Gregor as Jesus and Food for Thought

We mentioned in class the similarities between Gregor Samsa and Jesus Christ. The most notable example to me is his unrelenting selflessness. From time to time, I reflect on the actions of Christ, and how achievable the actions in his life would be. Every time I meditate on this idea, I come to the conclusion that I, along with every human of whom I am aware, would find his struggle immensely difficult and impossible. While Christians strive to emulate Christ in our lives, we break down at some point. As Christ did indeed become man (as stated in the Nicene Creed), he definitely endured a quasi-similar mental struggle (albeit the Will of God is infinitely stronger than the will of man). He even cries out in despair near the hour of his death, quoting a psalm, "God, why have you forsaken me!"

While Gregor's struggle is incomparable to the trials that Jesus endured, he remains selfless and forgiving throughout his entire life, even when he recognizes that his entire family deceived him regarding their finances. He is instead happy that they have more means of living. Very Christlike. Other occurrences happen, like Gregor dying at 3 am (see Jesus's release from Earth at 3 pm) for the salvation of his family (just as Jesus died for our (his brothers and sisters) own salvation).

This blew my mind when I was rereading the material because I wondered how I missed something so big. I primarily got irritated at his push-over, overly selfless behavior. That led me to the question that I am still toying with right now: what would my response to Jesus's actions have been as an unsuspecting Jew during his life time? I may have been apathetic, as many people are when they see someone challenging the status quo. If I still had my same set of morals regarding equality of rights (a societal moral rule which itself was much corroborated by Christian ideology), I would have taken offense to his mistreatment and protested then. But that would only be at the end of his life. Yes, I believe that the apathy which Baudelaire so loathed would have seized hold of me, until the point where I was moved by the morals that Nietzsche explicitly detested.

Would I have followed him? Unfortunately, I am not definitive on this one, but probably not. But, in a time when a king made the streets of a town run wet with the blood of infants upon merely hearing that a "King had been born," would you follow this man claiming to be the Son of God?

Food for thought...