FishForPeople

The problem of Jesus

The problem of Jesus is not a question of whether He actually existed.

Jesus is not a mythical character. He is a person well documented not only in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (these are the Christian accounts of His life together with information in numerous letters incorporated into the New Testament) but also in other religious and non-religious historical texts.

Many details of His life and His crucifixion on the cross by the Romans are widely accepted and agreed upon by historians today. Whether you believe in the Christian God or perhaps other Gods or even if you are an Atheist, Jesus is a person who can not be ignored as someone who walked the earth and had a significant impact on the world.

Of course, all human beings have to be born. And that is exactly what Christmas is all about - it is the celebration of the birth of this man, Jesus of Nazareth. It is worth reiterating that this is a real event that happened and is of great importance to Christians because of who Christians believe He is - so important that we still celebrate it today.

Which leads me onto the actual problem of Jesus.

It is not the struggle to acknowledge He actually lived. It is the problem of what He lived - and died - for, that is the most challenging thing to accept. The claims He made during His time on earth challenged people of the world then, and His Word and teaching continue to challenge people today.

His claim was that He was sent into the world to reconcile people with God - that is, to remove the block caused by all the messy stuff that humans get themselves into which makes it impossible for them to dwell with God (because imperfect can not mix with perfect in the same way oil can not mix with water).

His claim was that He was able to do this because He himself, a human being, was also God and thus given the authority to lay down His life for others. This of course outraged the people of the time (and still many people today) and so He was put to trial and crucified even though Pontius Pilate (the Roman governour to whom Jesus was brought before) could not find Him guilty of any crime.

But what if we were wrong? Jesus said:

Don’t believe me unless I carry out my Father’s work. But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don’t believe me. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.

- John 10:37-38

The birth, life and death of Jesus was prophesied in the Old Testament scriptures. Everything that Jesus said and did while He was here fulfilled what was written long before it happened.

I, together with millions of other Christians around the world believe that Jesus always existed, even before he was born as a man. I also believe that after the Romans crucified Him, he rose from death 3 days later and is still alive today although not here on earth. But He will return to bring history to a close on behalf of God, so that life as it was intended to be, can truly begin.

If you have never really researched the life of Jesus (what He did and what He had to say about this life and what is to follow), it would be worth doing so, particularly at this time of year - He is after all, what Christmas (and Christianity) is all about.

You probably won’t need to go very far to hear about Him in the next few days, so if you catch His story being told on the radio or perhaps hear a Christmas carol out on the street (even better, at one of the many carol services happening tomorrow) - take a moment to listen to the words, it may just bless you with some revelation this Christmas that was unexpected.

Paul

(Here are more posts about Jesus)