Did Jesus have likes and dislikes?
One way to tell whether one person knows another well is whether he is familiar with what that other person likes and does not like. Aristotle said it was a mark of friendship to like and dislike the same things. Maybe those who do can spend more time together, with less conflict. At very least, to know what someone likes is a test of friendship. Country music or classical? Fast cars or punting on a lazy river? Ethnic food or mac n’ cheese?
Therefore, if we are friends with Jesus, we should have an idea of what He likes and dislikes. I mean, in His human nature – those likes and dislikes which have the character of tastes, or visceral reactions. Jesus loved mercy and hated sin, of course. Did He react viscerally to sin, in His human nature? Presumably so. And yet perhaps, even here, He did so more viscerally to some sins than to others.
He had to have had likes and dislikes, like all of us, if He assumed a genuine human nature.
When we think of such things, we often begin with food. Let’s start there. Do we know anything about the food He liked? Newman said that He preferred simplicity. After the Resurrection, on the shore, when Peter and His friends were in the boat fishing, He could have prepared for Himself, by His infinite might, any meal that He wished. It was an Easter meal, after all. You or I might have chosen filet mignon and fine wine. Yet Jesus roasted one small fish and some bread over a charcoal fire. (Jn 21:9)
On the other hand, He had a taste for fine wine, “thou hast kept the good wine until now.” (Jn 2:10) And with magnanimity, He recognized the place for it, in abundance, at the celebration of a wedding.
In clothing, He seemed to despise luxury, “But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold they that are clothed in soft garments, are in the houses of kings.” (Mt. 11:8) And yet He loved good workmanship, because He wore next to Himself an exquisite garment, so well-wrought that even coarse soldiers declined to tear it. (Jn 19:23)
He must have liked to walk. Hundreds of miles of journeys on foot are attributed to Him in the Gospels. He loved being outdoors for days on end. From His teachings, we know he loved nature, flowers, birds, fish in the sea, the seasons, and the sky. He liked climbing mountains. He liked the solitude and quiet of nature.
His earthly father, Joseph, picked where He was to grow up. But in doing so, Joseph was only following the Lord’s providence. It was Jesus who selected the place of His childhood. What did He like? Not a city, but a small village on a lake, remote from any city, a full two days’ journey from Jerusalem. The lake is beautiful and self-contained, a place that a small boy can easily view as his home.
He loved going through life with family and relatives. He could have told them to stay behind but He invited them to follow Him around. He liked hospitality; His was an open household. We think of His instructions to the Apostles, “You find them something to eat,” in the face of the 5,000 and 4,000, as a special test of their faith. But what if He was merely saying what He usually said when many guests would be joining them for dinner?
In politics, His government was a mixture of monarchy (Peter), aristocracy (the Apostles), and timocracy (the seventy or so other disciples). The only time a crowd is depicted as having a say is when it demanded the release of Barabbas and clamored for His own crucifixion. His parables refer to lords, masters, and kings. He liked doing things through mediators. As a practical matter, He seemed to adopt the approach of His earthly father, who simply avoided conflict with bad rulers such as Herod: “When they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another.” (Mt. 10:23)
He liked logic, wrangling, defining terms, drawing distinctions, disputation, and argument – no 12-year-old boy places himself in a crowd of doctors, carrying on with them, who doesn’t. “They found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions.” (Lk 2:46)
He loved to read, memorized Scripture, and in His own speech imitated the poetry of Scripture, its cadence, tone, and imagery. He seems to have liked the book of Isaiah and the Psalms best of all.
I am making surmises here, not taking myself to be in any way authoritative, and inviting you to do the same.
What about personalities? These seem different from virtues and vices. Is smugness a virtue or a vice? Sincerity? Snark? There are three personalities He disliked very much. He disliked hardness of heart (Mk. 3:5); hypocrisy (Lk. 12:1); and esteeming oneself as righteous (Jn 9:41). There are theological reasons for hating these traits, but for Him it seemed visceral as well. If you want Jesus to “take a liking” to you, avoid them. He will love you nonetheless, but do you want His love to be overcoming a repulsion?
He liked the opposite of these. These likings, it seems, help to explain His choice of Apostles. John had an evident tenderness of heart. In his old age, Jerome reports, John would simply repeat, over and over again, “Little children, love one another.” In Nathaniel, there was no guile, deceit, or hypocrisy (Jn 1:47). Peter seems always aware of his weakness and sin, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Lk. 5:8)
God loves us, for sure. And yet, an idea for Lent: become someone Jesus really likes.
By Michael Pakaluk
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