Does the Real Jesus Scare You?
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 06:00AM From the blithe, blond, bland Jesus pictured in so much Sunday School wall art, to an enraged avenger, we seem to enjoy inventing our own version of Jesus so we can worship who we desire.
Why do we love these false or at best incomplete images of our Savior? The real Jesus scares us, that's why.
It's not necessary to pretend that the real Jesus doesn't frighten you. I think this is what the Bible means when it tells us to live in fear of the Lord--not in fear of what He'll do to us, but in awe of what He wants to do through us. God is not our buddy; He is our master. Even Jesus' closest disciples were often frightened and confused in the face of His power and His prophecies of death and rebirth.
It's right to be frightened, but not right to respond to our fear by worshipping a fake Jesus who is either totally non-threatening or whose possible punishments keep us up at night.
We often get our false ideas of Jesus either from other people, when we don't read the Bible for ourselves, or when we pull scriptures out of context.
We have to read the entire Bible to get the best picture of Jesus. There is great danger in picking and choosing which scriptures to emphasize in our understanding and worship, but that is standard practice for Christians and our churches.
While the New Testament as we know it records just the highlights of Jesus of Nazareth's three year ministry, and extremely little of His earlier life, every chapter in both the Old and New Testaments can help us to see Him more fully.
When we do see Jesus more fully, any Christian with any sense should experience a healthy degree of fear. After all, to be a Christian means to follow this perfect Jesus the Christ, not just to believe in Him.
Who would not be scared at the prospect of developing a relationship with someone who sacrificed His life to pay for our sins and wants us to become just like Him? Though our sins are forgiven for His sake--just for the asking if we trust Him--we are called to sacrifice ourselves just as He did, for the sake of fulfilling God's will. We don't have to literally die on a cross for God, that work is completed; but we are all called to give up pursuing the wants of our flesh and to substitute God's will for our own. All of which is a little like dying--in a good way.
The ideal is for our flesh to be crucified as was Jesus, and for our spirits to be reborn as kindred to His.
This is scary only until we do it--again and again and again. The closer we get to God's will, the more we are filled with the Holy Spirit, who comforts us and enables us to continue on in the life God wants for us, without fear.
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Reader Comments (2)
Great post. I don't have much to add, I just wanted to say that this is great.
We do tend to simplify Jesus in order to avoid dealing with Him honestly.
When I was a teenager, the Holy Spirit told me not to worship the picture, but worship Him. I've never looked at those images the same. Prior to that, I would kneel and pray before those images. I thank God for revealing that truth to me because I still see people older than I am who still worship those images. Thanks for this.