The Biblical Model of Jesus' Humanity--Part 2

Visual Demonstration of the Movement of the Model

Jesus’ life, ministry, and his interaction with people, even in his death and resurrection, demonstrated again and again that he functioned as a totally integrated human being and that he related to people and addressed their common human conditions in an integrated and wholistic way.  Out of who he is (his being) and out of his completeness and wholeness, he lived, taught, and related to others and God.       

             Diagram 2 is an attempt to show the movement of integration.  The more the four arrows in the middle were pushed outward, the more the four circles overlapped, and the more the area of “integrating” of the different aspects increases (movement from 2.1 until to the very outline of the circle in 2.3).  When the four circles are fully overlapping (when the four aspects fully integrated with each other), the model becomes “one circle” in 2.4.  Therefore, 2.4 shows a four-times twisted and collapsed cylinder, similar to a compressed, modified “Moebius Strip” which is a one-sided non-orientable surface.[1]  

              The circle 2.4 represents Jesus, who indeed is a multi-dimensional, dynamic, and wholistic being!  His life is like a world class quartet that plays the most beautiful, rich, and heavenly music!  

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                [1] Eric Weisstein, “Math Resources” [Information on-line] (Wolfram Research, updated periodically, accessed 4 June 2007), 1; available from Mathworld.wolfram.com; Internet.

               Another way to look at the movement of the integrating process is shown in diagram 3. When God created man and woman in His own image and likeness, God said “it is good.”  In Diagram 3, they would be at 3.4, wholistic beings and fully integrated.  

            However, after man and woman willfully chose to disobey God, the relationship between God and the man and woman and the relationship between the man and the woman were broken.  The land was cursed, Adam and Eve were physically chased out of the garden, spiritually separated from God, emotionally battered and betrayed, and now one ruled over the other.  All who were descended from them were to live in the consequences of their sins.

            In the stories of human beings unfolded in the rest of the Bible, the disintegration of the “being” is evident (moving from 3.4 to 3.1).  Languages and cultures became barriers and reasons to abuse, discriminate, and kill those who were different.[1]  Evolution proclaimed that human beings were just physical beings, evolutes from nothing, and life is all about survival and reproduction.  Spiritual death brought moral decay.[2] Teachers, coaches, youth workers, politicians, priests, and pastors are caught using drugs, molesting children, and having affairs.

            It is many times explained away, “as long as they are doing their job” (such was the case of the president of the most powerful country in this world, the United States of America).  The recent waves of  “holistic body, soul and mind” integration of all kinds, from music to medical practices to food and nutrition to brain mapping, only seem to seek the control, but not the truth of humanity. 

            The Good News is that Jesus’ salvation could change the downward and disintegrated life to the upward and integrating life through the process of spiritual formation.  Christian growth is an ongoing, unending, and dynamic process.  It is not a project with a deadline, but more of a journey to be taken with fellow travelers.  In our spiritual journey, the more we are aware of our own multi-dimensional beings, the more we are able to surrender them all to God.  The more we could live as whole beings, the more we can relate to our fellow travelers as such, and, at the end, all could become more like Christ (moving from Diagram 3.1 to 3.4).  This model, therefore, will be helpful in presenting not only the concept of wholistic humanity, but also in demonstrating the dynamic and the developmental nature of it. 

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                [1] Volf’s book Exclusion and Embrace is a great book to read further into this area

                [2] One simple example: pornography, seeing women/children as pieces of meat, basically, is a big, if not the biggest, business on the internet.  Donna Rice Hughes,  “Kid’s Online: Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace” [Information on-line] (Enough is Enough, 2006, accessed 4 June 2007); available from www.enough.org; Internet.