Images of Jesus

Several years have passed since I was last a Young Life leader. However, I still go through life looking for good illustrations for when I'm sharing the gospel with folks. I may not be as extreme about it as I once was... ("You got arrested??? Man, that's gonna make a great club talk!!!") But my mind does still continue to see little things that I think might resonate with someone I know.

The first Young Life talk of each semester is always some sort of Jesus 101 message. A simple, "who do you think Jesus is?" message to get the wheels turning in students' heads. A former leader and co-leader of mine, Dave Huffman, was so dang good at this talk. He had some great illustrations that might have been his own original ideas, or maybe he just got them from someone else... either way, his intro to Jesus message has stuck with me from my sophomore year of high school.

Huff would ask us what we saw in our minds when asked us who we thought Jesus was. He was more than happy to bring up some common images... for example, as a young Catholic in Sunday School, I knew what Glowing Head Jesus looked like. Hearing some of the Sunday School stories made me appreciate the image of Sheep-cuddling Jesus. As time passed, I eventually developed a fondness for a non-marijuana-smoking Hippy Jesus. (Even right now, you may be imagining everyone's favorite interstate Solid Rock Jesus.) Certainly, we all have some cheesy images in our heads when we think about childhood memories of Jesus.

Now, those images may be similar to the way you feel about Jesus, or they may be quite different. Do you think of Jesus as a guy who walked the streets while literally glowing bright yellow? Do you think of Jesus as a loner who hung out with sheep all day? Did he flash peace signs to passers-by? Did he always dramatically throw his arms up the air and stare at the sky? Is he the God who sits on the clouds, waiting to throw lightning bolts at you every time you do something wrong? Is he a God who is too busy to pay attention to you because he has so much else to do, you know, running the universe and all?

The answer? He's the Alpha and the Omega. He's the Lion and the Lamb. Everything good that you could ever imagine him to be in every specific situation, he is.

I think the Bible shows that he's a lot better than all of the images we have. He's the God who created everything that we see and everything that we don't see. He's the God who is in charge off all things, big and small. Sure, there's a lot of things going on in the world that he cares about, but he can attend to you at any time without neglecting anything else that he might be watching. He can do this because he cares about you tremendously, and also because he's able to do anything... he can give you his full attention, while also giving his full attention to everything else in the world... he's bigger than we could ever fathom.

I think about these things as I think about how I want to teach my son about Jesus. I want Toby to know that God made everything... God is bigger than he can imagine... God loves everyone in the world sooooooooooooo much, and yet God still loves him so much more than Robyn or I ever could. God wants him to do well, honor his parents, love his neighbors. God is not waiting with lightning bolts when he fails at said wants. Above all, God wants Toby to love and honor the Savior. And God wants the same for all of you who are reading.