Moved deeply by your post, thank you Timothy Girl
Glad to hear it ministered to you, shittim. Grappling with the personality of Christ is something that we all do from time to time. Between the Gospels and the Epistles, we gain a good knowledge of His
Character - as you yourself have stated: gentleness, kindness, forbearance, longsuffering... But what was Jesus
like? If He walked into the room... or joined us on the forum... would we notice Him? Be able to identify Him? Or would He blend in? We'd like to think that we would, but perhaps He was so
normal that we would walk away from a conversation with Him thinking, "
Man, what a nice guy!"?
The Jesus I have come to know is the one who banters with the Syrophonecian woman; who loves to surprise the disciples and has the deepest compassion upon the people... no one could figure Him out. He was - ughm,
is - so
human, and yet so different!!
For instance, I LOVE the account of Peter talking with the Pharisees, I guess, about Temple Tax in Matthew 17:
Peter has a rather awkward conversation outside and gets himself into a pickle. He's in a situation where they are forced to pay the temple tax, but he knows
full well that they have no money. He enters the room nervously. I can almost imagine the conversation going on in Peter's head how he is going to approach the Master about this.
But then it says in vs 25, "Jesus,
anticipating him, said..."
Do you think He was serious when he said,
"What do you think, Simon?"
Or did He have a wry smile on His face as He knew He was about to put Peter in
another award position?
I should imagine He
laughed out loud as told Peter to go fishing and find a coin! And laughed
even harder at Peter's astonished response? How would
you respond if you were in Peter's shoes? "Oh, He's the Christ and this is pretty normal..." It's recorded in Scripture
because it was an event that they talked about amongst themselves! They must have ROLLED in laughter when they revisited the memory, especially knowing Peter! --- My goodness! Time and tradition has sucked the LIFE out of the personalities in the Word!! They are so colorful and so...
like us!
The fact that the competition between Peter and John is RECORDED in the Bible is enough evidence for me to relate 100% with what went on between them. John ACTUALLY has to record -
for time and eternity - that he beat Peter to the grave!
I LOVE it!!
Jesus loved it! He didn't call Pharisees with no sense of humor - He called fishermen who had no regard for formalities. What a blast they must have had! The feuds, the fights, the humor... I mean, Jesus called James and John the "Sons of Thunder".
Do you
think they "minded their "p"s and "q"s around Jesus for Him to call them that?!
My Pastor always calls it, "the Raw Reality of God's Humanity!"
Sorry, I got caught up there, but hopefully you could see it come alive as I did...
A Scripture that comes to mind as I write this is from Matthew 11:
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon'.
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a winebibber...!'
If that is how the religious Pharisees perceived Him, I'm drawing the conclusion that Jesus ENJOYED life the the full! And He must have LOVED the taste of food; appreciated it; savoured it... every morsel, every sip... and then finally, at that last Supper, which they had seen Jesus partake of and
enter into each and every time... He raises His glass one last time and says to them. "Take and eat; this is My Body... drink, for this is My Blood." Can you imagine the weight in that room after having a history of dining with the Lord, knowing how He
enjoyed each meal; the gravity behind that statement?
Jesus has just become more real to me than He ever has been before...