As I was looking at the Lord-liar-lunatic argument about Jesus, I wanted to know what relevant diagnoses could be applied to Jesus if insanity did lead Him to claim deity. I knew that it wouldnt be enough just to say Jesus doesnt talk like a crazy person, therefore He isnt crazy. I would need a specific way to diagnose that would be relevant to His claims to deity. And, based on the recommendation of a professional psychologist, I looked into Narcissistic Personality Disorder. And as I looked into it, I found that while someone has to meet at least five of the nine criteria to be diagnosed, Jesus met none of them. If I were to summarize what I found in a general sense, the only way it would be relevant is that Jesus did have a high view of Himself (one of the biggest understatements ever). Other than that, however, it led to none of the things that Narcissism in the technical sense leads to. Jesus never took special privelidges for Himself, but continually sacrificed His own rights for the rights of others, especially with His commitment to die on the cross as a ransom for many. He repudiated religious piety, even in His honor, if it lacked compassion for the least of these. He did not associate Himself with the elites and the privlidged, but went out of His way to elevate the status of second-class citizens such as women, blue-collar workers, children, sick, and tax collectors. And He primarily chose people from those kinds of backgrounds to follow Him as their disciples, which no Rabbi would do. Rabbis would take disciples to advance their reputation. These are just a few examples, but heres something I find even more striking. When talking about the deity of Christ, its easy for Christians to do so at the expense of His humanity. But this approach completely overlooks the fact that Jesus was truly human. To deny the full humanity of Christ is actually an ancient heresy called docetism, which taught that Jesus only appeared to be human. But, as John 1:14 puts it, the Word became flesh and pitched His tabernacle among us. And why did He do this? Ill let Hebrews 2:14-18 answer this. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Its often unintentional, but when we neglect the humanity of Christ, we minimize the full scope of what Jesus did so that we could be reconciled to the Father and adopted as sons.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 01:28:47 +0000
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