Chapter 2

Jesus: A "Real" Guy

            Jesus was a real guy; no, this is an understatement, He was the most real person who ever lived.  Because He was fully God and fully man at the same time, it would only follow that He would have to be infinitely authentic, warm, genuine, honest, and real.  With Jesus, what you saw is what you got; there were no pretenses or hidden agendas, and, therefore, he could be fully trusted. People (remember Zacchaeus ?) knew this almost immediately upon meeting Him.  This is why, I believe, people were attracted to him and wanted to be with Him, and so much so that throngs of people followed Him around.  It was as if they could not spend enough time with Him.  It would be great if this could be said of the rest of us, His followers.

            Do you remember the story of the “Woman at the Well” in John chapter four?  What hits me about that story is the quickness with which Jesus was able to break down the barriers between Him and her.  I think He did this because He loved her.  He also knew what she needed and, that above all else, she wanted to be whole.  He knew that she was just another one of His lost creation who was looking for the right things in all of the wrong places.

            She responded to Jesus' tenderness and insight.  He was willing to put aside racial, religious and gender boundaries so that He could reach the core of who she was.  He was quick, but gentle.  He was convicting, but supportive.  He loved her in a way she had never known to that point. He was being real with her.  He was showing her and us how unimportant the outside masks were that keep us safely distant from each other.

            It is interesting that the disciples were typically unaware of the true “ministry” that was taking place back at the well (this also reminds me of how out of touch the disciples were when they thought they were helping Jesus by shooing away the little children only to have Jesus rebuke them and, to have Him admonish all of us to become like these children).  Similarly, I can see and hear them thinking to themselves that they were doing the “important” things for the continuation of their mission, while Jesus took a rest back at the well.  But at the well, the real mission was being lived out between Jesus and the woman.

            Isn't this woman, in a sense, all of us?  Were we not drawn to Jesus because He knew the answers and was perfect, yet not rejecting of our faults?  Did we not come to Him because He accepted us just the way we are?  Did He not communicate to us, against a backdrop of cynicism and worldly power struggles that real happiness was found in knowing Him and, that in Him we could rest?

            This idea of rest is reinforced in one of my favorite verses in the Bible when Jesus calls us to Him by saying, “Come to Me, all of you who are burdened and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

            I can usually tell how well someone knows Jesus by the degree to which they demonstrate they need Him.  These people communicate that without Him they would be lost and without a clue as to where the true meaning in life exists.  Their emotions, words and body language communicate humility.  They know that only the God of the universe would care so much for such a person as them and that only He has the answers to the questions regarding the meaning of their life. 

            This is what the Apostle Peter was saying when he answered Jesus with regard to whether or not he was going to stay with Him.  The crowd had just dispersed when they realized being with Jesus would be a life of difficulty.  These people knew they would have to give up all normalcy as they knew it to follow Jesus.  As the crowd left, Jesus asked Peter if he was going to leave too.  Peter's answer is truly remarkable and insightful.  His basic answer to Jesus was that the only place to be was with Jesus no matter the circumstances, because He knew that Jesus was God.  Being with God in a fox hole would be better than being without God in a mansion.  Also, he knew that the life the crowd was going back to was meaningless compared to what he had found in Jesus. 

            Likewise, people who have been with Jesus are not so much concerned with outward appearance, but more interested in loving others the way Jesus has loved them.  After all, the Bible says that God looks on the inside while man looks on the outside.  (Remember how the Nation of Israel wanted to choose Saul as their king because he was tall, dark, and handsome, rather than the smaller David who was “a man after God‘s own heart.”)  Jesus also said that others would know that we were with Him because of the love we show to one another.  The Apostle John went further by saying that if we say we love God and do not love others, we are lying about our love for God.

            Jesus was not concerned about power, money, or position.  Even though he was famous, He told people not to tell of the miracles He did. On the contrary, we are so easily persuaded and impressed by outward power that the temptation is always there for us to put Jesus on a pedestal so that we can use Him for our own selfish ego needs.  He, on the other hand, did miracles to let us know how much He loves us and that He is powerful enough to handle whatever we bring to Him.

            This is the "Good News" of the Gospel of Jesus Christ:  That while rarely a man would die for a good man, Jesus died for us when we didn't deserve it.  If you do not know Jesus personally, this would be a good time to realize that He is on your side and that He wants to know you in an authentic and real relationship.  Ask Him to be with you, personally, and He will.  Jesus said in Revelation 3:20 that all you have to do is ask and He will come into your heart and have a relationship with you forever.  Don’t hesitate because the Bible tells us that “today is a great day to be saved.”  What awaits you if you begin this relationship with God today is a genuine, authentic, and real relationship with the God of the universe.  He will then be able to help you become a more real person with yourself and others.

             Jesus is a “real guy” and a “real God” who wants you to share with Him all of who you are.  This means He wants to know all of you, including your strengths and your weaknesses.  He is not afraid of anything you may throw at Him.  Even your most vile thoughts would not surprise someone who knows everything, including what you think, even before your think it.

            On the contrary, I've had several clients who think Jesus could love everyone, but not them. They believe they are too bad and wicked to the core.  They believe they do not deserve the kind of love that comes from God. 

            One client, who had obsessive/compulsive disorder, could not go to church without cursing God involuntarily in his mind, believing that this constituted blaspheming the Holy Spirit, and therefore, the unpardonable sin.  He could then, unconsciously, prove that even God could not love him, and then, that it would be justified for even God to abandon him.  He felt this way because in various ways every significant person in his life had abandoned him.  In addition to this, sadly he blamed himself for having been abandoned by all these people.  It was an easy conclusion to believe that God would do the same.

     I had another client who could not think of God without thinking of sex at the same time.  This convinced her that she was wicked and, therefore, not deserving of God's love and forgiveness. 

            These are examples of masochistic thinking, started very early in a person's life, in which they believe they are not worthy of anything good, joyful, beautiful, or pure.  They feel so ugly inside that the thought of God really loving them is almost impossible to believe.

            Yet, this is in complete contrast to the fact that Jesus was a real guy and a loving guy, and that the same holds true for today.  He accepts these clients and us in spite of and because of our ugliness.  What we find completely disgusting and reprehensible about ourselves, He loves and accepts fully (of course, we couldn‘t hide it from Him if we wanted to because He is all-knowing).

     We know this is to be true because He suffered (according to the Book of Hebrews) in every way that we have.  He knows exactly what it’s like to be us.  He is not interested in condemning us, but in renewing the beautiful idea that we were created for a special reason.  Each of us has a place in His Kingdom and the “now” that He controls.  He is not as concerned with how much we sin, but with how much we love Him and are pursuing a relationship with Him. 

            The truth is that all of us have failed, are failing now and will continue to fail in the future.  This would be a hopeless truth if Jesus did not provide us with hope.  Sin is something which keeps us from each other, but it does not have to separate us from Him. It was because we were without hope that He died for us.  His death would not make sense otherwise because He could have chosen another, less painful way.  If His death was unnecessary, He was simply another martyr who died for the people he loved and the cause in which he believed.

            It's time for the church to be like its founder.  Just as Jesus accepts us just as we are and meets us where we are at, we need to express to each other that we are incredibly valuable and acceptable.  We need to remind each other that we all are in process, and that because we all still becoming that no one has arrived yet.  If we put our trust in Him our hope lies in the fact that we all are still becoming who He wants us to be.

            In this way the church must be different from the world.  It needs to be a safe place; a place where sinners (i.e. all of us) can feel at home.  When sinners step foot into a church, they should feel as if they finally came home and, it should stay that way until the end (this includes church discipline which has restoration as it‘s goal).  People should immediately give out a huge sigh as if they just took a cold glass of water on a hot and humid day.  It should be an oasis of protection from a hostile and rejecting world.  It needs to be a place where failure is expected, weaknesses are expressed, and differences are encouraged.

            I once thought that a neat name for a church would be “The First Church of Come As You Are.”  People would be encouraged to become what God intends them to be without worry of judgment from other Christians. The pastors would wear a variety of clothes, including jeans.  People would not be shamed for wearing baseball caps, and we would speak to God in normal language.  A full range of emotions would be allowed without fear of ridicule or gossip. We would be encouraged to grow, and failures would be interpreted as temporary bumps along the long road of the Christian life.  People would be encouraged to see their failures as opportunities for growth.  They would not see themselves as failures, but only their actions as failures.  After all, we should “love the sinner and hate the sin,” not “love the sin and hate the sinner."

            I think this kind of church wouldn’t turn off sinners.  In addition, our teenagers would be excited to be in church rather than moaning and groaning about God and His House.  People would receive real healing because they would see the realness of Jesus through the realness in us.

            Church also needs to be, among other things, fun.  I think this was the message of the movie “The Sister Act.”  Whoopi Goldberg's character brought life to a dead church.  She helped transform the neighborhood, and the Nuns, too.  Even though this is fiction, I believe the movie was so successful (leading to Sister Act II) because people are waiting  desperately for the church to become more real.

            I also have a book in my library which is entitled “It's a Sin to Bore a Kid with the Gospel.”  This book describes the journey and mission of the organization called Young Life; a youth organization created to bring our youth back to the church. 

            I believe in the title of this book and the process it describes.  We are in real danger of losing our children to things that seemingly help them be more of who they are without the pressure of being a Super-Christian.  My hope is that this book will be part of a process that helps them and the church become more real!

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