So, what comes to mind first when you think of Jesus? Do you picture the nativity: a smiling baby with blonde hair and blue eyes, golden, warm straw, and docile, perfumed animals? Or do you see a man in a white robe with long, Italian-esque hair, riddles and undecipherable parables on his lips? Hey, lean in close for a sec, I’m gonna tell you a secret: that’s not the half of who He is.

God’s not out of reach and Christianity isn’t a cult, though, sadly, I believe this is the image of Christ that many people are getting today. Please know that I do go to church every Sunday and that I’m not trying to be anti-church or anti-Christian here. But, I mean, honestly, folks, which is He? "Vegetarian, pacifist, tranquil. Oh wait -- that was Gandhi. Not Jesus" (Eldredge 37). Or a guy (who was also fully God, don’t get me wrong) with a taste for inside jokes and wit, a love for the outsider, a hatred of religious hypocrites, a man on a mission?

I know that I may be leaping right into the middle of a battlefield here, but it seems to me that after rereading much of the Gospels and John Eldredge’s "The Beautiful Outlaw," we’ve perhaps been smothering much of who Jesus is under purple robes, Latin chants, prayer books, Bible studies, potlucks, stained-glass windows, etc. Now, none of these things are wrong in and of themselves; in fact, many of these things help us to get closer to Jesus. It’s just that sometimes this reverence props Jesus up on a pedestal so high that none of us knows how to get him back down. Many people hold Him at arm’s length. Sure, people know lots of things about Jesus. It’s just that I worry that this has been mistaken for actually knowing Him (Eldredge 172).

Now, please don’t think I’m being blasphemous, but that is not the God I know. He is not always an unassuming Lamb of God. He is also the Lion of Judah and, oftentimes, this seems to be forgotten for some reason. This should make us ecstatic, though. We ought to be sprinting through the streets like madmen, whooping for the joy of it! He was human. He understands. He knows. He gets it. Jesus is sturdy. You can hold onto him. He’s not insensitive. He’s not delicate. He can take a lot of garbage. Even yours. Even mine.

He felt deeply. Perhaps even more than any of us ever could. I mean, look at the Garden of Gethsemane, raising Lazarus from the dead, joking around with the disciples, touching lepers, shouting at the Pharisees, quite literally turning the tables in the temple, Golgotha for goodness’ sake! I don’t know about you but I really don’t want to go through my life keeping Jesus at arm’s length and watching him through a pious haze. I want to know Him.

Citations:

Edredge, John. "The Beautiful Outlaw." New York: Faith Words, 2011. Print.