This begins a series on the humanity of Christ. Christians have long sought the divinity of Christ, often to the neglect of his humanity. Even worse, we have done it to the point of misrepresenting what it means to our own humanity: we neglect it, too.
Jesus' teachings were great, but my childhood picture of the pious, passionless Jesus was just too hard to identify with. The image of Christ, on a picture on the Sunday School wall holding a sheep, was far too restrained for me. As a result, I once avoided looking at Jesus too hard, especially in contrast with my own energetic and enthusiastic humanity.
I preferred Pauls' style: raw and reckless. Like the bumper sticker my friend said described me, "I tried to contain myself, but I escaped," Paul could not be contained. He was bold and brazen.
This distorted view of Jesus' humanity I also heard spoken by a man in my Sunday School class, "Didn't Jesus ever have fun?" He, too, was looking for a Jesus with whom he could identify.
Then I discovered the retort Jesus had given the Pharisees in Luke 13:32. He called Herod a name! And he called him a bad name, for his era. I checked several translations and the original Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic. It doesn't mean "sly or cunning," but rather is an idiom for being a "lowlife." It was an intense slur.
This was not my childhood, passionless Jesus. Here was a man calling Herod "out." I became determined to find out who this Jesus, this man really was. I knew him as the Messiah, the Holy One, the Son of God, the Savior, but I wanted to know the man, because I knew that in finding him, I might understand myself and my place with him better.
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