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Jesus.

Art Thompson

Jesus.

People write about him.

Many sing about him.

Some doubt him.

Others praise him.

Still others deny him.

Some use his name as a "curse word".

Multitudes adore him.

Almost everyone talks about him.

Who is Jesus? Why is he controversial? Why should I care?

Elsewhere on the Internet, you may find sites discussing The Jesus Project. A modern day attempt to determine exactly who Jesus is/was. Some in the project are believers. Some are skeptical. Others are disbelievers.

Jesus claimed to be the son of God.

That's why he was killed. Being found guilty of blasphemy was a capital crime in first century Jerusalem. If found guilty, he would be executed! The leaders of the Jews in the first century believed that Jesus committed blasphemy. They believed he claimed to be God.

He did. So they did.

There are some who say that, in his own words, Jesus never claimed to be the son of God - that he never claimed to be deity at all.

That's just not so.

Most likely, those who say that don't know Jewish history very well nor how they used their very colorful and picturesque language during the time of the historical Jesus.

Consider this section of a biography of Jesus by Mark:

So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing a paralytic to him, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'?

But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home."

He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!" (Mark 4:2-12)

Then, the highly poetic Jewish language was rife with understatement. In that way, those who wrote and spoke the language gave a strong underscoring to what they said or wrote.

For example, Luke, a major historian of the times of Jesus and his early disciples, said:

In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. (Acts 12:18)

Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain others of them, should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question. (Acts 15:2)

And the same time there arose no small stir about that way [in Ephesus]. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen; whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, "Sirs, you know that by this craft we have our wealth." (Acts 19:23-25)

And when neither sun nor stars did not appear for many days, and no small storm stayed on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. (Acts 27:20)

Over and over, Luke, who was an experienced and expressive writer, and also a Jew, used expressions like ". . . no small (something)" to give a very strong emphasis to what he meant. The argument in Ephesus was "no small stir".

No indeed!

It was not a small stir! It was a major commotion. It got so heated that some were afraid the authorities would come and arrest them. And the silver shrines made the silversmiths "no small gain". Silver shrines to the pagan goddess Diana brought them huge profits. The conversion of literally thousands who began following Jesus the Messiah, hit the silversmiths squarely in their pocketbooks! Hard! They were upset! Angry!

That's how Jews used their language in the first century, though: "no small stir", "no small gain".

One other example.

When Jesus was before the Roman governor, Pilate. Pilate was a very intelligent man. He recognized a number of things when the Jews brought this man Jesus before him. One thing he recognized was that his own job was on the line. Another thing was that this accused man was innocent. Those two things put Pilate in a very difficult spot.

So, Pilate asked Jesus some questions:

Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"

"Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?

"Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"

Jesus said, My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

"You are a king, then!" said Pilate.

Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." (John 18:33-37)

The responses Jesus gave to Pilate's examination were not evasions, as some say they are, but, rather, are answers, designed to give strong emphasis to his point: Jesus was/is king of the Jews!

Not only that, but Jesus is the king of a kingdom that "is not of this world" - that is, the king of a spiritual kingdom - not of a physical one.

Jesus claimed to be the king of a spiritual kingdom. He demonstrated the power to heal the sick and the crippled; to control the elements - changing water to wine and calming a storm by speaking to it; to give sight to those who had never seen anything; to raise the dead and give them new life. And, the most critical of all, based on all these evidences he showed to many witnesses, he claimed the right to forgive sins.

Is that a claim to deity? Is that a claim to being God, himself?

If not, then what was Jesus' point?

He is the son of God. Jesus is deity.

From Paul, in Philippians:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

Some have told me that Paul was one of his followers and that "naturally" he believed that Jesus was deity.

Just a brief reminder that Paul started out known as Saul of Tarsus - one who not only did not believe that Jesus was the messiah, but who actively sought out, arrested, and killed those who did believe in him. Until one day, Jesus appeared to Saul personally. For Paul, that appearance was evidence enough to convince him that not only was Jesus the Jews' messiah, he was also the God of Israel, the one of whom all the Hebrew prophets had written.

This man, who hated Jesus and his followers so much that he went to great lengths to jail, injure, and kill them, became so convinced that he committed the rest of his life telling everyone he met that Jesus is God himself. He even died because of his faith that Jesus was both Messiah of Israel and the son of God. That faith in him can change your life as much as it changed his. That a commitment to this Jesus can make your life much easier to live and your death much easier to die.

You can have that kind of trust in him also.

The concept is simple.

Turn your life and everything in it over to him.

Jesus himself explained the idea.

Come unto me, all you that work extremely hard and are bent down with a heavy load, and I will give you rest. Take my work on yourself, and learn about me; for I am broken and humbled: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my work is easy, and my load is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

And at another time, he said,

At the same time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

And Jesus called a little child to come to him, and set him up in the middle of them all, and said, "I tell you the truth: unless you are changed inside, and become as little children, you shall not go into the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whosoever shall humble himself and become as this little child, is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whosoever shall receive one little child like this in my name receives me. But whosoever shall cause any kind of harm to one of these little ones which believe in me, it would have been better for that person to have a millstone hanged about his neck, and to be drowned in the deepest part of the sea. (Matthew 18:1-6)

The concept of following Jesus is so simple. But why is it so difficult to do? Why do so many of us find it so hard?

The answer is that we take these "life-style" changes on as kind of a "do-it-yourself-project".

"Just leave me alone! I can do it myself!" seems to be our attitude.

I know. For most of my own life, that's the way I felt, too.

Literally, I felt that God created me as I am. He gave me a semi-quick wit. A degree of intelligence. And I believe that he wanted me to use it to find my way to him and to manage my own life so as to make him happy.

Wrong!

I can't do it myself. You can't either!

You and I do not have the ability within ourselves to change ourselves.

What Jesus wants of us is not an outward change of "life-style".

He wants us to have changed lives!

That kind of a change can come only from inside.

That kind of a change can come only from one who knows us from the inside out. The one who created us. The one who knows our innermost thoughts and feelings. The one "who was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin."

You and I cannot do it for ourselves.

We can do it only if we come to him, and say, "Lord, I can't do this myself. Please, let me give up everything that I am, everything I have, and everything I ever hope to be, and lay it all down at your feet. You enter me. Fill me with your presence. Change me. Mold me, and make me into the person you want me to be. Help me to trust you with everything, because without you, I really am nothing and nobody. Only with you, living in me, can I ever be what you want me to become."

You need not pray those exact words. There is no formula. No magic words. No incantation. No mantra. Only an attitude.

The whole point is to express that idea - total surrender. Total dependence on him. As a little child depends on its parents, he wants us to depend totally on him. For everything.

If you don't honestly feel that way right now, that's OK, too. Just tell him something like I did a few years ago. "Lord, that's the way I want to feel about you, but you and I both know that I don't feel that way now. But, you can change that, and I ask you to do it."

And he will.

This Jesus. He changes lives. From the inside out.

Could a mere man do that?

That's something that only our Creator can do. That's something only Jesus can do.

I urge you - trust him.

Jesus.