dichotomy jesus

I was talking with a coworker about raising open-minded children.
"I don't want them to believe what I believe," Chris said. "I want them to believe what they believe."

I don't have children yet, but I'm sure that when I do it will be an interesting dilemma:
how much do I intentionally color their view of the world? How much do I leave to their own wisdom and experience?

The example Chris gave concerned what his kids were taught in school about Jesus. He thinks their teachers, while trying to appear objective, are instructing them based on a particular slant of Jesus. They only cast him in a certain light.

"There are two very distinct sides of Jesus presented in the New Testament," Chris persisted. He outlined them like this:

1) "I'm the Son of God, but don't tell anyone." (Matthew 8:4, 17:9)
2) Then (tossing his hands to the side in dramatic fashion), "I am the door!  I am the way!  You get to God through ME!"  (John 10:9, 14:6, 15:5)

Wow! I thought. We have on our hands a dichotomy Jesus!

What my friend was leaving out was that Jesus was a complicated person. Would you expect someone claiming to be the Son of God to be simple?

You also have to take into consideration that in Jesus' short time as a teacher before his death, he accomplished a lot. He was saying some radical stuff, which meant he had to be careful about what he said and who he was saying it to. He was very aware of his environment.

Matthew and John were different people, with different audiences they were writing to, probably in different decades of the first century. Is it possible that one author focused more on the times when Jesus spoke quietly to his followers, and the other author on the times when Jesus asserted himself more forcefully as a deity?

Jesus was a complex fellow, and he had much more to teach than the golden rule, "do unto others what you would have them do to you."

An article on slate.com from a few years ago has some interesting thoughts on different Jesuses.
http://www.slate.com/id/2150645/

The article makes a good point that our culture's view of Jesus, though based loosely on how the New Testament views this person, has more to do with what is relevant to us at the time.
For instance, if there is a concensus that our culture is lacking in strong male figures (thank you Homer Simpson), then the Macho Christ view of Jesus becomes popular.

I could certainly use help becoming an influential southern writer, so maybe I should believe in a Southern Muse Christ!

I think what my coworker asks his children is a good question for all of us in the South who are conscientous:
which Jesus are you talking about?