Paul L. Maier on Jesus the Man

Paul L. Maier, In the Fullness of Time: A Historian Looks at Christmas, Easter, and the Early Church (San Francisco: HarperCollins; 1991), pp. 92, 93 (American spelling retained).

‘Jesus’ physical appearance must have seemed very normal indeed no towering figure, no nimbus, no halo.

His enemies required the services of a Judas to point him out in the dusk of Jerusalem, Mary Magdalene mistook him for a gardener at the Easter tomb, and to the Emmaus disciples he looked like nothing more than a fellow traveler.

‘Yet he must have been an arresting figure of great intellect and much oratorical ability persuasive, attractive, impressive.

Crowds could listen to him for hours, since he spoke with authority.

To his enemies, however, he appeared as a deceiver, a blasphemer, a false prophet.

The response to Jesus, then, was hardly ever neutral. He captured the people or antagonized them.

‘He was no ascetic: he enjoyed a good time, provided party supplies on one famous occasion, and loved good friendships and people at every level, especially children. He was no legalist: if someone needed healing on the Sabbath, he simply healed.

He was not intolerant: he ate with hated publicans and obvious sinners. Nor was Jesus the namby-pamby, soft and sweet sort of person conjured up in so much art: he had an athletic vigor that could enable him to stay up all night in prayer or single handedly drive the money changers out of the Temple with a whip.

He was a man totally committed to his mission of announcing the kingdom of God and then dying to make it all possible.’

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