Seeing Jesus
Remember the window analogy from last week? How the Bible is a window, not meant to be studied for the sake of studying it, but to be looked through to see something else? Something beautiful, something awesome, something life-giving. We look through it to see God himself.
Scripture says Jesus is the exact representation of God (Hebrews 1:3), and that by looking at him, we see God (Colossians 1:15). Jesus said…“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40).
So as we sit down to look at different verses each week, we have to keep in mind our ultimate goal. Our ultimate goal in all of this is to see and know Jesus. If we don’t do that, this is worthless. If we do that, this is life.
No matter what people believe about Jesus, he is undeniably the most influential person who ever walked this earth. Our calendar is literally based on before and after his existence. Millions of people across the ages have devoted their entire lives to him, the vast majority never even meeting him face to face. In the 21st century, thousands of years after his death, thousands of miles from where he lived, you’re sitting here talking about him and reading his words. That’s crazy! Either he is the biggest con artist known to man, or he is in fact God in human form.
(If you find yourself questioning Jesus’ credibility, check out the faith resources in the back sometime this week. God can handle our questioning, don’t just sit in your doubt, go seek some answers!)
I believe there is overwhelming evidence to believe what seems unbelievable, that God came to earth as a human being in Jesus because he loves us and wants a relationship with us, and that he’s given us everything we need to know him and connect with him.
This week let’s take a deeper look at Jesus. You may have heard some things about him, you might believe some things about him already, but you won’t really know what he’s actually like until you come face to face with his life and his words. And that’s really the point of everything. This week, we’re going to focus in on what Jesus is like. Next week, we’ll take it a step further and look at what it means to connect with him.
- How would you describe Jesus?
- Where do those impressions come from?
- Do you have any questions about him?
Let’s look at some different Jesus stories and discuss what he’s like, and therefore what God is like!
Helpful Context:
Leprosy is a term used in the Bible for a variety of skin diseases. Because these could be destructive and they believed them to be extremely contagious, lepers weren’t allowed to associate with the rest of the public. Once diagnosed, they had to leave their family and go live outside of the community so as to not infect anyone else.
Jewish purity laws forbid anyone to touch them as this caused them to be considered “unclean,” meaning they were not allowed to participate in worship until ritually cleansed.
All of these things made the disease very scary for everyone, because it came with extreme physical and social effects.
- What happened?
- What stands out to you about Jesus in this story?
- What are some characteristics of Jesus we can see here?
- What does this teach us about how God interacts with people everyone else runs from?
Helpful Context:
Zacchaeus was a tax collector. Tax collectors were considered traitors because they were Jews collecting taxes for Rome from their own people.
Tax collectors could also be pretty shady or as the kids say these days “sus”. Because they had the power of Rome behind them, they could take more taxes than necessary and keep the rest for themselves.
Jesus was really popular at this point in his ministry. People were excited to have him visit their town and everybody lined up to greet him.
Since there were no hotels, important visitors would just pick someone to stay with, which was considered a great honor. So all the wealthy and religious people were probably first in line, hoping to be chosen!
- What happened?
- What stands out to you about Jesus in this story?
- What are some characteristics of Jesus we can see here?
- What does this reveal about God’s heart towards those everyone looks at as “bad”?
Helpful Context:
Adultery is when someone has sexual intercourse with someone that is not their spouse.
Stoning was a form of execution, where people literally threw stones at someone until it killed them.
This story doesn’t tell us what Jesus was writing on the ground, but there are some interesting theories about what it might have been. If that’s interesting to you, look it up this week!
- What happened?
- What stands out to you about Jesus in this story?
- What are some characteristics of Jesus we can see here?
- What does this teach us about God’s response to sin?
Helpful Context:
The temple was the most important place to the Jews. It’s where God lived among them.
God wanted it to be a place where all people could connect with him but the religious leaders had turned it into a business and a way to promote themselves instead of a place to help people worship God.
- What happened?
- What stands out to you about Jesus in this story?
- What are some characteristics of Jesus we can see here?
- What do you think made Jesus so angry?
- What does this tell us about God’s priorities?
Helpful Context:
Foot washing is kind of gross, but it was even grosser then. They wore sandals as they walked along dusty roads, so you can imagine…
Foot washing was something only done by the lowest servants.
Jesus had already revealed to them who he was by this point, so him getting on his knees to wash their feet was crazy.
Jesus washed Judas’ feet, who he knew was about to betray him
- What happened?
- What stands out to you about Jesus in this story?
- What are some characteristics of Jesus we can see here?
- What is God’s love like?
- Which of these stories connect most with you? Why?
- What’s something about Jesus you realized today that you maybe hadn’t thought much about before?
These are only a few stories among many! Pick one of these Jesus stories to read this week. Find some helpful context online and write down things you can learn about God through them. Share them with each other next week!
- Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness - Matthew 4:1-11
- Jesus at a Wedding - John 2:1-11
- Jesus Calming the Storm - Mark 4:35-41
- Jesus Healing a Demon-Possessed Man - Mark 5:1-20
- Jesus Walking on the Water - Matthew 14:22-33
- Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman - Luke 7:36-50
- Jesus Raising Lazarus - John 11:17-44
- Jesus Arrested - Luke 22:47-51