Jesus, just for the record, tell us again, are you who you say you are? Or maybe who some say you are? Give it to us straight, in plain words, no dodging the question like a politician in prime-time cable interviews.

Lord have mercy, the question never goes away. Jesus heard it face to face, answered it so many ways hoping to connect people’s heads to their souls. For some, it worked; for others, not so much.

Backstory Filter is First

Like that winter day he was in Jerusalem with other faithful Jews to celebrate Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. Though a minor holiday in Judaism, it honors just one of many stories in which the oppressed Jews overthrew their tormentors who not only exercised power but who had desecrated their sacred Temple. The holiday gave people hope their God would still protect and fight for them.

That may not have been far from Jesus’ thoughts as he considered his response when Jewish leaders made their demand that he tell them plainly if he was the Messiah.

Testimony Follows

“I have already told you,” (long patient sigh here with a shake of the head), and you don’t believe me.” No different here from today’s world; all the words ever spoken about Jesus won’t be enough. Not that the debate looks like it will end soon. A Google search for “Who is Jesus?” yielded 1.83 billion responses in less than a second. That’s today’s result. Likely it’ll be more if you try it on your own. If nothing else, it shows people have a lot to say about Jesus. (So much for blogging, right? Oh well…)

So if words aren’t enough, what might be better proof? Yet, why talk of proof if the answer isn’t already understood as the issue under debate? Oh yeah, forget the debate. Look instead at the evidence. For Jesus, verification is what he does in the name of his Father. (That is, Father as in God. And if God is his Father, that makes him the Son of God. Yes, he moves fast, layering on the thoughts.)

First Hand Experience

Evidence must be witnessed. Witnesses affirm what has happened. Today we expect video back up, but really that only records what eyes have seen. Jesus had a crowd around him and disciples who accompanied him. These people had seen the hungry fed, the blind and lepers healed, adulterers forgiven, the downtrodden restored, and even the most confirmed sinner reversed to righteousness.

Nice, Jesus, we always can use more of this kind of thing, but you know, good things happen all the time without you. Putting God’s brand on it doesn’t make it exclusive to you.

Point well taken. While miracles and restoration/recovery stories make for good copy, the lasting impact is individual to the person. Your story is not my story all the time.

Which may be why Jesus doesn’t leave it at that. He returns to a familiar analogy he liked, that of sheep and their shepherd. Don’t smirk. Just because it’s not the go-to equivalent comparison of post-modern culture, it still works.

Consider the Context

Ask yourself this: what is it that people would like most in their lives? Autonomy, control, a life well lived with an enduring legacy? Worthy aspirations certainly. But not fully attainable. That’s because, as any honest person would admit, we’ve all got something with which we struggle.

No matter if it’s as huge as a superpower invading your homeland, or as private as negative thought patterns that unless suppressed or medicated will result in self-destruction.

Whatever, we all need that place to which we can turn, where we can find a sense that we’re not in this alone. To know that someone has your back is affirming certainly, but Jesus offers more than just being your best bud.

That’s why the sheep-thing holds up. “My sheep hear my voice,” he says. That is, they know I get them and they get me, understand I’m there to bring to bring to life that very thing people can not achieve on their own. To hear Jesus’s voice is not just to let the words (so many words, again) just swirl through one’s head, but to yield to them, make them part of one’s being and soul, and to live life accordingly. In his own expression, it means to follow.

What’s more, Jesus makes some huge promises here. “No one will snatch them from me.” Sheep are desperately vulnerable, something most persons would rather not disclose. Remember, Jesus spoke to a very vulnerable culture and race. The festival going on around them spoke to their faith God would intervene on their behalf.

Nice story again, but look around before you dismiss it. Context hasn’t changed much for anyone looking to get past the next day, week, year. Disease, loss, betrayals, addictions, and overall social, racial, political divisiveness wear at the soul. In the midst of life’s crisis, what matters most is to know that God is holding on to the flock even tighter than sheep who stay close to the shepherd.

Filtered Meaning

Within this sheep fold is another promise: eternal life, an assurance that life is meant for all the fullness it is meant to hold. 

Stop right there. So we trudge through all this mess and wait for that “pie in the sky” when we finally choke our last breath. Well, if that’s not a heap of you-know-what if ever there was. Wait it out, take all of life’s crap, and hope to sing with the stars is all you’ve got? Come on!

Sorry, but don’t make assumptions. To be fair, people have found it helpful to have this promise when lions were released into the arena, when enslavement ripped dignity below that of a dog, when the family is destroyed by genocide. Knowing that Jesus has been there on a cruel cross and made a road into new life holds together this promise none other can make. “They will never perish,” gives that picture.

But the greater understanding is eternal life doesn’t start when mortal life ends. Eternal life is meant for now. How can it be eternal without past, present, and future stretched into infinity?

Back to the question: Who are you, Jesus?

His answers don’t make it easy with all the diverse filters we have to go through, sheep only a minor example of that. Yet it doesn’t negate the choice to take into oneself Jesus’ offer to learn from him, take on his teachings and rest in his eternal promises, to celebrate the faith journeys of others, to enter into belief that no matter how much the world debates his life, it never can be put to rest.

Ultimately, to know Jesus is to know God, for he said,

“The Father and I are one.” That’s who Jesus is.

John 10:22-30