Jesus Christ, Son of God or Son of David?
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The Ebionites, a group of Jewish Christians from early Christian times, insisted that Jesus was Son of David, human, not divine, and adopted at his Baptism by God as God’s Son and Messiah. The Marcionites, a group of Gentile Christians, insisted that Jesus was Son of God, divine, not human, and born into the world divine.
It wasn’t easy for first century people to wrap their minds around whom and what Jesus was. He couldn’t be divine and human, could he? And it’s not easy for Christians today to understand Jesus either. How could anybody be Son of God and son of man at the same time? How could somebody be both divine and human? Pretty mysterious stuff! It took the church at least three hundred years to get this right. Get this; once we get Jesus right, we get ourselves right.
The Ebionites: Jesus is A Man and Just a Man
Those Ebionites! The Church Patriarchs of the second through sixth centuries condemned them as heretics. A heretic was someone who chose to not believe the established, orthodox belief. By the way, orthodox faith wasn’t defined until 325 CE at the Nicene Council. Orthodoxy was on it’s with way to be defined from about 180 CE.
The Ebionites were what we would call Jewish Christians; technically, Jewish Christian adoptionists. The way they saw it, God could not bear a son, because God was one! God couldn’t be divided! Jews were monotheistic. Three parts or persons of God; No way Jose! Jesus was born in Bethlehem to Mary, a young woman. And Joseph had his part in Jesus birth! Jesus was Joseph’s biological son! And doubt that Jesus? Jesus was circumcised! He attended Temple in Jerusalem with his parents. He followed the dietary and cleanliness laws! And, when as an adult, he broke them it was on purpose and caused quite a stir! And he abided by the whole Torah, claiming that he didn’t come to change one iota of the law but to fulfill it.
To be a disciple of Jesus was to be a better Jew that the Pharisees, the most law-abiding Jews you could find! Jesus was born a human being and a Jew.
It wasn’t until his baptism that he became God’s son. And he wasn’t divine then either! He was Spirit filled and he was the Messiah of the Jewish people but not God incarnate!
How in the world did the Ebionites believe these things about Jesus? Hadn’t they read the gospels? Well, not the gospels we have. They had something like Matthew, but without the birth narratives. They didn’t have Mark, Luke, and John. They might not have been written yet. And for the Old Testament, likely they had the Torah, the Law and the Prophets, but probably not all of what we have today for the Prophets.
But what they did believe was that Jesus died for human sin, particularly Jewish human sin, he being a perfect human sacrifice, and he rose from the dead and appeared to his disciples later, these appearances being some sort of superhuman feat, a reward for his faithfulness and the faithfulness of his disciples.
The Marcionites: Jesus was Divine Not Human At All
And how about those Marcionites! What did they believe? Marcion was a second century Gentile Christian who lived and worked in Asia Minor. The Church Patriarchs condemned Marcion, too, and others who believed like he and his followers as heretics. The Marcionites were what we might call Gentile Christians.
For the Marcionites Jesus was divine. He was God’s son from the first time he stepped on the earth. What Jesus wasn’t . . . was human. He came from heaven to earth to show the way.
Only Jesus wasn’t born. He simply showed up on the scene during his thirtieth year. Oh he was Jewish and complied with the Jewish Law. But that was for appearance sake. Jews could keep the Jewish Laws, but Gentile converts didn’t have to. In fact, the Old Testament as we know it was no longer relevant. It was the word of God, but not the true God. The world was an evil place created by an evil God. The God of the Old Testament was a God of wrath and punishment, not the God of Jesus Christ who was a God of love and mercy.
Hey, I know some Christians who believe this today!
Jesus was at odds with this God and the religion he created! Jesus appeared in human form, but again this
was mere appearance. Indeed Jesus never really died! He only appeared to die! And his death was to appease that Old Testament God, providing payment for the sins of human kind! And Jesus was rewarded for his faithfulness by being raised from the dead, which too was but appearance. The Old Testament God saw that what Jesus did was real, kind of duped into believing it, so real did it did it seem.
How could the Marcionites believe these things? Well, they didn’t have the scripture we have today. The biblical canon wouldn’t start to form until after Marcion and wouldn’t be finalized until 325 CE! The scripture they had were eleven letters of Paul, not including the Pastoral Epistles, plus part of the Gospel of Luke, minus the birth story!
This fight over just how human and divine Jesus is continues today! It’s part and parcel of the fight to read the scripture correctly! How should I look at the story of Jesus, literally? Yes! Psychologically, metaphorically, and symbolically, Yes! Spiritually, Yes!
Jesus Christ, Fully Human and Fully Divine
The Literal Truth; the Body
I read the story of Jesus as true. And I understand Jesus as fully divine and fully human! This is an orthodox reading! And I read the story as they are written without concern for historicity. I love to read and tell the story the way it was written!
The Inner Truth; the Mind
At the same time, the correct reading of the story is deeper than the surface and physical details! When I read the story I interpret it. Most people today are psychologically oriented. They interpret the story. They try to figure out what the story or scripture means for them and for the world. Isn’t that what you do? I seek its meaning at the level of my mind, psyche and soul. I ask of the story, what does it mean, what truth does it point to and represent.
The Deepest Truth; the Self
And then I seek to understand the story from the perspective of spirit, its deepest sense. This is the hardest sense of understanding to reach because only spirit can read spirit, if you haven’t been born again, from above or in the spirit, you cannot grasp this level. This is the level of Being, of God, of Consciousness, and of Self. You know it when you’ve been there. However, you can be born again, from above, or in the spirit. You can wake up to what is real beyond appearance! And the fact of this is determinable in this fact . . . you, more or less, understand what I am referring to right now!
And when Jesus says he has been there, we believe him, because having been there, he speaks as one who knows and is able to convey that which he knows! And his disciples did, too. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “We speak of what we know.”
The Integral Way: Three in One
All three levels are important. They are integral. They go together! On one level we’re told Jesus is God’s son and David’s son. He is divine and human, and wholly so! You accept that because someone taught you that the Bible tells you so or the Creeds tell you so.
On the next level you believe it to be so because it makes perfect sense. You can wrap your head around the concept. It’s possible. And the result of your thinking this has produced certain good in your life. You have faith or belief that it is true.
And on the third level, the deepest level, you are actually connected with God on an experiential level, beyond belief. And you know God through unity with God, the way Jesus did, and you discover that you are God’s child and your parents’ child, divine and human.
Who Are You?
You haven’t realized this like Jesus has, but the scripture says that you will, not yet, but while you see yourself now, like through a glass darkly, imperfect, and incomplete, you will ultimately see yourself as you really are, like Christ, perfect, whole and complete!
Let me close with an old civil rights song; one written like a spiritual. It speaks of overcoming sin and darkness as it exists in our lives and world. Join me as you remember it.
We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome someday! O deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome someday!
“We shall overcome. We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday. Oh deep in my heart, I do believe. We shall overcome someday.” Once more: “We shall overcome. We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday. Oh deep in my heart, I do believe. We shall overcome someday.”
We shall overcome the limitations of these bodies, mortal as they are. We shall overcome the limitations of our minds, impermanent as they are. And we shall discover who we are, whose we are, and what we are capable of!
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