The baby Jesus!....... (The baby is the reason)!!!!!!!!!!

This article is written by Mehretu Petros before a couple of months while I was in Ethiopia, now he is in US so I couldn't get access to ask him a permission to put it here. But what I can definitely do is "The copy right belongs to Mhretu P.Guta notfor me"
14-mar-06

JESUS,

Adherents of every major religion of the world, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc, together with the heretical sects such as the Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons and others depend on the founders of their religions to get some sort of direction on what they ought to believe in order to frame their overall view of life. In this short article, the intention is not to critique other religious faiths in light of the teachings of the Bible but to focus on the life of the One who is the very foundation of our faith. Anyone who reads the Gospels would inevitably be challenged by studying the life of Jesus and the lessons therein. One can learn a lot from careful observation of the aspects of Jesus’ entire lifestyle as portrayed in the Gospels. In this article, it is assumed that those who read it most likely are people who are familiar with the basic teachings of the Gospel. In light of this assumption, no verses are mentioned. The life of Jesus in the four canonical Gospels mentioned above challenges us in many ways. Out of a number of lessons that can be learned from the life of Jesus, (although not an exhaustive list), the following nine points stand out to me as telling examples. Again this comes from my own reflection on what the Gospels tell us about Jesus. And it is my hope that these reflections will challenge and deepen your own thinking and reflection not only on who Jesus is but what his examples are for us today. So what are the things that mark the life of Jesus in the Gospels? 1. Love for God’s truth: Jesus’ love for God’s truth is closely linked with His mission. Jesus has, therefore, portrayed His love for God’s truth through His mission of redeeming sinners by His death on the cross. His atoning death has enabled people to understand their fundamental spiritual need in a fallen world, manifesting the limitless love of God for humankind, and restoring the distorted image of God in man. In this way, Jesus has shown His love for God’s truth even though He, Himself, is the truth, the way and the life. In the Gospels, Jesus has practiced and believed the truth, though He has done this in the hostile environment in which He lived and ministered to people. During His earthly ministry, Jesus was not appreciated by all people. One of the reasons for this is that Jesus lived His everyday life with a conviction that made Him clash with people. For Jesus, loving God’s truth at times threatened the well-founded traditions of the religious leaders of His day. Jesus’ love for God’s truth culminated in bringing glory to His father in defeating the dominion of Satan and the power of sin by opening the door of salvation for human beings. 2. Love for people: In the Gospels, Jesus loved people unconditionally. This means that Jesus does not expect people to love Him before He loves them. For Jesus, there is no preset criterion that humans must fulfill to be deserving of His love. Jesus loves people regardless of who they are and how they respond to Him. This very feature of Jesus’ love makes Him love people depending only on His desire to do so. Thus it is possible to clearly see that Jesus’ love for people is not contaminated by selfishness. Jesus’ love for people comes from His desire to fulfill His mission of redemption. We can further argue that Jesus’ love for people is God-centered. Jesus is capable of challenging people to respond to God’s saving call by trusting in Him for eternal life. On the one hand, Jesus is a Savior who redeems sinners from their sins; on the other hand, He is the healer of the sick, the blind, and the lame. He also feeds the hungry and frees the demonized. Based on this observation, we can plausibly conclude that Jesus’ love for people has a holistic nature as Jesus meets both the spiritual and the physical needs of people with the view of drawing people to the family of God - a redeemed community. 3. Courage to face criticism and opposition: For Jesus, the challenging situations in His ministry did not distract him from His mission. Difficulties for Him became opportunities which developed strength for effective service. Jesus never complained about the discomforts He faced on many occasions: rejection, ridicule, lack of acceptability, verbal and physical attacks. Jesus always used criticism and opposition in one of three ways: (a) to show His innocence in a particular situation; (b) to affirm that the experience of a tough situation was part of His mission; or (c) to instruct others concerning God’s truth. Though Jesus has a divine nature, in His human state, He used difficult situations to show His obedience to His Father in everything. Jesus showed patience, forgiveness, love, courage, endurance, perseverance and many more other virtues. Criticism and opposition were not reasons for Jesus to retaliate but opportunities to challenge people by handling things wisely and pointing the way of salvation to people. Jesus’ goal in difficult situations was always to fulfill His mission of redemption of the world. 4. Determination to do what is right as opposed to what is nice: This point reminded me of a very striking statement made by Pastor Bill Black in one of his sermons: “The World Does not Crucify Nice People.” I suppose that Pastor Black said this because it is much easier to be nice than right. This point raises an obvious question of the difference between nice and right. A common understanding of the word ‘nice’ is something that is acceptable by the majority of people. For example: it is a nice thing to help a man who is hit by a passing car. On the contrary, it could also be a nice thing to tell a lie to help a close friend in a situation where that kind of help is needed. The latter sense is not the right thing to do. So it is important to see the distinction between the right thing and a nice thing. While nice things are mostly culturally defined, the right things are not. The right things are judged in light of a fixed standard of the God of the Bible and are not open to cultural revisions. Even though the distinction has been made and the assumption of an absolute standard is questioned by many in our time, nothing could be further from the truth. In the Gospels, Jesus is not necessarily nice to people. He does not put the interests of the majority ahead of God’s interests. For example, He preaches against sin, rebukes the respected religious authorities, and associates with socially outcast people such as tax collectors, the blind, the prostitutes, and the lepers. He also heals on the Sabbath. In doing what He does in the Gospels, Jesus was condemned on many occasions because His intention was not to be nice but to be right. Jesus faced many challenges in His ministry because of His conviction to do the right thing at the expense of doing the nice thing. Doing the right thing was a crucial aspect of Jesus’ mission. 5. Open-mindedness in dialogue: That Jesus is open-minded person that means he is always willing to talk with people. Jesus invited discussion. He engaged people in dialogue whether they supported His views or not. He often argued on the basis of evidence as opposed to popular opinion. In his dialogue with people, Jesus appealed to facts, truths, and realities. Jesus understood the Mosaic Law and was able to challenge the shallow understanding of the teachers of the law. Jesus helped people see the true meaning of belonging to God’s family. Ironically, the more His opponents try to trap Him, the more they understand who Jesus is. 6. Moral purity: In the Gospels, Jesus lived a morally praiseworthy life. Morally, Jesus lived His life in the light of the Ten Commandments. The Gospels are open about the fact that Jesus was accused of wrongdoing as far as His opponents were concerned. In His opponents’ opinion, Jesus was unethical. For instance, they claimed that He blasphemed God by making Himself equal with God, He accepted the testimony of people about His divinity when in fact he was not, He claimed to have authority to forgive sins, to do miracles, to judge, etc. These and other allegations against Jesus were all unfounded. No grounds have ever been found to justify accusations brought against Jesus in the Gospels. Perhaps most of the accusations raised against Jesus were founded on emotion or contrived in ignorance. Some reacted negatively to Jesus rather than forming a well-argued case against Him. Judging Him in ignorance refers to the lack of adequate knowledge of issues by Jesus’ opponents. Jesus’ strong moral life is a challenge for His opponents and a blessing for His disciples and followers. The life of Jesus in the Gospels is marked by faithfulness, integrity and a consistent lifestyle. Purity is one dimension of Jesus’ life through which He had a lasting impact on people. 7. Critical-mindedness: Jesus was not an ordinary preacher. One can clearly see in the Gospels that He is also a profound thinker. On Jesus is a book written by a friend of mine, a Christian philosopher, named Douglas Groothuis from Denver Seminary in the US. The main purpose of this book is to argue that in the Gospels, Jesus used His mind in a way that showed how extraordinarily gifted He was to argue or discuss issues consistently, coherently, and systematically. Jesus did not embrace contradictions nor did He accept fallacies. Contrary to the contemporary anti-Jesus critiques, Jesus had the necessary skills to debate issues. By studying the ways Jesus handled the objections of His opponents and the methods He employed to refute the objections, one can observe His brilliant mind. Jesus was aware of both sides of an issue in the discussions He often engaged in with people. Jesus knew how to make His point and defend His case. In the Gospels, Jesus did not call down fire from heaven when people opposed Him and defamed His reputation. When faced with challenges such as the misinterpretation and misrepresentation of His teaching and His mission by both his followers, opponents and even His own immediate disciples, He responded in a godly way. Jesus in the Gospels was an able person in presenting His case clearly and convincingly, appealing primarily to factual evidence. Jesus of the Gospels was not one who simply appealed to blind faith to justify His case, but He was a well-equipped person in mind, heart and hands. Jesus was obviously a wonderful thinker yet the only Savior of the world! 8. Influencing the culture without being its victim. Jesus ministered to people in difficult circumstances. In other words, Jesus ministered both in good times as well as in dark times. Jesus’ determination to do the right thing often pushed Him to the point of clashing with religious authorities of His time. Even though He submitted to the cultural expectations of the Jews; He also did many things that were foreign to the Jewish culture. For example, Jesus associated with socially outcast people like tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, and blind people. On the other hand, Jesus respected the Jewish traditions when it was appropriate; yet He intentionally did not accept cultural norms when the norms conflicted with the purpose of His mission. Jesus did not do something simply because everyone else was doing it. Jesus’ standard of doing or not doing something was not based on the rules of society but on something that transcended conventionally produced rules and regulations. Jesus functioned on a different value system. Jesus revolutionized the lives of people. In the Gospels, people trusted Jesus; they came to listen to the message of eternal life. Many were healed from the oppression of physical sickness as well as from spiritual problems such as sin and demon possession. It could be said that Jesus influenced those around Him positively without being a victim Himself of wrong traditionalism. Jesus respected cultural values as long as doing so was appropriate from the point of view of His mission. For Jesus, living out His life in light of God’s revelation enabled Him to have a significant impact on people despite the difficulty of the culture. 9. Jesus: the God-man: Jesus had a unique identity in that he was fully God and fully man. In the Gospels, this unusual aspect of Jesus’ identity was the source of a lot of misunderstandings and misrepresentations. Who was Jesus? Was He an ordinary man or both God and man? How could a normal, ordinary looking man show His very special nature? The history of the church shows us how much people puzzled over such questions. The same could be said of the people in the Gospels. The questions are still being asked by the contemporary world today. Jesus manifested His power over nature, sickness, death, and Satan yet He also submitted to human authorities. Jesus’ nature is impossible to fully comprehend; yet He is a very close friend who understands everyone, regardless of race, education, color, status and so on. The Gospels portray Jesus as the source of everything and yet He lived the most ordinary life anyone could ever fully imagine. Jesus is the Savior of the world and yet He became just like us in order to minister to us! Finally, we have briefly looked at the life of Jesus in the Gospels. His life is marked by love for God’s truth, love for people, courage in the face of difficulties, doing the right thing open-mindedness, strong moral purity, critical mindedness, bringing a positive impact on the culture, and His identity as a God-man. In view of these things, what are some of the implications for us as Christ’s disciples? Here are four implications on which to focus. The life of Jesus must challenge the way we relate to God. We need to know what matters before God. Our practical dedication to Him in loving His truth is very important. The more we love God’s truths as revealed to us in His Word, the more spiritual growth is seen in our lives. To properly love God’s truth, we need to have the knowledge of God’s Word. To put this practically, members of the IEC have many opportunities to learn God’s Word. We are doing this by listening to very good sermons every Sunday, taking part in different Bible study groups and in other ways. What matters most is whether we truly implement the truths we learn from God’s word. It is only then that loving God’s truths becomes meaningful to us. Jesus’ life must challenge us in how we relate to other people. B. The life of Jesus must challenge how we relate to other people. Naturally, it is easy to love those people who love us but it is a totally different story to love those who do not love us. This is to say that from a natural human point of view, love is a two-way thing in a sense that loving people takes place in a situation whereby two or more than two people mutually benefit each other. To look at how Jesus lived and related to other people in the Gospels is a real challenge to us. It is true that Jesus loves people unconditionally. Realistically speaking, loving difficult people is not an easy thing to do. This teaching demands that we forgive those who have hurt us; it asks that we develop a positive attitude toward those who are unkind to us; and it requires that we desire the best for those who would seek our own downfall among other things. Did Jesus meet these requirements? If so, then as His disciples, what should our response be? C. The life of Jesus must challenge how we live. Jesus’ love for truth has made Him live His life in light of fixed, absolute principles. What matters to Jesus is what God says, not what the majority of people might say. God’s moral principles do not change as His laws are grounded in His unchanging nature. Today, we are living in a time where dozens of alternatives are being offered out there on the market. Contrary to God’s fixed moral principles, things are relative and there is no absolute truth. We often hear people say that they can decide what is right and what is wrong. Objective truth does not have any room within the modern mindset. Accordingly, in a post- modern world, things are right as long as they serve the interest of people. In contrast to this thinking, Jesus of the Gospels claims to be the Way, the Truth and the Life with no other alternative. The question for us today is, should we live our lives however we like or only according to God’s immutable principles given to us in His Word? D. The life of Jesus must challenge our intellectual life. It is important to equip ourselves with the knowledge of God’s Word. Jesus showed us by example how to do this. Jesus knew the Old Testament very well. He had the ability to articulate issues well and He engaged His opponents effectively. Not that all of us should become professional theologians. It is important, however, as a believing community for us to take into account what the apostle Peter says, ‘But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to every one who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.’ To practically implement this command, we could buy instructive Christian books; take part in a Bible study group; discuss issues with people who can better explain the Bible to us; attend church services regularly; and keep copies of sermons presented. The bottom line is not to become professionals but to become well grounded and discipled, Christ’s disciples in our heads, hearts and hands. May God help us to do this!