Which Jesus?

I suppose some will call this posting a "sermon" but who's to care? Call it what you may, I have something I want to share so this is the place for me to share it.

I've always been somewhat appalled by the "Jesus" some people seem to refer to, or believe in. For some Jesus appears to be like a Santa Claus who comes around when they're good to offer them gifts for whatever reason. This kind of Jesus isn't the one I read about in Isaiah 53 or in all of the New Testament.

I came across a devotional reading last week that spoke to this subject rather succinctly I thought. I wanted to quote part of this reading but didn't know what to leave out so here it is in full. Please read as Michelle Hershberger comments on Isaiah 53.

"Who has believed what we proclaim
Every day from November 24 to December 25

That the one who can save us all
Most powerful, most glorious
Is the same one
Who was balding slightly
Fairly plain and surely not a snappy dresser

And despised no less
Rejected
Poked fun at---
Why, we saw him as a nobody
Has been
No-account
Under-achiever.

Then there was the arrest
the flogging
'If you are the Son of God, then defend yourself'
the brutal hanging on that tree
(the real Christmas tree)

And we have all turned to our own way
We have all turned our backs
Because he's not the Messiah we want.

If you are the Son of God
Come down from there and make our lives pretty

And we really don't believe what Isaiah proclaimed
And we've made a Jesus in our own image
A Jesus who nods approval as
We kill Arabs in his name
Fighting for democracy as if it's
next to godliness.
A Jesus who despises sexual sins
but sleeps peacefully in his
Suburban two-story
while others lie in the streets.

Pretty Jesus
Nice Jesus
Cuddly Jesus

Who has believed what we have been shown
---the real Jesus."

------Michele Hershberger


Reprinted by permission from Now It Springs Up by Carol Duerksen, Michele Hershberger, and Laurie Oswald Robinson. Published by WillowSpring Downs, email willowspringdowns@juno.com