Cadences of God

Michael Baigent – one of the folks who brought you Holy Blood Holy Grail, which inspired The DaVinci Code – has been at it again. His latest book is called The Jesus Papers. 

In The Jesus Papers, Baigent forcefully argues several points. The first and most controversial is that Jesus did not in fact die from the crucifixion. For now, however, I want to focus on the bigger picture Baigent has been arguing from his soap box for quite sometime. Baigent is a firm believer in the humanity of Jesus, that Jesus of Nazareth was actually a human being. This is a fact which is covered up by a church which, claims Baigent, is scared to let people know the truth about the reality of who Jesus was.

Well, let me let you in on a little secret, Mr. Baigent. I must be very hush, hush about this. As a minister in a church, I am – as you well know – a part of this wide ranging conspiracy to cover up the true humanity of Jesus. So, I can really only say this one time and one time only.

Here we go: Jesus was in fact human. Let me say it again, setting the record straight from someone who should know: Jesus was human…

Alright, you might have guess by now that no hooded men have charged into my office, snagged me and set me aflame on my lawn fro my terrible heresies. I am still here and still typing.

This is for two reasons. First, Mr. Baigent, we do not live in the Middle Ages any more. Oddly, this is a fact often looked over by many who claim the church is some demonic conspiracy which will stop at nothing to cover up the real facts about Jesus. Burning people at the stake was already passé two hundred years ago and while some church leaders look like they have been around since then, I trust you they have not. The second mysterious reason why I am not engulfed in an inferno set ablaze by misguided pious, is that I have not said a single heretical thing by claiming Jesus was human.

 

Why does everyone think this is some sort of great secret that the church is trying to cover up? Probably because the church has done a miserable job of telling people what is what and people who stopped coming to church long ago have not bothered to listen to the people they are trying to incinerate on the modern stakes of publishing.

Every time Christian get together and confess the Nicene Creed, they repeat the original formula set down by the Church Fathers who supposedly chose to make Jesus a God and destroy him humanity forever. “τὸν δι’ ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καὶ διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν κατελθόντα καὶ σαρκωθέντα και ενανθρωπήσαντα” In English, “who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man”. Jesus was human, for us humans.

Not only is this not heresy, it is actually among the most orthodox things you could sa as a Christian: Jesus was a man. And, what is probably more disconcerting for DaVinci-Baigent Christians, it is totally and deeply Biblical. According to the four gospels, which they would have us believe are part of the conspiracy to make Jesus totally into a God, the pauper from Nazareth gets ticked off (Jn 2:12-25), cries (Jn 11:35), eats, is born, dies, bleeds, gets hungry (Mat. 4:2), gets depressed and sad (Matt. 26:37), experiences rejection from God (Matt. 27:46), could be funny (Luke 6:41-42), and enjoyed a good party with some wine. Sounds pretty human to me. 

If the church and the Gospels are trying to cover up the humanity of Jesus, we have done a pretty poor job. But, then again, half our denominations are going broke. So, maybe our poor cover-up skills are just part of the disinformation. I guess that’ll be your next book.