MORE THAN ‘JUST-A-MAN’

Nancy Bauer, Washington

  

     Deep within, the Holy Spirit has revealed Jesus to me. My spiritual sight becomes clearer as I let Him have His way. I am taken back in time. My spirit reveals Jesus when He walked this earth. Led by the Holy Spirit, I find myself with Him.

 

     On a busy Jerusalem street, stands a man dressed in white. I am among the multitude that crowds around Him, and yet we give Him room to move, knowing He has much for many. The love and admiration is obvious for this Man, Jesus. I am drawn by His compassion for us. I sense that He is More-Than-Just-A-Man.             

   

I see Him, standing among twelve ordinary men. He is one of them, and yet there is something so unique about Him that I can’t really put my finger on it; a magnetic mystery draws me to want to know what He has deep within.

 

He’s dressed as all the others, ordinary for their day. His clothes are no different. They cover almost all of Him but still there is honesty, integrity, and compassion that can’t be hidden. This More-Than-Just-A-Man radiates from the inside out, revealing a difference that the outside can not conceal.

 

Compassion is in His eyes for all those around Him. As He speaks to me His eyes focus on mine. He looks at me with something beyond love, as though He would give everything for me. I realize He knows my every need and want. And I see in those eyes that He will provide it all. I have the deepest need to give to Him more than He has given me. I try to return His love through my eyes, attempting an imitation of Him.  

   

The touches of His hands are gentle and kind toward all; from the well known prostitute to the sore-laden leaper. As I stand among the crowd of people I long for His gentle, loving touch. There is an ache inside that desires not just to be healed, but to know the fullness of His love. I reach my hand out. His hand meets mine. His touch is full of power and tender-heartedness. His compassion feels almost tangible making me wonder if it can be passed from one hand to another.

  

The words that He speaks are magnetic. He speaks in parables that draw me to search out their meanings. I know there are secrets in His words. I want to learn these mysteries so that I may know all about Him. The truths in His words cause a hunger in me, a yearning to be a part of this Kingdom that He speaks of.

    

His demeanor is tender and kindhearted, with a stature of gentle knowing. Somehow He just conceives my every need, my every thought. The desire for purity wells up inside me. He says that righteousness cannot be fulfilled by my works and that He knows that the way to His Father will be opened to me, to everyone. He tells me He is that Way. I can not help but believe Him, for His very stature is truth. When I am with Him I can not hide. The need to hide anything from Him seems useless. I want Him to know me as much as I want to know Him.   

  

He tells me of His Father. He explains that the people have confused God’s requirements. The commandments have been twisted by man to the extent that they have lost their true meaning. He says that His Father sent Him to make His commandments clear once again. There is nothing we can do as far as work to be with God, He says. It’s all in the acceptance of what God has done for us that we will receive His mercy and be able to come close to Him again. That was why He created man in the first place, to have a relationship with our Creator. And so He tells me of His Father’s love for me. His Father has sent His own Son to live and die here on earth for me. I will never have to sacrifice an animal again because God sent His own sacrifice to forever cleanse me from sin. I will be able to personally know Him, because of this final sacrifice.

 

Then Jesus reveals to us that HE is that Son. He will be that Final Sacrifice.

  

Some are appalled. Some are unsure. Some are furious. Some do not believe Him.

 

And some, like me, are sure. Sure that God’s Son is standing before me. I am in awe of Him. The mystery of the magnetic pull on my spirit now has an answer. I believe with my very life that He is the Son of God. I am overcome with a peace and joy that I have never known. And His love for me is overwhelming. 

   

Although I want to do all for Him, He serves ME! He thinks of everyone else before Himself. He gives all He has to others. He forgives even those who persecute Him, those who do not believe Him, those who shun Him. He dusts off the leaper’s clothes, defends the prostitute, washes His disciple’s feet, heals all the sick and diseased and shows love, forgiveness and compassion to all. And as I watch all this, I only want to be more like Him. As He serves others, I want to serve Him! As He loves others, I want to love Him!

  

 Now I stand at the foot of the hill. On the very crest of that terrible knoll stand three crosses. It seems appropriate that we all have to look up to see Him. Even in His terrible position of humiliation, crucified as a common criminal, and amid the anguish of being physically tortured, He glances my way. He tells me with His eyes how much He loves me, that He is doing this because of that love. Even through His pain and agony He thinks of me and how He is giving His earthly body as my last sacrifice so I can know His Father. He leaves this earth with a promise that His very countenance will return to live in me, enabling me to love as He loves, to give as He gives, to serve as He serves. For this was why He came.

 

I feel in my heart and soul His last audible breath. It’s as though my own breath will never return. But it does. I am relieved that His suffering is over. But how will I live without Him?  And yet somehow my spirit rejoices knowing that something extraordinary has happened. I feel a freedom in my soul that cannot be described. MY Savior is free from earthly bondage and is on His way to free me, too!

 

The ground starts to shake. The thunder and lightning rumbles across the afternoon sky as it cracks the unusual darkness in two. God is taking His Son back and is telling the world that His Son’s work is done.

 

Now it is up to me.

 

So that is how the Spirit revealed Jesus to me, if I lived in the same time and place that He did. The whole thing is, that I DO live in that same time and place! For He is alive within me TODAY…He walks with me each day. And I can feel His countenance that magnetically draws my spirit to His, His very own Spirit sent to teach me, comfort me, and guide me. He will have His way in me and I will forever be His, for He is More-Than-Just-A-Man. He did what He came to do.

 

 Now it is up to me.