Jesus and the Christ, Part 3

Jesus and the Christ, Part 3

Christ is God, and Jesus is the Christ’s historical manifestation in time. Richard Rohr [1]

Here is an alternative conclusion about the life of Jesus that some will consider heresy: Jesus of Nazareth was no more divine than you or I. Make no mistake – Jesus was divine, but so are we. The difference between Jesus and us “regular” folks is the degree of awareness of his divine nature he consciously attained and lived out. Jesus awoke to his divinity, but most of us do not. But we can, and we do not have to wait until we die to do so. And that is a critical aspect of Christianity that gets buried under multiple layers of church-sponsored liturgy, dogma, and practices. Jesus realized that Oneness with God is inherent to all of creation. The danger of promoting or displaying that Oneness, also shown by Jesus, is that less-awakened others will be threatened, feel diminished, and assume we think we are God. A spiritually awakened person is not God but is an instrument through which God works. Like Jesus, they become children of God.

Jesus became the Christ, which means he was consciously aware that his physical being was not separate from the living Spirit of God. The Christ is physically manifested divinity. That awareness transforms a materially-focused being into one who perceives life beyond the apparent limits of the physical realm. It did in Jesus, and it will in us if and when we allow it to do so. And, like Jesus, we become a new creation, born again of the Spirit. Our outer appearance and mannerisms may remain similar, but our inner life will be attuned to a higher, deeper, more unified state of awareness. When Jesus tells us to repent, this is the inner transformation to which he refers. When he invites us to follow, this is the path where he leads.

Here are some practices where the church, with good and sincere intentions, misleads us about the Way of Jesus: (1) by presenting the narratives of the virgin birth as factual accounts that imply Jesus was inherently different than us, as was said of emperors in his day, which implies that we can never be like him; (2) by teaching that Jesus had to be crucified (sacrificed) to atone for our sins when he was actually killed by our ignorance (by people like us who found his teachings threatening: “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”);and (3) that Jesus was physically resurrected into the same body he had before his crucifixion. These and similar teachings that fall well outside the known characteristics of God’s creation portray Jesus as not like us. His teachings, however, indicate he believed himself to be like us in every way, save for the conscious awareness of our divinity: “…the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and…will do greater works than these…” [2]

Jesus referred to himself as a Son of Man to emphasize his humanness, not his divinity. To the extent the church presents Jesus as the only divine Son of God, the church leads us away from maturing into the consummated offspring of humankind. These limiting forms of Christianity must transform before they can lead believers onto the Way of Jesus where they consciously take their place as children of God.

When we assume Jesus was divine in ways we are not, our orientation to him is like that of sheep to a shepherd instead of like students to their teacher. Sheep may be led by but cannot become like the shepherd because they are a different species of being. Teachers train students to become like them. When we believe Jesus was human, the call to follow opens an evolutionary path that integrates and manifests our divine nature, bringing heaven to earth, or spirit to tangible reality. And we join him in and as the body of Christ, which is what the church is supposed to be. We find our individual consummation in the body of Christ, not as perfect individuals but as consciously-aware participants in the communal perfection attained as diverse individuals unite around a common purpose.

Jesus said, “I do not call you servants any longer…but I have called you friends.” [3] He calls us to a relationship of equals, all subservient to One God. The Way of transformation requires seeing Jesus as a human being who matured into his divine nature, and who invites us to join him there.

This is the 5^thin a series titled Crucifying Christianity, Resurrecting the Way. The opinions expressed here are mine. To engage with me or to explore contemplative spiritual direction, my email is ghildenbrand@outlook.com.

The New/Old Social Pandemic:

Homelessness, Marginalization, and Immigration

By Greg Hildenbrand

The New/Old Social Pandemic is an in-depth exploration of the social issues of homelessness, marginalization, and immigration as the predictable products of outdated, underfunded, and unjust social systems maintained by the privileged of society.

Available now from Greg or any major bookseller.

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[1] Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ, Convergent Books, 2019, p. 19.

[2] John 14:12

[3] John 15:15