Why did God become a man?
The proposition: Jesus is God come to earth in human flesh. Yes or No?
Speaking for the proposition: Andrew Klavan, Team leader, satirist, and associate of scholar and brilliant Oxford grad, Spencer Klavan (no relation). Even though the younger Klavan slips up on air and calls Andrew, “Dad.”
Andrew Klavan: Thank you Bill, I’m not sure who you are or why you are hosting this event. I’m not even sure I am here or that this event actually exists. But I have been wondering, if indeed, I can trust my evolutionary developed brain which is a product of a random selection process, who is the selector one might ask? How can I trust my brain, let alone my mind because God doesn’t have a brain, doesn’t need one—oh, never mind about all that.
My unreliable mind has been wondering, what if Jesus had not come to earth at all? It is quite interesting to me that not only would Christianity be impossible, but most other religions would be missing a major prophet. They wouldn’t have to say what they didn’t believe in if it were not for Jesus. Jesus’ claims are so magnificently and brilliantly conceived as to create a binary decision for every human being. More on that in due course.
The decedents of Ishmael, the sons of the flesh, those sent away from Abraham’s household, and cast out from the Abrahamic covenant, are really pissed off, perpetually pissed off until this very day. Like long lost family members left out of the will, they need to make something up to justify their existence and show they are different and better. But they had to slip Jesus in somewhere. Muslims teach that Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, was born of a virgin, performed miracles, was saved by God, sent to heaven, and will even return in service to Allah.
Even though some religions preceded the coming of Jesus, they were forced to interrupt proceedings to place him in their pantheons. Buddhism reveres him, Hindus place him among their gods. Greek mythology was forced out of their polytheism and Jesus became the logos, the ultimate spoken word that was so profound it was a person, Jesus. As Paul put it in Athens, your unknown god now has a name. [1] The almost Christians, Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons, have him as the Son of God who died for the sins of the world, et al. But Jesus isn’t having any of the shit about him being Satan’s better elder brother. History is divided and defined by his life, B.C./A.D. Before Christ and A.D. The year of our Lord. Clearly, he stands alone in prestige and historical impact.
Hull: Hey Drew, I’m impressed, but could you get to the point, the suspense is killing us here and it’s almost time for a break. All this history is fascinating, but could we get to something like what did Jesus say that caused all these other religions to have to deal with him, and particularly, to adjust his teachings or to reject him?
Klavan: Look, your tiny bladder doesn’t matter—not my problem—Jesus didn’t leave us with many options, actually, only two options. Either Jesus is God come to earth in human flesh or he needs to be ignored. If he is the former, then humans are to repent of sins, believe the good news, and follow Jesus as his disciple.[2]And all that goes with it, sometimes explained as “being taught to obey everything that Christ commanded.” [3] Follow Jesus and he will teach you everything you will ever need to know. The other option is to say NO, like we anticipate those on the other side of this debate will claim. If you vote NO, Then Jesus needs to be put in his place.
Many say that the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference. But since historically, he has not been the type you could ignore, indifference has not been successful. You can’t be indifferent to Jesus because he has more followers than anyone in history. He has performed millions of miracles among billions of people every day. Most of which are things like Republicans and Democrats restraining their hatred for each other and catching themselves before they speak, and his words are ringing in the ears of all humans—created in the image of God. Everyone has a conscience, they know right from wrong—it makes the entire human race inherently know they are not perfect, [4] and they don’t let it become an excuse to do nothing. They know perfect does exist, otherwise they wouldn’t talk and think so much about not being perfect, something that haunts them.
And all those miracles and his followers talking about it all the time demand action. What can be done apart from us running around with our fingers in our ears screaming, stop it, stop it! I guess we could put in earbuds and allow the evil little device we call a smart phone, which is actually as stupid as tree stump, flood our minds with lies.
The primary lie is that God can’t be trusted, and can’t be known, because He is trying to deceive us, therefore, Jesus as God needs to be discarded. [5] Jesus needs to be executed, imprisoned, burned at the stake, crucified, guillotined, stoned, or at least given a pie in the face on the internet. Or, oh, we could make him religious (said with a smirk). I know that in the first century Jewish context he broke all their religious rules. He broke just about every Sabbath rule, he wouldn’t conform, and he embarrassed the religious brass with his miracles, parables, and questions. He was impossible to deal with. That is why the more religious you are, the more you hate him, the harder you work to rid yourself of him. Don’t anoint him, ordain him, listen to him, and, most of all, resist the deep desire to follow him. He qualified to be a Rabbi when he was twelve, he had not one hair on his chest, yet he was smarter than them all. Put him in his place, a benign religious figure that you can ignore. Give him a primetime show on CNN, no one will ever hear from him again.
Hull: OK, deep stuff, deep work, I’m sloshing about, the mind is reeling and all that. Sorry to interrupt, Andrew, but you will notice people squirming, they are smelling the coffee and would like to stand up and move around. While we are chatting with one another and the other side calls an audible, we will be anxious to hear how you plan to move in for the kill shot.
Hull: (after the planned fifteen-minute break ends twenty-two minutes later) Moderator Hull turns on his mic. Everyone please be seated, the coffee bar is closed, pastries removed, cell phone service discontinued, outer doors locked, bathrooms closed. Now sit down or you will be escorted by our guest security force. Thank you “Chip & Dales” for your service. Just look for the guys in the bowties. I have noticed the look of concern on your opponent’s faces, Mr. Klavan, they appeared quite smug earlier and, after all, you are using the Donald Trump “Study” Bible as your main text, but after your presentation, they looked a little like a canine just seeing Godzilla—we all know what happens next. The floor is yours to wipe clean with the refuse of the other side.
Klavan: Thank you Mr. Hull. Your efforts remind me of several despots around the world to conform a particular type of behavior. What were you doing in 1984? It seems you were taking copious notes. I have often said, most people would rather be told what to do than be free. Most leaders would enjoy manipulation and control of their citizens, forcing them to conform and then providing basic services. That is what dictators do, that is what religion offers, but not what Jesus offered. Jesus offered freedom. Jesus, being God, is our creator, therefore he understands the human tendency to want some form of control over our own lives. He knows how tedious and uncertain life can be. After all, he grew up in a little back water called Nazareth making picnic benches, taking care of his younger siblings or cousins, step siblings, if you are Catholic, wink-wink. He didn’t even understand everything he knew and felt. At some point he became aware of who he was and what he was here for.
By age twelve he had become a dangerous man. Jesus was Boy/God before he was Man/God, was he afraid? Yes, he was. Are you afraid of ending up a coward? Jesus was. Tyrants, the masters of utopian dreams, first limit what you can say, then they limit the way you think. Every culture has its religious masters. Jesus had the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, Essenes, and the Romans. [6] All of them were religious, especially the Romans. The Roman’s religion was Caesar—the state—it was what is now called government. They didn’t care whether you worshipped some lesser god, but you must bow the knee to Caesar. When Christians refused, they were killed, persecuted, and of course, fed to lions for sport. Today you might put them in a cage in Vegas—now that’s entertainment. Jesus was a danger to them all. He came to smash religion, to destroy religion.
He threatened them for the same reason that he threatens me, you, Mr. Hull, and of course, those who deny his divinity. He is God who wrote himself into the human drama. The only way Shakespeare could meet Hamlet was become a part of the drama. But Jesus’ script called for him to die. He had to come, it was his nature, he had to die, but like us, he fought it to the very end.[7] He knew that his courage would be contagious, but so is being a coward. He fought, he resisted, he begged his Father. His sacrifice, his humility, his submission, caused the religious leaders to dedicate themselves to killing him by killing his example, killing his takeover of their power, killing their impulse to be their own Gods.
Hull: Very good, Sir Klavan, but I am afraid that your skeptical opponents are licking their tobacco stained lips because they believe you are missing the point. Jesus could have been all that you say, except, why did it have to be Jesus? Wouldn’t Joan of Arc dying for France, or Hugh Latimer for England, or scores of other martyrs be good enough for a blood thirsty Father in heaven to be satisfied that justice has been done?
What kind of Father would send his son to die such a death?
Think about Kierkegaard’s [8] angst in Either/Or and Fear & Trembling and his meditations on Abraham’s near miss on sacrificing Isaac. He limped around Copenhagen in pants too short for him and a floppy hat, he was mocked for his eccentric behavior. He was hated for his attack on the Danish Church and its uselessness. But he was on to something. He saw Christ as something or someone quite different than the church and religion. He looked beyond the stars to a cosmic figure. Give us something, Drew, we’ve got to have more!
Klavan: I was just about to bring that up. Sit down, Lurch, and adjust the bolts in your neck. Oh sorry, the bolts are your cousin’s—Frankenstein’s Monster. Just sit down. I read the Bible and I know that if you want to understand it, you must remove the veils that separate us from its context and meaning. The veil of time, culture, language, geography, religious views and politics of the time. For example, Jesus saying “Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” Has completely different applications depending on context. We panelists and particularly, my addled opponents, fail to grasp—what the greatly maligned Pharisees understood by Jesus’ claims and their implications. Just read the text:
“So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules (in other words, for rejecting their formulas and requirements to be a good Jew). But Jesus replied, My Father is always working and so am I.” So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.” [9]
From this moment Jesus continued to tell them, I will be your judge. And everyone who has ever lived, regardless of time or belief, will be raised from their graves, and I alone will decide who is condemned and who is not. Not only that, I will determine where you and everyone who has ever lived will spend eternity, with God or without God.
Everyone lives forever, it just depends where and under what conditions.
To be condemned means to separate, to come apart at the seams. Without God, sometimes known as Hell, people come apart, unglued if you like, and that glue is God. Hell and condemnation is the best God can do for those who don’t like him, will not submit to him, and in Milton’s words in Paradise Lost, [10] written for Lucifer, “I would rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.”
You see how Jesus doesn’t give our opponents any room here. How can you say Jesus was a nice guy who said some pleasant things about personal conduct? You listen to what he actually said and who he actually was, and remains until this moment—either he is the Lord and final Judge of all humankind or call the ambulance and get the straight jacket, get him off the streets—deport him immediately or, at least, put him on a bus to NYC. So, why did it have to be Jesus?
One needs to take a big step backward and remember our proposition, Jesus is God come to earth in human flesh.
He created the cosmos, he thought about and designed the earth and the humans to live on it. He is cosmic, he is a being from outside of time and space. He not only understands all things actual, but all things that are potential. He knew that only his incarnation, only his coming to us and speaking and showing us the perfect, could we possibly touch and understand God. But the problem of evil needed to be fixed.
Humans couldn’t love without choice and there is no choice if evil isn’t one of them.
Therefore, he had to show the way of love by giving himself up as a sacrifice and paying the price for our sins. And also, to quiet human accusations that he was a distant God who didn’t care. So, as the Apostle Paul understood, “He who knew no sin…became Sin,” that “we might become the righteousness of God in him.” [11] On the cross the cosmic Christ became and took the brunt and burden of all evil and death to humans, brought upon ourselves, and he took it and became it. Christ, the man, died because God cannot die. Any other death would have been meaningless. That is why it had to be Jesus. That is why it had to be Him, and no one else. So, I ask those on the other side, why not just drop your notes and get on your knees, right here, right now and ask God, the Cosmic Christ, this wood worker from Israel, to forgive you. Then we can drop this charade and go have a brandy and cigar. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Hull: Thank you Andrew Klavan. I kept hearing the old Hymn, Just as I Am while you were talking. I do see one person coming forward. Oh, that would be the first presenter to speak against the proposition. He is holding a cigar—the famous playwright and mensch, not ubermensch, David Mamet who just gave me the double bird—hold it Mamet, we need to take a break.
Bill Hull
Spring 2024.
[1] Acts 17:23-29
[2] Mark 1:14-18
[3] Matthew 28:20
[4] Matthew 5:48
[5] Genesis 3:1-6, John 1:1-6 and 14. The Gospel of John Presents Jesus as the logos, the logic and key to life’s mysteries.
[6] Google them, even though if you use Gemini A.I. search, you might get a Pharisee that looks like Donald Trump holding a Shepherds staff in a court room in NYC.
[7] Mark 14:34
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Søren_Kierkegaard
[9] John 5:16-18 NLT.
[10] Please see a Preface to Paradise Lost by C.S. Lewis.
[11] 2 Corinthians 5:21
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