I am a Jesus pusher!!! Peter pointedly confronted the Jews of the Dispersion with the crucifixion of Jesus. All their lives they had dreamed of the coming Messiah. The Hebrew word “Messiah” is the equivalent of the Greek word “Christ.” It literally means “the anointed One.” In this sense “the chosen One.” Their entire hope rested in the coming of this Deliverer. Every morning, the first words of the day would be “Could this be the day?” Every lamb offered on the sacrifice altar pointed to this hope. Christ would be a man; but a Man appointed by God to be the King of the Kingdom. Peter is crying out to them, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ,” (Acts 2:36).
Obviously they did not recognize Jesus as this Christ. They thought He was a fake and pretender. He was a bothersome human being deserving elimination. He was the brunt of their fun and mockery. They did not see anything worthwhile in Him. They crucified Him. How have you and I viewed Him? He has been the brunt of our profanity. His name is connected with every evil and bad thing that has happened to us. We stand before our crucifixion of Him and mock Him as surely as those of days gone by. He is the great Savior of the world; yet we refuse the personal salvation He offers us. He is love; yet we continue to hate. He is the revelation of eternal things; yet we are possessed with temporal things. He is the wisdom of God; yet we are dictated by our stupidity. We view Him as worthless. In the ancient days, He was at least worthy of crucifixion. We don’t even have time or interest in that; we simply ignore Him as if He does not matter. Wait! This Spirit-sourced Messiah has become both Lord and Christ. The nature of the Father is ours through Him. We have a second chance! I am a Jesus pusher!!!
Obviously they did not recognize Jesus as this Christ. They thought He was a fake and pretender. He was a bothersome human being deserving elimination. He was the brunt of their fun and mockery. They did not see anything worthwhile in Him. They crucified Him. How have you and I viewed Him? He has been the brunt of our profanity. His name is connected with every evil and bad thing that has happened to us. We stand before our crucifixion of Him and mock Him as surely as those of days gone by. He is the great Savior of the world; yet we refuse the personal salvation He offers us. He is love; yet we continue to hate. He is the revelation of eternal things; yet we are possessed with temporal things. He is the wisdom of God; yet we are dictated by our stupidity. We view Him as worthless. In the ancient days, He was at least worthy of crucifixion. We don’t even have time or interest in that; we simply ignore Him as if He does not matter. Wait! This Spirit-sourced Messiah has become both Lord and Christ. The nature of the Father is ours through Him. We have a second chance! I am a Jesus pusher!!!
It is true for our human nature to deny/ignore/neglect any thing that does not fit our preferences. It happened with Jesus too! The Jews including religious leaders were so focused on this Jesus, as a man from Nazareth who is disturbing the balance of the produced society and the philosophy ( framework of thinking)that they missed the bigger picture, the One Who sent Him, the God. Isn't it true that we focus so much on a person that we spent our entire time to find out about this person, his/her background, from where s/he comes from. They saw this Jesus as one of them, they knew his parents, they knew his brothers and sisters and they know that he was from a 'slum' of Galilee. How can this be a Son of God? Will it be possible that it would have been easier if they have seen the One Who sent Him? In fact Jesus did that, every single time any one came to Him, saying that he was a 'good' teacher, He intentionally directed them towards the One Who sent Him, His Father.
ReplyDeleteHe was/is visible image of invisible God and what ever was available for Him and His disciples, is available for us too! Sign me up please, I want/need to be in.