Mister, Are You Jesus?

The title of this blog "Mister, Are You Jesus?" comes from a story that I first told many years ago. I have repeated the story many times usually as a sermon illustration in the subsequent years. Forgive me if you have heard it before.

A little girl lived and went to school in a busy downtown area which was also a thriving business sector. One day she was on her way home after school. She had a number of school related items in her arms. She rounded the corner of a city block at the same time a rushing businessman headed straight toward her rounding the same corner. Neither saw the other and there was a full body collision. The man being much larger and stronger knocked the little girl down and all the school related items in her arms went flying. One would expect the businessman to show some concern for the welfare of the little girl. He didn't! Rather, he yelled at her saying, "Watch where you are going, you stupid kid!" With those words of scorn, he rushed on down the street toward his appointment to pursue the art of the deal.

A man standing on the opposite corner from where the collision occurred had witnessed the whole scene. He immediately rushed over to the little girl sprawled out on the street. He knelt down beside her and asked, "Honey, are you okay? Looking at her he didn't see any apparent injury. She responded to the man's question by saying, "Yes Sir, I'm okay." The man helped the little girl to stand up and then helped her to gather her scattered items which had been knocked from her arms. Suddenly, the little girl looked up at the man, smiled and said, "Mister, are you Jesus?"

I don't know how you reacted to this story, but each time I tell it, it stirs emotions in me. The point of the story when used as a sermon illustration is usually to challenge believers to live and act in such a way that people will see Jesus in us.

The obvious answer to the little girl's question, "Mister, are you Jesus?" is no. Yet, while we are not Jesus, we are and should be representations of Jesus. It was the representation of Jesus in and by the man that prompted the little girl's question. He represented Christ with kindness and compassion. What a challenge and what an opportunity it is for us as believers to represent Jesus well!

John the Baptist was a man whom some considered the possibility that he was the Christ. John quickly and clearly dispelled that idea.

"Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'Who are you?' He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, 'I am not the Christ.' And they asked him, 'What then? Are you Elijah?' He said, 'I am not.' 'Are you the Prophet?' And he answered, 'No.' Then they said to him, 'Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?' He said: 'I am 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said" (John 1:19-23).

John the Baptist clearly understood who he was in relationship to Christ. He was the forerunner to prepare the way for the coming of Christ. John the Baptist was a unique man not just in the way he dressed but also in his calling. His specific ministry was to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. With a humble attitude of unworthiness and a clear objective to decrease even as Christ was increased, John the Baptist fulfilled his calling.

We would do well to evaluate ourselves as professing Christians as to how well we are fulfilling our calling. We are not Jesus or even forerunners to prepare the way for His coming, but we are clearly called to be the body of Christ in our world today. As the body of Christ, we are representations of Christ.

I'm not sure who first said it, but someone has said, "The only Jesus some people will see is the Jesus that they see in me."

All of us will be exemplary or poor representations of Jesus. No one may ever ask us if we are Jesus, but hopefully they will see Jesus is us. May our representation of Christ spark interest in Jesus and a desire to know more about Him in the hearts of those with whom we come into contact.

One of the great hymn writers of the church was B. B. Mckinney. He wrote a song titled "Let Others See Jesus in you." The chorus says,

"Let others see Jesus in you, let others see Jesus in you; Keep telling the story, be faithful and true, let others see Jesus in you.

The words of the second verse of this great hymn are poignant to the idea of our being representations of Jesus in our world. it says,

"Your life is a book before their eyes, they're reading it through and through; Say, does it point them to the skies, do others see Jesus in you?

The Bible clearly challenges us to represent Christ in our world. Consider passages such as 2 Corinthians 5:17-20.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God."

God's call to His body, the church, is clear. We are His ambassadors sent out into the world to represent Christ by sharing the gospel and calling people to be true disciples, continuously following after and learning of Christ.

In recent days the subject of Christian Nationalism has been in the news. Christian Nationalism is not and never will be a biblical representation of Jesus in our world. When Jesus came into the world, some tried to welcome Him as one who would establish Jewish nationalism. When it was clear that Jesus was the Messiah for all people and all nations, they turned away. When Jesus refused to fulfill their political expectations and ambitions, they embarked on a mission to destroy Him that led to the cross. Their victory was short-lived as the resurrection paved the way for believers today to be a true representation of the resurrected, victorious Jesus.

Believers in the Book of Acts did such a splendid job of representing Christ in their world that they were accused of turning the world upside down. When Paul came to Thessalonica and preached Christ in Acts 17, some of the Jews responded by assembling a mob to oppose Paul and Silas. "But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, 'These who have turned the world upside down have come here too'" (Acts 17:6).

How did the believers evoke such a hostile accusation of turning the world upside down? If you read through the Book of Acts, the answer will be apparent. They were faithful in their representation of Christ. Their representation of Christ was such that no power or opposition could defeat them as they were empowered through the Holy Spirit.

The question for believers today is not "Mister, are you Jesus?" The question for us today is, what kind of representation of Jesus are we in the world in which we live? Dear God, help me to be such a representation of Jesus in my world that others will truly see Jesus and no one but Jesus in me!