Do you read the gospel asking: how does this apply to me?

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English: Resurrection of Christ
English: Resurrection of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Sometimes, our "Jesus" is actually a reflection of ourselves. This is the constant danger when we don't simply open the Scriptures and listen to their testimony about Jesus: we make a Jesus in our own image, usually domesticated. Sadly, much that dominates the Christian worldview and media seems to fall foul here. Any Jesus who isn't both Savior and Lord, Sacrificial Lamb of God and Reigning King, cannot be the Jesus of the Gospels. And any Jesus who does not call us to radical, sacrificial, and yes, painful, discipleship, cannot be the real Jesus.

I sometimes think that our danger as believers is that we use the "Where's Wally Method?" of reading the Gospels. Remember Wally — the little fellow in the red and white sweater in the midst of the vast crowds? The whole point of the Wally books was to try to find him. Many people read the Gospels that way, always asking "What does this have to say about me?" But that means that at the end of the day we're looking for what they have to say about me, and my life, and my improvement. Yes, the Gospels have much to say to me. But they aren't about me… they're about Christ. And we need to listen to them and master them, or better be mastered by them and by the Christ they describe.

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