The Journey of my Christology
And he asked them,
“But who do you say that I am?”
Today’s gospel makes me think about my Christology, which is how we see Jesus in relation to his qualities as being God and as being human.
A “high” Christology inclines to see Jesus principally as God where the ‘incarnate’ is mostly muted. According to this perspective, Jesus knew from start exactly what was going on, and death on the cross was his mission from day one.
On the other hand, a “low” Christology highlights Jesus’ humanity over his divinity. Jesus here knows that his spiritual and social ideas are going to provoke and even lead to him being killed. His mission is not just death but the teaching and community he built. Thus, New Testament scholar Rudolf Bultmann asserted that “predictions of the passion and resurrection are secondary constructions of the early Christian community”.
We, Christians believe that Jesus was fully God and fully human. However, we hardly understand and generally misunderstand this dichotomy at the heart of our Christian faith.
I realised that as I seek to live a life of discipleship, I dwell more on Jesus as largely human (as we have in the synoptic gospels). Other times, when I reflect on Jesus, I get a glimpse of how God must be, which takes me to my high Christology (like in the Johannine gospel and Pauline epistles).
My own reflection has led me to believe that unless we first enter into the earthly depths of low Christology, our high Christology will be empty. Most Christians are sadly introduced only to a high Christology and never are led into a deep exploration of the fully incarnated Jesus.
Peter’s confession doesn’t appear when he is called first. Even as it is only partial, Peter arrives at his understanding after having spent time in Jesus’ company. His high Christology moment only arrives when he repeats thrice to the Risen Jesus: ‘You know I love you.”
The Journey of our Christology may look like the letter U.
What will assist me to further enter into the bottom of that U where the depths of Jesus’ humanity can be experienced?
How has the journey of my Christology evolved over the years?
