Deep Dive into Jesus

 

Jesus Christ is the most revered, the most respected, the most pivotal Person who ever lived. But He is also the most reviled, the most controversial, the most misunderstood, it seems to me. His entrance onto the stage of history changed everything, and yet, people still do all they can to explain away, deny, or resist the Savior’s influence.

To believers, Jesus Christ means salvation from all that is wrong with this world, and from all that is wrong with ourselves, as well as all that is wrong between us and our Creator. His humble birth, His sinless life, His atoning death, His victorious resurrection, and His promise of forgiveness and eternal life all make Him one of a kind.

So…I have to ask myself: Why am I so often ashamed of Jesus Christ?

If I truly, totally, savingly trust in Him as my Savior, Lord and King, then why is His name so seldom found on my lips, in my conversations, sometimes even in my prayers? Is it just that there is a pervasive anti-religious sentiment in our culture permeating the air all around me? Is it merely because of our pluralistic philosophical bent I’ve been steeped in here in the American “melting pot”?

If I had a machine in my possession that could completely do away with war, disease, hatred, greed, crime, poverty…and I was too ashamed to tell people about it–tell everybody I knew–wouldn’t you call me a fool…an insane monster…to keep quiet about it? Is my thinking so twisted and clouded and cowardly, that I tend to keep the truth of Jesus Christ to myself?

For the past year or so, I’ve been listening to a certain podcast on the internet that focuses on one of my favorite TV shows from back in the 1960s. It happens to be a very unique series that was adventurous, fun and thought-provoking. For its time, it was quite controversial in many ways. This podcast features two men in their 40s who were analyzing the series episode by episode, doing what they referred to as a “deep dive” into the writing, the characters, the direction, the messages, and the lasting impact of that TV program. Both hosts on the podcast confessed that they were so obsessed with the show, they considered it a major influence in their lives.

They also confessed that, when they were in their teens, their devotion to this particular show had been ridiculed by their peers, and they had both suffered from a kind of “geek shame” over their obsession, and secretly wondered if there was something wrong with them deep down. In their minds, while they loved this TV series immensely, they still felt alone and isolated in their devotion to it. But their love for the show persisted over the years, and when they finally met one another and discovered how they shared this obsession, they were eager to explore the show from a more analytical standpoint, digging into how it was written, how the characters were developed, etc.

One of the results was that they came to realize how absurd it was for them to have been ashamed of their obsession. The more they did their “deep dives” into each of the episodes, the more reasons they found to be proud of their original devotion to the series, its excellence, its ideals, its sense of adventure, its prophetic outlook toward the future. As they describe this growing realization, it almost comes across like a religious epiphany or a life manifesto.

While I listen to this podcast, and the rapturous words of the two guys hosting it, I can’t help but compare their obsession to the other fandoms that exist in our TV and movie-soaked culture today: Lord of the Rings…Marvel characters…Harry Potter…Jane Austen novels and films…the list is endless. Certainly we all have our favorites, our pet obsessions. And then I think…

What do we think of Jesus? How obsessed are we with the Savior? The King whose story wasn’t concocted in the mind of a TV or screen writer, but in the mind of Almighty God? All the heroic and grand ideals you and I meet in our favorite myths and adventure tales pale to nothing in comparison with the eternal God’s plan of redemption that features His one and only Son.

A wonderful book I’ve been reading by teacher and theologian Dr. Michael Bennett is entitled Beginning with Moses: Finding Christ in the Old Testament. Dr. Bennett does a fantastic job as he dives deep into the Scriptures to discover the clues of Jesus’ mission, His offices, His roles, His names, His appearances, His place in prophecy, things that span the entire timeline of this planet…and beyond! As I read this insightful book, my excitement swells considering the total tapestry of the Father’s plan–a plan to rescue and redeem a fallen, helpless, sin-ridden race, all for the sake of His beloved Son. Who could not be moved by the story of a Father who chose to sacrifice His Son for ungrateful sinners such as I?

When I think of this story–this true story, I want to dive deep, deeper, deepest, into the chronicle of God’s truth, God’s holy Scripture. And I want to become so obsessed with the riches of His living Word, His only begotten Son, that His name is continually in my mind, on my heart, falling from my lips. I want everyone to hear of Him, to love Him, to trust Him, to know Him eternally. I want you, my friend, to become part of His story.

MNA (3/21/2023)

What a Kingdom! What a King!

 

“The kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ. And He shall reign forever and ever!” 

I can’t really recite those immortal words without hearing the powerful choral strains of Handel’s Hallelujah chorus echoing in my brain. I suspect that the heavenly choir itself will be singing that masterpiece right up to and forever after the final consummation, resulting in “a new Heaven and a new Earth,” ushering in the blessed, eternal state.

The kingdom of God, of Heaven, of Christ Jesus our Lord, is far more than an incidental theme of holy scripture. Kingdom created, polluted, re-taken, restored, recreated--this is certainly the background theme that ties all of the varied subtexts of the Bible together. And in the New Testament Gospels and other apostolic accounts, the Lord’s kingdom takes center stage again and again as the King Himself steps onto the stage of earth’s history.

The Son of God had, like David of old, been anointed by His Father as the rightful King of kings and Lord of lords. Various Old Testament “Christophanies” such as the Commander of the Lord’s armies who faced off with Joshua, suggested that God the Son had visited the earth personally before His future incarnation. But Jesus’ conception and birth as a human child meant far more than just another “sightseeing” visit, only to return to His past glory. 

In becoming a man, God’s anointed King was stepping across a veritable Rubicon of space and time that would unite godhead with humanity in an indissoluble link--the Person of Jesus Christ. Saint Matthew’s genealogy traced the kingly line of David to its ultimate Potentate, the One who was to receive “all authority in heaven and earth.” The risen Christ had finished His life of active and passive obedience to the Father, which had secured our redemption from sin and death. And on the basis of His hard-fought victory, He gave the martial orders to His followers: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations... You shall be my witnesses.”

Back in the Garden of Eden, the original Man and Woman fell to the wiles of the devil, surrendering to him the power and authority over the earth that their Creator had meant to be ours. Ever since then, down through our tragic and sickening history, mankind has made a mess of this world, all in the name of pride, arrogance, sinful autonomy and evil desire. Greed, lust, laziness, violence, wrath, and all the other escapees from Pandora’s box, have plagued the hearts, minds and accomplishments of humanity. It seemed like God’s kingdom-dream had been a cruel joke, a pipe dream never to be realized.

But, as the long, intricate pages of the Bible reveal to us, for centuries the sovereign unseen hand of God was moving, predicting, presaging, preparing the stage for the promised “Seed of the woman” who was to crush the wily serpent’s ugly head!

The story of the Old Testament is a story about kings and kingdoms. Most of the kings portrayed were inadequate at best, and positively bestial at worst. Earthly kings comprised a “rogues gallery” of imperfect--in fact, rebellious--rascals and tyrants. They squandered and misused the power that Providence put into their hands. And the Lord God had no alternative but to punish them and the wayward people who followed their loathsome example. And to add insult to injury, He lashed their backs and their foolish pride with the whips of nations even more wicked than His own chosen people had become!

With infinite, sublime patience, Jehovah God was teaching them, and us, and the world, that Adam and Eve’s disobedience--their “declaration of independence” from their Creator, was not worth the price they and we would have to pay. Satan had decided that, for himself, it was “better to rule in hell, than to serve in heaven.” And Adam’s race had chosen to join that rebellion, turning our backs on the loving kingship of our kind heavenly Father. But God was not willing to “wash His hands” of our predicament and let us face eternal hell with the devilish dragon!

From all eternity, His anointed King was preparing to enter history as ONE of us. Armed with the “full armor of God” and filled with the Spirit. Resisting Satan’s temptations, casting out his minions from their human hosts, remaining strong in His times of pain and weakness, willing to pay the horrendous price of forsaken-ness and death on the cross.

“You shall be my witnesses,” the King told his followers. King Jesus calls us His witnesses still. Yes, I’m a citizen of the United States, and proud of it. But I’m enormously MORE glad to be a subject of a far BETTER nation--a KINGDOM that will never be shaken. It is a kingdom that is calling out to those in rebellion, those who are the King’s sworn enemies. It is a kingdom that offers peace, joy, love, mercy, forgiveness... and eternal life.

To enter this better kingdom costs a person nothing in the way of qualifications or payment. Jesus the King has supplied both the holiness we need, and the payment we could never afford.

On the other hand, entering God’s kingdom costs a person EVERYTHING. You must renounce and turn your back on your previous life of rebellion and self-sufficiency. You must willingly begin again, with Christ as your King. 

Believe me, you’ll find in Jesus not only a gracious Ruler and Protector, but your dearest Friend. Leave your past behind you, child of this world, and kneel before your true King.

MNA

11/14/2020