Jesus nature

I've never known quite what to make of Jesus Christ.  I understand Jesus, the man of Nazareth who trusted God completely, conformed himself to holiness, was vulnerable and loving and righteous in his humanity. Who laughed and cried.   I also understand the holy Word of God present from the beginning, that manifests in creation and human soul-intelligence.  And I understand the title "Christ", simply Greek for Messiah and savior, but haunted with overtones of the Word.  And I fully accept that all these things were (and are) present in that one being, Jesus whom we call Christ.

 

But precisely how, I haven't a clue.  And no amount of theological pondering or metaphysical sleight-of-hand has made it make any more logical sense.  Fortunately, I know I am not alone. The gospels do not agree on their understanding of the metaphysics of Jesus. The Council at Nicaea wrestled out a formulation that is more poetry than physics.

 

It's the God part that mucks it all up.  God is beyond me, beyond us. And whenever God puts a hand to something, it is by its having been touched utterly unfamiliar.  Evolution is easy. Pre-big-bang is not.

 

Cyril of Alexandria, in the 5th century, wrote, "The inexpressible glory of the supreme Being could not be seen pure and unveiled by bodily eyes, for Scripture says, No one can see my face and live. The only-begotten Word of God had therefore to become like us in our weakness by clothing himself in a human body."

 

God wanted to be seen. Hence Jesus. That's enough for me, today.