How Well Do You Know Jesus?

You’ve been friends forever. You know everything there is to know about your friend. Nothing you could ever learn would surprise you. While at the beach this summer with friends, we looked at each other and counted the number of years we had known one another – some 5, 10, 15, 20, and others a whole lifetime! “I remember playing a game at my 50^th birthday party of people guessing “things” about me,” shared a friend in the group; “My friend of over 20 years was getting pretty angry when she guessed wrong. It was crazy; she even argued with me saying that my answers were wrong!” We all laughed!

Is it possible that we fail to pay attention to our friend’s attributes once we think we know them completely? Perhaps we tune out and stop attending to their reactions, stories, and dreams. Maybe we even finish their sentences, because we already know what they were going to say?

Do we feel the same way about Jesus? We hear a familiar Sunday Gospel about Jesus – his miracles, his parables, and his conversations with the Pharisees, the rich man, the Samaritan woman and we tune out. Oh yeah, I know that story and our mind wanders to what “to do” after Mass. We know everything there is to know about Jesus.

“Who do men say that I am,” Jesus asked his disciples? He got a whole bunch of answers: John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets – all wrong! Jesus pressed further, “Who do you say that I am?” Since we read the Gospel as a flashback, we know Peter gives the right answer, “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29). Peter was the first to “know” Jesus as the Messiah. Who is Jesus for you? Christ wants us to know and love him as deeply as he knows and loves us. God knows everything about us (Psalm 139); but do we know the many faces of Jesus?

Interestingly each of the Gospels offers four faces of Jesus that highlight his personality, teachings, and deeds revealing his humanity and divinity. Mark, Matthew, Luke and John wrote about who Jesus was for them in the hopes that it would lead the community into deeper faith. Each evangelist wrote to a unique audience that differed in religious background, culture and ethnicity highlighting different facets of Jesus’ personality. Virginia Smith describes the four Gospel portraits of Jesus to provide a more complete image of who Jesus is.

Mark is the earliest of the gospels written to the Romans. Mark’s most frequent phrase is “straight away.” Jesus is always “on the go” and in a hurry to get it done. Mark’s Jesus is harried and hurried. The gospel begins with Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan and from there he walks straight into desert for 40 days. On his first day back, he goes straight to work. Jesus calls his first disciples, preaches repentance and the Kingdom is at hand, and casts out a demon. He then heads to Simon’s house for dinner only to find Simon’s mother-in-law sick with a fever; so he heals her. All this before sunset! Throngs of people now are pounding of the door pleading for miracle cures making it impossible for Jesus to finish his dinner. “Get a boat ready” Jesus tells his disciples before we’re trampled! Mark introduces us to a Jesus who is earthy, relatable, approachable, and someone with whom we would feel comfortable. Mark gives us the most “human” Jesus – a man with so much to do and so little time, who is moved to compassion for the suffering and expresses his anger at those hard-of-heart.

Matthew’s gospel written to the Jews reveals Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. The most frequently used phrase in Matthew’s gospel is “it was fulfilled” to reference prophesies foretold in the Old Testament fulfilled in Jesus. Matthew introduces Jesus as “The Teacher” – the rabbi. Even his opponents respect his wisdom address Jesus as “Teacher.” This gospel reads as a catechism with Jesus instructing the community as Moses. Whereas Moses went up the mountain to receive authority; Jesus teaches from the mountain by his own authority. How good of a teacher is Jesus? His last command, “Go and teach all nations….” now has multiplied thousands of missionaries spreading Christianity all over the globe with over two billion people bearing his name!

Luke wrote for the Gentiles to show that Jesus’ salvation was for everyone, not just the Jews. Luke’s Jesus is compassionate and forgiving; he advocates for the poor, sinners, and outcasts. None are more ostracized than the Samaritans and yet they are the heroes in two of Jesus’ parables. Jesus affirms women giving them a legacy as disciples in his birth, life, death, and resurrection. In Luke we discover the richness of God’s mercy in the story of the Prodigal Son – The Father, symbolizing our Father in heaven, watches and prays for his child’s repentance. This gospel’s climax is Jesus’ words from the cross, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” To a criminal who simply asked to be remembered, Jesus gave him Paradise (Luke 23:34; 42-43).

John’s gospel, written for the universal church, presents Jesus as noble, majestic, and divine to inspire awe and belief in his divinity: “In the beginning was Word (Jesus) and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Jesus’ first miracle of changing water into wine “revealed his glory and his disciples began to believe in Him” (John 2:11). Jesus’ dignity is never more evident than in the last hours of his life as he is totally in control: “I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the power to lay it down and power to take it up again (John 10:17-18) Then when bloody and broken he remains in control as Pilate boasts that he has the power to release or crucify him; Jesus responds, “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above.” Jesus transcendence shines from the cross with his final words, “It is finished” signifying that his purpose for which he was sent is accomplished (John 19:30).

The evangelists describe four faces of Jesus: Mark’s Harried, Hurried, and Human Jesus, Matthew’s New Moses, the Teacher, Luke’s Compassionate and Forgiving Jesus, and John’s Noble, Majestic, and Divine Jesus. All four Gospels are needed to have a more complete image of Jesus. Could more images of Jesus emerge from these Gospels? Absolutely. Consider but a few images: the Good Shepherd, Sorrowful Heart, Counselor and Comforter, Lord and Savior, and Brother and Friend. To understand all of who Jesus is requires delving into all four Gospels time and time again.

Perhaps we can recite by heart a Gospel story about Jesus. Resist the temptation to skip over it. Rather read it slowly because it is an encounter with the divine; the Holy Spirit speaks to us through its words. As we listen, we will hear Jesus ask us throughout our lives, “Who do you say that I am?” He doesn’t ask us this question, because he doesn’t know his identity, but rather the Carmelite Sisters tell us that Jesus “starts to move us, guide us, and prompt us to a whole new place in our lives. He wants us to have a fuller understanding of who we are. That place and that deeper understanding of ourselves is ultimately within Him, within His heart.” Jesus is trying to build within us a fortress where we able to stand firmly believing in him in all the moments of our lives, in every season, and for the rest of our lives.