Recovering Evangelicals

#191 – A more human (and relatable) Jesus

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Although Christians may say that “Jesus was fully human and fully divine,” many of them tend to slow-pedal the first half of that fundamental tenet.

A fundamental Christian belief is that Jesus was fully human and yet fully divine. But for many, including us at Recovering Evangelicals, this tenet raises all kinds of questions and problems.  In fact, Christians have wrestled with that idea for two thousand years: this is NOT a new problem!

In this episode, we’re putting a spotlight on the first part of that belief statement: that he was fully human.  Some Christians don’t like to do this: they feel a need to keep his divinity front and center.  But our guest today — Dr. Daniel Kirk — thinks we lose quite a bit when we do this.  And he’s written a book to explain why: A Man Attested by God: The Human Jesus of the Synoptic Gospels.

We first explore the many lines of evidence in the Bible of his full humanity:

  • Jesus showed all the vulnerabilities of a normal human being: he could get cold and hungry … he needed to eat, sleep … he was susceptible to mental and physical pain ….. could fear being killed and, in fact, could be killed.
  • Everybody around Jesus at the time saw him as the Jewish Messiah … a very human title/role.
  • Jesus himself preferred the Messianic title “Son of Man” over “Son of God.” That title and that role were only ever expected to be held by a human, not by the Divine.
  • He didn’t know everything.  We first look closely at the story of Jesus in the temple at 12 years old, asking a lot of questions (those Christians who insist that he was teaching should look more closely at the actual wording in the story), and suggest whether this is where he first began to wonder about being the Messiah that everyone was talking about.  And throughout his public ministry we find him asking questions: sometimes rhetorical questions meant to make a point, but many other times because he just didn’t know and wanted the answer.

    • In the second half of our conversation, we discuss why some Christians (often Evangelicals) get so uncomfortable about emphasizing his humanity, as well as why Dr. Kirk finds so much value in doing exactly that.

    As always, tell us your thoughts on this topic …

    Find more information about Dr. Daniel Kirk at Patheos, and his books at Amazon.

    If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like two previous episodes in which we explored Jesus as the Jewish Messiah (#82) and as the cosmic Christ (#83).

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