Who is Jesus?
The story is told of the teacher in the art class who asked one of the young children what they were drawing.
“Jesus”, she said.
“But no one knows what Jesus looks like “observed the teacher.
“Well they will when I have finished” she said.
For some Jesus is a mythological person.
For some the name of Jesus is just a curse.
For others he is a mysterious good man and teacher.
For Moslems he is one of the main prophets whom they honour.
You don’t have to do much research to conclude that Jesus was the name given to a man who lived and died between about the year 4AD and 35AD (indeed our years are numbered from his lifetime). To establish history we go to written evidence and people’s experience. There is plenty of both for Jesus:
There is loads of evidence in the letters and histories of the New Testament;
There are the writings of contemporary non-Christian writers: Josephus (a Jewish historian), Tacitus & Pliny (Roman statesmen and historians), and Lucian (an Assyrian satirist);
Some 2 billion people around the world follow him today, 2000 years later.
We believe, along with those 2 billion people that Jesus was born, lived and died in 1st Century Palestine and that he was resurrected from the dead on the third day, Easter Sunday.
We believe that he is the Son of God, which is to say that God revealed himself to us in the form of this “ordinary” man in order to make a way for us to restore relationship with God our creator.
When we think about who Jesus is, sometimes he is close and intimate, almost one of us. The next he is above us, awesome and a bit scary.
Who is Jesus to you?
A good man who said wise things or your teacher and healer?
A distant mythological figure or a present Saviour?
An authoritarian ruler or a personal friend?
Who are you to him?
He created you and loves you endlessly:
Are you a stranger or friend?
Are you determinedly walking your own lonely path or are you following him as a disciple?
Are you the loved one who is yet running away from him or are you coming toward him, arms open wide? Ready to join in the battle with him or ready to take up the dance?
Are you standing with eyes cast down in sorrow or shame or have you received his forgiveness and are able to look into his face with thankfulness – because you have understood and received his grace and forgiveness through his death on the cross?
Are you living this life with reckless abandon, oblivious of eternity or have you started your new, eternal, life growing ever closer to him?
If you are interested in finding out more we'd highly recommend that you join our next Alpha course or come along one Sunday.
If you have made a decision to follow Jesus then Baptism provides a great opportunity for you to share that choice with your family and friends and the community of faith and we would love to talk to you more about what it means.