Who is Jesus to you?
What defines who Jesus is in your mind?
The texts that are bound together as one Bible define many different portraits of the man called Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is kind and patient, but Jesus has a biting temper. Jesus is quiet and thoughtful, but Jesus is the master of monologue. Jesus is the enfleshment of the Word, the Son of God, the King of the Jews, and a poor peasant from a backwater town. Jesus is self-aware but knows not that he is holy.
Many years have passed since Jesus was alive, but of course for Christians he could still be with us. Time allows us the space to fill in the gaps in the story.
The Bible is the roots of the tree of Jesus whose branches spread out into the world, each leaf a unique manifestation of Christ. All of them similar, all of them grown from the same living being, but none exactly the same as any other.
Which leaf will you choose?
Climb into the branches and find the one you want. Does it look like you? Does it want the same things you do? Can you see yourself in its veins, pulsing life that mirrors your own, assuring you in your salvation? Does it care about you?
Perhaps the leaf you want isn’t on the tree.
Perhaps you will nurture the tree and care for it gently. Perhaps you will ask the tree for help. You will learn how the tree grew, and who put it there. It will grow a new branch, a new leaf, just for you. The leaf will be in your image. You want the leaf to live on the tree among all the others, in turn allowing you to see yourself as a part of the tree. There is a sense of belonging.
Perhaps you do not care where the tree came from. Perhaps you will rip down the leaves and tear them apart, taking pieces from each to put your own together. Jagged edges meet but do not match. Your leaf will never fit back on the tree, but perhaps you never cared that much about belonging to the tree. You only need the leaf to be of use to you. Perhaps, if you had it your way, your leaf would be the only one on the tree.
This website is intended as a commentary.
The nature of the Bible is that there are many ways to interpret who Jesus was as a person. In theologic study, we see this play out time and time again. We get together in groups and wonder about who Jesus really was. Which gospel got it “right?” When four texts are bound together as one despite their differences, conflict of detail becomes a part of the study. We accept that there were many ways to see Jesus, and that nobody seemed to agree on the truth of his nature. The quest for the historical Jesus attempts to define the “real” Jesus, but the real earthly person of Jesus has become so detached from the theology that even with full and complete proof, it wouldn’t really change the depths of Christianity. Believers in Christ want to feel accepted, nurtured, and safe in their definition of who Jesus was. With different values and moral standpoints comes different portraits of Jesus.
Christianity has an unfortunately long history of oppression. It seems ironic, given that in the Bible itself, Jesus was oppressed. Jesus was a supporter of the poor, the dismissed, the broken, and the hated. Jesus sided with those that were being persecuted and taken advantage of. What’s more is that Jesus was one of the persecuted in his own time. If this pattern were to follow into the modern day, would Jesus not side with the persecuted again? The idea of Christ has been made into something a majority of people consider to be very white and dominating. Too often we see people preaching hatred with Jesus as their figurehead. Pale skinned portraits hang in countless churches, angry mobs of people wave signs that say "GOD HATES FAGS" and "GOD SENT THE SHOOTER," and some churches pour money into organizations that want nothing more than to obliterate the poor and helpless. It gets to the point where one has to wonder if those involved even remember what Jesus did in his life. With a sense of moral superiority at the helm, Christianity has become the religion of the oppressor instead of the oppressed. What symbol was painted on the sails of the ships that delivered Christopher Columbus to the Americas, where he would carry out a number of painful atrocities? The cross.
My goal in making this website was to point out that a loose interpretation of the scripture allows for the figure of Jesus and Christ to become a tool instead of a foundation of faith. Quotes can be taken out of their biblical context and used for moral judgements - this is very famously used in opposition of homosexuality, but certainly has been done against people of color (particularly by slaveholders,) immigrants, women, people of other faith, and practically anybody that doesn’t fit into the box of “white Christian heterosexual conservative male.” As scripture is cherry-picked and used for hate, the point of Christ loses its meaning and Christianity sinks farther into the hole it has been digging underneath itself.
I would encourage you to think about the Jesus that you built on this website. Why did you pick the elements you picked? What was important to you about them? Does your Jesus seem plausible when considered in the context of his message? Does he seem familiar? It doesn’t have to be deep, but maybe it could be. What would your Jesus have you do? Would he encourage you to love those around you, to support and cherish everyone as equals? I hope so.
I acknowledge that this website has limited possibilities. Your personal Jesus does not have to look like any of the items I provide for building. The balance of representation is admittedly skewed. Had I a little more time, and a little more knowledge in javascript, I think I would have tried to include an option to place a webcam feature in the "faces" box. Your experience with Jesus is built on your personal experiences. Belief in Jesus is shaped by what you need in your life. In Asia, women often see Jesus as the suffering servant the most, because the cultural and societal norms require women to suffer silently to serve others. Some African and Native American traditions encorporate Jesus into pre-existing cultural material with ease. It's a very personal thing. All of this to say, there are limitations to the number of viewpoints I can represent. There is always more to think about.
Ash, Allison. “How Christianity Became White.” In White Jesus: The Architecture of Racism in Religion and Education, 29–40. Peter Lang, 2018.
Barton, Steven. “Many gospels, one Jesus?” The Cambridge Companion to Jesus. (2006): 170-183. (book)
Brennan, Connor. “Bibliolatry: The Ultimate Form of Cherry-Picking Bible Verses.” https://www.patheos.com/blogs/quisutdeus/2022/05/bibliolatry-the-ultimate-form-of-cherry-picking-bible-verses/
Copeland, M. Shawn. “Marking the Body of Jesus, the Body of Christ.” In Knowing Christ Crucified, 61–80. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2018.
De La Torre, Miguel. “For Unto You Is Born This Day a Liberator.” In The Politics of Jesús: A Hispanic Political Theology, 21–53. Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
Hyun Kyung, Chung. “Who Is Jesus for Asian Women?” In Asian Faces of Jesus, 223–46. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1993.
Rohr, Richard. “A Dynamic Unity between Jesus of Nazareth and the Cosmic Christ.” Eager to Love. (2014):209-228. (book)