Recently during a prayer time, God directed me to blog about some of the things I've been learning or things that have changed my life. I don't often do this, or talk about such things with people at home. It's completely normal to talk about it here, but for some reason, I've never talked about such things with family and friends from home. So I'm going to try to do that more because shoot, if it's something that affected me or challenged me, chances are it will someone else too. And we're supposed to encourage and challenge one another to draw closer to Jesus. So here goes...what I learned this week...
We had an awesome man of God come and share in our class this week named Trent Sheppard. What I like about Trent is that he is real. He admits his short-comings. He's ADD. He's interesting to listen to, he jumps on chairs to get your attention, and he presents things in ways you haven't heard before. This week he taught us about the story of God through the whole Bible, beginning with Genesis and describing the beautiful poetry of it all. I never realized it was written as a poem. He said if you look at it in the original Hebrew, it actually is written in a poem format. It was so cool to see God's creativity and heart during the beginning of this world, and how His love is so interwoven throughout the rest of the Bible.
Trent took us from Genesis to Revelation, but the part I loved most was about Jesus. We are so used to hearing that Jesus is part of the Trinity, has the same power as God, is God. But what we often forget, at least I do, is that he was fully human as well. He had emotions, he faced ridicule, he new what it was to want to protect family. One such instance of this was in John 8. I have read this chapter so many times, but never caught on to what was explained to me this week.
In this chapter, Jesus and the pharisees are talking about who their fathers are, and being Abraham's children. I forget that Jesus, Mary, and their whole family, would have faced ridicule and judgements galore because of how he was conceived. We know Mary was a virgin and Jesus was conceived through the Holy Spirit. Not such a big deal to us because that's what we've always been taught. But it wouldn't have been accepted in their day, that had never happened. Everyone would have assumed that Mary was involved in scandalous activity. No one really knew who Jesus' father was. They would have believed it was either Joseph or some other man, but wouldn't have believed the story that he was from God. Imagine the jokes he faced growing up, the whispers as he passed by people, the comments endured by his parents, and I'm sure even his siblings would have received some.
The story's conversation starts in verse 12, but in verse 19, the pharisees ask Jesus, "where is your father?" Accusation #1. Pointing out already that no one knows who/where Jesus' father really is, because they don't believe the story of his conception. The conversation continues and in verse 41, the pharisees say, "we were not born of sexual immorality...." or another translation says, "We are not illegitimate children..." Accusation #2. Pointing out again to Jesus, who do you think you are, no one even knows where you come from, who knows what kind of woman your mother is, and we at least know who our fathers are.
Can you imagine being in Jesus' position? The feelings you would have felt hearing these things. All those words may not have been spoken, but the insinuation was there. Not only is Jesus being called illegitimate, a bastard, but it also speaks out against the type of woman his mother was. Wouldn't you have a sense of righteous anger, wanting to defend what you knew was the truth?
The story ends with Jesus pointing out, "I know who your father is, Satan. The father of lies." (my paraphrase) I've always just read this portion of scripture as if this conversation was just hum drum, no real emotion, just plainly spoken. This wouldn't have been the case though. There were some serious accusations and passions rising. Jesus' character & family where being tarnished. Jesus would have felt something in this, just like any of us would. Jesus was human. He felt emotion. He knew what it felt like to be made fun of, to have his family made fun of. This was a "your mom" joke that just wasn't funny.
And it's seeing this story in this new light, that makes me more excited to know who the man Jesus really is. I want to know that man who felt emotion, who would have joked with his disciples, played with children, taught new concepts. I know him as God, but I've never looked at him as The Son of Man, as he describes himself. Jesus took on the nature of being human. We can relate to humans. And so I'm on the journey of relating to Jesus. Of seeing Bible stories I've read over and over again in a new light. Of not just taking these things for granted, but looking at them as they may have really happened. Sure we don't really know the emotions, or exact words spoken, but if we know our emotions and likely responses to things, we can begin to imagine how Jesus really was. Of course he was perfect, without sin, but he was also human. So I'm beginning to get to know the man Jesus.
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