Jesus and the Law of Noncontradiction

I've been studying John Duns Scotus for class recently, and I am not ashamed to admit that I could really use a Cliff's Notes version. In fact when I get frustrated enough I call him, as one of my friends has taken to doing, John Duns Scrotum. Besides the fact that he is fairly dense, I just don't have the background in Aristotelian philosophy to be able to fully assimilate it. I have a little, and that little bit is contained in the ideas of "being" and "essence." Now for all those (all three people that might read this, that is) that may be nodding off, my introductory foray into nerddom is mostly done. I say all that to pose a question about our humanity.

Is the state of struggle one of the core essences of humanity?

Now I could set this up in the manner of the medieval philosophers with point/counterpoint ad infinitum, but since I barely understand it when other people do it, I will not attempt it here. Also, I am lazy. I am taking it as self-evident that the state of struggle is a human element, rather than a divine element. If others have evidence to the contrary, I am certainly teachable.

Since I've already answered my own question, "What is my point?" you may ask. We see many struggles as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, one of which I addressed in a previous blog. (I should note here that I am ruthlessly mining my pastor's excellent sermon this past week for ideas). It's always been hard for me to understand how Jesus could have struggled that much with his Father's will. Certainly he knew what awaited him, but he also knew it would be temporary. He had the benefit of knowing the purpose and outcome of his struggle at the time of his struggle, unlike Job.

So it hit me while I was sitting in church. If he were truly one with God, how could he have considered deviating from the plan? Perhaps his Father was hesitant as well, but I think it is something else. Perhaps the struggle was a uniquely human element or characteristic of the God-man with a purpose. We know Jesus was without sin, so by default we know that his struggle was not sin. Not only that, we also know that there are things that are not sin that are also not ideal. I'm pretty confident of the fact that we would not have seen Christ doing something without purpose or "unideal."

So my conclusion, besides the fact that one being with two simultaneous natures would make Aristotle spin in his grave? That it's ok if we struggle. It's not ok to be rebellious, but it is ok to struggle with the hard things that we must face. I dare say it is Christ-like.