John 11:35 "Jesus wept."
At the request of my friend Sam, I am going to reflect on this verse from the Gospel of John. The text from the RSV can be found here. His request was that I focus on Jesus' two natures, in that Jesus is fully Human and is also fully Divine.
Anyway, to draw a tighter focus, Sam asked about what can be specifically known by from these two words. Jesus sees death as something to sorrow over. In His divinity, this shows that death was never part of His original plan, and that we're not supposed to die. In His perfected humanity, this shows us that sorrow and pain and struggle are an inescapable part of the human experience, since through Satan, sin and death entered the world.
This brings me to the point where I need to clarify what divinity is, what humanity is, and how they're compatible.
Webster isn't much help for understanding Divinity, especially the fifth definition. Rather, it is better to think of Jesus' divinity as his "uncreatedness" that stands outside of time and space. God simply is, and Jesus is the second person of the trinity who participates in that unqualified existence as a singular metaphysically simple qualitative infinity. Sadly, I don't know how that potentially confusing statement can be simplified. All of it is important, but for the sake of what I have to say here, the nuggets that can't be chucked are His uncreatedness and His existence. Since we are made in His image, which is that of perpetual (when viewed in time) existence, the lack of existence was never part of the plan.
Jesus' humanity is the perfect example that Christians should try to live up to. But, what is humanity? As I said in my previous post, to be fully human is to be infinitely loved and to love to the greatest possible extent in return. Jesus, in his humanity, felt the love of others, as well as that of the Father, and in that sought to remake humanity so that people could again live up to what they're designed to do. In our humanity, things are wrong. Things as they are now are a cause for sorrow, and in order for us to be fully human, we must experience this suffering in the here and now to make sure that our "spiritual innards" are in proper shape so that they can see God in this life and the next.
Now, for the melding of the Divine and Human natures, it is important that the Scriptures are written for each of us as individuals, that each of us as individuals might come to know and love God, which is a fulfillment of our human nature. The short name for Jesus' nature as fully human and fully divine is His "Incarnational Nature". This shows the incredible dependence of human nature on God, so much so that human nature is only perfected when God is made present in the flesh of a human being. This is why He gave us the Eucharist at the Last Supper, and why Jesus says in John 6:53, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you".
It is through the reception of the Eucharist that we come to understand Incarnational Nature in an experiential way. With the Eucharist, the one who receives keeps their humanity, and has their humanity fulfilled through consuming God "in the flesh". We bring the sorrows, pains and struggles (as well as the joys, successes and consolations) we experience in our humanity, and taking on the Divinity of the Eucharist adds God's immutability to our frail nothingness of a nature. The Eucharistic prayer contains a line; "By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity."
Anyway, to draw a tighter focus, Sam asked about what can be specifically known by from these two words. Jesus sees death as something to sorrow over. In His divinity, this shows that death was never part of His original plan, and that we're not supposed to die. In His perfected humanity, this shows us that sorrow and pain and struggle are an inescapable part of the human experience, since through Satan, sin and death entered the world.
This brings me to the point where I need to clarify what divinity is, what humanity is, and how they're compatible.
Webster isn't much help for understanding Divinity, especially the fifth definition. Rather, it is better to think of Jesus' divinity as his "uncreatedness" that stands outside of time and space. God simply is, and Jesus is the second person of the trinity who participates in that unqualified existence as a singular metaphysically simple qualitative infinity. Sadly, I don't know how that potentially confusing statement can be simplified. All of it is important, but for the sake of what I have to say here, the nuggets that can't be chucked are His uncreatedness and His existence. Since we are made in His image, which is that of perpetual (when viewed in time) existence, the lack of existence was never part of the plan.
Jesus' humanity is the perfect example that Christians should try to live up to. But, what is humanity? As I said in my previous post, to be fully human is to be infinitely loved and to love to the greatest possible extent in return. Jesus, in his humanity, felt the love of others, as well as that of the Father, and in that sought to remake humanity so that people could again live up to what they're designed to do. In our humanity, things are wrong. Things as they are now are a cause for sorrow, and in order for us to be fully human, we must experience this suffering in the here and now to make sure that our "spiritual innards" are in proper shape so that they can see God in this life and the next.
Now, for the melding of the Divine and Human natures, it is important that the Scriptures are written for each of us as individuals, that each of us as individuals might come to know and love God, which is a fulfillment of our human nature. The short name for Jesus' nature as fully human and fully divine is His "Incarnational Nature". This shows the incredible dependence of human nature on God, so much so that human nature is only perfected when God is made present in the flesh of a human being. This is why He gave us the Eucharist at the Last Supper, and why Jesus says in John 6:53, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you".
It is through the reception of the Eucharist that we come to understand Incarnational Nature in an experiential way. With the Eucharist, the one who receives keeps their humanity, and has their humanity fulfilled through consuming God "in the flesh". We bring the sorrows, pains and struggles (as well as the joys, successes and consolations) we experience in our humanity, and taking on the Divinity of the Eucharist adds God's immutability to our frail nothingness of a nature. The Eucharistic prayer contains a line; "By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity."