Just recently, I’ve had the thought of how much we would understand about how God-like Jesus was purely through His character and the way He carried Himself.
What I mean is that it’s easy to think that He’s God through His miracles, his followers and the crowd he drew.
But whenever I read the gospels, one of the things I really try to grasp is how He exemplified godliness when He was having conversations or his natural actions (as opposed to supernatural) in specific circumstances.
How much could you tell about how different Jesus was if you just spoke with Him and if we saw how he lived his life?
Would we actually notice that He was drastically different?
I feel that the release of ‘The Chosen’ has taken us closer to an artistic depiction of His character beyond the gospel narratives.
Though His influence, His miracles and other significant facets of His life were strongly tied to His character, the reason I think about this is that, though many of us won’t have influence and the capability to execute miraculous works, there is a very strong call from God through His Word towards emulating Jesus’ character.
Human Tendencies
So here’s what I’m getting at. In my experience, people will have a tendency to show the side they’re most comfortable with, and we don’t branch out of that until the situation calls for it.
We stay as comfortable as we can until we’re not able to.
For example, people who tend to be jokesters won’t have a serious conversation with you until you sit at a bible study, or deep chats happen at 2 am.
People who come off strong in their opinions and who tend to dominate conversations will continue to until listening becomes an emphasis in a group conversation.
People who stay silent and like to listen often do until they’re asked a question, and even then, they might evade answering anything directed at them.
Now, having a good sense of humour, being outspoken, and a great listener are all great things.
It’s just that when we’re always acting upon our natural inclinations, it’s hard to think that we’re applying the right words or actions in the situations we’re given, and therefore not making the most of the opportunities God presents us with.
Jesus’ Tendencies
When I look at Jesus, I see a man who maximises these good characteristics in the situations He needs to maximise them.
When He was with the woman at the well, He was compassionate and had ears wide open.
When he was with the disciples and children, he was gentle to the children and seemingly honest and stern with the disciples about the realities of being accepted into God’s kingdom.
When His Father’s house was turned into a marketplace, he flipped the tables in righteous anger.
And to the Pharisees who were going to stone the adulterous woman, He said ‘He who is without sin, cast the first stone.’
Perhaps this is the kind of wisdom that comes from learning until you’re 30 as a fully divine being.
When people think of Jesus, many think sinless, but on the other end, there is this overwhelming sense of perfection in everything He has said and done.
Being fully Human, I’m sure Jesus had a default set of inclinations that He would have felt comfortable acting upon.
And if I am correct in my understanding, if Jesus had fully experienced humanity, for Him to walk in what He was inclined to when it was helpful ,a nd deny the inclinations as to do the right thing by a sheer act of the will to please the Father applied correctly in every single situation in His life just mesmerises me.
So in short, yeah, I think you can tell aside from His miracles, His influence and other facets of His life that there was something very different (and special) going on with Him.