How do you see Jesus?

This time of year many people forget what the season is about.
Yes Jesus probably wasn't born on December 25 but it is the day we celebrate it.
Many will try to say it is just a pagan holiday the Christians took over. This may or may not be true, but Jesus Christ is why we celebrate it today. You will hear constant reminders that "He is the reason for the season" and these are well and good. The problem starts when the baby Jesus is all that people see. Jesus Christ was much more than a cute little baby born of a virgin all those years ago. You can't leave Him in that manger.

Lets look at someone else who tried to fit Jesus into a category. Look at John chapter 4 it tells the story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well.

1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

Samaritans were half breeds, they were the result of intermarriage of Jews and Babylonian conquers. It was the sixth hour meaning noon, the heat of the day this woman was an outcast herself since the other women would come to draw water when it was cool.

The first impression this woman has of Jesus is A Jewish man sitting by the well, then he speaks the her! This just didn't happen, Men did not speak to women in public let alone a Jewish man speak to a Samaritan woman. She even states her surprise.

9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans)

Then Jesus really piqued her curiosity.
10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

Jesus obviously was speaking of the Holy Spirit when he mentioned living water, but the woman thought he was talking about regular water and thought....This guy is an INTERESTING MAN

Many people today see Jesus as a sort of fist century Will Rodgers.... -A good story teller, never met a man he didn't like, a good teacher running around telling jokes and doing tricks with bread and fish. Without the living water of the Holy Spirit many will not see.

16He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

17"I have no husband," she replied.

Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

Here the woman gets a different view she never met him but he knows her thoughts so she puts on a religious face. She sees him as a Prophet A religious person so she asks a religious question to prove she is religious too.

Many today see Jesus as a religious leader, and they act religious around him while they are in church but they leave it at the door. Others will take him saying he taught good religious stuff but he was only a man.

21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

Here we see Jesus as He truly is Messiah

Some will say Christ never claimed to be the messiah but here we see the falicy of that belief.

God became a man and for 33 years he walked the earth showing us the way. Our sins nailed him to a cross and shed his blood. Hebrews 9:22b "without the shedding of blood there is no remission" He arose on the third day and waits to return.

So how do you see Jesus?

A baby in a manger?

An interesting man?

A religious man?

Or the Messiah, King of kings and Lord of lords?

Still clinging to my God and my guns,

Randy