What's The Question

The other day I was behind a car with a bumper sticker that said, “Jesus is the answer”. As I thought about it I wondered what the question was. I suppose that one might conclude that Jesus is the answer to every question but then again that presents us with another question, “Who’s asking the question?” To those that believe in Jesus, the statement seems simple enough and doesn’t need any explanation, but what about those who don’t believe. How does that statement, or the question affect them? Does it impact them at all? Is it perhaps a ‘in your face’ type of statement that really turns people off? I find it very interesting that Jesus had a much different response and approach to the religious leaders of the day than the every day person on the street. To the religious, he was direct and in their face. He was confrontational and challenging. But to the average person he was inviting and gentle. To the religious he quoted scripture, but to the rest he told truth through stories and illustrations. It was only to the religious that he was antagonistic. That’s part of the reason that they plotted to kill him. He was exposing their hypocrisy. Is there something that we can learn from this? I believe that we can. “Love is never stationary” is a quote from the book “Love Does” by Bob Goff. I like the thought because it implies that love is fluid, it’s always moving. That’s the way I see Jesus operating in the scriptures. He met people where they were. It was at that level that he loved them. It varied from person to person according to where they were as individuals. It wasn’t a ‘one size fits all’ type of approach. He genuinely cared about people and he demonstrated it on a daily basis. We may say we care about people, but our behavior and speech may only push them further away from the very one that we want to introduce them to. To truly love means to accept people where they’re at, regardless of what that may look like. To love that way can be messy and perhaps truly answers the question of what Jesus is. Simply he is love, and we’re to practice the same. Think about it.