Let me tell you about Jesus

I would like to tell you about Jesus, the person I most admire in history.

His wisdom and teachings were very unusual. He asked people to come to him for relief from the burdens of life. His words were authenticated by the way he lived with love, helping others. Jesus addressed people’s physical problems and their spiritual problems.

He seemed an ordinary person to many. He had a common name, so he was distinguished as Jesus of Nazareth. He was the oldest sibling in his family. He had good parents. As best we can tell, he worked in the family business as a carpenter. It seems that his dad died while he was a young adult.

What was not ordinary was Jesus’ beginnings. His conception and birth were heralded by angels. When he was very young, he was visited by foreign dignitaries. Because of this, his parents fled the country so that a jealous king could not murder him.

We know very little about his younger years. We are simply given a summary that he “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” His experience was that of a fully ordinary human being, including both the good and the painful parts. But, it was an extraordinary life.

The narrative picks back up when Jesus was about 30 years old. (Maybe as first born he was fulfilling responsibilities to care for his mother.) It was then he started a new work as a teacher.

There was a local tradition of teachers that would travel around with their students. The followers would learn in the context of life shared with their teacher. When Jesus was a youth it had been noted that he had unusually wise spiritual insights. As an adult, this characteristic was even more striking. So, when Jesus asked people to follow him they dropped what they were doing with no hesitation and traveled with him. Out of many he chose a core group of 12 disciples in which to invest particular time for 3 years.

What and how Jesus taught was not like other religious teachers. Instead of citing the authority of others, Jesus taught with first-person authority. Sometimes what he had to say was controversial and offended people. When Jesus asked his disciples if they also would leave him, their response was, “Where would we go, for you have the words of life”.

Jesus traveled around his region teaching not only his disciples, but also the general population. He backed up the authority of his words with miracles. He healed illnesses and physical deformities. (These are documented not only by those who witnessed them, but also by indifferent historians.) He raised some who had died back to life. The many miracles generated excitement and crowds. He was so mobbed by those coming to him for this help that it became hard to find quiet and sleep.

Jesus taught with direct statements, proverbs, and relatable stories. Those who were only following along with the excited crowd did not pursue deeper meaning. But, those that were genuinely curious came directly to him for more explanation.

Most people were excited because they were anticipating a national king to overthrow foreign rule. Obviously Jesus had power, so they thought he was that one. They did not understand what he was teaching.

Jesus taught about a new kingdom of which he was the king. But, this new kingdom of God was a spiritual kingdom. It was for all people. To enter this kingdom you had to reject your own selfish and rebellious values. You had to choose instead to love God, and (like Jesus) love people.

The great benefit of this kingdom was that God would remove the heavy burden of guilt about private wrong thoughts and wrong actions. Instead God would cover you in his deep love and adopt you as one of his own family. God would put a genuinely new heart of love for others into you; God would give you strength to live it. And, God would give you life with him.

This teaching about a new kingdom was very unwelcome to local leaders. They didn’t want to lose their positions of spiritual and political authority. A new kingdom was sedition to the empire in power. Ultimately it led to Jesus’ death.

Nation states knew that they could increase the loyalty and control of their people by merging state power with religion. ••• Jesus’ radical idea was that true spirituality was linked to a kingdom that was not of an earthly state. His teaching was rejected by the authorities of Jesus’ day. It was not their kingdom and it took control away from them, so they had him brutally executed. They put him in the grave to make an end of it.

However, several days later God raised Jesus back to life. This was validation directly from God of everything Jesus had said and taught. He was still fully human and physical, but now he had an upgraded body with none of the decay of this world. Jesus spent time with many people for 40 days: eating, walking and talking. After promising to return in the future, he left directly to be with God.

Though Jesus had initially spent much time with his disciples, they still had a hard time understanding the spiritual nature of his kingdom. When he was killed, they were in despair because their hope was still attached to a physical kingdom. When Jesus came back to them alive, they struggled with doubt that he was real. But slowly, they started to understand. By the time Jesus left, they had come to trust the evidence in front of them. Afterwards, against severe adversities for the rest of their lives they all remained certain that Jesus had been bodily resurrected and was alive with God. And so they spread the message of Jesus’ spiritual kingdom to the whole world.

God made this new kingdom for us. God is the source of all being, including both all that is physical and all that is immaterial. God is the source of all that which is good and meaningful. Within Jesus’ kingdom of God you are saved from an existence of separation from God. You are instead brought into life and light with God.

God has given us this brief life on earth as a context in which we can either choose him or not. And so, I also want to tell you about Jesus and his kingdom. Jesus is the one from God that has the words of life. And he offers to put his own indestructible life in us.

Would you respond to his offer?