 The big deal about Jesus  The Layman – Volume 39, Number 5 – Posted November 27, 2006
I turned to Chapter 4, “Understanding Leviticus,” and was absolutely stymied by the subtitle: “Leviticus Portrays Jesus Christ, Our Sacrifice for Sin.” A little learning is a dangerous thing: I had read enough of Leviticus to know that it was about grain offerings and burning goats for this and burning birds for that. I didn’t see Jesus mentioned at all in its 27 chapters. I then leafed through the other Old Testament chapters, and all of Mears’ subtitles, whether for Ruth or Ecclesiastes or Exodus, were about Jesus Christ, not Ruth or Solomon or Moses, which just couldn’t be right. So, I put her book aside and looked for a book that could really help me figure out what is going on in the Bible – who Belshazzar is and where Ai was. By God’s grace, during the many years since, I have come into the path of fine pastors and teachers, courses, conferences, study books and radio ministries, with God gradually opening my eyes to what Mears had been trying to show me in her book – Jesus is the Big Deal of the Bible, Old Testament and New. From when God seeks out Adam and Eve in the cool of the day and speaks of the woman’s offspring crushing the serpent in Genesis 3:15 to the last verse of Malachi, the message is the promise of redemption to prepare us for the coming of Jesus the Christ. The New Testament presents the Messiah Jesus in the Gospels, preaches him in Acts, explains him in the letters and prepares us for his return in Revelation. Jesus God, coming not just to be a good example but the perfect sacrifice, which Leviticus shows that we sinful people need before a holy God; Jesus God, coming not just as one who came to live among us but the one who came to give life to the full, now and eternally; Jesus God, who came first as Savior and Lord and who will come suddenly again as King and Judge.
We Presbyterians cannot call ourselves “People of the Book” if we forget what the Bible teaches from Genesis to Revelation – Jesus is the Big Deal for us and for all humankind. If we look for or proclaim God without Jesus or a Jesus who is less than God, we will miss God. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4-6). Scripture warns that if any church forsakes Jesus, every Christian’s first love, that church will be removed (Rev. 2:4). There are many ways to forsake Jesus – editing him out of parts of the Bible, failing to glorify him or give thanks to him, reinterpreting his words so that he becomes merely a moral teacher or social reformer, changing our language about him so that he stands not as Son but ebbs away into “Flowing River,” re-imagining him and his life so that the crucifixion and resurrection of his body are no longer real and physical events in history. As we look at our lives, our congregations, presbyteries, and general assemblies, we can find all these ways of losing Jesus. It is my prayer that, even at this late date, God will open our ears to hear what the Spirit says to the churches and we will repent and return to our first love. May we keep on our lips, “Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.” Peggy Hedden, an elder in Columbus, Ohio, is the CEO and chairman of the Board of Directors of the Presbyterian Lay Committee. |
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