Jesus: Fully Man and Fully God

Real People in the Bible

Jesus was "Fully Man"

Teenage John (center) - a real person - Snacking on Forbidden Grain

Too often, Bible readers approach the characters in the Bible in their personas as saints, prophets, kings, heroes, villains, warriors, -- anything but real people. They become cardboard cutouts with preassigned personalities, not that different from the denizens of cartoons. In my books I try to strip all that away to reveal the real people -- or at least the imagined real people -- that underlie the roles that have been assigned to them.

In the Gospels, the character about whom we have the most data is Jesus--of course--so I will begin here. In this and subsequent posts I'll deal with what we know about the things that were going on inside Jesus as the Gospel story unfolds--the things that reveal his humanity.

Jesus Wept.

Many of us know this as the shortest verse in the Bible (John 11:35), taking place after the death of Lazarus. From the pulpit, this verse is often quoted to demonstrate the humanity of Jesus, that is, that Jesus actually had emotions. The writer John doubled down on this: three verses later he  writes, "So Jesus, again being deeply moved, comes to the tomb." Some of the bystanders said "See how he loved him!" (that is, See how Jesus loved Lazarus). But let's take this apart and see what's really going on with Jesus.

Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were friends of Jesus. The Bible evidence suggests that these were friends of Jesus even before he was baptized and began his ministry. They lived just a couple of miles from Jerusalem, and Jesus would have visited them when he and his family went up to Jerusalem for the feasts of the Jews, especially Passover.

When Lazarus was desperately ill, his sisters Martha and Mary sent word to Jesus, saying, "Lord, the one whom you love is sick." But Jesus did not come to help, instead staying where he was for two more days. Then he told his disciples he was going to Judea--where they were threatening to stone Jesus--to see Lazarus. He said, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awaken him out of sleep."

His disciples thought he meant a literal sleep, and he had to correct them, saying, "Lazarus is dead. I am glad for you sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe, but let us go to him." In other words, it was Jesus' plan to allow Lazarus to die, so that his followers would believe in him when Lazarus was raised. Not only that, but Jesus had been spending time in Jerusalem with the high priests fulminating against him, but still not daring to arrest him in public, keeping Jesus from his destiny at the cross. John's Gospel tells us that the raising of Lazarus was the last straw, making Jesus' ministry dangerous to the priests who controlled the temple.

So when Jesus arrived at the tomb, Lazarus had been dead four days, according to Jesus' plan. But when Jesus saw Mary and her friends weeping over the death of her brother, he was "deeply moved in spirit and was troubled." It was at this that Jesus wept, seeing the pain in his friends. He was moved by his love and compassion for his friends.

The Chinese preacher Witness Lee, follower of Watchman Nee, noted that Jesus was not weeping for Lazarus, for Lazarus' death was part of Jesus' plan. But Lee opines that Jesus was weeping because of  the lack of faith of his followers. I would suggest that this comes from the cardboard cutout image of Jesus, not letting him step out of his role as savior and experience a real emotional response such as you and I might have in the presence of distraught, weeping people at a funeral.

To be continued...

Charles Spurgeon famously said, "Jesus wept, but he never complained."

I beg to differ, and we'll look into that next time.