WHO IS JESUS?
Mahogany crucifix, owned by the author's grandfather. Photo courtesy of author.
Who is Jesus? This is a question that humanity has been trying to answer since the dawn of Christianity. Pastors, priests, and theologians have been trying to answer this big, loaded question with countless sermons and thesis statements. Poets have been trying to answer this question with rhythm and meter. All the while, painters and sculptors have been trying to answer this question with lines and curves.
Odds are pretty good that even if you have never heard of Jesus before, you have seen an artist’s depiction of him. Images of Jesus fill the global imagination. Some of the most famous images of Jesus are Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Michelangelo’s The Pietà located in the Vatican, and the infant Jesus lying in a manger in nativity scenes all around the world.
Throughout world history artists have made Jesus look like them because artists want to try and capture this compelling figure in ways that look familiar. You can find images that portray Jesus as Chinese, Native American, Nigerian, Pakistani, and so on. The images in my childhood house portrayed Jesus as European, yet he was a Jewish man from Galilee.
Jesus was born about 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, which is located in modern day Palestine. We don’t know much about his early life, but what we do know is found in the Bible. We know more about his later years from the Bible as well. At age 30 he began his ministry in the areas surrounding the sea of Galilee. At that time, he started preaching about loving God and loving one’s neighbor, talking to crowds, making disciples, and hanging out with people who were considered outcasts. He performed miracles to point to his authority and to truth. He cared for people through word and action. Then at age 33, he died under the Roman Empire, but 3 days later he came back to life. Christians throughout the world celebrate this coming back (also called his resurrection) on Easter Sunday.
Though I’ve seen endless beautiful depictions of Jesus throughout my life, they aren’t the ones that come to mind when I think of Jesus. I think of the ones that I would see every day in my childhood home: the blond-haired Jesus that hung next to my grandmother’s dresser and the dark iron crucifix of Jesus that belonged to my great grandpa. These images first taught me about Jesus with strokes and indentations. They have guided my life and my faith as far back as I can remember. These images showed me that Jesus is love. They taught me about a Jesus who cares, shows compassion, and delivers justice. I didn’t realize it at the time, but these artists and their images were some of my first teachers on Jesus. They were the ones who whispered to me, “God loves you.”
As I got older, I started to get more teachers. The next teachers came in the form of Jesus’ titles. You might have heard Jesus referred to as Christ or as Messiah. Both of these titles point to who Jesus in the same way images do. The word Christ comes from the Greek for “the anointed one,” which in turn comes from the Hebrew word messiah, also meaning “the anointed one”. Jesus was anointed by God to conquer death and to usher in justice. It’s in the name of Christ that I and my fellow believers find our main descriptor: “Christian” – follower of Christ, follower of the anointed one.
In my grandmother’s house, the print that hung on her bedroom wall contained a smiling Jesus. This Jesus had blond hair and blue eyes that glistened incandescently. The world he inhabited was bright and colorful. The strokes which constructed this image were light and airy, the curves gentle and sweeping. In this picture Jesus was walking on water extending his hand to his friend Peter, a disciple who is drowning next to him. Jesus’ gaze is on Peter. All of his attention is focused on saving him.
This image showed me a smiling, kind Jesus. This Jesus taught me wonders. The miracle it depicts is found in the Bible, in Matthew 14. The story goes that Jesus was walking on water and his disciples thought he was a ghost. His friend Peter says, “if it’s you, Jesus, tell me to come on to the water.” Jesus obliges and beckons him over. So, Peter too starts walking on water right up until fear hits. When he gets scared, he starts to sink. Jesus, while still walking on water, calls to him, “Oh you of little faith,” and extends his hand to the drowning Peter to pull him up.
In the colorful image my grandmother adored, we see Jesus doing the impossible by walking on water. It’s a sign that Jesus is more than just human. We see this miracle pointing to his divinity, to the fact that Jesus is 100% God. This means that the God who created the manatees and mountains, the zebras and oceans became human to put a stop to death and to bring about justice. One of the most beautiful and mysterious beliefs that Christians hold is that Jesus is 100% God and 100% human. Because of this, everything that Jesus does tells us something about God.
As mentioned earlier, this image captures a moment in a larger story. Right before that moment that the image paints, the Bible tells us that Jesus had just fed 5,000 people who had gathered to hear him speak and who happen to be hungry. Jesus doesn’t feed the 5,000 to coerce them into believing in his words. He feeds them because not letting people go hungry is important to God.
To see Jesus walking on water is also to remember that Jesus fed the 5,000. Jesus is concerned with you and with your ordinary, everyday needs. He is concerned with justice. In Matthew 25 Jesus talks about the need to feed, clothe and look after others. Justice for others and justice for you matters to Jesus. It matters because he loves people - because he loves you.
The smiling, kind Jesus in this picture has always reminded me that Jesus loves me and you. It is a constant reminder that God’s love for humanity runs deep. God, Jesus, the one who is both divine and human, cares for others and cares for us. Even in the moments when we don’t think we deserve that love and care, Jesus is reminding us that he loves and cares for us through stories like this.
The second image from my childhood is in stark contrast to the first. It’s a wooden crucifix that belonged to my great grandfather which hung above my mom’s bed. This cross portrays Jesus’ dying breath on a cross. The lines are harsh and curves are deep. On this mahogany cross, a dark iron Jesus lays in pain. His expression is full of sorrow and his eyes are dark and heavy.
This depiction of Jesus points to his humanity. Jesus was fully human, like you, like me, and like our loved ones. He felt mosquito bites and goosebumps. He experienced the joy of a shared glance. He knows the delight of laughter. He’s also felt the sting of betrayal. And his eyes know the exhaustion of crying too much and too strongly. God - Jesus - knows what it means to be human, because he became human.
When I was about ten, I was looking at the crucifix carefully and noticed that he was nailed to it. My eyes got wide, I quickly exited the room, and I tried to understand why. Until that moment I thought that Jesus was artistically positioned on the cross. For months I could not look at Jesus; I did not want to look at Jesus. I didn’t understand why he was nailed and why he endured such suffering. Years later I learned the why. Years later I heard him answer, “for the world, for you.”
But why did Jesus have to die for us? Christians believe that sin (disobeying God’s commandments) separates humanity from God, causes injustice, and leads to death. Jesus sums up the commandments this way: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” By not following these commandments – by sinning – pain and destruction became a reality in our world. But Jesus makes sure it doesn’t stay that way.
Christians believe that Jesus, who was already 100% God, had to become 100% human in order to bring about new life and justice. Jesus couldn’t be just one or the other, he had to be both. It is in Jesus’ humanity and divinity where salvation from sin and death is found. It’s in the mystery of both that death is crushed, and justice is ushered in. This brings me comfort because it brings me hope.
When my father died about 8 years ago, I became a part of a club that deeply knows sadness in the flesh. Ever since that day in March, when I meet a person who has lost someone they love or who is very sick, we give each other the look. The look tells the other person I get in my heart and in my bones this type of sadness you’re experiencing. The comfort of knowing that someone feels your pain in the flesh is powerful because in that knowing we don’t feel so alone. Jesus is a part of this club too. The fact that Jesus knows death in his bones is a reminder of his love. It’s a reminder that we are not alone, and that God is with us because Jesus is with us. My darkest memories are redeemed because the God of the universe lived through death. He makes sure that our last breaths aren’t final. He made sure that my dad will breathe again.
My dad died in my home under hospice care. On March 5th the compassionate nurse who sat with my dad told me and my mom that we only had minutes left with him. We gathered around him as his breath became shallow and death tried to steal away hope that rests on the truth of resurrection. As my dad’s breath slowed, my breath remembered something ancient. I put my head on my dad’s chest and I whispered through holy tears: “See you soon, dad.” I spoke a mysterious truth rooted in the divine, rooted in the human, and rooted in Jesus.
Though a cross is an instrument of death, it’s also a symbol that points to life. Death on the cross for Jesus also means eternal life with him for us. The cross and resurrection means that death is not the end. New life awaits because of Jesus’ love.
Knowing that Jesus brings life everlasting to his creation kept me afloat during the darkest time of my life. Knowing that Jesus loves my dad and knowing that Jesus brings new life keeps me going today. Every time I miss my dad, I am reminded that one day I will hug him again. Every time I cry because I can’t share something with him I am reminded that one day I will hear that raspy New York tenor once more. Jesus’ death and resurrection gives me hope. So now, whenever I look at a cross, I still see nails and pain, but I also see a hope that overshadows death and ushers in justice.
It is not easy to fully answer who Jesus is in any venue: an essay, a sermon, or a work of art. Artists and poets, priests and pastors are always learning something new about Jesus, and so are we. As we sit with Jesus, read his stories, and look at his images, we will always learn something we didn’t know before. We will always discover a new layer or get a new understanding of his love for us. Sometimes those understandings come to us in the midst of joy, sometimes in the depths of suffering. Our teachers are not only clergy and artists, but also life’s moments. Behind all of those words, images, and moments is Jesus. He is the teacher who inspires our thoughts, words, and art. He is the one who through his humanity and divinity, through his death and resurrection, and through his justice and love helps us to understand who he is and who he loves.
