Familiar Ground

The man Jesus Christ who existed more than two thousand years ago has had a significant impact both on the culture of his time, and on every subsequent generation since. He has been called a lot of things- a great teacher, a prophet, a heretic, a revolutionary, a messiah. Who do you say he is?

The Jews had waited for centuries for their saviour, their king, to rescue them, to rule them. They expected a hero to come along; save the day, overthrow the Romans and sort everything out. 

 He was hailed as a king as a baby by some travelling star gazers.As he entered into Jerusalem on the last week of his life, people put their cloaks on the road, they cheered, and they hailed him as the one who had come to rescue them. 

But Jesus was never the king they expected.  He wasn't wealthy- he lived in poverty, he didn't ride into battle- he rode a donkey, he didn't overthrow the Roman Empire- he was murdered by them.  He upset the religious leaders; he spoke against the status quo.

And if the same Jesus was around today, the truth is that he probably wouldn't fit in that well with most Christians. I doubt you'd see him at Soul Survivor or Kewsick Convention (that doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong with either of these) 

The Church has been stooped in tradition for centuries. Even now, we make Jesus into something we want him to be. He fits in our little box. But Jesus is not what you expect. We make it all about our salvation, we make it about feeding our own conscience. The thing is- we rarely dare to approach Jesus without any pretense. 

He’s not what you expect if you’ve heard a little bit about him. He's not what you expect if you've been trying to follow him for years. He's not what you expect if you've studied theology. The man Jesus has the ability to surprise me, sometimes shock me, confuse me and destroy my way of thinking. The more I read of his life and teachings, the more he fascinates me, the more he challenges me.

  

The theologian Tom Wright puts it like this:

"Jesus- the Jesus we might discover if we really looked- is larger, more disturbing, more urgent than we - had ever imagined...We have reduced the kingdom of God to private piety, the victory of the cross to comfort for the conscience, and Easter itself to a happy, escapist ending after a sad, dark tale. Piety, conscience and ultimate happiness are important, but not nearly as important as Jesus himself”

Who is the real Jesus? What did he stand for? How can I be a person who lives to find out the answers to these questions?