Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?
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David and I are currently watching series 4 of ‘The Chosen’, streaming free on watch.thechosen.tv. It’s invigorating to watch Jesus speaking truth to power. Such a delightful change from the misconceptions we often have in our mind when we think of 'gentle Jesus meek and mild'. It's one thing to read in our Bibles the way Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of his day. But it's quite another to see a dramatisation of Jesus saying these words to their faces.
‘Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much as son of hell as you are… Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices... But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness… You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. Matthew 23: 13-15, 23-24.
No wonder they wanted him dead! Watching The Chosen is bringing me back to the radical Jesus of the gospels, not the sanitised version of polite Western Christianity. It's so refreshing! But also sobering. Christians must always take to heart that Jesus’ strongest words were for those who claimed to know God but fixated on the details, on rules and regs, instead of focusing on love and compassion. Let’s come back to the Jesus of the gospels, and see the true nature of God revealed more and more through him,
‘In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.’ Hebrews 1: 1-3
