One thing about this Jesus: He never invited neutrality. His followers called Him the Christ. His contenders called Him a blasphemer. Some were drawn to Him, while others could muster nothing in His presence but contempt. His teachings were revolutionary and His miracles undeniable. He claimed nothing less than equality with God and proclaimed Himself as the long expected Messiah. Jesus never left sitting on the proverbial fence as an option.

He attracted criticism in spades, but He also drew crowds. He often taught the people in parables, pithy stories that drew spiritual lessons from everyday life to reveal the “secrets” of God’s kingdom. With simple illustrations, Jesus taught that in Him, God’s kingdom had come, while exposing the religious leaders’ misguided view of religion. Jesus’ trilogy on lostness told of a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost son and demonstrated the value God places on a repentant heart. In the story of the lost son, Jesus exposed the hard-heartedness of the Pharisees as the older brother’s indignity, angered by his father’s compassion. Like this father, Jesus’ concern for sinners created an ever-widening rift with the Pharisees. His popularity increased and so did His opposition. Yet Jesus’ teaching ministry to the masses continued, and in the Sermon on the Mount, He taught them how to live by faith in close relationship with God.

Jesus was a great teacher, but even His closest disciples struggled to grasp His true identity and purpose. He authenticated His words with miracles that made His authority irrefutable. The disciples were awestruck when Jesus calmed a raging storm at sea. The people were confounded when he expelled demons from a possessed man into a herd of pigs, who promptly drowned themselves. Who was this man? He certainly wasn’t looking or sounding like a Messiah should. The desperate came to Him for healing, and weren’t found wanting. Jesus healed a woman with a bleeding disorder, while pausing to restore her dignity and commend her faith. Meanwhile, the daughter of a synagogue leader named Jairus died. Jesus established His authority over death by raising her back to life. He healed two blind men, and the Pharisees exposed their own desperate lack of vision by crediting such miracles to the prince of demons.

News about Jesus spread through villages and cities, homes and institutions. Even King Herod grew interested. He was haunted by the fear that John the Baptist might have returned from the dead, for he had ordered John’s execution. Wherever He went, people gathered around Jesus. After one especially long day, Jesus fed more than 5,000 with five loaves of bread and a couple of fish. The miracle was meant for more than filling empty stomachs. He had come to fill empty lives; the real point was that He is the “bread” of eternal life. As a result of his teachings, the people were divided. Many turned away, but those who truly believed remained. In one of His finest moments, Peter announced, “You have the words of eternal life…you are the Holy One of God.”

Many came to Jesus with Lower Story needs, but Jesus’ mission was greater than any had imagined. He’d come to offer an Upper Story life, to fulfill the promises that began centuries ago with Abraham and David. He’d come to offer a life of faith – faith in unseen realities, faith in who He is, and what He could do for them eternally. The offer still stands.

READ THE STORY. EXPERIENCE THE BIBLE. © Zondervan 2010