How would I ever go about trying to find out what Jesus was actually like, what he was really all about? Heaven knows that there are plenty of people around who seem to have him as their best friend! But is there any way to reconcile the ancient image with my contemporary worldview? I am hard pressed to think of any other discipline that would require that I take information that is two-thousand years old and literally take it at face-value with no room for subsequent additions and interpretation. And the very fact that I read that information translated into English is de facto proof that such a thing is indeed impossible.
The Bible and the Church cannot be ruled out as primary sources in the quest for the historical Jesus, but in the spirit of John Wesley neither can experience and reason. The syllogism that text without context becomes pretext is utterly applicable to our approach to scripture and tradition. When I approach either in an intellectual void that discounts or prohibits my ability to think and discern, what I am able to glean from them is skewed toward error. So, if I fail to take into account that what I read in the Bible has been through the process of translation (in several different languages prior to the English) and has been subjected to the editorial scrutiny of the Church I then fail to comprehend the whole and complete transmission.
All this is to set the stage that there might be something yet to learn about the life and teachings of Jesus, and to open ourselves to the possibility that we might discover something about his purpose that is different than what we’ve been led to believe. Perhaps the significance of Jesus’ death upon a cross is greater than my personal salvation, but if I’m unable to move past the preconceived notions that I’ve been taught then I’ll never be able to understand what that is. This is beginning to sound like work, and I wonder if it’s really worth the effort. It would be so much easier just to let others do the thinking for me and I just passively accept it. What would Jesus do?
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