“Who Is This Jesus?”
December 1, 2006
INTERFAITH RELATIONS – William G. Gepford, American-Arab Relations
“Who Is This Jesus?”
Images are everything. There is hardly an advertisement today that doesn’t emphasize the importance of “image,” as a way of getting our attention. Look in the mirror. What does that image say about you? Look in the garage. What does that car say about who you think you are? And the various images created by the clothes we wear can speak volumes.
In the field of medicine, MRIs (magnetic resolution imaging) are sometimes the difference between life and death. They can draw a picture of our inner physical selves that can give an accurate diagnosis and possibly start us on the road to full recovery. Or they can give us a better sense of how much quality time may still be ours.
In any event, images, of all kinds, have always been important throughout history. They have changed the course of history, turned people around, but also, if misread, led people in harmful and destructive directions.
How we understand religious leaders in history, for example, can bring peace and life, or death and destruction. Recently, we have been treated to “images” of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) that were insensitive and damaging. Had there been BBC and CNN recording every word and action, during their times, might not the images of such great leaders have been more accurate?
The question is often asked: “Who is this Jesus?” One must start with the New Testament, or the Gospels, in which his life and teachings were first recorded by those who saw and heard him. He has been called Savior, Lord and King, but so, too, was the Emperor Caesar (who claimed to be god), by his subjects and cohorts.
There are tens of thousands of books on shelves written by people who have experienced in some way the person of Jesus, and they are all different. One reason for this is that the totality of the meaning of Jesus’ ministry on earth is incomprehensible, through human reason alone.
We will never know fully who or what Jesus really was and is. The Creeds of the Church are a faith affirmation (a theological image, if you wish) about the mystery of Jesus that, in the end, defies human understanding. But for those who, in any way or form are called to reflect on the life of Jesus, let this much be clear in these times of interfaith dialogue: he spoke out strongly against the use of violence; he came not to establish a new nationalism from without, but a new transformation from within; by his teachings and various ministrations he broke all the barriers of exclusiveness, discrimination, bigotry, racism and ethnic arrogance in all its forms.
So, may the season of Advent and the celebration of Jesus’ birth strengthen and renew at least these minimal perceptions of the person of Jesus, as we look with hope to the New Year.
