Did Jesus truly experience humanity?

[LateCatholic]

So we know according to Catholic theology Jesus is divine, but became man to experience humanity. But did he truly experience humanity? So assume the stories of the Bible are true. He was able to perform miracles. And many of his miracles were in order to ease his personal pain. Examples include but are not limited to:

1. Raising Lazarus from the dead. Specifically, Jesus was so upset his friend died, he just raised him from the dead.
2. Water into wine at mother’s friend’s party. When things go wrong, Jesus fixed them.

The point being, did Jesus truly experience the human condition if he could, at any time, change the situation through a miracle? Clearly, he DID change the situation when things were going wrong. So can we honestly say he was truly human?
Please address from a theological and philosophical point of view.

 

[semper_catholicus]

He was fully human and fully Divine. He experienced humanity.

 

[Dan_Defender]

And many of his miracles were in order to ease his personal pain.

I disagree with this completely. Jesus experienced much human suffering. Spent a lot of his childhood among hostile pagans in Egypt. Felt sorrow for the death of his beloved foster father. And so on. He was not looking to ease his human pain.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

So Jesus said (to them), “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.”

More than once Jesus says something to this effect…that he only does the will of God.

 

[Start]

Those miracles were not to ease His pain and they probably came from His divine nature.

 

[LateCatholic]

Those miracles were not to ease His pain and they probably came from His divine nature.

I’m not sure any response yet adequate addresses my original question.

As Catholics, we claim “God became man”. But, I maintain, he did not become man - he became “superman” - as he was capable of performing wondrous deeds. How can we claim he was a man if, when he realized his friend was dead, he simply raised him from the dead to ease his grief? How can we claim he was a man when his mother requests his help, he turns water into wine.

Again, what is the theological position on this? Why do we say “God became man” when that clearly isn’t exactly correct? Or is it acknowledged that Jesus wasn’t actual “human”?

 

[Start]

He was God and man, so through His divine nature He was able to perform miracles, in fact many saints.in the Old Testament were able to perform similar miracles and they were not divine. The reasons for the miracles that Jesus performed were not to ease His grief, but to show that He was also God.

 

[TechieGuy]

I’m gonna put it out there that a man who is also God does not experience the human condition in the same way that people who are not also God experience the human condition.

 

[meltzerboy2]

Did Jesus also have a human nature since He was fully human? If yes, does that mean that G-d has a human nature as well as a divine nature? If this is so, does Jesus’ human nature still differ from other human natures since it is without sin and in perfect accord with His divine nature?

 

[Start]

Mary, Adam and, Eve all had a perfect nature.

 

[meltzerboy2]

As perfect a human nature as that of Jesus? Maybe Mary, in that she was sinless according to the Catholic faith, I believe. But surely not Adam and Eve since they could not resist the temptation to sin. Thus, to my way of thinking, they could not have had a perfect human nature. Their nature was misaligned with the will of G-d, was it not?

 

[meltzerboy2]

How do the miracles of Jesus show that He is G-d if, as you say, many saints of the OT also performed miracles and they are not G-d?

 

[Start]

He was able to resurrect Himself and that hasn’t happened before.

 

[meltzerboy2]

Yes, on the basis of that one miracle, but not the many others Jesus performed. Just curious, did Jesus ever claim that He resurrected Himself or that He was resurrected by G-d, the Father? Did He speak about Who resurrected Him?

 

[Start]

I’m not sure about the specifics, but they did possess a nature that hasn’t been tainted by sin.

 

[Start]

Actually I’m not sure.

 

[meltzerboy2]

Thanks for your answers. Maybe someone else has information about this.

 

[brian_custer]

offered without comment; i

 

[Roguish]

So can we honestly say he was truly human?

Your argument seems to be that a true human cannot work miracles. This isn’t so. Potentially all humans (not just Jesus) can work miracles if they have strong Faith. Jesus Himself clearly said that working miracles was not a prerogative reserved for Him alone, but for all who believe in Him:

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these (John 14:12)

[…] if you have faith and do not waver, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done. (Matthew 21:21)

Working miracles is therefore not an indication of being somehow less than fully human. Jesus was fully human.

Apart from the above, Jesus’ humanity is borne out further by the terrible anxiety He experienced in the garden of Gethsemane. He truly was afraid of the physical and mental anguish of torture, humiliation, and abandonment. Again, Jesus was fully human.

 

[fisherman_carl]

He could have called 10 thousand angels, as they say, but he suffered and died for you and for me.

And the raising of Lazarus wasn’t for him, but for us. He is showing us he has power to raise the dead, because he is the Resurrection and the Life, and if we believe in Him, we shall never die.