The Real Jesus

by Bob Setzer
As a boy, growing up in the Bible belt, the death of Jesus seemed simple enough: he died for my sins. To me, Jesus' childhood, youth, and adulthood were mostly just warm-up acts for the epic, world-changing moment when he died upon the cross and won the salvation of the world.

It's not that my childhood version of the story was altogether wrong. The New Testament does makes stunning claims about the cosmic meaning of the death of Jesus (Mark 10:45; John 1:29; Romans 5:8; Hebrews 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20 for starters). And I still believe Jesus' death on the cross—answered emphatically by his resurrection—is the "big bang" at the dawn of God's new creation, the crux (from "cross") of everything that ultimately matters.

But the Gospel is not a fairytale. It is not a sweet, sentimental story with a heartwarming ending. Nor is it religious fiction like the gripping stories of the Olympians ancient Greeks told their grandchildren. No, the Gospel purports to be true, meaning grounded in history, a real story about a real person. In short, Jesus’ life is what gives such world-altering meaning to his death.

Granted, Jesus’ story is told by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John with unrestrained enthusiasm; the writers never claim to be unbiased reporters. Indeed, in an era when watchers of CNN dismiss the claims of Fox News, and vice versa, we now recognize there is no such thing as "detached objectivity." At least the writers of the Gospels are honest about what they are up to, namely, trying to make "believers" of everyone in sight (John 20:31). But there is no doubting they are writing about a real, flesh-and-blood, first-century carpenter with a knack for telling unsettling truths about God.

So here's some of the questions I plan to wrestle with from the pulpit during Lent and to do so at the level of history, rather than cosmic meaning only: How did arguably the noblest and wisest man to ever tread upon the earth end up pinioned against the sky on a Roman cross? What forces of a corrupt religious and political establishment conspired to engineer the capital punishment of the Son of God? How is it that the radical love of God of and neighbor can get you killed?

During this sermon series on "The Last Week of Jesus' Life," we'll unpack the dark, sinister forces that struck down Jesus in his prime. Those forces are still very much with us. That's why we need not only a meek and mild Savior, but also a determined, fierce Deliverer.

Thank God, Jesus is both.