Start with Jesus

Are you a spiritual seeker? May I recommend a focus for your seeking? Start with Jesus.

Whatever spiritual path you are on, chances are you will have some desire for Jesus. Several major religions and worldviews today want to claim Jesus in some way: Muslims consider him a prophet, some Buddhists consider him a Buddhist monk, some Hindus consider him an avatar of their god Vishnu, New Age spiritualists consider him an ascended master, and some Atheists consider him a wise mortal teacher.

The problem is that all of these uses of Jesus are based more on imaginative ideas of Jesus rather than upon the Jesus we know from the earliest and most reliable writings about him.

You may not accept that the Bible is the inspired and authoritative word of God as I do. That’s fine at this point. But you must admit that the New Testament writings provide us with the most extensive, early, and coherent record of who Jesus was, what he said and did, and what his earliest followers believed about him.

So, rather than start with an imaginative idea of Jesus that has no basis, we can look to those New Testament texts for information about Jesus. We can also familiarize ourselves with the Old Testament texts in order to have some idea of the motifs (symbolism, prophecies, etc.) that Jesus used and that would have been familiar to Jesus’ contemporary followers.

In that sense, if you are going to start with Jesus, you must start (to some degree or another) with the Bible.

So who was Jesus? A prophet? A spiritual guru? A mortal teacher?

No, Jesus does not fit into any of these categories because according to the early accounts of his own words he was something completely unique, set apart. Consider this parable from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 12.

The basic summary is this: A man builds a vineyard and rents it out to a renter (a “husbandman,” says the King James version). The owner (or “lord”) of the vineyard later sends a servant to go collect the fruit of the vineyard, but the husbandman just beats up the servant and sends him away. The owner sends another servant to collect the fruit, but the husbandman just kills that one. The owner sends several more servants, but each time they are killed or beaten. Finally, Jesus says, the owner switched tactics…

“Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he [the owner/lord of the vineyard] sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son.

But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.'

And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.

What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.” (Mark 12:6-9)

Here there are two classes of servant that the lord of the vineyard sent out – the regular hired servants, and the owner’s son/heir. Jesus is casting himself in this special latter category – rather than just any old servant (or prophet of God), Jesus is the last servant sent, the heir to the entire vineyard. He clearly did not see himself as just another prophet, just another teacher, just another spiritual guide.

“Who do you say that I am?”

If Jesus was not just another prophet or teacher, who was he? Who is he? This is a question that I suggest you place at the centre of your spiritual search.

It was a question that Jesus himself got his disciples to answer for themselves. That conversation went like this…

“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 16:13-17)

To understand who Jesus is, requires a step beyond a “flesh and blood” understanding. It requires revelation from the Father. As you read the Bible, ask yourself who Jesus is, and also ask God to give you revelation of who Jesus is. The apostle Paul prayed that God would reveal this to the people in his life:

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints…” (Ephesians 1:17)

I believe that God gave me a revelation of himself nearly three years ago, as I describe here: http://eph1-17.blogspot.ca/2013/05/a-journey-to-jesus-part-two.html

The revelation that God gave me is why I am a Christian today. He reached out to me through my unfaithfulness and brought me into a saving relationship with him. Praise God! I believe he will do the same for you, but like every relationship you have to reciprocate. You have to open your heart to the possibility that you can form a relationship, and you have to let him in. The best way to start is by reading about Jesus and trying to understand who he is.

Jesus: “My Lord and my God”

Other passages offer more depth to how Jesus represented himself and how his disciples perceived him.

If you were to ask me today who Jesus is, I would answer the way that the disciple Thomas did. Following Jesus’ crucifixion, the disciples were disheartened (to say the least). When some of the disciples claimed to have seen Jesus resurrected from the dead, Thomas was understandably skeptical.

Jesus showed himself to Thomas, giving him the proof he needed. Thomas’s response is what stands out to me: “Then saith he [Jesus] to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.” (John 20:27-28)

It is clear that the early disciples believed that Jesus was God. The Gospel of John is most explicit about this, but it is found throughout the New Testament. Just as a sampling, Jesus is described as the creator (Colossians 1:16, John 1:1-3, 14), the alpha and omega (Revelation 1:8), king of kings and lord of lords (1 Timothy 6:15), the judge of mankind (Romans 2:16), and our great high priest (Hebrews 4:14).

As you get to know Jesus through his word, you will discover how just how much he means to you. As much as I love teachers, Jesus is far more than a teacher. As much as I love the prophets, they only pointed toward the time when Jesus would come (Hebrews 1:1-2). My prayer to God for you is that you will one day be able to kneel before Jesus and exclaim in absolute wonder, “My Lord and my God!”

Concluding Thoughts

Jesus was not just a teacher, a prophet, or a guru. He cannot simply fit into some other pantheon of gods or saints. He (and his disciples) claimed that he is THE almighty God, THE creator of the universe who was incarnated as a man. You can either dismiss their testimony or accept it. But please do not pretend that Jesus can be anything that he did not claim to be.

I hope you can appreciate that the consequences are profound. Who Jesus is changes what it means to become a Christian. Because Jesus is the holy eternal God, to become a Christian is not simply to tack on a “Jesus” button to your shirt just for funzies. To become a Christian is not just to follow the rules and good advice of some ancient wise guy. To become a Christian is not to incorporate Jesus some regime of rituals, or to place Jesus’ picture next to a bunch of other special people.

To become a Christian is to be born again as a new creation, changed from the inside out (2 Corinthians 5:17, John 3:3-8). To become a Christian is to be redeemed and reconciled to God by virtue of what he accomplished for us on the cross (Ephesians 2:8-16). To become a Christian is to take up your cross daily and follow him (Luke 9:23). To become a Christian is to be adopted by God, to receive his spirit into yourself, whereby you can cry unto him as your father! (Romans 8:15)

To become a Christian is not of little consequence, because Jesus is not of little consequence. I hope and pray that Jesus will come to mean to you what he means to me!

God bless you.

Stephen Fry, if only you knew God!

The famed British actor/comedian Stephen Fry recently appeared in my Facebook newsfeed for an interview he gave in which he expressed not only non-belief but utter contempt for the Christian God. The interview appeared in a British program titled The Meaning of Life, which aired on 1 February 2015.

Prompted by the interviewer, Fry imagined meeting God in the afterlife to think how he would respond. Fry’s response was to level accusations against God: “How dare you. How dare you create a world in which there is so much misery that is not our fault? It’s not right. It’s utterly, utterly evil.”

I understand and sympathize with his sentiments. Having once identified strongly with atheism, similar thoughts and feelings once surged through me as well. It’s a funny feeling, to hate that which does not exist… But rather than brush off this sentiment as absurd, I want to grapple with it seriously. I know how real that sentiment is for those who hold it.

Most importantly, I know what kind of a barrier that kind of sentiment can be to a true understanding of the true and living God. It is in the interest of tearing down that barrier, or at least putting a little crack in it, that I initiate this conversation.

If I could talk directly to Stephen Fry, or those who share his sentiments (admittedly this included myself only a few short years ago), I would say something like what I am about to write below:

Accusing God

One question to start us off… If you have a negative impression of the Christian God, where did you get that impression? A university class? An online pundit? A celebrity?

I’m going to guess right now that it’s not from actually reading the Bible. When I was an atheist, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what the Bible said about God’s character. I latched onto verses in the Old Testament that used harsh language to describe God’s triumph over the Israelites’ enemies, battle accounts, or the flood of Noah, etc., and thought that meant the biblical God was immoral. WHAT I WOULD NOT HAVE ADMITTED at the time was that these were all interpretations that were spoonfed to me by atheist commentators online or in books that I had read!

I can’t speak for everyone, but that was certainly the case for me. I want you to assess yourself seriously – is your impression of the Christian God actually based on your own first-hand inquiry into the Bible? Or is it based on the interpretations of a handful of atheist commentators?

I thought I was such an independent thinker, but really, I was just towing the same old line of accusations that have been leveled against God for centuries!

Indeed, right from the very beginning God’s enemies have been misrepresenting his character in order to discredit him. Take the story of the Garden of Eden. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the forbidden fruit – but the serpent had a twist on God’s words. The very first statement out of the serpent’s mouth was a misrepresentation of God’s words: “hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” 

If Satan can malign the character of God, then he can try to prevent one or two more people from going to God for their salvation. It would seem to me that’s why so many people hate God today. They have bought into the serpent’s lie that God is a tyrant. Jesus prophesied that this would happen: “But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.” (John 15:25)

But like Adam and Eve knew the actual word of God was different from what the serpent said, YOU can know that the actual character of God is different from what the new atheist posse are saying. How? By actually reading the word of God, of course…

People tried to accuse and entrap Jesus at various points during his ministry. In one such instance, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” (Matthew 22:29)

I don’t want you to err! I want you to know the scriptures, and know the power of God!

I want you to know God.

No God? KNOW God!

How on earth could I know God? How could any of us? If God is indeed the creator of the universe, outside of our mortal constraints of space and time, how could we even begin to comprehend God?

The answer is simple. God created us to be in fellowship with him – as God said, “I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people” (Lev. 26:12) – and so it only makes sense that he would present himself to us in such a way that we can understand him and interact with him in a personal way! It’s built into the very purpose of his creation.

In fact, God chose to represent himself to us as a flesh-and-blood human, 2000 years ago, when he walked among us as Jesus. He lived a human life. He ate food, breathed air, occupied finite space, suffered pain, and even experienced death – just like all of us. He interacted with us, spoke with us, taught us, and laid down his life for us. JESUS is our Lord and our God! (John 20:27-29) Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). So, if you as a human want to know God, you must understand Jesus. As the Bible says, Jesus is Emmanuel (“God with Us”, see Matthew 1:23) who became flesh to dwell among us (John 1:1, 14).

THAT IS HOW WE KNOW GOD! We can look to Jesus! How? First by reading about what he said and did, through the Gospels. Then by talking with him through prayer, inviting him into our lives, and walking with him day by day.

When we understand God in this way, we no longer have the false impression that he is a distant and capricious authority figure. We no longer see him as someone we are obligated to do rituals for. We are no longer mere servants, but friends of God! As Jesus said, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” (John 15:15)

What kind of God is God?

In Stephen Fry’s interview, he revealed rather frankly what he thought about the Christian God: “…What kind of God is he? It’s perfectly apparent; he’s monstrous, utterly monstrous and deserves no respect whatsoever.”

But what does Jesus reveal about God’s character? Unconditional love. Mercy. Patience. He is the hero of the downtrodden. He came to proclaim liberty to the captives, to give sight to the blind, and to heal the broken-hearted.

Just look at the Parable of the Prodigal Son, in which God is described as a loving father anxiously awaiting the return of his wayward child and welcoming him back with open arms and unconditional forgiveness (Luke 15). Just look at the story of the woman accused of adultery, whom Jesus forgave by uttering those famous words “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” (John 8). Just look at Jesus healing the sick, raising the dead, and eating with the social outcasts of his day.

You’ve all heard at least something about Jesus – I mean, come on, he’s JESUS! That’s the God I know!

If you don’t know how awesome Jesus is, then seriously, crack open a Bible. If you don’t have a Bible, use a free online Bible like biblegateway.org. Start with one of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John – I recommend John).

Get to know this Jesus guy! In other words, “taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8)

Conclusion

To all who ask why God allows evil in the world… Stop and consider the fact that none of us are perfect. All of us, regrettably, have allowed evil in our own lives. So when God allows evil to exist in the world, he is also allowing YOU to exist in the world. In that sense you can appreciate God’s (temporary) allowance of evil to be a very merciful and longsuffering thing…!

God is amazingly merciful and patient with us. And he is also just. Wickedness cannot go on forever. God has promised to one day set right all that humanity has made wrong. Then there shall be no more evil, no more disease, no more death. As the Bible says, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

God is allowing evil to exist for a time. But one day he will destroy the wicked with the brightness of his return (2 Thessalonians 2:8). When that day comes, will you be among the accusers saying “How dare you”? Or will you be among the redeemed who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good?

God bless you.