4. He never said those things at all, but was rather an ethicist and a teacher of the Law. A rabbi.

This option is especially persuasive if one takes a good hard look at John.

"How the Gospels Got Their Names: John"

The Fourth Gospel was composed by an anonymous author in the last decade of the first century. About 180 C.E. Irenaeus reports the tradition that ascribes the book to John, son of Zebedee, while others ascribed it to John the elder who lived at Ephesus, and still others to the beloved disciple (John 13:23-25; 19:25-27; 20:2-10; 21:7, 20-23). The Fourth Gospel was opposed as heretical in the early church, and it knows none of the stories associated with John, son of Zebedee. In the judgment of many scholars, it was produced by a "school" of disciples, probably in Syria.

Funk, Robert W., Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar (trans. and commentary). The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus. New York: Macmillan, 1993. p. 20.

Follow with:

"Two portraits of Jesus"

The first step is to understand the diminished role the Gospel of John plays in the search for the Jesus of history. The two pictures painted by John and the synoptic gospels cannot both be historically accurate. In the synoptic gospels, Jesus speaks in brief, pithy one-liners and couplets, and in parables. His witticisms are sometimes embedded in a short dialogue with disciples or opponents. In John, by contrast, Jesus speaks in lengthy discourses or monologues, or in elaborate dialogues prompted by some deed Jesus has performed (for example, the cure of the man born blind, John 9:1-41) or by an ambiguous statement ("You must be reborn from above," John 3:3).

Such speeches as Jesus makes in Matthew, Mark and Luke are composed of aphorisms and parables strung together like beads on a string. In John, these speeches form coherent lectures on a specific theme, such as "light," Jesus as the way, the truth, the life, and the vine and the canes. The parables, which are so characteristic of Jesus in the synoptic tradition, do not appear in John at all.

The ethical teaching of Jesus in the first three gospels is replaced in John by lengthy reflections on Jesus' self-affirmations in the form of "I AM" sayings.

In sum, there is virtually nothing of the synoptic sage in the Fourth Gospel. That sage has been displaced by Jesus the revealer who has been sent from God to reveal who the Father is.

Ibid., p. 10.

For a very different take on the Gibson film, look here.

An excerpt:

Gibson graphically enacted his transference of inner pain and guilt by filming his own left hand—sinister in Latin—holding the nails that were pounded into the palms of his cinematic Jesus. The anonymity of that hand, however, hid his confession of guilt from public view. Had he wanted to advertise his catharsis, why did he not film his universally recognized face as that of the Roman soldier sadistically driving the nails home? If he had given his audience even a fleeting glimpse of himself in such a role, there would have been less question of who he thought was really responsible for killing Jesus.

There are those who say it's possible to embrace the essence of the teachings of Jesus without worshipping the teacher. What would Jesus do?

Regards--
Mary Anne