Who is “My Jesus”?

In his book, Generous Orthodoxy, Brian McLaren talks about the seven Jesuses he has known.  It served as a kind of faith statement for him, as he shared his journey of faith by seeing how Jesus had touched and transformed the lives of people nearby and far away.

If I have a hang up about answering “Who is my Jesus?” it in the way the personal pronoun is the first person singular. If Jesus is “My Jesus” he quits being the Jesus of someone else. If Jesus is really going to be who we believe he is, than he is my Lord and Savior, but not just for me. Jesus does not exist just to back up my opinions, or to strike out against my enemies.

But the question has been asked – Who is my Jesus?  I see Jesus as a human being growing up like I have, experiencing all of the stuff of life I have experienced, with a few things left out because of time and culture, of course.  But Jesus is fully human; he fully experienced everything we experience – even the experience of death.

Jesus is a teacher.  He went around teaching and healing, but his big thing, apparently ,was in teaching people.  He taught them about the Kingdom of God and what it looked like to live in that Kingdom.  I think Jesus is still teaching me and us today.  We still need to put our stuff aside, slow our lives down, get a check on our preconceived positions and listen to what he has to say.

Jesus is a prophet.  That’s church talk for a spokesperson of God.  He had a word from God to give to the people.  Sometimes he spoke it, sometimes he lived it.  Either way, he confronted people with God’s presence in their lives – not just to tell them that they had sinned and they needed to change direction.  But to remind them that God loves them – and us – passionately, so passionately that God will not let us go on doing things which are not good for us.

Jesus is the one who brings resurrection.  Not just eternal life, not just getting your butt into heaven.  But the one who gives us renewal of life every day, every moment.  Resurrection is not just an experience after death.  It is a ‘during life’ kind of thing.  Jesus gives us new life in the midst of life; a renewal of life that invites us to share with others all of the joy, peace and justice that following Jesus is all about.