“Since the children [of God] share flesh and blood, [Jesus] himself shared the same things . . . to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect.” That’s what we hear in our epistle lesson today. We believe that, but we don’t think much about it. We see with Easter eyes, with 2000 years of tradition focusing on the resurrected Christ of glory. We read the gospel stories of Jesus through that veil. Even when we use the Ignatian way of meditating with scripture, imagining ourselves in the story, it is difficult to get past our own baggage and relate to Jesus as he was experienced by his physical brothers and sisters, his disciples and friends, all those whose lives he touched as he lived in the world.

The desire to know Jesus as he lived in the Holy Land, as our example of godly life, as our brother, as well as our Savior, is what inspired the last 100-years’ quest for the historical Jesus. From Albert Schweitzer at the turn of the 20th century to the present, especially since we have had the use of modern scientific tools and historical research, folks have delved into every nook and cranny looking for clues of the Jesus of history, the Jesus before Christianity, the one who was like us in every respect. “Scholars [and all of us] tend to see the Jesus they want to see. Too often they see themselves—their own reflection in the image of the Jesus they have constructed.” (Zealot, p.xxxi) You might want to consider whether the shoe fits.

A friend recently shared with me Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan. It is interesting and well written—not necessarily anything new, but a different perspective about how what was going on in the world around Jesus could have impacted his perception of his earthly mission. Shining a different light on the sayings of Jesus, Aslan can stretch our understanding of scripture, as can other authors who see Jesus differently from us, if we let them. We might even begin to see Jesus in new ways. For sure, no one ever has the last word on God’s manifestation of love in the world.