Jesus – the Human
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One doesn’t have to be religious to be spiritual. One can believe in a higher being without being labeled Hindu, Catholic, Protestant, ect. However many religions are based on higher causes, not higher beings. Most worship a dead prophet or gods of misfortune. However, Christianity believes in a living god whom has walked this earth. However, many people do not realize how human Jesus actually was. Most see him as just a heavenly manifestation in a human shell. However if Jesus was to truly understand the joys and pains of life he must be fully human. For one to understand Jesus, he must understand the man he became.
His story begins with his birth in Bethlehem. Jesus was born as any other baby is born from a human mother, although the bible traces his decent up to Joseph, to whom Mary was engaged. It is widely thought that Jesus was born not later than 4 B.C., the year of King Herods death. When he was born, first breath smelled of a stable and his first bed was an animal feeding trough. Being completely dependent
on his mother for warmth and protection, Jesus was as helpless as any newborn baby. Just after his birth shepherds from a nearby field were Jesus’s first visitors and after a visit from some Star Gazers he was hurriedly taken away to Egypt for his own safety. Later, in safer times, Jesus returned to Israel where he would have grown into a man learning his fathers trade of carpentry. Jesus had an ordinary until he was about thirty. He bean to feel God leading him to the desert and it was there that he began his work.
In the desert Jesus faced great temptation. He spent forty days in the desert without food, trying to figure out what he was going to do. The devil suggested ways he could make his life a lot easier. If Jesus was to have any credibility, he would have to endure what man endures. As a man he faced very real and powerful temptation but he didnt give in. This passage describes Jesus’s early trouble with the devil.
“Jesus spends 40 days fasting in the wilderness, reminiscent of the 40 years of wandering by the Israelites. His first temptation by the Prince of Evil focuses on Jesus’s physical needs. Hunger. Satan asks Jesus, “ If you are the son of man, the command these stones to turn to bread loaves and eat them. Jesus has a powerful response telling Satan, “ Man does not live on bread alone, but from every word that comes from Gods mouth.”
Jesus could have easily commanded those stones to turn to bread and ate them. Only he knew that he would have no credibility as the redeemer of mankind if he did not suffer 40 days of pure hunger. Who would respect him if he was never hungry, never tired, or never fully human.
After his experience in the desert, Jesus came to general attention around the time of his baptism by whom else but John the Baptist. At the time, this became a problem for the church. They could not accept a tradition that place Jesus below others. If Jesus was a man free from sin, why would he need to be baptized and a sign of repentance. Their feelings about Jesus fed others dislike for him.
After his baptism, he worked hard for three years to bring his message of the love of God to the people of Israel. He did not float around on a cloud or magically appear in what every city he was to travel to next. He walked for weeks or months sometimes to get to his destinations. We have cars today but imagine walking eight or more hours a day for weeks on end. Time after time Jesus faced tough choices in his life. They were every bit as tough for Jesus as they ever are for us. His family, at times, believed he should go home and work as a carpenter again. His supporters doubted him and even betrayed him. His enemies constantly tried to trap him in his words and in the end plotted to kill him. He did not face these with a super natural perspective, but dealt with them as they came.
During his three years, Jesus attracted twelve disciples to follow him. They were mainly fishermen and common workers. None of them were holy men or priests. Of the twelve, Peter, James, and John were closest to Jesus. Peter was from Capernaum, of Galilee. Capernaum became a “headquarters” from which Jesus and the disciples moved out into the countryside. Sometimes he talked to large crowds, or leave the twelve to teach them and go off by himself for long periods of prayer.
While on his journey, Jesus performed many miracles. Most people not only believed in the miracles but took them as proof that Jesus had supernatural power. These miracles showed his compassion from a human view. He had felt there pain and suffering. He knew what hunger was and had lived around sickness and disease. He performed miracles out compassion not for fame. He often told those who witnessed them that they should not tell others about them.
On the day now known as Palm Sunday,