Sunday, Oct 12, 2025 at 8:22 PM

I want to write now a bit from a different angle. Instead of approaching the matter of the man called Jesus from a theological and philosophical perspective, I want to instead speak about what his character reflects in light of masculinity.

If we are to say that the Man Jesus was also one in being with God, then is it important that Jesus was a man and not a woman?

I believe the answer is "yes", but to answer this question I must first cover some ground facts that are unfortunately no longer common sense. I don't wish to turn this into a "political" screed but will cover some basics first as part of the discussion, as today we suffer from a great deal of confusion about such matters.

The human race, like all animal species, reproduces by a sexual dimorphism. A male and female have quite different skeleton structures and skeletal remains can be easily identified as male or female based on the different profiles.

Not all species have the same sexual dimorphism, but the human species does. Put plainly, the female body is built for child-bearing and the male body is not. This dimorphism is obvious at a physical level. There can be no disputing it. The female is far more vulnerable, and the human race developed by putting males in the role of protector and sacrificer.

For many millions of years of evolution, the male protected the females of the species. This is the true origin of "gender roles." The differences between men and women are not the result of influence by culture but are pre-programmed into the DNA of every human being. Men are meant to be resilient and expendable. Women must be protected, for they nurture and produce children.

Men must be strong above all else. Men are frequently tested from an early age, first by other boys, through fights and sporting competitions, and later by other men and by women. Men test other men by insulting them, competing with them, or physically challenging them. Even friends will do this to one another. Men do this by reflex. Specific cultural practices are only implementing the instinctive male need to test one another.

The male ideal is one of protection, sacrifice, leadership, reason, resilience, confrontation, struggle, brotherhood, and strength. Every civilization in history followed these ideals among males, and even prehistoric tribes likely did as well. Tribal male initiation rites served to introduce boys into the world of men by showing them the ideal of Maleness that pre-existed even the primitive father-spirit of the tribe. Often this spirit appeared in the visage of a male member of the tribe wearing the hide and skull of a buck.

Every civilization, every tribe, every people that has ever lived on Earth has had at its center a sacrificial male god that gave himself to death to save the many. The Aztecs told of the maize god whose body became life-giving corn. It is believed that these myths told of the one true king – the Man Jesus – who was to come.

Jesus was the master of pain. He suffered alone. He was strong in the face of the power of Rome. He challenged the religious authorities of his day without fear. When he learned of his impending doom, he did not try to hide from it but accepted his fate stoically. We cannot know if Jesus fully understood at that point his own divine nature. We know that he never backed away from the cross. He went willfully to his death, and even as he sat tortured by the Roman governor, he said nothing to his defense.

Jesus was, in short, the ultimate manly man. The words of Jesus are frequently misused to imply a soft, yielding, compromising, weak, and permissive attitude. Jesus was not compromising. Jesus was not soft. His message of peace and love is not to be confused with weakness. "I bring you not peace but the sword," he said. The price one pays for peace is to be always in conflict with those who do evil, so with these words, Jesus was warning his followers that to follow in his footsteps would be no easy task.

Just as the primitive tribes once danced to the father-spirit that represented Manliness itself – strength, protection, resilience, toughness to bear all – we now commune with the Man Jesus Himself knowing he lives in our hearts.