Mark 10:45
Jesus is the Son of Man
45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus is the Son of Man, so He is a Man...So when Jesus refers to Himself as the "Son of Man," emphasizing His connection to humanity...
The traditional view of Jesus is that He is a Godly, Religious Man...And this is true...But He is much more complex...We often separate His views on both His political and religious life...One might argue that we often take it for granted that Jesus wasn't interested in political matters, focusing solely on the religious aspects of His teachings and ministry...But that would be interesting for a Man, a Divine Highly Intelligent Man, who was constantly, if not daily seeing Roman Soldiers and seeing His country being occupied by another country, while talking to His native-born neighbors...We might believe that Jesus' life was very much submerged in history, all of history... After all, He did live His entire life under Roman occupation, which was a highly political situation for many of the Jewish population...His teachings and actions would have had political implications, even if He didn't directly advocate for overthrowing the Roman rule...The Roman presence was felt through taxation, military occupation, and cultural imposition...This led to resentment and rebellions among some of the Jewish population, because the Jewish belief did not match the Roman way of life and thinking...
So if we create this iconized Jesus, then we would believe He had little thoughts or views or thinking of what the Romans were doing in His country...We can use terms like "hieratic" and "stereotyped gestures" to describe how Jesus is often portrayed in art and theology...But this creates a distant, almost unreal image that doesn't capture the complexity of Jesus or the historical Jesus...Should we forget that He is, in fact, a Man (if it fair to call Him a Man) and He would have thoughts and feelings on why and how the Romans were there...
One might argue that focusing solely and only on theological themes can obscure Jesus' humanity of being a Man...By portraying Him as only a symbol of the Christianity period and recognizing all the things that He lived through with His entire life under Roman occupation do we see Him properly...We might better see Him as a Real Man, and still being a Divine Man believing He had thoughts on the political situation of His country, whatever they were...If we miss this about Jesus we may be missing His much Human Side and then we miss the true impact of His message of being a Man...Because we can surely believe some, if not many Jews, did not like the Romans being in their country...
Let us see Jesus as Much More that a Man, because He would not have missed what was going on around Him politically...Let us have a more nuanced understanding of Jesus...Let us see Him as a real person who engaged with the political realities of His time, and whose message has profound implications for social justice and liberation...This might be a challenging thought but Jesus is our True Liberator and more importantly our True Savior (which does liberate us)...
Gustavo Gutiérrez is one who served as parish priest in the Iglesia Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer church) in Rimac, Peru...In 1974 he founded and directed the Bartolomé de Las Casas Institute in Lima to minister to the poor...He said this about Jesus being human and Him being interested about many things because He was a Man...Since Jesus was a Man, He would be curious about many things...Gutierrez said: “We take it for granted that Jesus was not interested in political life: His mission was purely religious...Indeed we have witnessed . . . the 'iconization' of the life of Jesus: 'This is a Jesus of hieratic, stereotyped gestures, all representing theological themes...In this way, the life of Jesus is no longer a human life, submerged in history, but a theological life -- an icon.”...
An emphasis of Scripture on God is that He will restore a New Godly Kingdom and establishing peace throughout the entire world...And we know Jesus generally avoided political conflict and emphasized the importance of loving one's enemies...