by Nick Gier, Professor Emeritus, University of Idaho
Easter, 2024
This is the time of year that Buddhists celebrate the birth of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha; and Christians commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. Buddha and Christ are spiritual honorifics, not surnames.
Jesus was not the only messiah (“anointed one”) as Israel’s priests were anointed with oil and even Cyrus the Great was called messiah (Is. 45:1). Cyrus saved the people of Israel by releasing them from the Babylonian captivity, and the Messiah the Jews expected during Roman times would defeat their enemies and establish a kingdom of God on earth.
The Messiah was certainly not expected to die a gruesome death on a cross, and that was the primary reason why the Jews did not accept Jesus as the promised one. I believe that Christians developed the concept of the Second Coming to conform to Jewish expectations that were not met in his first appearance.
The Buddha only claimed to be the first Buddha (“enlightened one”), and those who followed him also had the potential to become enlightened as well. His last words were “I have given you the Dharma (the right way to live), and now you can work out your own salvation.”
In the same way that we all can become Buddhas, Christians can be become sons and daughters of God. “Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these” (Jn. 14:12). A significant difference is that the Buddha’s way is ethical, not spiritual. For Jesus even the unworthy and immoral are eligible for divine grace. The story of the prodigal son is a good example of this.
The Buddha was a Hindu who founded a new world religion; Jesus was a Jew whose religious movement also led to a new world religion. The Buddha made a deliberate break with Hinduism, but it is not certain whether Jesus wished this for his own movement.
Welcoming Gentiles, the Apostle Paul and others spread the new faith throughout the Near East and eventually around the world. Buddhism was also a missionary religion as its monks ranged as far as the Near East, but they had the most success in Tibet, Southeast Asia, China, Korea, and Japan.
The lives of the Buddha and Christ follow what I call the “Savior Archetype.” The following stories grew up around their lives. Their birth and life are foretold in prophecy; both have miraculous births; both have royal genealogies; both are tempted by an evil one; both work miracles; both are triune deities; and both offers redemption through grace. (The latter occurs only in Pure Land Buddhism.) For more on the Savior Archetype see bit.ly/3Krpu6S.
What would the Buddha say about these claims? Just before his death, he persuaded his disciples to promise three things: (1) don’t make any image of him; (2) do not write down his words; and (3) don’t deify him. Within 400 years each of these pledges were broken.
The Buddha never mentions his alleged temptation by Mara=Satan, and he never acknowledges rescued from him by an earth goddess. Similarly, Jesus never mentions his encounter with Satan in the desert.
Neither mention their miraculous births, and Jesus, presumably an expert in Hebrew scripture, would have known that Isaiah 7:14 mentions a young woman, not a virgin. Furthermore, the author most likely did not have Mary in mind.
I believe that as a good Jew, Jesus would not have claimed to be a divine being. In answer to the question “Good teacher (rabbi) what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered “Why do you call me good? No one is good—except God alone (Lk. 18:18-19).
When Peter asked Jesus if he was the Messiah, he answered, famously, “get behind me Satan” (Matt. 16:23.) At Eastertime the Suffering Servant of Isaiah is quoted often as the Old Testament prophecy of Jesus as Messiah. The scholarly consensus is that the Suffering Servant is Israel herself, and these passages were never considered messianic in the Jewish tradition. For more see bit.ly/4d5D8YN.
There is, however, a suffering savior in later Buddhist traditions. The self-sacrificing Bodhisattva gives this moving speech: “For I have taken upon myself, by my own will, the pain of all things living. I shall give myself into bondage to redeem all the world from the realm of death.”
I believe that Christ and the Buddha were the greatest spiritual leaders in world history. The Buddha rejected a corrupt priesthood and condemned the Hindu caste system. Jesus did the same and showed even more compassion the poor and oppressed. (He also saw women as equal, but the Buddha did not.) He would also have had a pointed rebuke for Christians who preach the Prosperity Gospel.
Gier was coordinator of religious studies at the University of Idaho from 1980-2003. Email him at ngier006∂gmail.com.