The Real Jesus?

The season of Advent begins this Sunday and marks the start of a new liturgical year in the  life of the Christian Church.  The word Advent comes from the Latin word “adventus” which means “coming.” The season begins four Sundays before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve.  Advent is about the coming of Jesus and almost every December we can expect Time magazine,  or the National Geographic, or some other periodical publishing a special article on Jesus.  This year is no exception and the December issue of  National Geographic presents “The Real Jesus” (What Archaeology Reveals About His Life).

The “Real Jesus” is hard to find.  Yet in spite of this, Jesus is the basis of the Christian faith.  “A Christian” writes Elton Trueblood, “is a person who, with all the honesty of which he is capable, becomes convinced that the fact of Jesus Christ is the most trustworthy that he knows in his entire universe of discourse…Faith is a personal commitment to Jesus Christ,” and, “the deepest conviction of the Christian is that Christ was not wrong!  Particularly, we are convinced that He was not wrong in His report about Himself.”

The Christian does not merely say that Jesus was the greatest figure of history or the greatest moral teacher.  The Christian sees Jesus “as the genuine revelation of the mystery of existence, the one clear light among the many shadows.”  The question, “What is God like?” is answered by the Christian, “God is like Jesus.” 

There are those who say they accept Jesus as a moral teacher, but do not accept him as one who provides a unique revelation of God. This option is not available.  Anyone who reads the four Gospels must deal with Jesus’ teachings about his relationship with His Father, God.  As Trueblood says, “The inescapable conclusion is that, if Christ was only a teacher, He was a very misleading teacher.”  C.S. Lewis and J.B. Phillips said that the only alternative to the acceptance of Jesus’ teaching about Himself is that He is either “a lunatic or a quack.”  Who is/was The Real Jesus?  It is a very important question. 

Pondering "The Real Jesus" at the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem--2010