Afraid of Jesus?

[Orton]

I personally think that the way you seem to fear Jesus shows a lack of understanding. Christ is our superior, but he is not like our parent but our brother. I think it is especially inappropriate to compare him to a parent, because that is to conflate him with God the Father. I refer against to John 15:15: “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” There is a sense in which one should fear God, but the fear I see being expressed here is more of a servile fear of punishment than a desire to truly please Christ.

What really worries me is this bit in bold - why are you using the phrase “as opposed to” as if it were not the case that Christ was also fully human? To deny this, or say that his human nature was somehow absorbed by his divine nature, is Monophysitism, which the Church teaches is an error.

First bold point: I’ll admit that the trinity can be a bit confusing for me. It can be hard to sometimes know where one of the three persons starts and another begins. But my understanding is that Jesus Christ is our judge at our hour of death.

Second bold point: I do see your point here, but can’t Christ be both a friend and a superior? I do worry about the way some people view this friendship. So many people don’t have any sense of sin. I myself was one of them before coming back to the church. So this way of thinking does concern me.

Third bold point: It’s a combination of fear of punishment and trying to truly please Christ. I wish it was more of genuinely trying to please the Lord, but I am a sinner and in a fallen state so fear of punishment also plays a role.

Fourth bold point: On this one I said that Jesus was true man and true God, while Mary was only human. But you do have a really good point here. Jesus was fully human. I definitely see where you’re coming from on this one.

 

[Kevin12]

First bold point: I’ll admit that the trinity can be a bit confusing for me. It can be hard to sometimes know where one of the three persons starts and another begins. But my understanding is that Jesus Christ is our judge at our hour of death.

Second bold point: I do see your point here, but can’t Christ be both a friend and a superior? I do worry about the way some people view this friendship. So many people don’t have any sense of sin. I myself was one of them before coming back to the church. So this way of thinking does concern me.

Third bold point: It’s a combination of fear of punishment and trying to truly please Christ. I wish it was more of genuinely trying to please the Lord, but I am a sinner and in a fallen state so fear of punishment also plays a role.

Fourth bold point: On this one I said that Jesus was true man and true God, while Mary was only human. But you do have a really good point here. Jesus was fully human. I definitely see where you’re coming from on this one.

Christ will judge us, but that is not a reason to fear him in a certain way. I think, although this may sound weird, but in the way spouses fear to disappoint and hurt each other. which is a fear based on love and togetherness rather than separation and punishment.

I think that what the world believes about friendship doesn’t change the essential reality. Christ himself said it.

Also, I do not mean to sound like I am judging you (I am in no position, being probably more sinful than most), but to reassure you of Christ’s love.

 

[Kevin12]

I understand what you mean and I’m not disagreeing with you. But what happened that time at Adoration was my knowledge about Jesus being experienced by my entire being, not just my mind. And being in his presence was so wonderful but a bit scary because of his infinite goodness and power. I don’t think we can handle that goodness and power because of sin. I have since become absolutely certain of the reality of Purgatory.** Jesus is so above anything that we can experience as humans**. Yes, he is our friend, but this friend is God reaching out to us. I am in awe of him and never for a second imagine that this friendship resembles what I have with other people.

I think you ought to try to imagine it. Christ said “Be not afraid”. I think on the bit in bold, this passage of Matthew 20:20-28 is relevant:

*Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, adoring and asking something of him.

Who said to her: What wilt thou? She saith to him: Say that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom. And Jesus answering, said: You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink? They say to him: We can. He saith to them: My chalice indeed you shall drink; but to sit on my right or left hand, is not mine to give to you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father. And the ten hearing it, were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But Jesus called them to him, and said: You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that are the greater, exercise power upon them.

It shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister: And he that will be first among you, shall be your servant. Even as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption for many. *

So, I think that, through suffering for others - laying down our lives for our friends - we experience what Christ did just as he did, and this is the meaning of the Incarnation.

 

[fred_conty]

If you are saying Mary is more understanding than Christ, I think you are mistaken. I think, first of all, that was the point of the Incarnation - so no man could say that God had no right to condemn him, having know direct knowledge of what it is to suffer. Furthermore, Christ, being God, understand us better than anyone, and that includes Mary.

Kevin, thank you for your reply.

What I said in my post I was saying from the sinners point of view and not from my viewpoint.

My apologies if this wasn’t clear.​

“God is Love.” John

 

[Kevin12]

Kevin, thank you for your reply.

What I said in my post I was saying from the sinners point of view and not from my viewpoint.

My apologies if this wasn’t clear.

I understand what you are saying now. I only wish those people could be reassured of Christ’s love and mercy a bit more.