Truth in Tension: Seeing Jesus ClearlySample

When was the last time you were amazed by Jesus?

In Matthew 8, we read the story of Jesus getting into a boat and crossing the lake with His disciples. It must have been a beautiful day on the water. Everything was calm; Jesus was napping, and suddenly, a massive storm swelled up, waves crashing into the boat. The disciples are scared out of their minds and wake Jesus, asking Him to save them. He rebukes the storm, and suddenly, there is a great calm. The disciples were amazed and asked themselves, “Who is this man? Even the winds and the waves obey him” (v.27).

Up to this point, the disciples had witnessed Jesus healing people of all kinds of diseases. They saw paralyzed men get up and walk. They saw people with the incurable disease of leprosy healed instantly. They watched Jesus teach large crowds and heal multitudes. Jesus had already performed the impossible before their very eyes, yet they were still amazed at what Jesus could do.

A question we must all answer is, am I still amazed by Jesus, or have I placed Him in the neat and tidy box on the shelf of my life? In modern-day Christianity, it is easy to assume we have figured Jesus out entirely and that there is nothing new to discover. We put Jesus into all the appropriate cultural, political, and denominational boxes and tell Him to stay there. But what if Jesus doesn’t fit in the box you have made for Him?

The danger we face in Christianity today is that the only thing we know about Jesus is the well-known stories from Sunday school. For instance, when He fed 5,000 people with only five loaves and two fish (Matthew 14:13-21), or when a blind man shouted, “Son of David, have mercy on me,” Jesus healed him (Luke 18:35-43). We're familiar with the accounts of Jesus healing the woman with an issue of blood (Luke 8:43-48) or raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:38-44). However, did you realize there was a time in scripture when He didn’t feed the hungry? Have you ever considered the moment when He tells Peter to follow Him and, in the same breath, warns him that he will die for it and even specifies how? Jesus came so that all could follow Him (John 21:18-19), yet at one point, He said something so offensive to the crowd that everyone but the disciples deserted Him (John 6:35-69).

As you engage with this devotional, I encourage you to reflect on how you perceive Jesus and encounter Him. If your relationship with Jesus has become stale and stagnant, pray that He reveals more of Himself to you and that your eyes are opened to see Him clearly and more fully. If you have placed Him in a cultural or political box, take Him out of that box. Instead of allowing modern culture to shape how you see Him, let His Word, the whole counsel of scripture, guide your understanding.