2013-12-15 Daniel Daring 2013 articles 2012 articles
Advent
Three:
Is He
the One? - A Report about Jesus
Isaiah 35:1-6.10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11
My fascination with Jesus goes back to the year 1990 when something very special took place in my life. Since that day, I have decided to know Him and to make Him known. In order to achieve the first aim of that decision – to know Him - I used my head, my heart, and my life-experience. When it comes to knowledge, I was very fortunate to discover the books of J.D. Crossan about the historical Jesus.
Crossan has this special gift of bridging the distance of two thousand years by explaining Jesus' social context and His message in a manner that can be understood by us, twenty-first century men and women, who live in different times and context. My heart was taught in the moments of prayer. I read and studied the accounts of Jesus' life reflecting upon His sayings and His actions. I journaled my reflections and jotted down my prayers.
This heart-knowledge was captured four years ago in yet another special moment that led me to write these words: “Dear Lord Jesus. I come to You now with humility and trust; I confess with my lips that You are my Lord and Savior; I believe in my heart that You have risen, and You are alive. Now, I surrender my life to You. Be my Light in darkness; be my Way in wilderness; be my Life in death. With You in my life, I can move mountains and I can do even greater things. I love You and thank You for everything. Amen.”
Finally, the last source of my knowledge about Jesus came from experience. I own Him my life. In the year 2001, alone in a remote village of East Timor, I was losing a battle for life against one of the greatest killers of our times, which claims one to three million lives annually. There was nothing I could do. The fever ran high; my whole body was numb; the nearest hospital was hours away. My only hope was Him. “Jesus! Save me! Jesus! Save me!” - I was crying. And He did. Malaria retreated.
However,
regarding my second aim – to make Jesus known - I have had rather discouraging
experiences. I grew up in a Catholic country and I have spent most of my years
as a missionary living and working among Catholic Christians. And I have made a
sad discovery: that Jesus is little known among the majority of us. There is so
much excitement when it comes to “Our Lady” and the saints. The person of
Jesus, on the other hand, lies hidden behind different types of devotions and
rituals. Moreover, there are some of us who even question the validity of
missionary calling. When a missionary goes to his/her country and reports about
the many poor people s/he helps and the many developmental projects s/he
implements, s/he is held as a hero; if, however, s/he says that his/her time is
dedicated to preaching the Gospel and trying to make Jesus know, the people ask:
“What for?” What could be the reason for this lack of interest in Jesus?
The first Christians gave this
report about Him: “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have
leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised , and the good news is
preached to the poor” (Matthew 11:5). What kind of report would we give about
Jesus? The blind stay blind, the deaf remain deaf, and the poor hardly hear any
news that could be considered by them good? A religion teacher from a certain
Catholic school told his high school students: 'Jesus can give us hope, but he
can't save us.' Really? No wonder that many are leaving our ranks in search for
someone who does not only give hope, but can also save; and no wonder that many
of us who stay ask John's question: “Are you the one who was to come, or
should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:3).
Is Jesus the one? Well. I can only speak for myself. On my recent trip to a country where Christians are a tiny minority, I was giving a two-weeks course on Christology. One day, I was speaking about Jesus as a healer, presenting many examples of Jesus' miracles recorded in the Gospels. I also said that each time we are gathered in His name, He promised to be with us, referring to the well-known passage, “I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Matthew 18:19-20). Then, I said: 'Why don't we try to put this into practice? Let us pray together for healing of our relatives, friends, and anyone of us here.” One participant led a short prayer in the local language. Nothing extraordinary took place – so I thought. But I was wrong. A few days later I read a testimony of one of the participants who, at the moment of that short prayer, was instantly healed from a severe chest pain, which bothered her for almost a year. Perhaps, it was not a great miracle, but it filled us with joy and thankfulness. We were so grateful for this simple act of Jesus' care that took place in our midst.
Is He the one? Yes. My experience teaches me again and again that Jesus does not only give hope, but also saves from sin, from sickness, and from death. And for those who tend to belittle missionary effort to make Jesus known and ask the question “What for?” I have this quote from Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret. The cited dialog took place between Hudson Taylor - a Protestant missionary to China - and one of his first Chinese converts, Mr. Ni.
Ni – How long have you had the
Glad Tidings in your country?
Taylor – Some hundreds of years.
Ni – What! Hundreds of years? My
Father sought the Truth and died without finding it. Oh, why did you not come
sooner?