Article: What Was Jesus Really Like? His Personality in the Gospels

I decided to dig into the gospels to see what Jesus is really like.Have you ever wondered about Jesus’ personality? Well, I have. I decided to dig into the gospels to see what Jesus is really like. Yes, the gospel writers had biases, but if we dig deep enough, we might get a picture of the personhood of Jesus. Let’s dig in, shall we?

Jesus was raised in Nazareth of Galilee in a village of about 400 people. It was rural, it was agricultural and very blue collar. There were both farmers and craftsmen who lived in Nazareth. No great wealth and no schools of learning.

Most likely Jesus didn’t have any formal education and didn’t study under any rabbi (which was common for all up and coming rabbis).

It would be impossible to cultivate or curate an image from this background and upbringing. Jesus is who he is. He didn’t re-invent himself once he grew up.

When we dig into the gospels what do we discover about Jesus temperament?

• Intensity without anxiety
  • Jesus didn’t worry.
• Perceptive in ways that unsettled people
  • Zacchaeus, the Woman at the Well, Pharisees that tested Jesus
• Dry wit — that we miss in our day
  • “First, take the plank out of your own eye…” Matthew 7:3
  • You strain a gnat but swallow a camel…”  Matthew 23:24
• Directional patience
  • Unlimited patience for those who struggle and are seeking
  • Zero patience for religious leaders who judged others
• Emotionally visible
  • Wept for Lazarus after his death. John 11:35
  • Jesus had compassion for the crowds. Matthew 9:36
• CompletelyComfortable not conforming to norms
  • Touching a leper, talking to the Samaritan woman, eats with outcasts
  • This was not performative. This was genuine.
• In Control Under Pressure
  • Never panicked when he was being tried as a blasphemer. Matthew 26:65
  • In the garden of Gethsemane, he was fearful but continued on his path towards the cross. Luke 22:39-53
  • Jesus didn’t let circumstances dictate his actions.

That is how Jesus is portrayed in the gospels. However, how people reacted to him is also interesting…

• The people who watched Jesus grow up…
  • When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Mark 6:2-3
• When the Temple priests tried to arrest Jesus…
  • Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards declared. John 7:45-46
• Peter when he caught a boatload of fish in Jesus presence…
  • When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” Luke 5:8

Jesus had a high IQ and a high emotional intelligence. Both of those things seem out of place for a person raised in a small town in northern Israel with no formal education. Jesus is an anomaly.

Often people resorted to using divine language during Jesus’ ministry because they ran out of human words to describe his persona.

Even if you didn’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus (I do), it is hard to explain why Jesus was so intelligent, well adjusted and well balanced. His upbringing wasn’t special. He didn’t have a formal education and he didn’t have the benefits that come with wealth.

We get a picture of Jesus in the gospels that is pointing us towards a gap. Can you make the leap to see why Jesus is who he says he is? Can you see that there is a good explanation for Jesus’ identity?

Or can you just take the centurion’s word for it?

When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” Matthew 27:54

Outside of the miracles of Jesus’ ministry, we see a completely unique human being who showed us who he truly was in his resurrection on Easter morning.

C.S. Lewis wrote this…

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

—from Mere Christianity

I agree with the centurion and C.S. Lewis.

God bless,
Pr. Ben