Idea of the Holy, Jesus and miricles

In the Idea of the Holy, towards the end of the book, it talks about Jesus and his miracles, specifically the ones where he brings someone back to life. During this, Otto talks about Jesus's power coming from his commitment to the people that he was with and his mission from God. However, it does not speak specifically as to what the mission from God is. For most, this mission can be one of two things, either the spreading of the Gospel's good news, or to die on the cross for the payment of sins of the world.

If one is to look at Jesus's mission as simply the spreading of the Gospel and the good news of God, then we put up a lot of Christian views to question. This however is the view of Muslims and many other people that do not identify as Christian. They see Jesus as simply a great profit, teacher, and deliverer of a message from God that emphasizes the love of God instead of legality. His teachings also show that connection with other humans and showing the same love that was shown to them is more important to the legalistic teachings also shown in the Old Testament. For example, in one story, Jesus heal's a mans hand on the sabbath, a day where work was not allowed. To rationalize with the healing, he says that doing a good deed is permissible  on the sabbath.

However, if one were to look at Jesus's mission as one far greater than just being a profit and bringing good news to the people, then one would almost immediately look a the death of Jesus on the cross and the later rising from the grave. Christians look at the cross as the symbol of Jesus physically taking on the sins of the world for the reconnection between God and man. It is seen as the greatest act of love, and the single greatest miracle ever done. Either way, Jesus's mission from God as either a profit with great new messages, or as God himself sacrificing his physical body to be reconnected with Man, Jesus's ability to do miracles was powered by his mission from God.

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