Who is Jesus Christ For Us Today?

This past month has been an exciting one for me in my walk with Christ. I have been lost in the book of Psalm and God has been revealing a lot about me to myself. I have had a sense of joy and peace wash over me.  During this past week I was given an assignment in my seminary class that only seemed to push me further...

Growing up we were all asked what do we want to be when we grow up? Some of us answered princess, president, astronaut, fireman, rock star, basket ball star, and so on. None of us answered we want to be ordinary, mediocre, or just okay. 

No one says they want to settle for ordinary life, but why is it that we are so willing to settle for ordinary faith or ordinary Christian life where we only do what we are comfortable doing. 

During the darkest days of the Nazi regime, Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously asked the churches, “Who is Jesus Christ for us today?” By asking this question, Bonhoeffer indicated that it is not enough to simply confess that Jesus is Lord if that confession is not accompanied by a recognition of Jesus’s identification with and presence among those who are being crushed by the evil forces of the day. A Jesus who is only a distant historical and/or divine figure is not the real Jesus. The real Jesus is found among “the least of these,” i.e., the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden.

“Who is Jesus Christ for us today?” This is a question that is desperately needed in the American Christian Church of today. It hit me hard in a way and part of me felt that maybe it should be rephrased to “How does the way I live say who Jesus Christ is for us today?” The answer to that question would be the true answer for the previous question, just because we say who Jesus is does not matter if we do not live who we say Jesus is. As James said, faith without deeds is dead.

Jesus is Savior, Prince of Peace, Light, love, mercy, grace, and so much more. As the church we are who people see as Jesus, when they see us they should see Jesus.  In American society it seems that the church is under attack, people know more about what we are against than what we are for. We have the Westboro Baptist church on the side of Jesus hates certain groups of people and then there is the side people saying certain sins are not sins anymore or never were. Jesus’s grace is sufficient for all and meant for everyone the gift of His blood shed on the cross for all even in their imperfections, but He was a man that was pure that we are to follow in obedience to be like Him. God refines us taking out the impurities so that when people see us they see Him. 

In Luke 12:13-21 Jesus shares a parable... 

The Parable of the Rich Fool

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”  Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Somewhere on this journey there has been a shift in our focus. You see, God desires to be number one in your life. I say this to myself as much as I say it to all of you, Jesus is not okay with us settling for ordinary faith, relationship, and obedience to Him. This time on earth that we are so concerned about is but a blimp on the radar in the grand scheme of eternity. 


I must ask you again...

If I asked the people who know you who you reflect, what would they say? If I asked them who Jesus is to you, what would they say? What do you say? Who do you see in the reflection? 

What needs to change in the way you are living to show you are not going to settle for ordinary in your relationship with Jesus?