Jesus behaved as he believed a man should behave if he believed he was the only son of God. And it does not matter whether he was mistaken about that belief, it still remains true that that was how he behaved. I said to a woman in effect, “I want to be immortal with you”. Not in so many words of course; but that was how I behaved. And it does not matter twopence whether immortality, in either a literal or metaphorical sense, was only a fantasy in my mind, that was how I behaved. It was if you like, a rather more audacious and imaginative “imitation of Christ” than the one recommended by Thomas a Kempis. We both introduced a new style of conduct into the spectrum of human behaviour. Her answer was “No”, just as the answer of Bethsaida and Capernaum was “No”. But it makes no difference; this is how everyone who considers himself a Christian ought to behave. Marcus Aurelius reminded himself in his Meditations to, “Remember you are immortal”. One can only heed that reminder, if one behaves as if one were. Professor Whitehead would have agreed.
Another way of describing my actions is to say I attempted to create with another the same kind of relationship or indwelling that is supposed to exist between God and the soul. It had to be the same type of relationship. If you think about it, if the relationship were of a different type, one would in the end inevitably prefer one relationship rather than the other. And the result would be neglect, either of God or the woman. So we are back with the Welsh medieval text, The Food of the Soul; namely that the love of God and love of neighbour differ only in degree. The most you could say of my efforts is that they were the complement or counter-part of his.
This is Jesus’ unique message: that he behaved as though he was the only begotten son of God. No-one else can do this. If someone else came along wanting to do the same thing, he would have to behave as though he were the Second Only-begotten Son of God, which is a contradiction in terms. So we have got there at last! This is what Jesus did that was unique, irrespective of whether his beliefs were true, or mistaken.