Who is this man?

In the story of Jesus told by Mark the question is repeated several times; what kind of man is this? Who is this man? Finally at the end of the story an outsider, a pagan Roman soldier sees with his spiritual eyes and says, “Truly this is the Son of God!” The implication is that when God reveals himself to us, our hearts may not be ready to embrace him. John says it another way, “He came unto his own but his own did not receive him” (John 1:11). The question is the same for us now; who is Jesus?

The introduction to Jesus starts with the foundation in the Old Testament Jewish scriptures in the form of literary foreshadows. Having Jesus foreshadowed in Jewish scripture shows that the early Christians could not invent Jesus as a mythical fable. His life had a foundation set which was outside of their sphere of influence. I will try to briefly highlight an overview of these foreshadows.

Adam was the man representing the human race who in a garden chose to not obey God. This is the archetype of the vulnerable human. Jesus by contrast was a man again representing the human race but in his garden of Gethsemane chose obedience, “Father not my will but thine”.

Moses was the great prophet law giver but who fell short of God’s goal and could not lead the people into the promised- land. So God foretold another prophet who would speak all the words of God. When Jesus preached the people asked, “Is this the prophet?” And it was Jesus who spoke the words and lived them as the ultimate true prophet, the truth teller archetype.

David was the archetype of the truly great king. However at one point he did as all corrupt leaders do, he abused his power. He took another man’s wife and then attempted a cover up by murdering the man. Jesus by contrast fulfilled the archetype of the truly good king by being the king who did not abuse his power but used it to serve us even to the point of sacrificing his life for us. This is truly the servant king!

There were several great warriors in the Old Testament scriptures. One most famous is Sampson. Sampson’s last courageous act as a warrior was to give his life destroying the temple of Baal. Jesus was also a warrior but his weapon was self sacrifice. As a warrior/savior he rescued us from the condemnation of our own sin, which is the great weapon against our soul. He freed us by binding Satan’s power and bringing us into God’s kingdom.

There are many people challenging the historicity of Jesus. I believe that these foreshadows are a good starting point for that discussion. These are simple foreshadows told long before the time of Jesus. Also when we look at archetypes these are universal themes throughout humanity. We can observe that our common Creator has put these themes into the heart of all humanity. In literature around the world we see images of mankind’s desire for a truly great king, true faithful lovers, true priestly honest men, sacrificial warriors, saviors. The question before us is; do these shadows point to Jesus? Are the hopes and dreams of mankind fulfilled in the man Jesus? I believe that the shadows from the Bible and the shadows from the cultures around the world come to reality in Jesus, (Hebrews theme)

If you have read some anti-Christian books claiming that Jesus is merely a copy version of myths. I suggest that you find an unbiased encyclopedia of myth to investigate for yourself. Typically the religion of Mythra is used with false claims about Jesus being a copy. But even a little honest research shows that prior to Jesus Mythra, a Persian deity, was very different and never presented as a real historical figure anyway. And there is no scripture for Mythra so people can say anything they want. Any similarities to Jesus were developed after the time of Christ when Mithra became Mythras a Roman deity. There are several books around each quoting the other as authoritative. The hostility of these authors seems to distort objective reason.