The Other Jesus

We all know Jesus, right? Well, at least we Christians. Right? He's all loving and all gracious and all kind. He told a father asking for healing for a child, "All things are possible to him who believes," and when the father admitted he was a little sparce on faith, Jesus healed the boy anyway (Mark 9:23-26). When they brought a woman caught in adultery to Him, He didn't condemn her (John 8:3-11). A really loving, forgiving, merciful, gracious man. That's one Jesus, but if that's the only Jesus you know or recognize, you're missing out.

There is another quite obvious Jesus presented in the Gospels and so many people choose to ignore this one. In John 2 Jesus went into the Temple around Passover and found them selling animals and exchanging money. He made a whip and drove them out (John 2:13-17). Now that's not a so-nice Jesus, is it? He actually did it again later (Matt 21:12-13)! "You know, Jesus, this doesn't fit too well with our finely-crafted 'loving and gentle Jesus' thing." In Matthew 23 Jesus went on a rampage of "woes." Mind you, in the Hebrew mind, "woe" wasn't, "Oh, poor me." It was the opposite of "blessing," a curse. It is an exclamation of judgment. And Jesus was relentless in His pronouncing judgment on the religious leaders of His day (Matt 23:13-36). Not exactly the "all-loving, all-grace" version we like to think about. He told Chorazin and Capernaum that it will be more bearable on judgment day for the likes of Tyre and Sidon and Sodom, all cities known for their evil ways, than it will be for them (Matt 11:21-24). Not too merciful there, was He? Even in that exchange with the woman caught in adultery, while Jesus did say, "Neither do I condemn you," He immediately followed it with the stark, "Go and sin no more" (John 8:11). Hardly a "Sin all you want; I'm okay with it." Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matt 10:34). Jesus said, "Whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God" (John 3:18). Not exactly the "grace and mercy" Jesus we like to think about. Jesus said, "If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me" (Luke 9:23). Doesn't sound so gentle to me. Jesus said, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26-27). That's tough.

We like to think that the Old Testament God was a big meany, full of wrath and all that, but this New Testament version we know as Jesus was all light and life. He wasn't. He spoke more of Hell than Heaven. He promised eternal damnation to those who would not receive Him. He demanded surrender from His followers. Not an a cruel basis. Not as a conqueror. Because, while Jesus was indeed the most gracious, loving, merciful, kind, forgiving representation of both Man and God that we've ever seen, He was still the same God as that "mean" Old Testament version. He still hated sin. He still did the will of His Father. So He made the way -- the only way -- for our sins to be forgiven and to have peace with God (Rom 3:24-26) by dying on the cross in our place and nailing our sins to that cross (Col 2:14). But He still hates sin. And if we're going to be Christ-followers, we will need to take all of Him, not just the parts we find heartwarming.