What is Freemasonry's opinion of Jesus?

Freemasonry as an institution holds no dogmatic opinion on Jesus, maintaining a non-sectarian stance that requires candidates only to hold a belief in a Supreme Being while leaving specific theological convictions to the individual 1. Within the lodge, members of varied faiths petition deity under the non-denominational title of the Great Architect of the Universe 1. The institution itself is explicitly non-sectarian, being no more Christian than it is Jewish, Muslim, or Hindu 1, and names such as Jesus may be invoked by individual members in their private devotions rather than in collective lodge work 1.

Masonic commentators, however, have offered individual interpretations regarding Jesus's relation to Masonic symbolism. Wilmshurst takes the protagonist of the Christian Scriptures to teach the same universal principle of spiritual reconstruction as the Craft, viewing Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone of the spiritual temple toward which initiation points 2. In his reading, Christian and Masonic traditions share an identical underlying purpose of human regeneration, differing primarily in method—the former teaching through the ear ("Via Crucis") and the latter through dramatic, visual degree ceremonies ("Via Lucis") 2.