Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the NET, netbible.org, all rights reserved)

For there is one God and one intermediary between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, himself human,
1 Timothy 2:5 (emphasis added)

Was Jesus a man, and if so, was He a super special one? This is a vital question because if He was abnormal, we can’t look to His life for expectation in ours. If He WAS a normal man, we CAN look to His life for expectation for ours in Him. His spiritual nature was not fallen. Total righteous spirit. Completely sinless. We’re not like that on our own. But in Jesus we are. “God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). We have the same Spirit in us that Jesus did. “Moreover if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you” (Romans 8:11). So it comes down to what Jesus was like. What can we, those who abide in Him as we seek, expect?

Jesus was born in a human body that grew inside an ordinary human woman. “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7). “When Joseph awoke from sleep he did what the angel of the Lord told him. He took his wife, but did not have marital relations with her until she gave birth to a son, whom he named Jesus” (Matthew 1:24-25). Mary was an ordinary woman. She gave birth to Jesus. Mary and Joseph had sexual relations after that and had other natural children together (Matthew 13:55-57). Jesus was a natural human male born from a natural human female.

He grew from a child to a man. “And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him” (Luke 2:40). Jesus didn’t always do what His parents wanted. Let me be clear: He never disobeyed. I’m sure little toddler Jesus coloured on the walls, played where He shouldn’t have, and made messes, BUT He would only do what He didn’t know were wrong. Once He was told something was wrong, He would never do it again. He obeyed His parents. “When his parents saw him, they were overwhelmed. His mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.” But he replied, “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Yet his parents did not understand the remark he made to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. But his mother kept all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:48-51). He started a baby, grew into a child, and grew into a man. “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and with people” (Luke 2:52). He had to learn, develop wisdom, work His body and keep it fit, exercise, eat right, go to the bathroom, and everything else human. Jesus was a human being.

As a human male, Jesus experienced things about the human condition that we do too. Jesus got worn out. “Jacob’s well was there, so Jesus, since he was tired from the journey, sat right down beside the well. It was about noon” (John 4:6). “And a great storm developed on the sea so that the waves began to swamp the boat. But he was asleep” (Matthew 8:24). “Then the devil left him, and angels came and began ministering to his needs” (Matthew 4:11). Jesus walked a LOT. Jesus ministered a LOT. He got tired. He got exhausted. He slept. He sometimes needed supernatural help – just like us. He did not have the resources within Himself to do everything He needed to do. He needed to recharge and rest.

Jesus ate food. He did it to refuel. He did it because He was hungry. “Now early in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry” (Matthew 21:18). “After he fasted forty days and forty nights he was famished” (Matthew 4:2). “As Jesus was having a meal in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Jesus and his disciples” (Matthew 9:10). He also got thirsty. “A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water to drink.”” (John 4:7). “After this Jesus, realizing that by this time everything was completed, said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty!”” (John 19:28).

Jesus was a happy person. “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). Jesus got angry with righteous anger. “Then they came to Jerusalem. Jesus entered the temple area and began to drive out those who were selling and buying in the temple courts. He turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts” (Mark 11:15-16). Why do we know it was righteous? He immediately started teaching (Mark 11:17-18. No one gets angry and then teaches calmly TO THE PEOPLE they just attacked. It says in verse 18 that the people were ‘amazed’ at His teaching. You don’t get amazed from a rant. Jesus did oet upset at false teaching – like ANGRY angry (but NOT wrathful). “But woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in. Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You cross land and sea to make one convert, and when you get one, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves!” (Matthew 23:13-15, and it goes on). He got indignant at suffering. “Moved with indignation, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be clean!”” (Mark 1:41). “Jesus, intensely moved again, came to the tomb. (Now it was a cave, and a stone was placed across it.)” (John 11:38).

It goes on and on. Jesus was compassionate (Matthew 15:32). Jesus was forgiving (Matthew 18:21-22). Jesus was kind (Matthew 14:14-21). Jesus was gentle and humble (Matthew 11:29). Jesus gave service in love (John 13:1–5). He was tempted (Matthew 4:1). He experienced pain and suffering (Matthew 27:28-29). He argued with His friends (John 18:11). Jesus ran the gamut of human emotion and experience. He was just like us. Sometimes different surface experiences, but the same foundational ones.

In four Gospels, we have shotgun snapshots of His time here written by four men who knew Jesus personally or were recording what men who knew Jesus personally said. They were all written within a very short time (historically) of Jesus life and death. There are critics who point to forty years, sixty years, but they are a drop in the bucket. Our best sources for Alexander the Great (who lived 361 BC to 281 BC) were written between 30 BC and the third century AD. AND they are considered EXTREMELY accurate. None of them were contemporary. ALL the Gospels and the letters WERE contemporary. They are (for the ancient world) as close to live accounts as there can be. They are excellent snapshots of Jesus’ life. They show us how HUMAN He was. And they also give a hint as to what we can expect as we live in Him.

There is no sickness recorded – which would have been HUGE news for a man with such a healing ministry. Money was such a common thing they frequently gave to the poor (John 13:29). Six months’ wages was commonly available to them as a resource (John 6:7). Jesus was helped by a LOT of people. Some of them mentioned by name (Mary Magdalene, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, Lazarus and his sisters, and it is implied that Joseph of Arimathea was as well). Jesus NEVER refused a healing. He healed everyone who came to Him in trust. He wasn’t anxious – the closest He came was in Gethsemane, but even THEN He submitted and controlled His mind. He never had lack. He was a homeowner. He had training to work and to work well. Jesus lived abundantly.

There were a lot of negatives that came at Jesus in spite of all those good things. He was persecuted. He was looked down on. They tried to kill Him several times. He had to avoid many areas. He couldn’t even minister in towns except in the early days. He was forced into wilder places to minister. He was constantly trying to be caught in a lie or a sin – even the man made rules that were NOT true Torah. He had fair weather friends who tried to use fellowship with Jesus as a way to climb socially. No one liked His friends and acquaintances. His family thought He was nuts or trying to become infamous. EVERYONE thought He was politically motivated. Jesus did NOT have it easy.

But as you read the Gospels and Acts, do you see a defeated Jesus? Ever? Even once? No. You see someone healthy. Whole. Nothing missing. Nothing broken. Able to have joy and peace. Someone who led from love. A blessing. A gentle, welcoming man. Someone with access to the best of everything who gave constantly and consistently. We are told something important in the New Covenant. “For to this you were called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). “Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2). “because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29). “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

If we are abiding in Jesus, we are seeking Him. Seeking to emulate Him. Seeking to be like He was using what He gives us to accomplish that. We can be like Jesus. We can experience what He did the way He did. We can walk where He said to walk. Healthiness. Holiness. No poverty. No lack. Blessed and a blessing to others. No sickness of mind, body, or soul. Just like Jesus. Be like Him. Trust that you can. The Word says so.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 53:4

“But he lifted up our illnesses, he carried our pain; even though we thought he was being punished, attacked by God, and afflicted for something he had done” Messiah would have a healing ministry. Messiah would have a healing ministry unparalleled by anyone else in the history of the world up to that time – and there were some marvellous miracles in the Old Covenant. In Isaiah 35:5-6, it says Messiah would heal the blind. There are NO accounts of the physically blind being healed UNTIL JESUS. “Then he came down with them and stood on a level place. And a large number of his disciples had gathered along with a vast multitude from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon. They came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who suffered from unclean spirits were cured. The whole crowd was trying to touch him, because power was coming out from him and healing them all” (Luke 6:17-19). “We must perform the deeds of the one who sent me as long as it is daytime. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said this, he spat on the ground and made some mud with the saliva. He smeared the mud on the blind man’s eyes and said to him, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated “sent”). So the blind man went away and washed, and came back seeing” (John 9:4-7). Jesus healed ALL who came to Him trusting He could do it. Jesus NEVER turned ANYONE away. And Jesus healed the blind eight distinct times. Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

Yeshua is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:16b