“What do I do with Jesus?”

So, if a Whole Peach person is one who sees Father God and life for who and what they really are, if a Whole Peach person is one who seeks Father God and the “life” that only he can offer, and if a Whole Peach person is one who savors this “life to the full” above all things, then Brother Jesus must be our perfect picture of a Whole Peach person.

In his own words, he said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” John 10:10.

But I really don’t know what to do with Jesus sometimes. I resonate with Pilate when he said: “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?” (Matthew 27: 22). When I read the story of Jesus in the Bible, I always want to know more than the writer gives me.

If Jesus is to be our picture, I want to see him in every situation and hear his every thought. What would Jesus do if he got fired from a job? What would Jesus do when his children misbehaved? How would Jesus spend a Saturday afternoon in the spring? What kind of house would he buy and where would he shop? What would be his major in college? How would he figure dating? How much of his income would he save, and how would he organize his retirement plan? How would he react to a plan gone badly, an initiative that fails or a friend that lies? Many times, I wish I could read his journal pages – to get deeper into his attitudes and motivations. If he is to be our model, why can’t we know more? My friend, Paul Gibbs, has some great things to say about this in his new book The Cloud and the Line. For now, I am itching to know more of him, and I am seeking his story.

Jesus is called the “light of the world” (John 8:12), the “gate for the sheep” (John 10:7), and the “bread of life” (John 6:35), but there is so little time and so few words we get from him. If he is going to be the “way, the truth and the life” for me (John 14:6), I want more explanation. The Bible is hard enough to believe, and even there I only get a few years of his life and in those few years, I only get a few stories, and most of the stories were blasted riddles that I have to figure out what he meant anyways. How can I know him with so little evidence of his existence and his feelings about me? To be quite honest, he seems a bit ticked off most of the time by people. So, I am sure I would equally annoy him with my constant questions and insatiable drive. I am a wreck and certain to fall in the category of “oh, you people of little faith.”

I come to these places in my life with the Bible in my hand, and I realize I have to make a decision. Chunk it or open it. It is what it is. We have yet to uncover the journals of Jesus or the play-by-play commentary of his entire life. So, look again.

Look again to the story of Jesus and ask again: reveal your story to me, Oh Father God. You call Jesus my brother (Hebrews 2:9-11). Really? As I pondered this verse, I kept reading Hebrews all the way to chapter 10. It is pretty powerful. I also re-read the end of chapter 16 in No Mercy written by my friend Pres Gillham. It is an incredible exchange between Hank and Vassar (Jesus). It gives me a great picture of this relationship between us. I want to invite you to “look again” as well. I think Jesus likes that I don’t know what to do with him. I think he likes when I “look again.” These questions arouse my desperation.

Something else that I am considering today – in John 13-17, beginning with the story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, the word love occurs 31 times while in John 1-12 only 6 times. What is Jesus up to in these chapters? Does something change? I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I am mesmerized by the picture of Father God in the flesh at my dirty feet, wash basin and rag to his side, wiping my feet with his own hands (John 13:1-17). Hands that would in a few days be nailed to a cross for my sin (John 19:18), hands that would three days later cook me a dinner of fish by the sea (John 21:9), hands that would promise to come back and take me to be with him (Acts 1:11 and John 14:3). Though I don’t understand it all, I am not willing to chunk such pictures of extravagant love. It is worth the risk, and it is worth the pursuit. I want to hold those hands.

“But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” Hebrews 10:39

I guess I pray that you are in the same fix – not sure what to do about Jesus. Perhaps your own questions will arouse your desperation. And in your pursuit, he will speak. I believe there is more.

Today, I choose to “hold those hands” and “look again.”