Essay Example on The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions

Conservative christian N.T. Wright and liberal christian Marcus Borg can arguably be far from the spectrum of agreement in their beliefs. In their co written book The Meaning of Jesus: Two visions the two men defend their beliefs while still understanding they serve the same Lord. Reading this book showed me that while most christians can have widely different outlooks on who Jesus is, they can come to the agreement that they worship the same God. Marcus J. Borg had previously written the book The Heart of Christianity which goes in depth on how to live the christian life in today’s time. N.T. Wright is the author of the book Simply Christians which gives the reader an insight into how to develop your own beliefs in your walk with Christ and how we decipher our own convictions. of The two chapters from within this book I found the most interesting in their point of view is “Was Jesus God” and “He Will Come Again In His Glory”. Both of these chapters show the authors' intakes on who our Messiah is and what He looks like to us, to themselves. The beauty from within these intakes is that things that these authors agree on most don't see. When reading a book written between two very different opinions, one can miss the way that they come to an agreement in the small things. This book starts off with the sentence “This book has grown out of a friendship” (The Meaning of Jesus, p vii). That is the perfect way to describe how two different backgrounds can put their differences aside and learn to love each other as Christ has called us to do. 

The chapter “Was Jesus God'' gives the reader a good intake on how these authors have widely different opinions on Jesus’s character. Both authors believe in the same God, so how could they think of Jesus in a different light? This chapter breaks down their thought process on Jesus from Nazareth 

Marcus Borg's beliefs on Jesus vary throughout this chapter. He claims that Jesus did not know He was God, that was until Easter. Marcus states “the post Easter Jesus is a divine reality - is indeed one with God, and the pre Easter Jesus is the embodiment or incarnation of God” (The Meaning Of Jesus, p. 146). Borg claims that Jesus did not know He was the messiah, or that He had the divine power that God has. The author goes a little deeper on his explanation of what incarnation and embodiment of God means to Jesus and to us. He believes that Jesus was those things to God, but not God himself. He believes that we are also the embodiment and incarnation of God. While it is stated in the bible that we were created in God’s image, Marcus Borg took that verse to believe it is every part of us. Borg explains why Jesus had many names calling him the Messiah, Son of God, etc. and that His miracles performed led those to believe he was extraordinary. He also explains how he does not  believe that Jesus Himself referred to Him as those names, nor even His disciples. This dives into the “I am” theory he discusses on page 149. In the bible, Jesus has been quoted to have said “I am the true vine, I am the resurrection and the life, and I am the light of the world.”. This led Marcus Borg to the question, did Jesus say those things or did the community? To back up that statement, we are asked to see how crazy one would be to claim all of those previous quotes. The idea that all of these attributes are just metaphors to Marcus Borg makes the most sense to the author's understanding and that often in the modern christian tradition we can take them literally. Marcus ends this chapter talking about the trinity and how that plays out in his beliefs. As I stated above, Borg does not believe Jesus and God were one in the same until after Easter, so it is no surprise he says “Jesus is the image of God: in him, we see what God is like.” (The Meaning of Jesus p. 156). Marcus Borg had some weakness to his claims, with one being he did not have enough scripture to back up why he believed any of these claims. 

To follow up on “Was Jesus God”, N.T. Wright gave his personal beliefs on the subject. Wright dives straight into the way people determine who God is. He gives examples of gods and goddesses in Greek mythology who each exhibit a specific quality and those who refuse to believe in a god that just sits in the sky and watches over. Wright then goes forth to explain Jewish beliefs in their God, the one who was “always active within His world.” (The Meaning of Jesus p. 158). This God was one. When the early church was trying to come to grips with the idea of Jesus being God, the Jewish tradition claimed that it was paganism to believe that there is more than one God. Because of old paganism ways of having multiple gods, it made sense why the Jews were apprehensive on claiming that there was more than one and for their hatred of Jesus. N.T. Wright points out that Jewish tradition and passages show that Jesus fulfilled what “only the one God can do.” (The Meaning of Jesus p. 160). All of the terminologies that the Jewish tradition used to describe who God was seemed to all apply for who Jesus was. While most Jews tried to seperate the idea of Jesus and God, they failed to realize all of the ways there were one and the same. The Death on the cross was to prove to us that Jesus was who He said He was and to show that death was able to be conquered with Him. N.T. Wright states at the end of his portion that it is not wrong to believe that Jesus and God are one in the same, and in fact if you look back at old scriptures you will realize that it is right to believe they are the same. 

Both authors have widely different opinions on who Jesus is and His relationship to God. Marcus Borg looks at Jesus more as a high prophet until his death on the cross while N.T. Wright views Jesus as the one who God sent from Heaven to finish His plan from the first covenant. What both authors have in common in their commentary was how important language matters. Borg goes to show that language in the community is why modern christianity believes that Jesus is one in the same with God. N.T. Wright also talks about the language used to describe Jesus, but believes that it is Jesus describing himself and not just the community. Both authors also come to the agreement that Jesus and God are one in the same, Borg just believes it was post Easter and Wright believes it was from the beginning. 

The chapter “He Will Come Again In Glory” is different from the rest of the chapters in the book. While most chapters show the strict division of opinions between the authors, this one took a different approach. While both the authors wrote of different things in this chapter, it was more just their interpretation on what was important to discuss. Borg discussed more of the timing of events and what happens to christians, Wright focused more on what Heaven looks like to us. 

Borg starts off the chapter describing what the second coming of Jesus entails and how that affects us. He mentions that most christians today are focused on the timing of when the second coming will happen. While that is an important factor in a follower of Jesus' life, Borg is quick to point out that we could have the timing of his returning all off. In the bible it states that Jesus is soon returning, if that is the case why has it not happened yet Borg asks us. He answers that question by stating his own personal beliefs; the second coming is not God claiming his kingdom, but Jesus becoming the Son of Man after His death on the cross. Borg does discuss towards the end of the chapter about what the second coming looks like for us now, but instead of diving into the when or what, he dives into another theory, the way we live. Borg claims that “The most important ethical issue is, have we lived compassionately?” (The Meaning of Jesus p. 195). We should not be so worried about when the second coming will be, but how we will be judged during it. 

N.T. Wright takes his chapter in a different direction than Marcus Borg's approach. He dives deeper into what heaven will look like to us and what exactly we will look like in heaven. Wright gives us a little bit of detail about what the second coming will look like to believers, and to rebels. He gives scriptures to help show off his opinions all throughout the chapter and that gives him a strong credibility. 

This chapter dove into different aspects of Jesus’s return, yet the authors still discussed similar subjects. While Borg did focus more on the timing of His return, Wright still gave the readers some insight on his opinion on it. Wright believes that the second coming “could occur at any time” (The Meaning of Jesus p. 202) while Borg focused more on the aspect that the Second coming happened when Jesus rose from the dead. 

The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions can expand the readers opinions on how they view Jesus. With Marcus Borg being a liberal christian and N.T. Wright being a conservative christian, not many believe these two have much in common. What I have gathered from reading this book is that they have Christ in common. Even though the way they view Jesus can be vastly different from one another, they both recognize His Lordship at the end of the day and believe that He is the way to Heaven. Both men created a friendship from this book and I believe that was their intended goal in writing this. To show not only their readers their beliefs in their God, but to show that you can love one another no matter the differences you share.  

Citations 

Borg, M. J., & Wright, N. T. (2007). The meaning of jesus: Two visions.  HarperSanFrancisco.