Jesus breaks a male stereotype
“Intimacy
is another word for trustful, tender, and risky self-disclosure. None of us can
go there without letting down our walls, manifesting our deeper self to
another, and allowing the flow to happen. Often such vulnerability evokes and
allows a similar vulnerability from the other side. Such was the divine hope in
the humble revelation of God in the human body of Jesus. My mind and mouth
stumble to even imagine it or dare to think it could be true. Yet Christians
dare to claim this reality.
Such human intimacy is somewhat rare and very hard for all of
us, but particularly for men and for all who deem themselves to be important
people, that is, those who are trained to protect their boundaries, to take the
offensive, and to be afraid of all weakness or neediness. God seems to have
begun thawing this glacial barrier by coming precisely in male form as Jesus,
who then exposes maleness itself as also naked, needy, and vulnerable. Most
cultures would say that is mind-blowing, heart-exploding, and surely
impossible. Thus, the transmission of the secret, the inner mystery of God,
continues in space and time primarily through what Jesus calls again and again 'the little ones' and 'the poor in spirit,' which he himself became.”
Richard Rohr, OFM makes an
interesting observation on the question of manhood of Jesus. Was there
something redemptive for the male culture that Jesus was born a man? My first
pastor told me that Jesus in the Gospels was too feminine; he was too weak and
not strong enough. After reading Rohr and remembering my first pastor’s
comment, I think Jesus of Nazareth was trying to break a stereotype of what it
means to be a man.
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