Doing Theology From BelowSample

The Human Catechism

Yesterday, we talked about the Incarnation as love with skin. Jesus becomes like us so that we might become like him. His humanity calls forth and awakens our own. Deep calls to deep.

In this segment, we want to consider what it means to undergo our own humanity and become fully alive by following Jesus. What we’re talking about here is a catechism (a process by which we are inducted into a particular way of being, i.e. when churches induct their participants into the life of the community so that they can participate as fully formed full-fledged members.) – a human catechism.

It is the process by which we become human - fully human - and for most of us this takes a lifetime. The process can be sped up by great love or great suffering, but for most of us it’s a long slow road.

It might sound odd, but as it turns out, the only fully human we will meet this side of heaven is God. Only God is fully human. The rest of us are in process. That is why Jesus says to his disciples, “follow me.”

To follow Jesus is to be inducted into our own humanity and his over time, in community. Life in Christ is a human catechism.

If this sounds a little strange, it might help to know that the only title Jesus ever used to refer to himself in the Gospels is the “Son of Man,” which literally means, "the human one.” It’s odd then, that not once does anyone else in the Gospels call Jesus the Son of Man. The expression only occurs on Jesus’ lips. Surely Jesus is the Messiah, Lord, and even God, but Jesus only ever refers to himself as the human one. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the expression is all but lost. For example, Paul only uses titles like "Messiah" and "Lord". He never refers to Jesus as "the human one."

What gives? Why the ambivalence in the New Testament around the title?

Might this have something to do with how uncomfortable we are with our own humanity? Jesus seems to be fully at ease with the thing we find so hard to accept.

God comes to humanity, from within humanity, to show us what it means to be human, by following the human one we finally come face to face with God. That is the Incarnation – that is, the human catechism.

Can we see?

The whole point here is that doing theology from below is an exercise in biblical anthropology - an honoring of what it means to be human. And this is revealed to us by God. George McDonald once said, “If the incarnation has any meaning, it is through the human that we climb up to the divine.” There is no shortcut to God. We must become human, fully human.