Perspective is everything. For years my family and I would travel to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Looking at the jagged peaks from ground level was a very impressive viewpoint. They are huge and dominate the landscape. One time we hiked into the mountains. Looking at them from part-way up while standing before a large waterfall was quite another impressive view. A few years, later while on a flight to Alaska, we flew over the Tetons at about 33,000 feet. They looked absolutely tiny. Of course nothing changed with the mountains. Only the perspective had changed.
How we perceive an event or understand words written or spoken can be a matter of our individual perspective as well as the event’s happenings or the words written or spoken. Our individual perspective can be influenced by our mood, our intellect, our knowledge, our emotions, our upbringing, timing, and our environment. Our view of God in good times might be different than our understanding of God in difficult times, say a pandemic.
I am reading a book on the historical Jesus. It begins with a break-down of many scholars understanding of Jesus over the centuries. Talk about different and differing perspectives! I have noticed similar divergent understandings among my colleagues and among the parishioners I have been privileged to serve these four plus decades.
Jesus was a miracle worker! Miracles are a myth! Jesus was a great teacher. How can we know the stories of Jesus written in scripture were actually told by Jesus? Jesus is a role model, an inspiring figure. Jesus was human, Jesus was divine, Jesus was both human and divine. You get the idea.
Middle class Americans tend to see Jesus as someone affirming their values, the poor see Jesus as one who advocates for them and stands on their side over the rich. People of color see Jesus as a first century Palestinian Jew, a person, like them, of color.
What I have most learned about the historical Jesus from both my current book and previous books on this topic is this: We do not and cannot know much about the historical Jesus. We can only know about the Jesus who spoke, touched, and shaped the authors of the New Testament and the early church. As of yet no archeological evidence of Jesus has been found. Writings contemporary to the time of Jesus mention scant little of importance that would give us a glimpse into the personality or details of Jesus or his life. Even the gospels written 30-60 or more years after Jesus life do not agree on many details concerning Jesus. And Paul, writing shortly after Jesus’ life and death is concerned with the meaning of who Jesus was, not the biographical history.
What are we to make of all this? Without a complete picture of who Jesus was, can we know what Jesus was about? With many divergent perspectives concerning Jesus, are well all lost? Or are only some lost?
We encounter Jesus through scripture. In the gospels we see a Jesus who may, at times, chastise people coming to him for their faith, but never casts them away. In the gospels we see a Jesus who comes to people, heals, teaches, and gives of himself. In Paul’s letters we see a Jesus who does what his followers cannot do: justifies and saves them. This is the key: we work to encounter Jesus, but it is he who encounters us. We struggle with our various perspectives, but there is only one perspective that truly matters: the perspective Jesus has regarding humanity. What is clear, and what all seem to agree upon is that the perspective of Jesus is that humanity is worth saving.
This is such good news because far too often we wonder if humanity is worth saving. We wonder not only if we are doomed, but we wonder if we deserve to be doomed. “For God so loved the world that he gave…” we read in John’s gospel. For God so loved the world he did not and could not give up on the world or its human inhabitants. May this, above all, be our lasting perspective.