What does it mean to be Human

In the story of the exodus, we find a man named Moses who led the Israelites out of enslavement from the Egyptian Pharaoh. When Gods promise of deliverance was put in action, we find the Israelites trapped in the ways of the world. The Hebrew people wanted to be like the other nations, because they fear their growing neighbor Assyria and Babylon. Even though “Moses may have freed their bodies, Pharaoh still colonized their conscience.” They were still slaves like the back in Egypt. In understanding what it means to be human, one must understand the meaning of being “set apart. ” To be set apart is be set free. To be human is to be free.

At the start of time-in the garden-Adam and Eve were free to move about the garden and even eat whatever they want to. Except that one little tree in the middle of the garden; they were not to even touch it or death would be bestowed upon them. God gave Adam and Eve a choice. This choice gave them freedom because if that tree wasn’t there, and there was no choice, would there be freedom? Without choices there is no freedom. One can only become free if they have choices. So if we say, that the tree knowledge was not there, and Adam and Eve could eat everything and do whatever they wanted, that makes God look like a Scientist looking over His lab rats controlling the situation. We then become Gods puppets were without our choices we are focus by God to live the way He wanted us to. So God and His limitless knowledge gave us the ability to have choices. In away, God was setting us free from Himself. God did not want to be a controlling God; He wanted to be a Loving God. If you think about, in a relationship if it is not a giving relationship and one person dominates over the other, this causes a very painful experience. Someone always get hurt in the end, whether it is the person being control or the person controlling. God does not what this kind of relationship with his creation.

So because of our choices we have all sinned. When Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge they chose death. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. To be human is to realize that we are all sinners. The world is always fighting over the things they lust for. People have a lust for power. An Example is the Tower of Babel; the world had this great desire to reach the heavens. The whole world had one language and “people were impressed by their limitless power.” To have power is to be of the world. To be set apart is to rely on God whole heartedly by trusting Him. The people in the time of Babel wanted to make a name for themselves. So what God did was he took that power away by confusing their languages. To be human, one has to be a sinner.

Jesus taught us how to be humans, set apart from the ways of the world. The Jewish leaders-in the time of Jesus-were power hungry. The Temple in Jerusalem was divided into different layers, and was separated my walls. The first layer was the Royal Porch and all people were allowed in this area, Jews and non Jews. The next layer was the Court of the Gentiles and this court was the farthest the Gentiles could go. Then there was the actual temple where the all Jews were allowed in. Then in side there was a court that separated the women and the men, and then there was the inner court and altar. This inner court was where the curtain was. So there was huge separation between the different people. There was no equality in the way the Jewish leaders handle things. Then Jesus came along say we must love our neighbors as ourselves and love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind. So in the mind setting of being set apart, equality is crucial to be known as free. Freedom has no meaning to the man crying out for equality. In the Civil Rights movement back in the 1960s we find a group of people portrayed as free people but yet they were still treated like slaves. In America, The ending of slavery happened when the 13 amendment was added to the US constitution in 1865. It took about 100 years for African Americans to have to title equality and not just freedom. To be human is to be free. In the temple of Jerusalem we find that people are not free because they are stuck in the ways of the Jewish leaders. So the lower class people (the people who are not Jewish leaders) turn to a savior named Jesus the Christ. The Jewish leaders did not like this so the crucified Jesus; the cool thing about that is, that when Jesus took his last breathe; the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This symbolizes that a free people. History states that God was symbolically trapped behind this curtain in way that excluded everyone but the highest Jewish leaders. The Jewish leaders were the only ones that could go near this curtain.

Humans were meant to be free and meant to be equal with their brothers and sisters. This new idea of following Jesus was a new way of being set apart. “The works we do is nothing more than a means of transforming our love for Christ into something concrete.” These are the words of Mother Teresa which I think set up the idea of being set apart. So what does it mean to be human? To be human is to be free and the only way for that is to be different from the other nations. We are called to be set apart so we do not fall in to the patterns of this world. To be of this world is to be enslaved by the world. The world tells you there is no other way to go but when one is set apart one begins to see the other choices. The world is run by its money and by how much an individual’s lust for more power and money. As Gandhi said there is enough for everyone’s needs, but not enough for everyone’s greed. It is sad that some people buy into the lies of the world, thinking that the world has all the answers. So when one looks past the lies they find a true freedom and a new way of living in a world set apart from the normal ways of today’s society.