Jesus

[Angels_Unaware]

True. If he is actually God, then of course I couldn’t call him arrogant. But if I met somebody else who acted and said things in the matter that Jesus did, I might.

That’s funny, because when I read the same text I have an intuitive sense of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Maybe if you don’t have that inner experience that you can’t really convey to other people who don’t have it then you are just left with this arrogant guy that told the leaders of his religion they were wrong.

And if there was no resurrection, that’s all you’d have left, too. Just a bunch of poor, itinerant, locust-eating crazy people who had left the productivity of their fishing careers to follow a person killed by his own people for calling himself God and the Messiah.

Who would want to follow that guy.

If I didn’t sense there was this great truth in the words, I would agree with you they’re arrogant.

 

[Awake]

That’s funny, because when I read the same text I have an intuitive sense of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Maybe if you don’t have that inner experience that you can’t really convey to other people who don’t have it then you are just left with this arrogant guy that told the leaders of his religion they were wrong.

And if there was no resurrection, that’s all you’d have left, too. Just a bunch of poor, itinerant, locust-eating crazy people who had left the productivity of their fishing careers to follow a person killed by his own people for calling himself God and the Messiah.

Who would want to follow that guy.

If I didn’t sense there was this great truth in the words, I would agree with you they’re arrogant.

Agreed. Unless I have an inner experience, I can’t really see Jesus the same way that other Christians do. Until then, I have a hard time seeing him as meek and mild.

 

[Angels_Unaware]

Agreed. Unless I have an inner experience, I can’t really see Jesus the same way that other Christians do. Until then, I have a hard time seeing him as meek and mild.

If you ever do get to see Jesus as those of us who have the crazy idea that we know in a spiritual sense who he is see him, then you will still never see him as meek and mild, because he is not meek or mild. Or friendly. But he does exude love and truth. I prefer loving and truthful people to friendly people.

C.S Lewis articulated the nature of Jesus’ character really well in one of his quotes about Aslan.

‘Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver…'Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn’t safe. but he’s good. …

 

[Salonika]

Angels Unaware:

If you ever do get to see Jesus as those of us who have the crazy idea that we know in a spiritual sense who he is see him, then you will still never see him as meek and mild, because he is not meek or mild.

I have never seen Jesus as meek and mild and have always thought that what some people have interpreted as meek and mild was the opposite.

To use an analogy, which is not meant as offensive, some people considered Gandhi’s passive resistance as meek and mild but given the courage it took to carry it out was actually the opposite.
Angels Unaware:

Or friendly. But he does exude love and truth. I prefer loving and truthful people to friendly people.

Jesus – exuding truth - yes, showing friendship and love - sometimes.

I like, and react best to, truth with a dash of consideration and understanding which I see as among the characteristics of true friendship. Don’t think I am alone in this.

 

[AveSantaMaria]

To know the personality of Jesus it might help to study Eucharisted, a poster on this forum.

 

[Angels_Unaware]

To know the personality of Jesus it might help to study Eucharisted, a poster on this forum.

That seems like a very odd statement to me.

 

[John_Russell_Jr]

I think the confusion comes from not understanding what love is. God is love. Jesus is God. Therefore Jesus is love. Perhaps we can read what St Paul said love or charity is-
1Cor.13

1] If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2] And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3] If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4] Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful;
5] it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6] it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
7] Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8] Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
9] For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect;
10] but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.
11] When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
12] For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.
13] So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

If Jesus has failed in any of these points I’m yet to see it. Jesus had a mission to accomplish and it wasn’t to come here and die for saints. If people needed to be told off or put in their place he did it. This is an act of love. Jesus came here to save us and contrary to what the world thinks we all need to be told when we’ve got it wrong. The same way we smack our children. We smack them out of love, not hate , because we love them and do it for their own good.

I suggest reading the - in conversation with God - series every day along with the church’s calendar and you’ll get a greater understanding of the love of God.

I know not all of scripture gives you a warm fuzzy feeling but that’s not it’s purpose. It’s revelation. It reveals to us the mystery of God and his creation. You simply don’t know God very well. To know God is to love God and to love God is to want to serve God. But first you have to know God. Study and pray.

I often get very moved by reading or listening to the scriptures. Especially when Jesus is healing, showing compassion, healing the sick and preaching about the love of God and revealing the truth that we so desperately needed…

This is a common objection that is based on misunderstanding. Jesus is love.

 

[cerad]

Yeah, that’s all very true that he taught many loving concepts, but many of his personal encounters with other people just don’t strike me as particularly friendly. He seems like an intriguing teacher, but not somebody I’d want to have a beer with.

But perhaps that it is a good thing.

Especially not at a sports bar. Could you imagine Jesus at a Super Bowl party calmly predicting the outcome of each play before it happens not to mention revealing the final score before the game even starts?

 

[Hoosier]

Maybe I expect too much - looking for a warm fuzzy feeling or answers to prayers. Just a plain old “believe in Jesus or you’re going to hell” would be more realistic.