Statue of Christ the Homeless, Regis College, Toronto

The gospels demonstrate the homelessness of Jesus lasting for the entirety of his public ministry. He left the

economic security Economic security or financial security is the condition of having stable income or other resources to support a standard of living now and in the foreseeable future. It includes: * probable continued solvency * predictability of the future cash ...

he had as an

artisan An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...

and the reciprocity he had with his family and wandered Palestine depending on

charity Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * C ...

. Many of the people on whom he depended for charity were women. Because his ministry took place in the vicinity of his disciples' hometowns, it is likely that the group often slept at the homes of the disciples' family members.

Scriptural analysis

Of the Four Evangelists, Luke emphasizes

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

' homelessness the most. Matthew 8:20 and both record a statement by Jesus in which he describes his homelessness by saying that "

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

es have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head". The implication is that the scribe who has just offered to become a follower of Jesus should also expect the same. Theologian John Gill noted a parallel between this saying and the Jews' expectation of the

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

: "if he (the Messiah) should come, 'there's no place in which he can sit down'.

Interpretation

Sophiologists interpreted Jesus' homelessness as the homelessness of Sophia. New Monastic writer

Shane Claiborne Shane Claiborne (born July 11, 1975) is a Christian activist and author who is a leading figure in the New Monasticism movement and one of the founding members of the non-profit organization, The Simple Way, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Claib ...

refers to Jesus as "the homeless rabbi".

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

theologian

Rosemary Radford Ruether Rosemary Radford Ruether (1936–2022) was an American feminist scholar and Roman Catholic theologian known for her significant contributions to the fields of feminist theology and ecofeminist theology. Her teaching and her writings helped est ...

discusses Jesus' homelessness in relation to the concept of ''

kenosis In Christian theology, ''kenosis'' () is the 'self-emptying' of Jesus. The word () is used in Philippians 2:7: " made himself nothing" ( NIV), or " eemptied himself" ( NRSV), using the verb form (), meaning "to empty". The exact meaning vari ...

'', the voluntary renunciation of power in order to submit to the

will of God The will of God or divine will is a concept found in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament and the Quran, according to which God's will is the first cause of everything that exists. See also * Destiny * ''Deus vult'', a Latin expression meaning ...

. In a book length study on the

Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and form ...

, Robert J. Myles has argued that the homelessness of Jesus is often romanticized in biblical interpretation in a way that obscures the destitution and lack of agency that would have likely accompanied the situation.

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

sculptor Tim Schmalz created '' Jesus the Homeless'', a 2013

bronze sculpture Bronze is the most popular metal for Casting (metalworking), cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as w ...

of Jesus lying on a park bench covered in a blanket with his wounded feet protruding.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * {{Jesus footer Homeless people Life of Jesus in the New Testament