Who is Jesus?

Before this semester I had never taken a moment to ask myself - Who is Jesus? It is something that I have never been given the option to question. Being brought up in a strong Christian background, where I went to mass every Sunday, and then following mass, went to bible school for two hours, ingrained a specific image of Jesus into my head. This image portrayed Jesus as a white man who preformed miracles for the poor and oppressed, and also sacrificed himself on the cross for all of humanity’s’ sins. However, after taking this course, I have been able to rethink Jesus in ways that I could have never imagined. It has become evident to me that there are many different ways to see Jesus. And with each of these contrasting views, there comes both biblical and rational evidence supporting each image along with criticism disputing each image.

When Dale C. Allison Jr. says that, “Jesus is not one but many,” it becomes obvious that there are many different ways to picture Jesus. He says that “Jesus seems to be a chameleon; he takes his color from whoever re-creates him,” (Allison, 46). Thus, it is our own experiences and beliefs that create all of these different types of Jesus. Furthermore, J. Deotis Roberts argued “if the universal Christ came to all people in their particular historical context, then all people had a right to define Christ through their particular experience and image Christ in their own likeness” (Douglas, 61). Thus, by using the theories of Allison and Roberts, it makes sense when people can see Jesus in the different ways that they do; black, white, straight, gay, etc.

In Kelly Brown Douglas’ book, The Black Christ, there are a few different Jesus images. Some of these ideas coming from the Slave Era, and othe...

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...osexual. Furthermore, the societies were clearly different, thus, it may have been socially acceptable to have a close male friend as Jesus did. On the other hand, when talking about a black Christ, such as James Cone did. One can say that if Christ only identifies with the oppressed, then what happens with the other people that are well off, but still need guidance in their life.

After looking at all of these different models of Jesus, and taking into account, it is my opinion that Jesus is a universal human being. With that said, I most likely agree with Roberts thoughts about Jesus being who you want it to be. It’s not about what he looked like or who he had intimate relationships with, but it’s what he did. It is the messages that he is trying to show us that we all need to understand. He can be whoever you want to be, as long as you follow his teachings.