Listening to: Making April
“I’m finding refuge in your eyes.”
Currently reading: Life of Christ by Fulton J. Sheen
I was born and raised a Catholic but to be quite honest, although I have to say that I have always loved Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour I have never quite learned how to respect him for the Person that He is.
Reading Life of Christ has brought to light so many truths that I have merely skimmed over in the pages of the Bible but failed to ponder deeply upon until today. This man that impacted the course of history so greatly such that time would forever be divided into the events that occured before (B.C.) and after His coming (A.D.)
Sheen discusses that Jesus’ entire life’s purpose was His willing and neccesary death. He seemed to be the only man who lived in order to die and yet He did not just live for the sake of dying, as though he were a walking dead haunted only by His eventual death.
Everywhere he went, this Jesus seemed to embody the Being and Love of God Himself. Jesus Christ was a man of great dignity. He spoke the truth at every occasion and he lived among the destitute and cast offs of society. If he was live as a man, he would do so in a way that would allow men of all circumstances to relate to him. And he showed that there was no situation where the Justice and Love of God could not prevail or would be forced to bend to demands of evil.
He taught his disciples all the Truths he had learned from His Father and taught us by example how to handle temptation from the devil – by wielding the Word of God with sure strength, faith and authority. He fought for those whom the world had neglected and abused and Jesus was both Tough Headed and Soft Hearted. Doreen Irvine discusses that this is a neccesary combination as Jesus was swift to uphold the Will and Law of God but was swifter yet to dispense love and mercy when required.
This man turned the world upside down by disputing previous claims and worldly cliches by exhorting men to present their cheeks instead of fists and to love our enemies, rather than hate them. And not only did this man talk the brave talk, he walked the long hard walk to the Cross. He turned his cheeks to those who would abuse him and he prayed for them while they jeered at him, languishing on a cross, naked under the scorching sun, convinced that they had put him there, but unaware that he had gone to the cross with a willing heart for that had been his entire mission.
Jesus Christ was a man of strong will, receptive ears and a soft heart. The devil offered him many detours from the cross but Jesus remained focused. He prayed constantly and consistently showing us the importance of remaining in a close relationship with our Father in Heaven from Whom we can draw certain strength and guidance. Indeed, many a time I have emerged from prayer peaceful, refreshed and strengthened, often equipped with new perspectives and revelations from the Spirit.
Most of all, Jesus was a man of great Love. In fact He embodied Love because he was God’s love for man made flesh in His son. He showed his love for everything and everyone he met, no questions asked. True he reproached those who strayed but only because he sensed where the work of evil reigned supreme and he despised the evil that dragged the beloved children of God through the dregs and pits of darkness.
Jesus revealed many Truths throughout his three year mission and both his death and resurrection lent incredible weight to his words. Suddenly, they weren’t just claims anymore, his words were now Truth. He was the only man whose death did not mark the end of his works and words, in fact they only served to glorify and fulfill them.
Jesus Christ is the only man who claims to be the mediator between man and God. The only one who says that he is the way to God rather than by just pointing a figure and saying, ‘there is your way to God.’ He lived among men but was not merely man – he showed them that it was possible to have a relationship with God because He had now come to live in their hearts, and was not just present as abstract words on a tablet of stone or on the pages of a scroll.
He obeyed His Father and willingly subjected himself to every pitfall of man and emerged victorious.
So if you ask me why I believe in Jesus Christ it is because this is a person that I know I can trust. His very words and actions convince me of this. This is a person I know who can lead me to eternal happiness.
This is a person who can understand my struggles with temptations and my fears and my weaknesses and my pain because this is a man who has experienced it and who tells me it is possible to overcome it and furthermore, that he can help me! This is a person who tells me that he can grant me an audience with my Maker if I just ask it in his name and I believe him because God himself parted the clouds and announced his Sonship very publicly on several occasions.
This is a person who can lead me back to my God. This is a person who defied human expectations and clumsy tradition and misguided attempts at love. This was someone who loved without strings or conditions. I do not need somebody who promises to love me no matter what and then casts me away when I am enmeshed in my own sins.He wasn’t superficial and easily conformed, He stuck to His mission and remained strong in the Lord.
He rebelled against evil and fought for the Kingdom of God with force and authority. That gives me security because who can find stability in a wishy washy reed of a hypocrite that could not dispel evil? This was someone whom demons fled from and nature obeyed without question. Clearly He was God.
This is somebody who never compromised on evil. And I need someone like that who will show me what is black and white and stand by it no matter the cost – sin is sin no matter how gray the world paints it to be. I need that because everything in the world is so contradictory, messed up with the devil’s half truths and whole lies.
Jesus was a classic example of what happens when a man refuses to bend to darkness, all of evil revolts on him. As Sheen says very accurately, evil welcomes mediocrity. This explains why there is so much inner resistance when we seek to live and walk in the Light. You’ve got no chance to survive when you speak the absolute truth in this world. It shuts you down with labels of bigotry and narrow mindedness and silences you with a social death. But this Jesus – he taught the truth, spoke the truth and died for the truth. And then God fulfilled this truth by raising him from his temporal death.
This is a man who promises me a life after death and he did achieve it because who could keep the son of God entombed when He is life itself ? He promises me a respite from my sinful earth bound body by salvation of my eternal soul.
This is a man who had a clear purpose in life which was to do the will of His Father and he stuck by it in pure faith in God. This shows me that all my life is a Purpose waiting to happen. The divine planning invested into Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection and thus the deliverance of an entire mankind was too intricate and purposeful to be mere coincidence and chance. No! That life is nothing but coincidence is another lie of the devil.
This Jesus told me that he came so that I may have life and have it to the fullest and I find that when I entrust my life into his keeping, this is exactly what I experience! It is only when I try to run my life on my own that I end up in emotional shambles. Since this man is telling the truth, this seems to be a man I can trust with my life.
Most importantly, this Jesus was not just mere man. He is Divine, the word of God made flesh. Thus this casts an even brighter light on all of his claims! In this light, he is not just a good man who trusted his god. This is the Divine Son of God, who gave up His inheritance and came down to my level for no other reason than to buy my freedom and give me life because He loved me.
He teaches me such wondrous things that my weak human mind is not worthy of and that my shallow understanding will never to be able to grasp anyway. So to help me, He sent me His Spirit to help me, to reveal the truths of the Spirit of God to my own Spirit.
He gave me all of Himself and all that He asks is that I trust Him. Not for any carnal satisfaction of power but because that is the Only Way by which I can fully live out my inheritance as a daughter of God.
This Jesus.
Even as a man, I would gladly trust him with my life.
But He is also God.
And as such, I would also trust Him with my death.
