The Jesus I Know

By J John

 

When thirteen year old David was asked what he knew about Jesus, he replied " Why was he named after a swear word?"

 

 

 

 

Jesus. A name met with such controversy, yet the reputation of this man has withstood scrutiny for 2000 years. Today, passing a high-street surfing shop, his name is branded across merchandise " Jesus surfs without a board " and " Jesus is my homeboy ". A mark of our times perhaps that this name of such power and significance can be so casually thrown around. One step even further removed from many assumed ideas that this name will evoke extreme reactions; either a trust and acceptance of the biblical view of Jesus as God's Son or a sceptic view, belittling him to the category of a 'good man'. Our culture now, it seems, has broken beyond that, allowing room for its use as a faint, lethargic gag and nothing stronger.

Knowledge of Jesus is commonplace, but can we say that we know Jesus?

Certainly, few it seems would deny his existence. Today, a growing body of fifteen hundred million people trace their faith back to this historical figure; historians can verify his existence against Roman records whilst theologians prove the validity of the gospels as an authoritative written account of Jesus' words and actions. We have evidence and confirmation that he lived in Palestine, that he was considered to be the Messiah and that he was executed under Pontius Pilate who governed Palestine from AD 26 to 36. This was the man, a peasant teacher living on the edge of the map in Judea, who made an impression so big that the normal categories of history and biography did not seem enough and impelled a new literary genre to do him justice. Still, can our knowledge of this man rest and lie dormant in historical accounts?

Reading the gospels, we can know of his life, his teachings and his miracles. This was no ordinary man. A man of such power, of peace and of love. This was the man who turned water into wine, drove out demons, fed the five thousand and walked on water. He gave his love and attention to an adulterous woman; he opened the eyes of a man born blind, taught of his father in heaven and he called us his friends. Crowds flocked to hear him. A sick woman strained for just a touch of his cloak. A leprous man knelt before him. Wind and waves obeyed his commands. He offered rest for the weary. At the cross, against every human instinct, he offered himself to God as a price for our sin.

This Jesus is a rather unsettling figure that both comforts those who are troubled and troubles those who are comfortable. A man of love, but also radical, commanding and challenging; He tells the rich man it is harder for him to enter the kingdom of God than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. He assures us that to whom much has been given, much will be demanded; The first will be last and the last will be first and he professed that anyone who does not give up everything they have to follow him cannot be his disciple. And this is the man who asks us, one by one ' Who do you say I am?'

In 1998, my friend Lee Strobel, a journalist, wrote a book recording his investigation into the evidence of Jesus. He interviewed a scholar, analysed data, the historical evidence, influence and effect that Jesus can have on one person's life

Having assessed all of the evidence, Lee, once a confirmed atheist comes to faith and trusts the evidence. Yet it is not that he could muster sufficient evidence and fact to believe that is worth recording, but moreover when he did, his life changed. So much so that a few months after he became a follower of Jesus, his five year old daughter told his wife "Mummy, I want God to do for me what he's done for Daddy" [1]

The knowledge and facts of the person of Jesus remains on paper and yet it is this man's life-transforming impact on those who believe today that marks the Jesus I Know. Unless Jesus' transforming power is real today, he can be no more or less interesting than any other historical figure, than a Henry VIII or a Churchill. The difference lies in the fact that this Jesus is as real today as he is in the historical evidence and, moreover he connects us to God. This Jesus shows us our God and has made it possible to have a relationship with him. "If you really knew me, you would know my father as well".

 

The Jesus I Know turns lives around and turns our world upside down. Faith in this Jesus gives us a depth and dimension that we cannot experience in any other capacity. This Jesus takes us, as we are, making us anew as we become children of God; the old has gone, the new has come [2] . He heals bruised, broken and wounded lives, offering us forgiveness, blessing and guidance. The ' Bread of Life' who gives us food that sustains and drink that quenches thirst and he questions each one of us, as he did to Simon Peter, asking, " Have I not chosen you?"

 

Like pieces of a puzzle, we fit together a portrait of this man. The man, without " beauty or majesty to attract us to him ". The "man of sorrows," who was " familiar with suffering" [3] , despised and mocked by his people. A perfect, pure and holy man; a man of such care and compassion, who promises peace and commands us to ' take heart ' for he has overcome the world [4] . He reveals to us the perfect nature of our God, the God who prepared, planned and pursues us, offering life, his way, in all its fullness to us.

We are not called to always understand God's way, to fathom the mysteries that sometimes seem to shroud our universe, to master contemporary theological debate or even to experience a smooth and unchallenged road of faith. But, we can look to this man, our beacon and guide and recognise the simplicity of God in Jesus. Jesus is not complex or difficult to decipher - his message is simple and clear.

There is simplicity and peace in the Jesus I Know. A man, demonstrating a life of love who demands that we turn from lives that are wrong and follow his lead. A shepherd searching for his lost sheep; and for the thirteen-year old David who only knows of him as a swear word; and he calls us to go in his name and to do the same.

 

 

[1] 'The Case for Christ'. Lee Strobel Zondervan 1998. p269

[2] 2 Corinthians.5 v17

[3] Isaiah 53

[4] John 16 vs33

 

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