Jesus the Person, An Introduction to Holy Week

[HKHaugan]

“Then Jesus came to them. He said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So you must go and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And you can be sure that I am always with you, to the very end (Matthew 28:18-20)."

In all recorded history no person, personality or persona real or fictional has had more of an effect on human civilization and human experience than Jesus. This one individual remains the standard by which everything regarding the essence of humanity, heart, mind and spirit, is measured. Regardless of religious orientation, philosophical thought and personal speculation Jesus is the one figure in history that is the center of comparison either to prove or disprove His being, His teachings and His influence. Throw the name Jesus into any mix and it will ignite every level of internal and external response.

Like the rising and setting of the sun He always appears on the horizon. In the dawn of our awakening hours He rises on the edge of our consciousness beckoning us to let Him journey with us through the day. Then He stands on the threshold of our darkness bidding us to see the light He offers allowing us to sleep securely in Him as we await each new day.

Jesus is the buoyancy for the heart, the stabilizer for the mind and the assurance for our spirit. When we are pressed in the depth of choice and decision it is the heart that recoils either in fear or faith. It is the mind that seeks the right path and the spirit that retreats in defensiveness or makes the move to action. In all three, the mind, the heart and the spirit, Jesus stands as the one solitary person who brings balance as He integrates all three.

The record of His buoyancy, balance and reason lies in the pages of Holy Scripture. There we see from one page to the next a consistency, spontaneity and accuracy in perception, character and purpose. He is faith personified, love realized and confidence exemplified. If perfection could be at all comprehended Jesus would be its most accurate definition. If being right could be understood in the flawed mind of human beings there is no one who is more right than He.

Jesus is the epitome of what humanity was and is meant to be, faithful, full of faith. The thinking process, the attitudinal expression and the spiritual essence He exudes take us to a level of human completeness and experience reached only through faith and the knowledge proceeding from faith. He is a reality only apprehended in the willingness to test His claims. His is a mind only comprehended in the openness to experiment with His thoughts. His is a heart only felt in the acts of loving others the way He loved. His is a Spirit sensed only in the moment we choose to respond as He responded.

The radical difference between Him and all other unique and gifted leaders on the spiritual scene is the fact of His sacrificial death combined with His resurrection. His death was a sacrifice for our past and His Resurrection was a promise for our future. Both are a pattern for our present which is between the already and the not yet, between repentance when we sin and freedom from sin for each future moment. When He died it was the finish of a work that came not from the best mankind had to offer but from the best God had to offer. From His earthly beginning, appearing in the amazing entry through a virgin birth, what seemed so physical was conceived spiritually. He came from a spiritual reality beyond Creation from a Creator and was revealed as the One through whom all things came into being.

Limiting His spiritual super cosmic presence to a human body, He took every piece of humanity and redeemed it, renewed it, replaced it and recovered it to the form intended in Creation. His human mind functioned in design, in pattern, in conformity to the eternal spiritual mind behind all existence. His human heart felt the aloneness of lost human hearts because His heart was One with His Father and His Spirit. He felt what no human beings could possibly absorb in their imperfection. He felt the totality of their fear, their anger, their hurt, their greed, their pride, their hate, their lust, their defensiveness, their manipulation; all in the depths of His being. He felt human for all humanity because only God could feel what Jesus felt and Jesus’ work lay before Him---restore humanity to His Father, to His Spirit. Only He could perceive the plan, demonstrate it, live it and die to bear its truth. He alone.

When in faith He faced and met the loneliness and separation death brings, when He chose that path to die embracing all that caused man’s sin–driven alienation from a perfect and loving God---when He rose from and above the tomb that held Him, there and then was realized the hope and the faith that would restore all mankind. For in the Resurrection we look back at the Cross and what it means for us today. It is a path both symbolic and actual that Jesus calls us to take that confronts our lostness and its causes.

Taking that cross is taking faith in the presence of Jesus every next moment as the means to our restoration and the restoration of all people. Taking up our cross is the way of faith in Him who is always present and ready to help us through His Spirit. In the Resurrection we are assured that we have the way of living, the truth to live by in His Word and the life in the Spirit that lasts forever. When Jesus said He was the way, the truth and the life He who began the universe becomes our new universe and universe into which we invite others to join us.