Each Man Chooses the Jesus He Needs

[PrinceMyshkin]

A scholar writes about the unknowability
of Jesus:* Jesus the human moralist
vs Jesus the Son of God or God
Incarnate or in essence who, at any rate,
cried out that he was abandoned on the cross.
Jesus the clarifier vs Jesus
the enigmatic, who posed us riddles,
not the least of which
was who he was.

Each man chooses the Jesus he needs


*http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/05/24/100524crat_atlarge_gopnik

[qimissung]

I guess we always have, but I never noticed it until you put it like that. Good one Prince, and food for thought, as usual.

[AuntShecky]

As usual, this is a thought-provoking poem, and the thought it provokes is this: I'm not sure it's up to any of us to "choose" Jesus, but rather the other way around.

[MorpheusSandman]

I like the idea but I think it's lacking in the poetic nuances I usually admire in your work. I will say though that this section: "Jesus the human moralist ||vs Jesus the Son of God or God || Incarnate" reminds me (at least, a bit) of Luis Bunuel's film The Milky Way which was a surrealistic pilgrim's progress in which two traveler's slip in and out of time periods while on the road to see the shrine of some saint. Along the way they encounter all of the major arguments within Christianity, one of them being the debate about the Trinity and whether they are all one or three individual elements.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I like the idea but I think it's lacking in the poetic nuances I usually admire in your work. I will say though that this section: "Jesus the human moralist ||vs Jesus the Son of God or God || Incarnate" reminds me (at least, a bit) of Luis Bunuel's film The Milky Way which was a surrealistic pilgrim's progress in which two traveler's slip in and out of time periods while on the road to see the shrine of some saint. Along the way they encounter all of the major arguments within Christianity, one of them being the debate about the Trinity and whether they are all one or three individual elements.

Thank you. Speaking of films involving The Passion of Christ, there is also Jules Dassin's He Who Must Die, though I saw it many many years ago & am not sure now how applicable it might be.