Something I find really interesting is that when I ask people if they know Jesus, their response usually includes “I used to go to church” or “I’m not a Christian” and “I grew up going to ____ school”.  Right, but that doesn’t answer my question.  My question is if you know who Jesus is… the man of Jesus, not the religion you’ve heard people follow.  Big difference. I’ll tell you who Jesus isn’t.  Jesus is not a religion.  Jesus is not a law you must follow.  Jesus is not a certain denomination.  Jesus is not the church.  Jesus is not the Christian who hurt you.  Jesus is not the neighbor who broke your trust.  Jesus is not the pastor who didn’t accept you.  Jesus is none of that.  What breaks my heart for Jesus is that so many people get him wrong.  So many people equate Christianity for Jesus, Catholicism for Jesus, rules for Jesus, and that hypocritical follower of Jesus, for Jesus.  It’s all wrong.  Not one of those things will ever bring you peace the way only Jesus does.  Your religion and practices aren’t Jesus.  The law laid out for you isn’t Jesus.  The church that hurt you wasn’t Jesus.  So then, who is Jesus?  

Jesus is God.  Jesus is the Messiah.  Jesus is the Son of our Heavenly Father.  Jesus lived a perfect life and yet was hung on a cross to die.  Jesus was beaten, slain, and killed for you, for me, for all who have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Jesus lowered himself to save each of us.  That’s just the tip of the iceberg to who Jesus is.  So many in our society deem Jesus as not being loving or accepting, but that is quite the contrary. Love, acceptance, care, equality, peace, kindness, joy, hope, and comfort are just a few of the words that encompass Jesus.  You don’t believe that?  All you have to do is look at the very life of Jesus.  Jesus is not a made up fairy tale, he was a real person, born on Earth, lived a real documented life, and thousands of people saw him when he was alive.  This is a fact.  Historians don’t deny the fact that Jesus was a real man who lived a very real life and there is very real evidence of that (in which I don’t have time or brain smarts to list all of that right now… something you can and should do to explore the evidence for yourself). Not only historians agree that Jesus was real, so do other religions, therefore acknowledging Jesus was a real man is a start.  But then, why do people follow this man?  What makes this man any more special than another person?  The miracles he performed.  The lives he changed.  The things he knew.  The prophecies he fulfilled.  Jesus is not just another person and he proved that time and time again.

What breaks my heart for so many people in this world, is that people don’t even realize their own unbelief, their own hard hearts, their own painful trials and suffering, their own blindness is what is keeping them from accepting Jesus.  So many have been hurt by people in the church, turned away from Jesus because of hypocritical behaviors of another human, angered because of acceptance they don’t think is there… but that is not Jesus.  If people would give Jesus a chance, they would see that they are actually the ones who need to be asking Jesus to give THEM a chance (which, if you knew Jesus, you’d know that he already died for you and for me).  When Jesus was man, HE was the one close to the brokenhearted. Jesus was the one who would sit with the sick when no one else would. Jesus would hold the person that didn’t feel accepted or loved. Jesus would see the person who society wouldn’t look at.  Jesus would welcome the poor.  Jesus would help the needy.  Jesus would qualify the unqualified.  Jesus didn’t deny anyone, but Jesus did tell everyone to deny themselves and pick up their cross.  If you don’t know Jesus, that can be confusing, but what Jesus is saying is that we are not to keep on giving into our own selfish desires.  We are not to give into our own greed and selfish ambitions.  We are told to deny our sexual and lustful desires.  Jesus tells us to not lie and steal, even when you don’t have money or see a way out.  We are to deny those very things that lead to SELF and inevitably death.  Jesus loves us so much that he tells us to deny ourselves of the very things that lead us down a bad path and tells us to pick up our cross, the very thing he died on so that we can be in heaven one day. Jesus leads to life.

I can’t make you believe in Jesus, but I can list miracle upon miracle that he performed.  I can share the stories of the historically accurate prophecies that came to fruition by Jesus himself.  I can share the voids Jesus filled in my own life, the way he saved me from my own shame and guilt.  I can share who I was before I accepted Jesus and the things I know and have experienced now that he has become my Lord and Savior.  I can do all of those things, but I can’t make you believe in Jesus.  Only Jesus can open your eyes to the miracle of who He is.  Only Jesus can give you eyes to see and ears to hear.  Only Jesus can do what man could never do.  So I challenge you to seek Jesus.  I challenge you to ask Jesus to open your eyes to what He’s opened my eyes to.  I challenge you to ask Jesus to soften your heart and pierce it in a way that only Jesus could do. You don’t want to hear another Christian plead Jesus?  Then you alone should try him for yourself.  Don’t let me try to convince you of Jesus, but instead let Jesus into your heart and seek him.  If you can’t stand to hear another Jesus follower claim the name of Jesus, then I beg of you to ask Jesus himself to show up for you in a way that ONLY JESUS could do.  He did that for me and I promise he can do that for you.  

Places to start…

• If you are curious, but still can’t wrap your mind around the idea of Jesus, the man he was, or if he was even real… Look at the evidence in “The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus” by Lee Strobel
• -If you don’t want to read, but want to see more of the eye-witness miracles and the person Jesus was… I’d encourage you to watch “The Chosen” series by Dallas