William Tully
Rector, St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York

William Tully

Before serving churches in New York, Maryland and Washington, D.C., Tully worked as a copy boy and local reporter at the Los Angeles Times.

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Jesus, You Are "The Man"

You can’t answer this question in a vacuum. And, in spite of the marvels of the Internet as a forum for ideas, that’s what we have here. At the end of the day, the answer that matters is the answer of anyone who thinks the question is important enough to struggle over, to inquire into and think about deeply.

C.S. Lewis famously asserted: “Either this man [Jesus] was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse.”

But is Lewis, who has often eloquently and helpfully articulated classical Christianity in clear and popular prose, setting us up for a false choice?

The New Testament itself reflects Jesus’ own discomfort with the Son of God title. He was enigmatic, saying, “You say that I am.” He is reported as almost always referring to himself, in the third person, with the ancient Hebrew title, “Son of Man.” I heard a Bible teacher translate this as “Child of Humanity.” The scholar Walter Wink opts simply for “The Human Being,” suggesting that Jesus preferred to be known as “The Man.”

Jesus, you are the man!

The texts of early Christianity have been and continue to be among the most scrutinized in human history. For me, “inspired texts” are those that can be endlessly probed and still provoke us, take us to deeper understanding, and ultimately to truth. The Bible is filled with such inspiration.

But the Bible alone doesn't do it. You really need to join a community to believe anything real about Jesus—not to mention the astounding claims most of us Christians make about Jesus. Maybe some, like St. Paul, are knocked out on their Damascus Road and wake up believing. But most of us come to “know” and believe in Jesus because we’ve met and been welcomed by someone who already has.

The completely ordinary but sometimes extraordinary human beings in the faith community—yes, the church with all its flaws—have made Jesus more than an ancient teacher or somebody’s icon. They’ve made him real. And they don’t reduce the meeting to false choices.

Who is Jesus for me? Someone I can’t write off. Someone who continues to take me deeper than anyone else, or any other system, or any value or truth can take me. Someone whose own words and life make me see the world and its people more lovingly than I could otherwise. Someone who challenges me to the point wanting to chuck it all, but someone who accepts and loves me without reservation.

With that love, I am somehow still growing into the person I was created to be.

By William Tully  |  December 23, 2006; 11:05 AM ET  | Category:  Personal Religion , Theology
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Interesting to be seeing the islamic posters popping up with comments about Muhammed, following any mention of his name with the obligatory "peace be upon him (pbuh). Is it not ironic that Muhammed is being wished "peace" in the every utterance of his followers while thousands are simultaneously being slaughtered in his name? Maybe muslims should be wishing Salman Rushdie "peace." Just for a start.

Posted by: Phaedrus | December 26, 2006 8:33 AM
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Candide wrote:
"No one believes this baloney anymore."

I wish that were true. Then maybe we could do something useful with our time like solving the energy crisis or global warming.

Posted by: Realist | December 26, 2006 7:19 AM
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It’s a convenience for non-believers to resort to the material as accountable for holistic existence. If you think about something and do it, the thought action process of quantifying the idea is proof of an existence. Only that belief is service to the poor and needy. Oh yes, we are not only talking about the physical but also the poor in spirit.

The creation and inheritance of talents and traits was established before the discovery of the DNA. The DNA is a byproduct of the existence of thoughts and ideas passed down the generations.

The gift of giving on Christmas day has rattled sales to record profits, associated with a lot of happy families including children and the lonely. And this is very real.

So in here a subtle miracle has come to being. Not only non believers are wishing warmth to their fellow humans, the proof of an existent is accumulated in the DNA, a byproduct of thought initiated chemical reaction responsible for the creation of cells.

The procreation of the flesh as it was; ‘…in the beginning was the word, and the word became flesh..’.

Posted by: Peter | December 24, 2006 3:21 PM
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Jesus was a woman. It's proved beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt. The title line is in error. What about all the rest of the story?

Posted by: Anonymous | December 24, 2006 12:33 PM
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Robert Frost was at a public meeting at Amherst College when a minister of religion asked him how religion had influenced his poetry. Frost responded:

"Mary had a little lamb.
His name was Jesus Christ.
God the Father was the ram
But Joseph took it nice."

This doesn't shed much light on who Jesus was, but it gives us an insight into Robert Frost, whose poetry, many believe, embodies "traditional American values."

This episode was recently reported in the Amherst College Alumni Magazine. It can be verified by googling Robert Frost + Amherst + the quotation above.

Posted by: Norrie Hoyt | December 24, 2006 11:01 AM
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No one believes this baloney anymore.

Posted by: candide | December 24, 2006 8:46 AM
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The Holy Quran mentions that Jesus (ISSA ,PBUH)
was a human being born to virgin Mary. He is not
son of God Almighty. Thus he really existed
and is not a fabled character. HOLY QURAN is the word of God as revealed to Prophet Mohammed
PBUH and revelations in the Holy book are not
fabrications.

Posted by: ABBAS A MOAIYADI | December 24, 2006 7:54 AM
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The real Jesus has nothing to do with the imaginary Jesus of the new testament. There he is a character in a novel.

Posted by: candide | December 24, 2006 6:31 AM
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ERIC BLAIR

Throughout the human history, there have been million of people, who have sacrficed their lives for others or causes that were noble.And dieing wasn't a problem for them either but it does not make them Sons of God. unjustly killed and martyrs? yes.Glory to the God your lord and mine who has no partners.

Posted by: Anonymous | December 24, 2006 3:32 AM
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Fred, in the second comment above, has stated succinctly all that really matters: "There is absolutely no evidence that he ["Jesus"] ever existed..." To that I add that there is a massive amount of evidence to show that "Jesus" (Yeshua/Joshua) is nothing more than ancient Hebrew scribes' rewrite of the messiah story that was popular all over the Roman Empire and that served as the propaganda for perhaps as many as two dozen sects vying for top position. The New Testament is one hundred percent fiction, utter hogwash. You have to be one of the most profound ignoramuses on earth, or a psychotic, to believe that the New Testament scriptures relate true stories about persons who really existed.

Posted by: Burton H. Wolfe | December 24, 2006 1:48 AM
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I agree that C.S. Lewis' assertion sets one up for a false choice, but so does your premise.

Jesus may have very well been a revolutionary. There are others who hold that position in history with out asking anymore of us than questioning what is.

I see him as one with the strength to act on what is in all of us. His difference is that he did something, where we all just sit and give lip service.

Was he the "son" of God or a madman? Got me.

It just doesn't have to be one or the other. Maybe he was just human with courage that is rare and uncommon today - to act on his belief to help others.

Face it kids, are you prepared to die for what you believe? Probably not, and that makes all your ecclesiastic rants and raves rather meaningless.

Before you all jump on me, think about what you have done recently for another for no reason other than it was right. And ask yourself if you are willing to die for what you believe.

If you are the son of God, dying isn't a big deal. If you are not, it is the ultimate sacrifice.

Tonight when I go to bed I will think of Christ as a man who believed there was a better way. And one he was willing to die for.

Rather than quibble about pedigree, ask what we (all of you reading this) have materially done to make this a better world for everyone.

E.B.


Posted by: Eric Blair | December 24, 2006 12:32 AM
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1. Say: He is God,the One.
2. God is He on Whom all depend.
3. He begets not, nor was He begotten.
4. And there is none co-equal or comparable unto him.

Quran :112

Jesus (PBUH)was one of Chosen ones like Moses (PBUH), Abraham (PBUH), and Mohammed (PBUH).All believing in One God the creator of heavens and earth and all thats between it.God the creator is unique nothing in this world can compare to it.Let alone Jesus (PBUH) a mortal.Who would be raised again by the Almighty God.Seriously Jesus (PBUH), moses(PBUH) Ibrahim (PBUH) Mohammed (PBUH)never said to worship me but they always said fear nothing but the One God. Jesus did not suffer for our sins but he suffered for proclaiming the Oneness of God (to abondon worship of money), he suffered because he preached God's message of the straight path. The path that is just, charitable and loving, leading to God not him. Thats why he was the chosen one, the beloved messangers of God.If one truly loves jesus (PBUH) one should honour him by following his monothiestic message by breaking the False material gods, the way he challanged the intersting loving priests, Lifeless dieties of the Romans, the way he challanged the self rightouse egostic people, throughout his life he stood for the charity against interest, for forgiveness aginst ego, for love against hate.Never would a men so great claim to be God because his always stood aginst arrogance and ego, a man who always stood for justice against injustice, he will never do injustice to himself or to us by claiming to be worthy of worship because there is none worthy of worship but the Almighty who gave Jesus life in pure womb of Mary (peace be upon her).

Posted by: Anonymous | December 24, 2006 12:04 AM
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Fred, Jesus as such never existed as Jesus but a person that did everything Jesus did and had done to her everything Jesus had done to him including taking only 3 hours to die on the cross, a record no less did exist. Do you imagine the beautiful, wonderful, loving story of Jesus of Nazareth might just be an edited copy of her life story with a few odds and ends miracles thrown in to satisfy childlike minds?

It's on the web, http://www.hoax-buster.org then click on "go to page 2" proof the Bible is a hoax. Creating a son of God from a real life Daughter of God is probably a hoax. Don't you imagine?

Posted by: yest me | December 23, 2006 5:38 PM
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Rev. Tully,

1) I could not agree with you more. For me, given my upbringing in the church, it is my intellectual and emotional conversation with Jesus through not only the Bible but the community of Jesus-believers that makes him real, profound, noble, fully of humility, seemingly contradictory, and wholly human.

2) Your assessment of Lewis's false choice also rings true. To try to stick the concept of God into a dichotomy--Jesus is either the Son of God or not, the Bible is the word of God or not--does not do justice to the type of questioning a true seeker of intuitive-faith knowledge would explore. We, especially us Western thinkers, are analysts. We focus on specific words and their meanings; we break down ideas into their component parts; we dissect and deconstruct.

While these are important tools for thinking about our world around us, they are not the only types of thinking we need. Many of us need extrapolation, intellectual cohesion, intuition, and other anti-rational/extra-rational yet profoundly human methods for us to understand and cope with our physical, psychological, and sociological worlds. In a purely rationalist and binary world, we have to decide whether or not the Bible is literally true. We have to believe in a God or not. And we cannot make room for any thought except for that which has come before us. I find this way of thinking unfulfilling, untenable, and unacceptable.

Agape and have a blessed Christmas!

Posted by: J | December 23, 2006 1:54 PM
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There is absolutely no evidence that he ever existed at all much less that he had some "holy" spirit. Also these stories about walking on water, making food for many people from just 2 fishes, coming to life after crucifiction, etc, etc. Please grown-ups, please grow up.

Posted by: Fred | December 23, 2006 1:50 PM
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"Do you believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God? If so, what exactly does that mean? If not, who was he?"

No. Anyone who does must prove two assertions:

1. That God exists.

2. That God procreates and somehow produces a son.

The concept is meaningless.

Jesus was a Jew, possibly a revolutionary, who did not confine himself to doctrine and dogma, had some influence among the populace of his time, opposed the status quo and was affective enough to warrant execution by the religious and political power elete of his time. . . Today, he might be a simple Palestinian who might influence the Israeli public to such an extent that both the Palestinian and Israeli power eletes would simply kill him because he posed too great a threat to their status.

The C.S. Lewis quote is meaningless.
Have a warm and wonderful holiday!

Posted by: Bob | December 23, 2006 12:13 PM
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