The End of the World as We know it Part V The Coming of the Christ

The Coming of the Christ.

The 1st Century saw a number of prophets and messiahs wander through the deserts of Galilea ranting against the Romans and calling for the end of the world. Among them was Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish rabbi from a small town who challenged imperial authority and was tried for treason and crucified by Pontius Pilate. Rome had become accustomed to the zealots who walked the desert at the time of Jesus.

Prophets and False Prophets

The Bible records the fate that met Theudas, a false prophet with over four hundred disciples. He preached his own apocalyptic version before the Roman centurions hunted him down and beheaded him in the desert. A shepherd named Athronges crowned himself “King of the Jews” and was killed by the Roman soldiers. A prophet calling himself the “Samaritan” was crucified by Pontius Pilate in 4 BC, shortly before the birth of Jesus himself.

Jesus of Nazareth

History has forgotten the false prophets and second-rate zealots and exalted Jesus.  Shortly after his crucifixion, he was deified by his disciples, who considered him a divine being. And centuries later the Christian church that had grown up around this prophet elevated him to the level of God Himself. He was no longer merely a prophet or a wise man; much more than an angel descended from heaven. Jesus was the Christ, God Himself made flesh. What was the nature of this evolution?

The Search for the  Historical Jesus

For the purpose of this article I have consulted Zealot: the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, by Reza Aslan; and How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee by Bart D. Ehrman. These are two new well-documented bestselling books on the subject of the historical Jesus. I have also re-read the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and consulted the Imitation of Christ  by Tomas á Kempis.

The Compassionate Christ Jesus of the Sacred Heart

Both take up the question of how Jesus became the Lord of Heaven and Earth. How was it that an apparently common man, Jesus, Son of Mary and Joseph of Nazareth, became elevated in the imagination and faith of Christendom to the level of God Himself.

Please do not take offense with me if you are offended by considering the historical aspects of the life of Jesus. Read no further. I am making no argument as an advocate here, but am interested in the implications that this evolution in faith had for the development of culture and civilization both in Europe as well as in the Americas as for example in the Conquest of the Mayas by Catholic missionaries who carried the faith to this continent.

How did Jesus become God?

But it is a curious question. How is it that divinity becomes recognized? How did the consciousness of the West go from registering Jesus as a jewish rabble rouser guilty of sedition and punishable by execution to being a great prophet with brilliant wisdom teachings to being the Lord of Heaven and Earth?

Jesus as Lord

The idea that a man transforms into a god has fascinated mythologists for centuries.

In Greek mythology gods transform into men and men often become gods, as celebrated in the poetic tales found in the Metamorphosis of Ovid. When does a prophet become a saint? And when does a saint become a god? How does a civilization move from polytheistic with many gods to Henotheistic where a God predominates gods and angels to Monotheistic where there is no God but God? Perhaps a look into the historical Jesus and the religious faith which grew up around him will prove illustrative.

How did Jesus go from being a man to being “The Son of Man,” to the “Son of God,” the “Right Hand of God,” to “God Himself?”

Read with Caution

Again, if you are hesitant to challenge your faith, go no further.

Jesus, according to the biblical version is “Begotten not made...came down from heaven through the power of the holy spirit...was born from a virgin mother.”

So how does the Jesus story evolve? How does the man grow from preacher to legend to myth to religious doctrine? The question interests me since it throws light not only on Christianity but on the development of many religious movements, such as for example Buddhism.

Jesus with his followers and disciples

Buddha himself, remember, never promoted himself as a god, much less God Himself. Nevertheless, his image is worshipped for blessings in temples from Śrī Lanka to Thailand. How do a group of followers or religious worshippers come to embrace a man as god? Apart from the Jesus story there are many prophets whose followers later esteem them as divine. How does this process take place. Perhaps the best place to look for an understanding of this cultural phenomenon is in the story of Jesus himself.

Apotheosis: Exaltation vs. Avatar: Descent

It appears that there are two paths to divinity. One is called apotheosis. It means that someone is raised to the level of god or God. The other is called avatara. This is when God or gods descend. Up versus Down. An example of apotheosis in a strict sense would be when Jesus rose up to heaven on the third day. He literally arose into the heavens. But in a broader sense, apotheosis is deification.

The Evidence of Saints

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Before deification is canonization and before canonization there is beatification. Mother Teresa of Calcutta was born Agnus Gonxhe in Albania. She was considered saintly during her lifetime. Since her death the church has begun the process of beatification, the third step towards possible  canonisation as a church-accepted saint.

Joan of Arc, The Maid of Orleans

If saintly life is a virtue, perhaps we might do well to study the example of the saints. Certainly beatification might be a step towards further apotheosis.

Joan, Burned at the Stake for Heresy

St. Joan of Arc of France is an interesting case of how an ordinary girl becomes a prophet, then is tried for heresy and burned at the stake as a heretic by the church in 1431, later declared a martyr, a symbol of France and finally be beatified and canonized as a saint centuries later in 1920.

Saint Joan of Arc, Patron Saint of France

St. Patrick, the patron saint of the Irish was not so lucky. The missionary,  who may have preached in Roman Britain somewhere between 496 and 508 is said to have driven all the venomous snakes and serpents from the emerald isle. He used the shamrock to teach the Holy Trinity. His walking stick famously grew into a tree. Unfortunately St. Patrick was never canonized as a saint. He has never been recognized by the Catholic Church and, sadly for the Irish, is a saint in name only.

Saint Patrick, Uncanonised.

A number of saints are martyrs. Saint Sebastian was tied to a tree and shot full of arrows. St. Bartholomew was skinned alive. St. Stephen was stoned to death. St. Andrew was crucified on an X shaped cross on the northern coast of Peloponnese. Simon was crucified upside down. He is said to have  refused to be executed in the same manner as Christ because he was unworthy to be executed in the same way as the Lord.  Saint Polycarp was sentenced to burn at the stake for his refusal to light incense to the Roman gods. Tradition has it that the flames did not burn him so he was stabbed to death.

Imitation of saints, evidently, is dangerous. To follow in the footsteps of the above-mentioned saints is to be branded as a heretic or traitor and executed by fire, crucifixion or worse.

Saint Sebastian

For others, however, imitation is a virtue. Thomas á Kempis, was a Dutch prelate in the 15th Century. He wrote an influential book called, “The Imitation of Christ.”

Tomas á Kempis

Over the years his book has been superceded in influence among Christian thinkers only by the Bible itself. His meditation on spiritual life has inspired readers from Sir Thomas More and St. Ignatius Loyola to Thomas Merton and Pope John Paul I. Written somewhere between 1420 and 1427, “The Imitation of Christ” contains clear instructions for renouncing worldly vanities and locating eternal truths. While Kempis himself never reached the divine heights of canonization, no book has more explicitly and movingly described the Christian ideal of self-sacrifice and surrender: “My son, to the degree that you can leave yourself behind, to that degree will you be able to enter into Me.”

According to my version which follows the 1603 English Translation, Kempis writes:

“ON THE IMITATION OF CHRIST AND CONTEMPT OF ALL THE VANITIES OF THE WORLD

‘He that followeth Me, walketh not in darknes’(JOHN 8.12) saith the Lord. These are the words of Christ, by which we are admonished how we ought to imitate His life and manners, if we will be truly enlightened, and be delivered from all blindness of heart. Let, therefore, our chiefest endeavour be, to meditate upon the life of Jesus Christ.”

My meditation here is on the question of Apotheosis vs. Avatar. If we begin our meditation by a close study and appreciation of the Gospels, we find shades of difference in the Apotheosis vs. Avatara interpretation of the divinity of Christ.

The Gospel of the Apostle Mark seems to hold the view that Jesus has become exalted during his lifetime through his example of sacrifice. His supreme sacrifice was to accept upon himself the sins of the world. And yet, even before the crucifixion he reveals himself as human. His moment of desperation in the Garden of Gethsemane defines him as human with all the foibles and doubts that humans are err to. Knowing that he faces a grave test ahead, the test or execution by cruficixion, Jesus asks the Lord, “O my Father! Why hast thou forsaken me?” This is an all-too-human moment. A divine avatar, knowing his eternal place at the right hand of God the Father, would have no such misgiving. Why does Jesus doubt, if not to give hope to all of us who lose our faith? And if the Garden of Gethsemane shows us Jesus in a human moment, the crucifixion shows a divine moment. By sacrificing himself for the sins of the world Jesus becomes exalted to the divine plane. His compassion is superhuman and godly. Christ’s mercy upon our sins is a divine act that raises him to the highest level of divinity according a critical reading of Mark’s version of the Gospel.

John seems to view Jesus through a different lens. He defines Jesus as an avatar, who was born holy, who is the earthly manifestation of the logos, the divine word. The Logos which is one with God Himself descends in a compassionate form as Jesus, Mercy Incarnate, Virgin Born.

So which is the correct version? Are saints made or born? Do men become godly or does God become Man? Apotheosis or Avatar?

The Apotheosis of Saint Benedict at the monastic church of Münsterschwarzach, by Johann Evangelist Holzer