{"id":7394,"date":"2023-12-10T12:43:34","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T16:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/?p=7394"},"modified":"2023-12-10T14:48:39","modified_gmt":"2023-12-10T18:48:39","slug":"if-jesus-were-alive-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/10\/if-jesus-were-alive-today\/","title":{"rendered":"If Jesus Were Alive Today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">12-11-23<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Christmas celebrations draw closer, people tend to think more about Jesus than they do at most other times of year. \u2026 or, anyway, what He might have looked like and acted like during His earthly ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking personally, I am grateful to movies like <em>Passion of the Christ<\/em> and TV series like <em>The Chosen<\/em> because, if nothing else, their producers dared show a Jesus who was realistic (as we must assume) \u2013 laughing, crying, feeling pain, experiencing betrayal and suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the Year of our Lord (giving credit where credit is due) 2023, however, the impressions of our childhoods persist. People can be forgiven, to coin a phrase, if their conception of Jesus is of a fair-haired, well-groomed, moon-faced, smiley guy with children always nearby to sit on His lap. Artwork on Sunday-school pamphlets told me so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Throughout my life I have heard Christians and skeptics alike ask why Jesus \u201chad\u201d to come to earth 2000 years ago \u2013 so far back in time, so far away. Believers say their faith would intensify if they could just<em> see<\/em> Him. Non-believers and agnostics have a similar desire \u2013 that if they could just<em> see<\/em> Jesus, they would believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Well, we should remember that the Apostles who lived and ate and walked and talked with Jesus for three years, hearing His teaching, and witnessing miracles\u2026 if <em>they <\/em>betrayed and denied Him, and scattered when things got a little tough, would <em>we<\/em> be much different? Get real. Remember what Jesus said to Doubting Thomas, \u201cBlessed are those who have not seen, yet believe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Christmas displays have got me to thinking. Not that Jesus is a plastic Savior-figure for sale at the Dollar Store; nor a blow-up plastic baby-in-the-manger for a lawn display; nor a face on T-shirts of the worship band at the new church down the street. But I wonder what Christianity would be like if Jesus <em>had<\/em> come to earth in our lifetimes. How would Jesus present Himself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>We don\u2019t have many \u201cLords\u201d and \u201cLadies\u201d any more, so those terms might have to be altered. What is the modern-day equivalent of Lord? It would sound strange \u2013 \u201cPresident God\u201d? Would we be told to address Jesus as \u201cBoss\u201d?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Very few guilty criminals are put to death these days, and when they are, the Cross is virtually obsolete. Would Christian gift shops sell trinkets of syringes, if that is how Jesus would be put to death, by lethal injection, today?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Would people wear necklaces with little electric chairs instead of crosses?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Great Commission \u2013 \u201cGo into all the world and preach the Good News\u201d \u2013 would be the same. But today, the spread of communications (and, I\u2019ll admit, employing some 20-20 hindsight in my scenario here) might alter the message of the Apostles and evangelists.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Today the Disciples would be seen as recruiters and motivational speakers. But if they could know what becoming a follower of Christ entails, even modern sales techniques would present some challenges. Consider:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u2013 Become a Christian! When you commit to follow Jesus, your family might resent you, friends might leave you, strangers might persecute you!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u2013 Become a Christian! Share what you believe and you might lose a job! Neighbors will regard you as nuts!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u2013 Become a Christian! If you heed His call and perhaps go into missions work, you can be harassed, even martyred, like so many Christians in history\u2026 and still, today!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u2013 Become a Christian! Among the perks \u2013 not certain, but very common \u2013 you will be misunderstood, criticized, ridiculed\u2026 sometimes by those you love the most!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those are some of the \u201cperks\u201d of being a Christian. They are not much different than any time in the past 2000 years. But I would suggest, if you think about \u201cLord\u201d versus \u201cBoss,\u201d and symbols of crosses versus electric chairs, that today\u2019s evangelistic \u201csales pitch\u201d might be more challenging than in times past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, <em>everything<\/em> is more challenging than in times past. As we slouch toward Gomorrah \u2013 in the words of the William Butler Yeats poem and the book by the great Robert H Bork \u2013 as our culture is ever more engulfed by moral relativism and secularism, the challenges of being a Christ-follower are increasingly stark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Generally, we live in a post-Christian age. Thank God, literally, the DNA of the twenty-first century church seems to be healthier in the southern hemisphere. Christianity, as it always has, thrives in lands of persecution; believers, that is, one by one, refined by fire. Africa, once the destination of missionaries, now sends missionaries to apostate societies in Europe, the United Kingdom, and North America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And by the way, regarding the premise I posed at the beginning \u2013 \u201cIf Jesus were alive today\u2026\u201d Here\u2019s the dirty little secret, which is not so dirty; not so little; not so secret \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jesus <em>is<\/em> alive today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">+ + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>What does it cost to be a Christian? What DID it cost 2000 years ago, when Jesus was born? Remember the \u201cSlaughter of the Innocents\u201d \u2013 the command to slay all baby boys under the age of two; the Establishment\u2019s effort to deny the coming King. Hostility threatened Christianity then\u2026 today its stark enemy is indifference.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Click: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/reCBUOP0tKI\"><strong>Rachel\u2019s Lament<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>12-11-23 As Christmas celebrations draw closer, people tend to think more about Jesus than they do at most other times of year. \u2026 or, anyway, what He might have looked like and acted like during His earthly ministry. Speaking personally, I am grateful to movies like Passion of the Christ and TV series like The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,53,2706],"tags":[3672,949,2604,3370],"class_list":["post-7394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-faith","category-obedience","tag-king-herod","tag-passion-of-the-christ","tag-peter-ustinov","tag-the-chosen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1bRYz-1Vg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7394"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7397,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394\/revisions\/7397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}