GOD or MAN
When Jesus was on earth there were those who then, as now, seemed totally confused as to who really was this person. “…Once some of the scribes said within themselves, ‘This Man blasphemies!’” when He healed a paralytic (Matthew 9:3). When He was teaching people in a synagogue “…they were astonished and said ‘Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?’’ (Matthew 13:54).
Others were just as convinced that He was more than just a man. When Jesus asked His disciples: “‘Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?’” Simon Peter answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:13&16). In Jerusalem, in the temple, during the time of the early church, the apostles “…did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:42).
In the Bible, it seems to be often the religious leaders and learned people who considered Jesus as a man. It appears as though only His disciples and others close to Him actually felt Him to be the Christ and Son of the living God. This was in spite of the many things He did to show that He was from more than this world. Even demons seemed to know more than the Scribes and Pharisees, for when Jesus cast them out of people they came “…crying out and saying, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of God!’” (Luke 4:41).
So if demons and His disciples recognized Jesus for whom He really was, it was because they knew Him and were associated with Him. Other people did not as readily realize His true nature in spite of the feats He did while His ministry was on earth. Perhaps this is because many of His miracles were done independent of His circumstance, such as magic tricks might be done today. But there were times when His miracles were done along with His humanity and not independently of it, and these truly showed that He was both Man and God.
One day, He was exhausted after teaching many, healing some, rebuking Pharisees and even confronting His relatives. His followers took Him then “…along in the boat as He was…” and soon He fell “… asleep on a pillow…”(Mark 4:36&38) How more human can one be, falling asleep after a long day? He continued to sleep even after a severe storm arose, filling His followers with fear and threatening to swamp the boat. They awoke Him and said to Him: “‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace, be still!’ And the wind ceased and there was a great calm” (Mark 4:38-39). It was a time of illustrating both His humanity and divinity.
On another occasion, when they had come to Capernaum, Peter was asked: “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?” (Matthew 17:24). Now Jesus did not work as we consider work, but was still expected to pay a tax. Nothing more human than paying taxes, so Jesus said: “…[L]est we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you” (Matthew 17:27). A supernatural way to obtain the money to pay a totally human tax.
Jesus often did miraculous things independent of His other activities; events which some apparently believed to be tricks or magic. However, He did other miraculous happenings in association with His totally human activities showing without doubt both sides of His being.
Was He God or a man? No. He was both God and Man; a big difference and certainly something to think about.
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