Jesus se menslikheid

Filippense 2:5-11
Geskryf deur Dr. Zander van der Westhuizen

God het mens geword. Dit is die grootste aspek van die God wat ons dien wat Hom onderskei van alle ander gode wat mense aanbid. Daar kan nie ‘n belangriker aspek van jou verstaan van Jesus wees as juis dít nie. In alle ander godsdienste moet die mens na die godheid toe “opklim”. Dit gebeur deur die leer van prestasie te klim. Ons God het “afgeklim” en mens geword. Ons kry toegang tot God, nie op grond van prestasie nie, maar op grond van sy genade.

Jesus is God. Jesus is mens. Dit is waarom ons nie “dualisties” kan leef nie. ‘n Dualistiese (groot woord!) lewe is wanneer jy die geestelike van die menslike onderskei. Sondag is geestelik. Maandag is menslik. Bid in die kerk is geestelik. Fliek toe gaan is menslik. Ons lewe dus in twee wêrelde: ‘n wêreld waar ek broos en menslik is en ‘n wêreld wat geestelik is, waar God is.
God het mens geword. God het twee wêrelde “met mekaar laat trou”. Alles wat menslik is, is goddelik, daarom is God ook menslik. Vir Christene is alles “geestelik” en alles “goddelik” is ook menslik. Dit is een wêreld - want Jesus het mens geword en onder ons kom woon.

Jesus se menslikheid is ‘n aanhoudende herinnering aan die feit dat God ons broosheid verstaan. Jesus het self die pyn van menswees verduur tot die dood toe. Hy ken die worsteling van die mens.
Die bekende teoloog, Jürgen Moltman, skryf die volgende oor die tweede wêreldoorlog en God se menslikheid:

Allow me to become personal here for a moment. Ten years ago, I went through the remains of the concentration camp at Maidanek in Poland. With each step it became physically more difficult to go further and look at the thousands of children's shoes, clothing remnants, collected hair, and gold teeth. At that moment I would have preferred from shame to be swallowed up by the earth, if I had not believed: "God is with them. They will rise again." Later, I found in the visitors' book the inscriptions of others: "Never again can this be allowed to happen. We will fight to see that this never again comes to pass." I respect this answer, but it does not help the murdered ones. I also respect my own answer, which I gave at that time. But it is not sufficient.

How is faith in God, how is being human, possible after Auschwitz? I don't know. But it helps me to remember the story that Elie Wiesel reports in his book on Auschwitz called Night. Two Jewish men and a child were hanged. The prisoners were forced to watch. The men died quickly. The boy lived on in torture for a long while. Then someone behind me said: "Where is God?' and I was silent. After half an hour he cried out again: “Where is God? Where is He?” and a voice in me answered: “Where is God?. . . He hangs there from the gallows….”

A theology after Auschwitz would be impossible, were not the sch'ma Israel and the Lord's prayer prayed in Auschwitz itself, were not God Himself in Auschwitz, suffering with the martyred and the murdered. Every other answer would be blasphemy. An absolute God would make us indifferent. The God of action and success would let us forget the dead, which we still cannot forget. God as Nothingness would make the entire world into a concentration camp. Let me break off here, and now try, step by step, to penetrate into the mystery of God's suffering, attempting to show how the horizon of humanity exists in the situation of the crucified God.


Jy gaan God moeilik verstaan as jy nie ook jou menslikheid verstaan nie. Met groter insig in wie jy is, kom groter insig in wie God is. Die reis om jouself te leer ken, is gelyktydig die reis om God te leer ken.

God het mens geword en onder ons kom woon.