JESUS REVISITED

I’m absolutely amazed to find that there’s a book called “ReJesus”. Only recently at our local fellowship in Barbados “Break Free”, we did a study over a few Sundays entitled “Jesus Revisited”. The premise for these study sessions was to bring us into a closer awareness of who Jesus really is and was (in terms of his walking the earth over 2,000 years ago). Through our many years of ministry and involvement in Church life we have seen that who Jesus is has often been relegated to the back-burner of the life of the church. Many Christian are caught up with the fads of titles and movements; with worship “correctness”; doctrinal distinctives; theological arguments and even with Old Testament symbolism and liturgical practice while failing to focus on the bed-rock of Christianity and of the Christian Church; Jesus Christ Himself. In our study sessions, those in attendance basically agreed that their perceptions of Jesus were based on popular artistic imagery and on “traditional religious perceptions” of “gentle Jesus meek and mild”;( who wouldn’t harm a fly). Our revisioning of Jesus through the word of God causes many of us to see Him again as the radical social warrior which He was AND IS; someone who went against the grain of society and was not afraid to question and challenge the status-quo. What excited us most was our realization that Jesus didn’t shun sinners for fear of contamination; he interacted with the most unlikely of associates in the most questionable of places and what motivated Him most was the realization that he was carrying out His father’s mission; it was never ever about His image; It was and is entirely about His unconditional love for lost humanity. We too are called to continue God’s mission in the world in the Spirit of radical personal and social transformationism; we need a fresh new look at Jesus through the fresh lens of His word to understand how exactly we must follow suit. It calls for us to descend from the pulpits and meet people where life is happening. This is exactly what Jesus did; it is the essence of missional living.