What
is your mental picture of Jesus? What
artwork comes to mind when you hear His name?
Do you see the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus in some popular modern pictures? Do you see a Jim-Caviezel-style Jesus from The Passion of the Christ? What does He act like? Is He stiff and odd like many of the old
movies about Him? Is He
approachable? Kind? Gentle?
Does He go around saying things like, “I came to cast fire on the earth,
and would that it were already kindled?”
For
many of us, our dominant image of Jesus is that of gentleness, mercy, and
love. This has led some people to have
an image of Jesus that is rather wimpy.
However, as we read the Gospels, we find Jesus to have a wider range
than just kindness. He reveals the good
news of God’s love and salvation, but He in no way backs down from God’s holy,
perfect, Law. He confronts Pharisees and
lawyers with their hypocrisy even as he comforts tax collectors and sinners
with God’s mercy. He warns as wells as
welcomes; speaks Law and Gospel.
Jesus
is a real person; not some cardboard cutout caricature. Sometimes He got angry. Sometimes He was sad. He tired, hungered, rejoiced, wept,
persevered, and took it easy.
One
of the great differences between Jesus and us, though, was that He was always
Himself. He was never a chameleon trying
to blend in, the way we sometimes do. He
knew His identity and mission. He had,
“a baptism to be baptized with,” a euphemism for His crucifixion, and He
looked, steely eyed ahead toward it, even as it distressed Him. He knew that what were at stake were not just
principles or precepts, but people – you and me – so He did what only He could
do. Sometimes that was speaking a gentle
word, other times it was proclaiming the reality of God’s wrath at sin. Yet other times it was warning that when we
live in Christ, the world will hate us – maybe even our own families. Ultimately it was dying and rising to redeem
us … and He’ll come again.
Lord
Jesus, let me know you more and follow you better. Amen.
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