Meeting Jesus
Some while ago, one of the church leaders, who was engaged in street evangelism, asked a man he came across if he knew Jesus. There was an excited response as the man replied, “I am Jesus”. It was true, he was, but he was also Portuguese, and, in his home country, this name is not uncommon, whereas in the English-speaking world, we don’t expect to come across Jesus other than in the Bible. But I want to suggest that even in the Bible, there is more than one Jesus – that is to say, more than one whom we relate to. There are four that come to mind.
The Creator
At Christmas time, we focus on Jesus the infant, but he cannot be divorced from his other selves. This morning, I read the first chapter of the letter to the Hebrews, and the words: “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands …..” (Hebrews 1:10). This is parallelled in John’s gospel account: “He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:2,3) It is staggering to imagine the baby of Bethlehem having created everything that we can experience of the universe, and so very much more that we have no concept of, but, if we believe what is clearly stated in our Bibles, then this is fact, not fiction.
The man
We all know about Jesus the infant, so let’s skip to Jesus the man. These days, we tend to recognise the age of majority at which a boy is viewed as a man as being 18 years old. My eldest grandson reached that milestone this year. I am not sure that we will think of him any differently for this, but we are inevitably reminded of the babe in arms that we were first introduced to back in 2007 – helpless and totally dependent on his parents, and now able to make his own way in the world; to plough his own furrow. We might struggle to equate the man Jesus with the baby in the manger; I think some people may be much more comfortable with the latter; the man is far more challenging! Charles Wesley’s well-known hymn for children begins with the words: “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild …..”, which makes him out to be very acceptable (if you like that sort of thing), but this same Jesus also made a whip and overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple. He was less than accommodating of the religious rulers of the day, putting them in their place in no uncertain terms. And, of course, he went on to give himself up to a Roman crucifixion where he carried the sins of the whole world – I don’t think his life could ever get more manly. This isn’t a cosy Jesus but one who is blood-soaked for our deliverance, due entirely to our sinfulness and guilt.
The ‘now’ Jesus
There is yet another Jesus in scripture – the ‘now’ Jesus who is reigning at the right hand of the Father. We find him referenced in the book of Isaiah, chapter 9, verses 6 &7; a familiar seasonal reading. This Jesus is “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16). Hebrews 1:8 states, quoting Psalm 45: “But of the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever, the sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of your kingdom.”.
Avoiding simplification
Hopefully, this makes clear that we can’t pigeon-hole our saviour as someone warm and cosy, whether the baby of the manger or the man who refused to condemn the woman caught in adultery. This Jesus is more complete than that. We probably find it hard to collapse the four Jesuses outlined above into one whom we can relate to, but he is all four even so. Let’s be careful this Christmastime to avoid simplification. Yes, he certainly was born a human baby in Bethlehem, the offspring of a virgin mother, but even that story has greater complexity than the miracle of his conception. Remember the shepherds, who were getting on with their business of tending flocks of sheep, to whom a host of angels appeared to herald his arrival; they were sufficiently impressed that they abandoned their charges to go and discover this miracle baby for themselves. Remember too the wise men who travelled a long distance, navigating by a celestial body to arrive at the place of Jesus’ birth and pay homage to him, bringing with them gifts that were fit only for a king (gold), who was also a priest (frankincense) and who would lay down his life as the ultimate sacrifice (myrrh).
The complete picture
Jesus was the babe of Bethlehem, and for some three years, the teacher of righteousness, before fulfilling his destiny as the sacrificial lamb. But before that, he created the world that he was to be born into, and after laying down his life, he ascended into heaven to reign at the right hand of the Father forever and ever.
This is the Jesus whom we worship and remember in our Christmas celebrations – a baby, yes, God himself who stooped down to become one of us so that he would be qualified to act as our redeemer. This is most definitely something to celebrate, but it only has meaning because of all four of the Jesuses that we have thought about. Jesus, the baby, is but one component and our celebration of his birth is incomplete without also remembering each of the other three.