There
is a question at the heart of history, a question that no one can avoid:
"Who really is Jesus of Nazareth?" It is vital to know this, not so
much for history, but for each of us. It is Jesus himself who asks every human
being: "Who am I for you?"
It is he himself who asks this strange question directly to his friends and, indirectly, to us: "Who am I?" We cannot avoid answering, if we are endowed with a normal mind, because many surprising or inexplicable facts prevent us from doing so:
✦ Eight billion people, that is, practically the entire planet, use his year of birth as a reference for their calendars, even if they have never heard of him. All contracts concluded, all legal acts and all publications in the world use this reference. This is evidently an extraordinary fact, considering the numerous attempts, all of which failed, to delete this time reference. The French revolutionaries tried to create a new calendar that had 1793 as year one, but the attempt, limited to France alone, lasted only twelve years. Jews, Muslims and Chinese also have their own calendar, but its use, limited to the spheres of influence of individual countries, still goes hand in hand with that of the Christian calendar. The date of Jesus' birth thus ends up representing an absolute and universal meridian, an "equator of time" that divides the history of humanity in two, with a "before" and an "after Christ".
✦ More than 20 thousand books have been written about him in the last century alone, and hundreds of new ones are published every year! For its part, the Bible is the most widely circulated and most translated book in the world in all languages. To date, 2.5 billion people, or a third of humanity, say they believe in the divinity of Jesus.
✦ Logically, Jesus should have remained an illustrious unknown! His is a hidden life: The son of a single mother, he was born in an obscure village; he fled to Egypt with his parents; returned and grew up in stature, knowledge and skills in another village – Nazareth; there he worked as a carpenter until he was thirty. He lived a simple life. Then, for three years, he toured his land preaching. He never wrote a book. He never held public office. He never had a family or a home. He did not attend university. He did not stray more than three hundred kilometers from where he was born. He didn't do any of those things that are usually associated with success. He had no credentials other than himself. This Son Servant chosen by God was anointed by the Spirit and baptized at the Jordan; fasted for forty days and was tempted towards worldly powers but did not succumb to it. He continued his mission to help and heal, and proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He called illiterate fishermen as his disciples, ministered in Galilee. As a prophetic light to all the nations, with the help of his apostles he accomplished his mission without fanfare. He was only thirty-three years old when public opinion turned against him. His own people plotted against the ‘Suffering Servant’, who similarly plotted against the poor and conspired against the innocent. Matthew writes, “The Pharisees went out and took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.” Jesus withdrew from confronting his enemies. But one day he rode to Jerusalem on a donkey; was arrested in the garden. His friends fled. He was sold out to his enemies and underwent a trial that was a farce. He was nailed to a cross, between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners played dice on his clothes, which were the only property he had on earth. He was totally rejected by his own people, but he was patient, meek and humble. He did not engage in frenetic activism and aggressive confrontation (cf. Mitch and Sri, The Gospel of Matthew, 167); he did not wield power, prestige and pride. He was crucified outside the city at Golgotha with criminals. When he died he was placed in a tomb made available by a friend moved by pity. Two days later, that tomb was empty.
Twenty centuries have passed and today he is the central figure in the history of humanity. The majority in the world accepted his Gospel. Not even the armies that marched, the fleets that sailed, the parliaments that met, the kings that reigned, the thinkers and scientists put together, changed the life of man on earth as much as this one hidden life. Each of us is capable of seeing it for ourselves: the destiny of Jesus of Nazareth is something beyond any effort of imagination.
The Unsustainable Responses
Indeed, this question "But you, who do you say
that I am?" (Mt 16:15), which at first glance seems simple and harmless,
in reality poses a problem of implacable logic, because the possible answers
are very few and we possess enough information to exclude almost all of them.
These are the answers that have been given in the course of history and which
are, moreover, logically, the only possible answers to the question: "Who
can Jesus be?" (they tried them all!):
Jesus never existed; he is a myth created later. The historical reality of Jesus is well documented and quietly ascertained by historical and archaeological evidence.
He was just a great sage, a character who was all in all quiet and profoundly human, he is the easy choice of mediocre and superficial people. Writer C.S. Lewis states very clearly: "You have to make a choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God or he was a madman, or even worse. We can then throw ourselves at his feet and call him Lord and God, or silence him because we think he is a fool or kill him; but please, let's not bring up nonsense complacent that he is only a great moral teacher. This option was not granted to us."
He was a visionary fanatic. In reality, no one, not even his enemies and the great accusers at his trial, describe him in this way.
He was an impostor who failed. An accusation more senseless than useless. But it is ancient. Let's summarize his main points: taking advantage of the feverish wait for the Messiah, a cunning schemer, after learning the art of magic in Egypt, declares that he is the long-awaited Messiah. This character seduces the crowds with miracles and tries to drag them into a revolt in order to seize power, but the initiative is dangerous enough to frighten the authorities. The impostor is then arrested, convicted, executed, and buried. His disciples, who had dispersed at the time of his death, gather in secret and within a few hours decide to improvise a daring sequel to this adventure. They steal the body of Jesus, bury it in a secret place and, showing the empty tomb, stage a sensational hoax by proclaiming that he has risen from the dead.
Why, at that point, did the high priests not have Jesus' body searched? It would have been simple! Unmasking, evidence in hand, this absurd scam of the resurrection invented by the followers of Jesus, offered them an ideal opportunity to silence them once and for all! They had the possibility, simply by finding the body, to put an end to this far-fetched and dangerous staging. But no, officially no investigation is instituted!
Do we really want to believe that this handful of frightened disciples could have agreed in a few hours to set up the greatest deception in history? To pass off the one who in the end had revealed himself to be only an impostor, an ordinary mortal, for the God who came down to earth, stealing his body, recovering it and then proclaiming his Resurrection! What, then, would have been the purpose of this daring staging? Why leave to go to the ends of the world, each alone, presumably without a wife, without children, without money, to tell the story of a resurrected Messiah to pagans who did not even know the term, let alone the meaning of the concept of Messiah?
He was a prophet. Because of the violent criticism he had to suffer and his death on the cross, Jesus could therefore be fully included in this long list of prophets. His exhortations to conversion also have a prophetic tenor. Muslims, on the other hand, currently about 1.5 billion people, also think that Jesus was a prophet, as reported in the Qur'an.
However, this thesis inevitably clashes with insurmountable improbabilities.
First of all, a prophet who by nature knows the future would not have surrounded himself with a gang of swindlers and criminals, who would one day have unearthed him and buried him elsewhere and then passed him off as the God made man. Finally, a prophet, not being God, certainly cannot be resurrected. Consequently, everything we have said about the improbability of the operation staged by the disciples, with the disappearance of the body, the false resurrection and all that follows, also applies in this case.
He is the Messiah and an extraordinary man, but only a man. The thesis according to which "Jesus is the Messiah, but he is only a man", after his death becomes absolutely untenable, because by definition the Messiah is a king destined by God to reign over Israel. But, to the great disappointment of those who hoped that Christ would rebuild the temporal power of Israel, Jesus dies on the cross, abandoned by all. If he is considered a Messiah, he cannot therefore be a purely human Messiah.
The Only Possibility: Jesus Is God Made Man
Once
the challenge is taken up, everything begins to become clearer, and doubts and
contradictions disappear. To begin with, this thesis makes clear the meaning of
words that had previously seemed puzzling or even upsetting.
If
Jesus is the Son of God, in fact, then he has always been so and can well say:
"Before Abraham was, I am" (Jn
8:58).
"Heaven
and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" (Mt 24:35).
Jesus'
divinity makes him omnipotent, even over death and sin, and justifies the
words:
"Your
sins are forgiven" (Mt 9:5).
"I
am the resurrection and the life" (Jn 11:25).
"All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (Mt 28:18)
By
means of the Eucharist he can finally give his body as food, in the form of
consecrated bread:
"I
am the bread that has come down from heaven" (Jn 6:41).
On
the part of anyone else, these words would have been the sign of an
immeasurable pride, of a scandalous presumption, of a dangerous delirium of
omnipotence. But in the mouth of the Son of God, of the Messiah, they take on a
completely new meaning, in a logic that goes beyond our usual categories.
The Radical Change in the Behavior of the Apostles becomes Understandable
At
this point, the metamorphosis of the apostles is also perfectly explained:
cowards who had been able to deny Jesus and shut themselves up in the Upper
Room with a double mandate, suddenly reveal themselves, as if by miracle, full
of audacity and strength, determined to preach the proclamation of the Good
News to the crowds. As if by a miracle, indeed, since this transformation is
the result of their encounter with the risen Jesus. They have seen him and
touched him, and now nothing can stop them: they have understood that death is
only a passage towards resurrection, and that persecutions are a necessary
testimony of faith, as well as a participation in the sufferings of Christ.
Their attitude is therefore perfectly logical.
The Success of the Apostles does not have an exclusively Human Origin
Far
from being satisfied with words, the apostles live their faith totally, a faith
that is dearer to them than life.
Blaise
Pascal writes: "I believe in witnesses who are killed." It is the
ultimate argument, the one that convinced the masses at the beginning of
Christianity. Thus, the fate of the persecuted Christians under Nero did not
interrupt the flow of conversions. On the contrary, the witness of the martyrs
was stronger than the persecutions.
Thus,
the latter hypothesis is definitely the only possible answer to the question
"Who is Jesus of Nazareth?".
Now it's up to Us to Respond
A
little story can help us understand what we need to do.
A
powerful ruler traveled through the desert followed by a long caravan carrying
his fabulous treasure of gold and precious stones.
Halfway along the way, exhausted by the fiery
glare of the sand, a camel in the caravan collapsed gasping and never got up.
The
chest he was carrying rolled down the sides of the dune, broke apart and
scattered all its contents, pearls and precious stones, in the sand.
The
prince did not want to slow down, also because he had no other chests and the
camels were already overloaded. With a gesture between displeasure and
generous, he invited his pages and squires to keep the precious stones they
managed to collect and take with them.
While
the young men eagerly threw themselves on the rich booty, and searched the sand
frantically, the prince continued his journey into the desert.
However,
he noticed that someone continued to walk behind him. He turned and saw that it
was one of his pages, following him panting and sweating.
"And
you," asked the prince, "didn't you stop to pick up anything?"
The
young man gave an answer full of dignity and pride: "I follow my
king."
Many
of Jesus' disciples backed down and no longer went with him. Then Jesus asked
the Twelve, "Do you also want to go away?" Simon Peter answered him,
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have words that give eternal life.
And now we believe and know that you are the one God sent." (Jn 6:66-69)
(Translated and adapted by Soroj Mullick SDB. Cf. Carmen Laval, La
Domanda, in Bolletino Salesiano,
June 2024, pp.10-13.)
