I must confess that I find Jesus to be something of an enigmatic figure. We know only the details of his life and ministry that the Gospels, the Letters, and a Revelation of the apostles tell us. We know his teaching through what may be described as their filter—what they themselves picked up from their own personal interaction with Jesus, the oral tradition, what may have been earlier writings which have not survived, and in John’s case a vision. What is missing are the more intimate details, those details that intrigue us.
What did Jesus look like? Was he tall, short, average height? Fat, thin, medium build? Did he have a favorite food? A favorite wine? How did he smile? How did he laugh? What was it like to sit around a campfire with Jesus under the stars, to walk the dusty roads of Galilee, Samaria, and Judaea with him? We want to envision him in our mind. We want to get a feel for his humanness as well as for his divinity.
The apostles passed on what they knew about Jesus, what they thought important, what the Holy Spirit prompted them to record. We want to know more.
We can glean some things from what they wrote or dictated to someone else to write for them. Jesus had a sense of humor. He was very observant of nature, of first-century daily life, of little things. He was not standoffish, maintaining a distance between himself and other people. He was warm-hearted. He was kind and solicitous toward children. He enjoyed wedding feasts and dinner parties.
Among the reasons that we want to know more is that we want to model ourselves upon Jesus. He is our exemplar. We are Jesus’s disciples, Jesus is our teacher, our master, and we want to emulate his life and his teaching as a disciple would. The Holy Spirit nudges us to become more like Jesus, to walk in his footsteps. God works in us to have the desire to be like Jesus and when we have the desire, God strengths it and works with us to fulfill that desire.
We want to rid ourselves of those things that are not Jesus-like—false pride; hatred; ill-will; grudge-holding, malice—the desire to do harm; spitefulness; vengefulness, unkindness; cold-heartedness, careless words; thoughtless deeds; dishonesty; vanity, self-will; and the like. None of these things are the fruit of God’s grace, the power of God’s presence, working in us. Jesus was humble, loving, forgiving, tender-hearted, gentle, compassionate, truthful, perceptive--adroit in choosing the right thing to say or do, self-effacing, and obedient. As his disciples these qualities are ones that we would wish to cultivate in ourselves with God’s help. They are qualities that we need if we are to grow up in every way in Jesus who is our head, the head of his body which is the church—the family of those who love God and love others.
One way we can get to know Jesus better is to read and mediate upon the Gospels and those places in the Letters of the apostles, which draw attention to the example that he set for us, or which echo his teaching.
A second way is to pray. Prayer has a way of not only reminding us of what Jesus said and did, but also of giving us fresh insights into his words and deeds. In prayer we converse with our Father in heaven with whom Jesus is one. While we may address the Father as Jesus taught us, Jesus himself and the Holy Spirit are also party to our conversation with the Father. Praying is like participating in a conference call. We have all three Persons of the Godhead on the line. We pray in the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father.
A third way is to fellowship with Jesus’ family, those who love God and love others, his church. Jesus is present in his gathered people. Fellowshipping with our fellow Christians goes beyond chatting with them after church over a cup of coffee and a piece of pie after church or sharing a potluck supper with them. It means having spiritual conversations with them. It means building each other up in the Christian faith and way of life, encouraging each other, simply ministering to each other with our presence. The Holy Spirit not only knits us together in the Body of Christ, but also unites us to Jesus. We enjoy a mystical union with Jesus as well as with each other.
A fourth way we can get to know Jesus better is to serve him in the last and the least, in the poor and the destitute, in the hungry and the homeless, in the prisoner and the captive, in the sick and the dying.
A fifth way is our children and grandchildren, the children and grandchildren of kin, the children and grandchildren of friends, and the children and grandchildren of strangers. We too often forget that Jesus took a child and placed the child in the midst of his disciples. He then pointed to the disciples’ attention that not just that child alone, but all children were his representatives. Those who minister to the children minister to him.
One day we will see Jesus face to face. In this life we must be satisfied with meeting Jesus in the Scriptures, in prayer, in our fellow Christians, in those in whom we serve Jesus, and in the children. We ourselves are called to embody Jesus in the world, not just his hands and feet as we so often hear but also his heart and mind. We are to look at the world through the eyes of his love and compassion. We are to speak his words of peace and healing. In embodying Jesus, we will come to know him more.
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