people, Jews, since he presented a radical viewpoint that attempted to trade in the old Law for new virtues of kindness, truth and acceptance of all people. Should we so choose to accept the sacrifice that Jesus has made, His life on Earth has presented a route for humankind to be in the Kingdom of Heaven despite the inherent sin that we live in. Jesus’ existence, though he lived a sinless life, has been the most controversial event of all time—during Jesus’ life and now. 

                Jesus is the mediator between humankind and God.

                Messenger

 Course Reflection:

                This course has certainly changed my view of the New Testament and Jesus! Having read the entire bible long before stepping through the doors of the “shoebox”, I had many preconceived notions or ignorances about the New Testament. For one, I believed that the New Testament was entirely focused on “good” events (pre-passion, of course): Jesus healing people, Jesus walking on water, Jesus praying in gardens, Jesus multiplying food. How nice! However, I was surprised to find that controversy exists in the New Testament as well as the Old. Pharisees are constantly hounding Jesus, Jesus finds fault with his own disciples on numerous occasions, and Jesus is ALWAYS picking fights! I never thought that I could view the New Testament, or “Good news” so darkly.

                Another enlightenment that I received is that the New Testament—writings that I have believed strongly for many years—wasn’t even written during Jesus’ lifetime! The earliest writings that we have now were written long after Jesus died, which certainly calls to question their truth. The Synoptic Gospel book showed me that giant discrepancies exist between the Gospel authors (which I had absolutely no knowledge of before!). I was also shocked to find out that Q and other Gnostic writings exist. I certainly hope that every word of the Gospel is divinely inspired, because a large margin could easily exist between what we know about Jesus and what actually happened with Him. Another shock was finding that Gospel authors definitely have biases. For example Luke loves to support the poor and women, two lower-status groups in society. Sometimes Jesus is the Light, and at other times he’s the Savoir or the Prophet. To know that gospel authors can write with bias calls the divine inspiration into question in my mind again.   

                More than any other finding, I am proud to say that New Testament has certainly tested my faith. Raised in a Catholic school and frequently subjected to Methodist and Lutheran interpretations of the bible, I had an “ask no questions” policy before entering New Testament. Though questioning beliefs that we’ve held so long can be painful and uncomfortable, the curiosities that New Testament has brought about are absolutely healthy and vital to my faith journey. And what’s more is that, for the first time, I felt permitted to hold such doubts in an objective, academic sense. I still need to do more research, prayer and thought before I would classify my internal questions as settled, but New Testament was certainly a good starting place.