I Want the Real Jesus for Christmas

The shepherds left their sheep to get a glimpse.  The Magi from the East came a long distance to bring Him gifts and to admire God’s handiwork.  His mother and father left comfortable and familiar surroundings more than once for His sake.  Years later, people would leave their jobs, their families, and even their physical safety in order to follow this Jesus, who went around doing good and proclaiming the in-breaking of God’s new way of living, according to Scripture. 

I want the real Jesus for Christmas, too.  I am no longer interested in the safe, comfortable, popularized distant version of Jesus.  But, like those mentioned above and like countless others throughout history, following the Jesus I see in Scripture is going to be uncomfortable, and even costly at times.  Perhaps I may not have to sacrifice in ways that many other Christ followers throughout the world are sacrificing at this very moment.  Maybe it will not cost me as dearly as it has cost millions of Christians throughout history. 

However, according to Jesus, anyone who will not willingly sacrifice his or her life – “take up the cross,” is Jesus’ words – will never truly follow the real Jesus.  Here are some things that challenge me about following the real Jesus:

1) The real Jesus was kind and loving to those who were poor and struggling.  Jesus’ first hometown sermon was about “proclaiming the good news to the poor.”  This was controversial and even offensive to those who thought the poor not worthy of extra time and attention.  Yet, the real Jesus spent the most time with these folks.

2) The real Jesus spoke the truth to power, was harshest on religious people, and was most patient and gentle to lost people.  Our culture – even our “Christian culture” -- would reverse all of this! We often tell power whatever they want to hear so that they can perhaps share their power with us (just look at how the far Right and the far Left in American Christianity has pandered to those in political power in the last forty years especially).  We tend to go easy on religious people, especially those who get a lot of media attentions (again, because we like seeing “one of us” in prominent places, so whatever they say and in whatever way they say it often becomes more important to us than what Jesus said and how He said things).  And, we tend to be particularly harsh with lost people (I think it’s because, like the corrupt leaders of Jesus’ day, we know that these people have relatively little power and influence, and we feel better about our own sins when we castigate theirs!).  The way we reverse these characteristics of Jesus is a form of idolatry: creating Jesus in our own image, instead of humbly allowing Jesus to transform us into His own image.  We miss out on the real Jesus by continuing in our stubborn and controlling ways.  Which brings us to our next point….

3) The real Jesus humbled Himself.  That’s right.  The One who had all power, through whom all things were made (see John 1), the Lord of lords, came not in a way that overpowered those who opposed Him.  Instead, He came in love-filled truth and truth-filled love.  He did not stop being loving when He was right.  And He did not sacrifice the truth of His message just to appear loving.  He was both all at once: a lesson that all of us could stand to learn better.  Often when we are right (especially in matters of religion and ethics and the Bible), we think it gives us the “right” to express ourselves any way we choose.  Again, I notice that Jesus saved His harshest critique for those of us who were either already followers (like the 12 disciples), or who thought they were following God but were really substituting God’s ways for their own (like the Pharisees in the Gospel of Matthew).  When Jesus approaches people like the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4), or the crafty tax collector Zaccheus, it is the gentleness of Jesus that shines through and that leads both of them to repentance.  It is true that with these two Jesus does not ignore their need for correction, but Jesus does it in such a way that encounters them with life-changing love.  Mean-spirited and judgmental rhetoric would have likely accomplished the opposite response from these and others like them.  I also note that even when Jesus was delivering hard truth to the powerful or to those who were abusing their religious or political power, there was a deep desire for them to be changed.  Jesus even loved the rich young ruler who publicly rejected Jesus’ invitation to eternal life.  This Jesus – the real Jesus—cared more about the message getting to those who needed it than He cared about simply “being right” or shaming those who were wrong.

After Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, the Apostle Paul would write that we should be more like the real Jesus (from Philippians 2):

Who, being in very nature^[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature^[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

People are not lining up to follow the “principles of Jesus.”  Nor will they line up to follow the American Jesus, the Republican Jesus, the Democrat Jesus, or every other cheap substitute.  People are hungering to follow the real Jesus: the Jesus whom the Gospel and Paul and many devoted Christians throughout history describes.  

This Christmas – and throughout the year – my prayer is that I will accept no substitutes, that I will not try to create Jesus in my own image (or in the image of some other well-known vocal Christian), and that I will not be afraid to imitate the real Jesus, regardless of what religious or non-religious people say. 

And along the way, this real Jesus reminds me to love even those who want to make Jesus into something He is not.  I am called to love them, even if they disagree with me.  Perhaps His greatest gift to us is the ability to do just that in His name. 

Merry Christmas!