Creator, not Creation

Is Jesus Creator or creation?  I’m learning to discuss that question sooner rather than later in my outreach conversations, especially with Latinos who usually have a Catholic background but often have some influence from the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  I realize that, minus the suit and briefcase, approaching a stranger for a religious conversation puts me in the category in many people’s minds of a Jehovah’s Witness, especially in the Latino community.  So today as I spoke with a woman named Concha at the park, I was quick to tell her that I am not a Jehovah’s Witness and I pointed out the main difference – that they believe Jesus to be an angel, a creation of God and not sharing in God’s nature as Creator.  This is very important theologically because it has some serious implications for us and our relationship with God, but particularly for Concha it had an immediate application to a question she asked me later in our conversation: “What do you believe about the Virgin Mary?”  Concha had agreed that, yes, it is important that we understand that Jesus is just as much Creator God as the Father is, but later, when it came to Mary, she could more easily see that Mary is only a human – a created being – the earthly mother of Jesus but not the heavenly Mother of God.  It made sense to her then when I explained that, according to the Bible, Mary would have been the first to tell people not to pray to her but to pray to God through our intercessor, Jesus.  Whether it is a false teaching about Jesus’ divine nature or a false emphasis on the importance of Mary, both would be a distraction away from true faith in Jesus.  Concha received this well, saying she had been feeling this for some time now but needing someone to put it into words and explain it.  The Jehovah Witnesses have some different beliefs that are relatively minor and can lead a person to believe they are no different from the various denominations within the Christian umbrella, so I think its important to get to the heart of the difference – their view of Jesus.  John 1 says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  (In the larger context of this chapter we know that the “Word” refers to Jesus)