Jesus the Divine, Jesus the Human

The final error that St. John takes on in his first letter is that of the nature of Jesus himself.  The Gnostics had a great deal of difficult in placing their faith in the dual nature of Jesus; namely, his divinity and his humanity.  They simply could not reconcile the notion that Jesus, whom they believed to be divine, could suffer death.  In their minds, God was immortal and could not suffer death.  At the same time, they had a difficult time that Jesus accepted the baptism of repentance that was practiced by John the Baptist and his followers.  So they started to preach that Jesus was human from the time of his birth until his baptism in the River Jordan and that he was divine up until the time of his crucifixion.  After his death, his divinity was restored through the resurrection.  The man Jesus was baptized and died.  The divine Jesus performed many miracles of healing, etc., and was raised from the dead.

St. John takes on this argument in the final verses of his first letter: “This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood. The Spirit is the one that testifies, and the Spirit is truth.  So there are three that testify, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and the three are of one accord.”  (1 John 5:6-8)  In Jewish law courts, every decision was made upon the testimony of at least two witnesses.  Without them, no conviction or decision was possible.  Using the water of Jesus’ baptism and blood of Jesus’ death, St. John adds the testimony of the Spirit who was seen and heard when Jesus was baptized affirming that the man Jesus was indeed God’s beloved Son.  St. John maintains that to put faith in Jesus, which was necessary for salvation, could only be done if one believed in his humanity as well as his divinity, a humanity and divinity that did not exist separately at different times during Jesus’ life, but a humanity and divinity which were inseparable from the time of his birth until his return to the Father after his resurrection.

This is, of course, the teaching of the Church today.  We believe that Jesus was fully divine and fully human.  It almost goes without saying.  However, for the community of the first and second centuries, this was a source of constant debate and prayerful reflection.  It is St. John to whom we owe our faith in Jesus as God and man.  St. John began his Gospel with this assertion: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  (John 1:1)

The mystery of the Incarnation is the very foundation of our celebration of Christmas.  God loved us so much that God leaped out of heaven and became one of us.  As we draw close to the end of that celebration, we stop and give thanks to God for this great act of God.  No love on earth can or ever will equal this act of love, this gift from God. 

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator