What Will We Do with Jesus?
We live in a world of exaggerated claims. We are bombarded with commercials that labor to convince us that the advertised product is the answer to life’s problems. In a world of overstatements and salesmanship, we often develop a callous disbelief that protects us from such lies and deceptions. What happens when we really hear the truth? What happens when we come across something that really is the deal of a lifetime? The sad truth is that we will often miss such opportunities.
In the Bible, we are given glimpses into the mind of God. God pulls back the curtain and reveals to us who He is, what He is like, and what He thinks about us. These are great blessings to behold. Yet, many people take a “ho-hum” approach to God’s efforts at reaching out to us. Within the pages of Scripture, there is an exhortation that challenges us to have the mind of Jesus. In Jesus, God dared to incarnate Himself. The incarnation is where God put on human flesh and became the God-Man. Jesus was fully God and fully man. While this boggles the mind, do not dismiss such a great and amazing truth.
Consider this, the pagan cultures in the first-century had some bizarre religious ideas. The Roman and Greek religions had no problem with the “gods” walking among mankind. Greek and Roman mythology were filled with demigods (individuals who were sired by one of the gods). Despite this precedent, when Christianity was spreading through the Roman world, the message of Jesus was scoffed at. The idea that there was only one God was outrageous in their polytheistic mindset. The idea that Jesus was fully God and yet was fully man did not fit their preconceived notions. Despite this obstacle, the Gospel of Jesus turned the Roman world upside down.
An even harder task was taking the Gospel to the Jewish community. While the Romans could stomach a demigod or some sort of deity walking among men, the Jewish mind would not tolerate such a thought. If a person claimed to be God, he or she would be stoned to death. This is why when Jesus claimed that He was God, the statement was always one that got the people’s attention. In Luke 4, Jesus stated that He was the long-predicted messiah. He hinted strongly regarding His divinity, and the result was that people wanted to throw him off the nearest cliff. Understand this: Jesus came into a culture that was not looking for God in human flesh. They wanted God’s help, but the incarnation was not on their bucket list.
Despite such difficulties, Jesus got the Jewish people’s attention as well. As a matter of fact, Jesus always elicited a strong reaction from those who listened to Him. Some hated Jesus. They hated His claim to be God. Others ran away from Jesus. They were afraid of His audacious claims. Jesus must be a madman, they thought. Then there were those who loved Jesus. They were amazed at what He taught. They heard Jesus and said, “No one has ever spoken like this!” They were shocked by the miracles He performed. They said, “No one has ever done things like this. He even raises the dead!”
As I initially pointed out, we live in a world of word inflation - big claims, gimmicks galore. So, what do we do with Jesus and His astounding claims? There is no way that anyone can genuinely consider Jesus and simply have a lukewarm response. For someone to say, “I like Jesus, but I do not believe what he said," is to miss what He is saying. When someone claims to be God in the flesh, that individual is either a liar, a lunatic, or He is God. All three possibilities are extreme. None of them allows for a casual dismissal.
I say all of this to set the stage for the following statement. When the Bible exhorts us to put on the mind of Christ, it is a huge declaration and challenge. To put on the mind of Christ is to make Jesus the master of one’s life. Why should we imitate Jesus? Join me next week as we continue pondering the mind of Christ. Keep looking up!