Behold the Man!

CHAPTER IV

The Posture of Jesus

"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
"The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah [is] here.
"The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon [is] here. - (Mat 12:40-42 NKJV)

And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am [He], you will die in your sins." - (Jhn 8:23-24 NKJV)
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What kind of a person would stand and make such statements as we see in the verses above? Would not many in his audience have thought him to have a massive, insufferable ego? Having been accused of casting out demons in the power of Beelzebub, Jesus launched into his accusers about committing the unpardonable sin and then unashamedly claimed he was greater than Jonah, who was in a figure resurrected from the dead, and King Solomon who was according to scripture, the wisest king that ever lived!

Recall, the scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman taken in the act of adultery with the intent to ensnare him in his words. After defeating their plans through his wisdom, a discourse began that led him to make these audacious claims for himself. It is important to note that Jesus never made a spectacle of himself, as others have who claim greatness for themselves. The politicians, rulers, generals, and other persons of power and position, relish statues, portraits and banners of themselves to be publicly displayed and unfurled when they are present. This sort of thing cannot even be imagined about Jesus when he said such things as these, which to his detractors seemed outrageously boastful.

He made “audacious” claims for himself, but he never made a spectacle of himself. One cannot even imagine him strutting when he walked, or making grand gestures to announce his powers, giving “high-fives,” or in any other way grandstanding or behaving pompously, or braggadocios. He only stated what to him was the obvious, and indeed was obvious to those prepared for Messiah by John the Baptist.

He made these claims of himself because they were true and people needed to know whom he was in order to believe unto salvation. He was challenged because he said these things himself instead of leaving it to a surrogate. To Jews this was not acceptable testimony. But no one else, save John the Baptist, could have possibly announced him to others in a credible way. Jesus made these claims of himself not only because they were true, but also in order to inflame his detractors (the religious, ruling elite made up of Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes and Lawyers) and to challenge their authority in the presence of all the people in his company. Since he knew all men’s hearts, he could have chosen a different way to present himself to those he knew would be offended at his claims to be a greater authority than they were. But he chose to present himself just as he spoke; directly, eye to eye and straight on by telling them the unvarnished, bare-knuckled, and undiluted truth.

Imagine what ordinary worldly men who had a modicum of respect for the worldly ruling authorities would have done. One kind would have approached them and sought their friendship, approval, and tried to win them diplomatically by persuasion to acknowledge and /or endorse him and join him in his efforts to reform the system. Or the other sort of worldly man would have trained an army and overtaken their ruling authority by brute force. But Jesus diminished their authority by simply stating that he was the Son of God and they were children of the devil, thereby insulting them in the company of rank and file citizens in and around the Temple and by defying their laws and traditions, thereby assuring their fury against him.

It is obvious by reading the Gospels that Jesus’ clear intent was to defrock the Temple administration which had governed so corruptly, not just in his day but through out Jewish history from its earliest chapters. This would not be the first time God tore the Temple down, but it would be the first time the veil between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies would be torn in two declaring the final break with the Old Testament system.

Seeing Jesus as His Contemporaries saw Him

We must constantly remind ourselves as we analyze a few events that the people he is dealing with sees him as a man, not as a God-Man. We want to see him as they saw him, as a man. Can we tell from Jesus’ comments about being greater than either Jonah or Solomon, as well as other scriptures, what Jesus thought of himself?

In his contemporary’s eyes, what did this man think of himself? How did he present himself: what was his “posture” before the people he encountered? Was he concerned about what “impression” he would make? Did he approach people obliquely to keep from “coming on too strong” and driving them away?” How did he behave? Was he meek or macho? Was he agreeable or defiant? Was he arrogant, or timid? Was he humble, conceited, confident and unflappable, apologetic and tentative, or was he forthright and authoritative? Was he easily approached or was he hard to deal with… what? Most will choose from this list those qualities that they value most and simply want to believe about Jesus and then assume that approach was certainly his. But we must be objective and allow the Gospels to teach us if we truly want to know him.