“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:1-5

“It is time, I believe, to recognize not only who Jesus was in his own day, despite his contemporaries’ failure to recognize him, but also who he is, and will be, for our own. That puzzle continues. Perhaps, indeed, it has been the same in our own day. Perhaps “even his own people”—this time not the Jewish people of the first century, but the would-be Christian people of the Western world—have not been ready to recognize Jesus himself. We want a “religious” leader, not a king! We want someone to save our souls…But if Christians don’t get Jesus right, what chance is there that other people will bother much with him?” (“The Challenge to the Churches”, Simply Jesus,  N. T. Wright, p. 5)

How important do you think it is to “get Jesus right”? I believe it remains enormously important to our world, and our society today. It is important to our personal life, our religious lives, and our political life. Some might say “Well, Jesus is who Jesus is.” And that is true. We do not want to make more of less of Jesus than what he truly is. So, to begin with, we believe Jesus was, and is G-d’s Son….G-d Incarnate. The Gospel of John states that Jesus was pre-existent – that Jesus was there at the time of creation – a co-creator with G-d and the Holy Spirit. Other Gospels only state that Jesus either was born in the lineage of King David, or he appeared around the time of John the Baptist, his cousin. 

This is where we start as we investigate who Jesus was. The danger of which we must be aware is this: we must be careful not to make Jesus into our own personal image of him, rather than to understand that he is the image of G-d, come to earth to inaugurate the Kingdom of Heaven. As such, Jesus was both a “Son of Man”, and the “Son of G-d”. He was pre-existent – he was there at creation. And he was born to Mary and worked with Mary’s husband, Joseph, as a carpenter. This is just the beginning…but every great story begins somewhere.

Pastor Dave

The masses…live with their backs constantly against the wall. They are the poor, the disinherited, the dispossessed. What does our religion say to them? The search for an answer to this question is perhaps the most important religious quest of modern life. (Howard Thurman, “Jesus and the Disinherited”; p. 13. Beacon Press. Kindle Edition.)

Jesus was a poor Jew. There is recorded in Luke the account of the dedication of Jesus at the temple: “”When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” (Luke 2:22-24)

When we examine the regulation in Leviticus, an interesting fact is revealed: “When the days of her purification are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb in its first year for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. He shall offer it before the LORD, and make atonement on her behalf… If she cannot afford a sheep, she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering.” Leviticus 12:6-8)

It is clear from the text that Jesus came from a poor family. We cannot remove this reality from the life of Jesus. His neighbors were poor, he worked with the poor, he lived with the poor, he was one of them. We cannot remove this identity and reality when we understand and call him the Son of G-d.

It is time for Christians to reclaim the reality that Jesus came from a poor family, that he lived among and taught those who were struggling with life, and reclaim his teachings that will give hope to people whom society claims are the last, lost, least and lowest.

Pastor Dave