While it is true that almost everyone in America knows of Jesus Christ, far fewer actually know him.
The lingering images of Jesus Christ tend to be revived only twice a year and more by custom than faith, of course. In the early winter, people shower each other with gifts while being reminded that the babe in the manger is the reason for the season. Then in the spring, many of them take a few moments one Sunday morning to contemplate the crucified and risen savior.
We must be just as concerned with the Jesus in between the manger and the cross. Our savior is meek and mild, but is also bold and forceful, and his mission to defeat sin is never slowed by man’s desire that iniquity be tolerated.
No one on Earth knows exactly when Jesus Christ was born, but we do know where and the amazing story of how. Through Micah’s fulfilled prophecy (5:2), Jesus was born in the little town of Bethlehem, but not in a hospital or even a home (Luke 2:1-21). Jesus was born of a virgin, fulfilling probably the most astonishing prophecy in all the Bible (Isaiah 7:14).
Except for a single episode as a young man, we learn very little about Jesus until he is a grown man, being, as it was supposed, thirty years of age when he began his public ministry. For about three years, he worked miracles in Judea, taught the gospel of his kingdom, and generally opposed the hypocrisy of the religious establishment of the day. For his troubles, Jesus became an enemy of the chief priests and Sanhedrin and was turned over to the Roman authorities with the hope that they would silence him as a threat to the state as well.
Although he could have defended himself and called upon his faithful disciples to fight, he submitted to his enemies as a sheep goes to the slaughter, nailed to a Roman cross and killed (Luke 23:26-47). He was taken down from the tree and laid in a new tomb, but three days later, the stone that secured it was rolled away and Jesus was resurrected from the dead to walk again among men, before ascending into heaven to sit upon the throne of David (see Acts 2:29-33). Still, the most enduring image of Jesus Christ, the one that adorns jewelry and paintings, is the image of a bearded man in ragged clothing nailed to a cross–harmless and silent.
What could possibly happen after the manger to transport this innocent babe to the cross of Golgotha? How could one so meek and mild make so many powerful enemies; how could it be that the Prince of Peace falls victim to the hatred of his own subjects? It was the Lord’s loathing of sin and his determination to save the penitent that brought him under the derision of people intent on having their lawlessness tolerated (John 3:19-21). Things have not changed since, either.
Among other descriptions, we learn that Jesus was to be born the Prince of Peace with authority and integrity. Indeed, he is announced as the bringer of peace, and even promotes blessing for peacemakers who will become sons of God (see Matthew 5:9, Isaiah 9:6-7). So long as he was only turning meager scraps of food into tremendous feasts, he had the approval of the people; when he demanded they convert from their sinful ways, however, he discovered just how deep their opposition would become (John 6:10-66).
In fact, Jesus did not come to inaugurate a period of international or social peace, but to make peace with God possible so that believers could likewise enjoy peace among themselves (Matthew 10:32-39, Second Corinthians 5:18). The gospel account of Mark does not even describe the birth of Jesus, but instead immediately portrays the savior as a teacher confronting his target – the sin of hypocrites, of the well-intentioned, and of the ignorant. This is the Jesus so much absent around the holidays, but so real throughout the New Testament. While still meek and mild, he is blunt, bold and forceful and never does he imply sin is tolerable.
Jesus, moreover, was not averse to confrontation, even at times inviting debates with those of false piety.
- He cleansed the temple of profiteers (John 2:13-17).
- He exposed the weakness of false religion (John 4:19-26).
- He confronted a friend with his shortcomings (Matthew 16:21-23).
- He rebuked hypocrites and an adulteress they accused (John 8:2-11).
- He told men their arguments were rooted in greed (Luke 12:13-21).
- He showed affection by pointing out vulnerabilities (Mark 10:17-22).
- He excoriated hypocritical religious leaders (Matthew 23:1-4).
This is hardly the popular image of Jesus Christ, but it is an important part of his character that should linger more powerfully in people’s minds than it does. In between the manger and the cross, Jesus confronted sin very forcefully in just the way that we ought to confront our own sin and that around us (see Ephesians 6:18-19).
We must be willing to confront transgression. An elder is to hold “fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict” (Titus 1:9). Preachers are to rebuke sharply those who are insubordinate to the will of God, who talk idly and deceive others as they subvert households teaching things they ought not (see Titus 1:10-14). Every spiritual person is to restore any of his brethren overtaken in any trespass (see Galatians 6:2).
The image of Christ that lingers should never be one that looks the other way at sin and error, but which confronts it, sometimes mildly and sometimes boldly, as the occasion requires (Jude 22, First Thessalonians 5:14). To follow his example, we must first examine ourselves (Matthew 7:1-5). Only then do we truly honor the babe in the manger who became the savior on the cross by upholding all the truth all of his life.
