“Why do you always have to bring up Jesus?” asked a Jewish friend the other night.
He had asked me how things were going at the church and I was telling him that we had established our first membership. Try talking about church – the Body of Christ, without mentioning Jesus. It’s impossible.
Don’t blame me, I said. It’s God’s fault. He was obsessed with Jesus.
Why do you think that Christians make a big deal about him, I asked him.
“Probably because you believe that he died for your sins.”
Yeah, that’s right.
Another friend spoke up.
“But, you know that Jews didn’t think that the Messiah was going to be God, right?”
The divinity of Jesus is always a stumbling block because it seems to contradict a God-is-one faith.
Yeah, you’re right. There is no way that they expected the Messiah to be divine. So, why would they have come to believe something that required them to distort the only faith they knew? What could have changed them that much?
Great questions from these friends. They think about things and they trust me enough to bring things up. I trust them enough to tell them what’s going on.
They are right about Jesus being the issue. We are discovering that already in Mark. Immediately, Jesus is hitting the radar of Galilee – someone so different they have trouble finding a category for him.
If he was a prophet, he was the most self-centered prophet in Israel’s history. He acts like he’s in charge.
I want to know how truly great Jesus is. I think that I will know God better when I do. But, I suspect knowing will have something to do with him being in charge.
Huh.
How would you answer my friends?
Why the big deal about Jesus?