Who is Jesus?

Here are some quotes from the "Who is Jesus?" video from Sunday. The reflections offered by the participants were rich and stimulating. I am sorry for the brevity of these quotes, but perhaps they can remind you of the contributions you found particularly meaningful.

James Forbes: "I think of Jesus as a very together person. I like his freedom to be himself, I like his freedom to be for others, I like his capacity to keep faith with his own sense of who he was and with the destiny he believed he was called to fulfill."

Dan Wakefield: "I think of the man, the historical figure, as Jesus, and then of Christ as the spirit that is still with us; and I think of that as light and as a creative force."

Rosemary Radford Reuther: "Jesus was a first century Jew . . . many of our definitions try to deny that. (He) announces the kingdom of God. . ."

Robert McAfee Brown: "Human categories weren't sufficient to describe who he was. They felt that God was present on the human scene in a special way. . .All kinds of titles emerged that came out of their dealing with his human life."

Rabbi Kushner: "He becomes first the instrument through which my God--the God of the Hebrew Bible--becomes the universal God."

Virginia Ramey Mollenkott: "Jesus is the one who never forgot that he and the sacred source were one."

Martin Marty: "All these things the Bible says about Jesus and how God is in Christ finally come down to a formula: The human Jesus is the exalted Lord."

James Carroll: "Jesus is the one with the intimate relationship with Abba . . . it is by virtue of his intimacy with Abba, the Mother/Father, that we have access "

Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz: "What Jesus was able to do was that he was so adament about being faithful about who he was ; what he was able to do was to become the best Jesus he could become . . . in that sense his participation in the divine was to its fullness."

Walter Wink: "I don't think of Jesus as perfect; I think of Jesus as whole . . . Jesus then for me is the vision of what it would mean to be a fully human being . . . God wants to be alive in my body."

Bernie Siegel: "He's a teacher . . . to teach us that we don't have to be crucified more than once."

John Spong: "Jesus is the place I look to understand, as best I can understand, the reality of God."

Roy Sano: "What attracts me to Jesus is his capacity to relate to people that are different than he is."

Harvey Cox: "I see Jesus as that figure who prevetns my falling into depair about the possibilities of the human."

Dan Berrigan: "My translation of Jesus is an AIDS patient or a homeless person . . . Either Jesus is presenting himself in those people, or the whole thing is a mime show and the Book is closed. But I don't think that it is."

Carmen Guerrero: "That's how I see Jesus: as someone who loves me so much that he would die for me and did ( also her definition of "friendship)."

Desmond Tutu: "Jesus is someone who reckons that I count . . . He does not give up on anyone, least of all me."

Who is Jesus for you?