Hello-Fearless
- Gospel – The four biographies of Jesus’ life are called the Gospels – which means “good news”. The joyful and novel aspect of Jesus’ message is that God loves you. This is not so novel in the Jewish faith but Jesus stressed the intimacy with the One God, comparing it with the love of a parent for a child.
- The Cross – The symbol of Christianity is a torture and execution device akin to the gallows or the electric chair. The public aspect of Roman executions makes this a particularly unlikely choice, as it was a symbol of shame and lack of honour. That Christians embraced the cross as their sign of victory over death is curious. Jesus’ public death should have been the end of the cult of personality that formed around him. The Gospels describe how he continued to appear to his followers after his death. Early Christians preferred the fish symbol (many of Jesus’ friends were fishermen). The Cross is a complex symbol of suffering, sacrifice and ultimately resurrection.
- Forgiveness – C.S. Lewis points to forgiveness as the most startling aspect of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus was extreme in forgiving people for how they had treated both God and their neighbours. He taught that there was no limit to the number of times we should forgive each other nor any restriction on who we should forgive, including our enemies. Forgiveness links to both his healing ministry (see below) and to his reason for choosing public execution. Jesus believed that forgiveness contributed to the health of the forgiven and that his death would lead to the forgiveness of all believers.
- Son of Man – Christians believe that Jesus was both human and divine. Jesus’ opinion on this topic is less clear. He refers to himself as the Son of Man approximately 80 times in the Gospels and around 9 times as the Son of God (mostly in the gospel of John). Though there are references to the Son of Man in the Old Testament, it is clear that he is not comfortable with the blasphemous idea of being both God and man.
- The Beatitudes – The clearest expression of Jesus’ philosophy is found in the Beatitudes or the Sermon on the Mount. Essentially, Jesus advises that it is better to be the underdog and that power and preference will corrupt you. The sermon elevates poverty, sorrow and meekness but also encourages his faithful to be peacemakers and to be steadfast when oppressed. This rejection of honour and power goes against the traditional sense of success and leaves his followers open to God’s will.
- Parables – Jesus’ teachings are mostly in the form of short comparisons such as “The Kingdom of God is like…” or in the form of stories. He rarely explains the moral of his comparisons and stories but he clearly tried to be memorable and relatable for his mostly illiterate audience. By one count there are 38 distinct parables in the Gospels, none of them in the Gospel of John. Some common themes are that
a) God loves us,
b) God’s wisdom is not like ours,
c) Faith is powerful,
d) Forgiveness is better than holding a grudge and
e) Our lives will be judged by how well we loved others. - Healing – Jesus’ popularity began with his reputation as a faith healer. Within the Gospels, there are at least 23 individual healings of all kinds of diseases, including possession by demons – which today we would understand as mental illness. Frequently, Jesus credits the faith of the one healed as being responsible. He also connects the forgiveness of sins to the healing process. On three occasions he revived people who were thought to be dead. Jesus is also credited with feeding the masses, walking on water and calming the sea.
- Our Father – Jesus teaches his followers to pray directly to the Creator (or Father). His prayer begins with the importance of the name of God, which is not uttered in the prayer except as the very familiar “Abba“ – often translated as “Daddy”. The prayer calls for the reign of God to be felt on earth just as it currently exists in heaven. Jesus then includes two requests : first, that we have food to eat and secondly, that our actions may follow God’s will. This latter request has several parts, including that we may be forgiven, that we may forgive others and that we may be safe from both temptation and evil. The prayer ends by saying that the Creator is all powerful. The Gospel records how Jesus would frequently seek solitude – often in nature – to pray to God.
- Trinity – The Holy Trinity is a confusing explanation for the unity of God in three different forms. We see all three aspects of God at Jesus’ baptism – the Father, the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit (here in the image of a dove). Jesus speaks of how he is separate from but still united with the Father and with the Helper (Holy Spirit) that will be sent to support our faith. The Trinity is necessary to keep Christianity in the monotheistic (one God) tradition, while thinking of the Creator, the Christ and the Spirit as separate. There are thousands of different Christian groups or denominations and the vast majority believe in the Trinity.
- Paul – Jesus named Peter as the one to lead his believers after he had gone. In some ways, though, Paul of Tarsus was the founder of Christianity. Initially an oppressor of Christians, he had a conversion experience and began spreading Jesus’ message among non-Jews. His letters to believers are the earliest Christian writings. Unlike Jesus’ parables, Paul’s writings are in the spirit of the Greek philosophers with complex phrasing and explanations. Ultimately, Christianity took root among non-Jews and became a separate religion.