The Kind of
Jesus People Thought He Should Be
Jesus’
brothers expected big things out of him.
Now, Jesus’ brothers didn’t believe that he really was the Savior at the
time, but they came to him one day and suggested, “You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may
see the miracles you do. No one who
wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these
things, show yourself to the world” (John 7:3-4). They thought he should be the kind of leader
that showed off his amazing miracles in public so that he could become famous.
Of
course, other people had expectations of Jesus too. At another point in Jesus’ ministry, after he
finished feeding the five thousand men plus women and children with five loaves
of bread and two fish, the people there thought it to be a good idea to have
this man around them on a permanent basis so that he could miraculously feed
them whenever they got hungry. But “Jesus, knowing that they intended to come
and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself” (John
6:15).
Even at
the end of his life, while Jesus was hanging there on the cross, some of the
people there scoffed, “He saved others;
let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One” (Luke 23:35). Throughout Jesus’ life people wanted him to
be a kind of leader who was well-known for his miraculous powers or a kind of
king who would supply his subjects with every nice thing on this earth or a
kind of prophet who would promote his own well-being and use his abilities for
his own benefit. But that’s not who
Jesus was. And that’s not who Jesus was
going to be. He wasn’t here to be
popular with the crowds; he wasn’t here to set up an earthly kingdom; and he
wasn’t here for his own advancement or honor.
Jesus was here on this earth for a far more important reason. And that’s why he wasn’t the Jesus everyone
thought he should be.
The Kind of
Jesus the Disciples Wanted
Jesus’
own disciples had some of those same ideas.
They would have liked a Jesus who displayed his power a little more
often, someone who would also relieve them from the pains and the troubles they
had to face on this earth. And that
mindset is seen on top of the mountain where Jesus was “transfigured” or
transformed in front of three of them.
Notice during this incredible event what Peter says in the heat of the
moment: After six days Jesus took Peter,
James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all
alone. There he was transfigured before them.
His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could
bleach them. And there appeared before
them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for
us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one
for Elijah.” (He did not know what to
say, they were so frightened.)
Peter
and, I would guess, James and John too, wanted to set up some tents for Jesus
and Elijah and Moses so that they would stay a while longer. They never wanted this amazing transformation
to end! They were standing there in
front of two of the greatest prophets ever to have walked on the face of this
earth! And on top of that, Jesus was
standing there as they had never seen him before: shining in his godly
glory! This was the kind of Jesus they
had been waiting for! This was the kind
of Jesus that they knew he had always been!
And this was the kind of Jesus that they wanted everyone else to
see! A Jesus who looked like God! A Jesus who glowed like God! A Jesus who was visibly powerful and
unmistakably impressive! This was the
kind of Jesus who could fix all of their problems in an instant and wipe out
any one of their enemies who might possibly dare to cause them harm! This
“transfigured” Jesus, this transformed Jesus was the one they wanted to come
down the mountain with. No one would
doubt his teachings now! No one would
question the disciples’ own career changes anymore!
But then
the Bible says that, “A cloud appeared
and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: ‘This is my Son, whom I
love. Listen to him!’ Suddenly, when
they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.” In the blink of an eye the kind of Jesus that
they had been so excited to see, the kind of Jesus that had filled them with so
much joy, was gone. And all they were
left with was the normal, ordinary, every-day Jesus. The kind of Jesus that looked like a regular
guy. The kind of Jesus that walked and
talked and ate and slept. The kind of
Jesus whose face didn’t shine and whose clothes didn’t gleam. He would be the kind of Jesus to come down
the mountain with them. He would be the
kind of Jesus the people of this world would see once again. And we aren’t told what those three disciples
thought about that, but I would guess that they had to be at least a little bit
disappointed. Who wouldn’t be? After seeing Jesus reveal his majesty like
that on top of the mountain, I think it’d be hard to go back down that mountain
without taking that kind of Jesus with them.
The Kind of
Jesus We Would Like
We would
like that kind of Jesus sometimes, wouldn’t we?
The kind of Jesus who displays his visible and undeniable might in our
lives. The kind of Jesus who clearly demonstrates
his ability to snap his fingers and make everything bad go away. And we pray like that too on occasion. We pray that he would completely remove all
of our problems and that he would take away every difficulty and that he would
fix each one of those unpleasant situations so that we would never have to deal
with any trouble ever again. But that’s just
not the kind of Jesus we have because that’s not the kind of Jesus we
need. We don’t need the kind of Jesus
who completely removes all of our problems or takes away every difficulty or
fixes each one of those unpleasant situations.
We don’t need the kind of Jesus whose only goal is to give us a good
life on this earth. We don’t need the
kind of Jesus whose sole purpose is to provide us with the nice things of this
world. We don’t need the kind of Jesus
whose reason for existing is to make sure that we enjoy ourselves while we are
here by acquiring the maximum amount of wealth and happiness possible. But that’s what we want sometimes, don’t
we? We want that kind of Jesus who gives
us all of those things and does for us all of those thing because then our
lives would be so much easier and each day would be so much more pleasant to
get through and life would be that much more enjoyable. That’s the kind of Jesus we think we need. Unfortunately, we sometimes want a kind of
Jesus he is not. We want a kind of Jesus
he does not promise to be. Which means
we sometimes want a God other than the one he is.
The Kind of
Jesus We Needed Him to Be
I’m sure
the three disciples expected big things from Jesus after his transfiguration. But when he came down from that mountain he didn’t
show his glory to his disciples again until after he rose from the dead. In fact, soon after his transfiguration he
led his disciples south to the city of Jerusalem for the final time. Because right outside those city walls he
would soon be betrayed, arrested, and handed over to the posse of the high
priest. Inside those walls he would be
tried, convicted, and condemned. Within
the soldier’s headquarters he would be beaten and scourged and abused. And on a road leading out of that city he
would soon be nailed to a cross. Because
that’s the kind of Jesus they needed!
They needed a Jesus who was a real human being in every sense of the
word - not a Jesus who stood high above them on a mountain top untouched by the
ugliness of this life. They needed a
Jesus who was willing to suffer that severe pain and that humiliating death and
that awful abandonment by his Father.
They needed a Jesus whose blood would flow, whose skin would break,
whose brow would sweat, whose heart would stop.
And they needed a Jesus who would allow them to undergo some
difficulties of their own. Just as Jesus
did not prevent himself from experiencing trouble and pain and torture, he did
not prevent his disciples from experiencing those things either. He could have! He could have spared his disciples from any
of the unpleasantries of those events, but that’s not the kind of Jesus they
needed! They needed a kind of Jesus who
would not shelter them from the pain. Because
that pain brought them closer to him.
We need that same kind of Jesus. We need the suffering Jesus, the humiliated
Jesus, the Jesus who let his back be scourged, the Jesus who let his head be
punctured, the Jesus who let his hands and feet be driven through. We needed the Jesus who looked like he had
lost, because that’s how we won. We needed
the Jesus who seemed as if he could not do anything to save himself on that
cross because that’s how he saved us.
And in the end we also need the Jesus who allows us to undergo some
painful times and terrible situations in our own lives because he uses even
those events to draw us closer to him.
We need the exact same kind of Jesus whom Jesus has always proven
himself to be: one who was willing to suffer and one who is willing to let us
suffer; the one who was ready to give up every good thing on this earth and the
one who sometimes takes away good things from us; the one who did not shy away
from death and the one who lets death affect the people in our lives. Because this kind of Jesus is not so
concerned about the ease of life we have while we are here; this kind of Jesus
is focused on the perfect life that we have planned for us up there. That is the kind of Jesus we need. And that is the kind of Jesus we still have.
The Kind of
Jesus He Is
Jesus’
mindset and his goal for us are still the same.
He doesn’t always make our pathway smooth because that wouldn’t be good
for us. Jesus doesn’t always give us
what we want because that wouldn’t be good for us either. Jesus doesn’t always physically heal us or
mentally relieve us or emotionally calm us because sometimes even those things
are good for our faith. But you can be
assured that we have the kind of Jesus that will do whatever is best for us at
exactly the right time.
Peter,
James, and John needed to see him transfigured on that mountain before they
came back down. But those very same
disciples also needed Jesus to be the normal, ordinary, every-day Jesus by the
time he reached that cross. And they
needed him to allow them to go through a few struggles of their own. We too get a few tastes of Jesus’ power and
majesty throughout our lives just like those disciples did on the Mountain of
Transfiguration. But more often than
not, we must go through struggles at the bottom of that peak. Because by going through the struggles we are
forced to pray to him and lean on him and cling to him. And as long as we need that and as long as we
benefit from that, that’s exactly what our kind of Jesus is going to do. Our kind of Jesus is going to do whatever it
takes to make sure that no matter how hard this life is, we will end up in
heaven with him. That’s what a loving
Jesus does, a caring Jesus, a merciful Jesus, a forgiving Jesus. That’s the kind of Jesus we need. And that’s the kind of Jesus we have.
Amen.
“Praise be to the
Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.” - Ps. 68:19
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