Answer:
It is partially true. Both the Buddha and Jesus are now revered as a divine son, both were reformers of a broken religion, both were moralists and dispensers of counter cultural wisdom. On this I can agree, there are some similarities.
But lets also look at the facts. Jesus was elevated as a divine son in his own self understanding – BEFORE the deification bestowed by his followers. Buddha was not. And we have more and better evidence for what Jesus ACTUALLY said versus what Buddha said. The reason is simply our confidence in the sources. The New Testament was encoded within decades after Jesus death… whereas for Gautama, the codification process took centuries.
Borg directly denies that Jesus had a high self understanding to make this another point of similarity. He says, “they both would be uncomfortable with how highly they were exalted by their followers.” This is simply mistaken. What Borg does to make this claim is to take Jesus one statement, “no one is good except God,” as a statement of how uncomfortable Jesus was with people calling him good…and completely ignoring times when Jesus accepted worship from his followers. (Matt 14:33; 28:9)
I would admit, if left by itself, that one statement (Mark 10:18) may indicate a self depreciation incompatible with a Divine Sonship self understanding.
However, two things: that’s NOT even close to being the only thing Jesus ever said about himself. In fact, it stands out so starkly for the very reason that it may be the ONLY self deprecating thing Jesus ever said about himself. And two, there is no requirement that we see this statement as a denial of his perfection or divinity. Notice he does not deny being good (as only God is) but he merely asks the question. Jesus was constantly probing people with questions for which he already knew the answers. It’s not unlikely at all, that he’s challenging the man to consider not WHETHER Jesus was good, but WHY he felt compelled to call Jesus good. If he was good, as the man professed, then it could only be because he is God alone. Read this way, Jesus is not denying his own goodness here, but may be making one of his most stark claims to divinity that he makes anywhere. In other words the implication may be, “why do you call me good? Only God is good. So why have you called me that? – something we Jews know better than to call a mere man. If only God is good, then could it be because you see God uniquely in me?”
ALL other things he said, from the Synoptics AND John show an elevated self understanding. He the judge at the end of time, he the one able to forgive sins, he one with the father, he is the one whom relationship with determines heaven or hell, he is the one who separates the sheep and the goats on Judgment Day, he is the King of the Kingdom, he is the son sent by the father, he the one greater than the prophets!
I mean, take your pick. This is a man who understood himself in a completely other kind of way. Every source we have, both inside and outside the New Testament confirm this. And this is all the more stark because of the Jewish context of Jesus words. For Gautama, coming out of Hinduism, the idea that he could be a “son of the gods” was not particularly controversial or unique. All the gods were connected by divine essence (Monism) and if he saw himself connected to that Essence there certainly would be no startling news about that… and yet Borg even admits the Buddha downplayed his own importance.
So in Jesus you have not only multiple claims to divine sonship, you have these claims made in a culture that says God is the unique Power behind the universe, a one of a kind, self existent, personal, Being who stands OUTSIDE the universe of space and time, who alone is eternal (Theism) – Jesus claimed to be the Son of that Being! He claimed to be one with him in will and intent, sharing their being, while somehow being different persons. (the Foundational ideas behind the doctrine of the Trinity)
Call me crazy, but that’s one salacious claim. One never made by Buddha, yet one made repeatedly by Jesus about himself, recorded by different authors, who wrote within the lifetime of still living eye witnesses. This is not deification long after the fact like the Buddha.
About their similar morality… I freely grant it. Jesus never said what he was teaching was new (Matt 5:17). He was reminding more than giving novel instruction. Even the most radical and counter-cultural bits of his wisdom (and the Buddha’s) was already presaged in the O.T. law. Like, love for enemies (Lev 19:17-18). Just look at the gospels: every one of them spends 1/3 of it’s time and words (or more) on Jesus last week, and final sacrifice. That’s the force of his life, not his ethics.
His ethics are great and, I believe, superior to the Buddha’s, because Jesus talks about more than escaping suffering. He does talk about that, and about letting go of material security. But Jesus ties this to being rich towards God, whereas the Buddha does not know God, or have relationship with him.
So here the divide becomes very great indeed. In fact, the pride that could come from great moral advancement might even set a Buddhist up against God. That’s the direct teaching of Jesus who said that the self righteous are not justified. (Luke 18:9-14). The Buddha outlines the 8 fold path of rightness, but who finally can make themselves righteous before God? And what does that get you exactly before God? Job 35:7-8 If you are righteous, what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand? Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only the sons of men.
To believe Jesus we would cringe at the horrors that await the self righteous. According to Jesus those who thought they had put God in their debt, it will be as bad for them on the day of judgment as for the reprobate. For both try to bring God low. One by flouting his commands and trampling them underfoot and the other by thinking a small mortal could reach up from his lowly place and attain them. Both have deprived God of his rightful place in their hearts and they will get the full measure of their dark desire.
So the Buddha had many wonderful moral principles to share. Morals as such are good, to convince us of sin and chase us to the cross of Jesus. But if they become the vehicle of Satan to inflict bruising guilt or ugly pride into our souls, then moral law literally brings death, as Paul said. This is the place where following Jesus and following the Buddha take us down radically different paths.
