An Eclectic Jesus? – The philosophers and poets had a point (but missed the core truth!)

Some of us come to Jesus because He seems to offer the good stuff – freedom, peace, life, meaning, healing, joy.  And then we can enjoy all that and happily agree with our religious friends that lots of other religions provide some of the same stuff!  Or maybe we can add a bit of Jesus to some stuff we find interesting or helpful from other religions.  After all, aren’t all religions just different ways of accessing the “ultimate reality” / “the supreme being” / “the meaning of life” / “God” (just circle the one that suits you!)   After all, can’t sort my options and find ways to experience ultimate reality through Buddha, Allah, some assorted Hindu gods, yoga meditation, et al? But we may just have seriously missed the key issue about Jesus! Some Greek philosophers and poets tried that thought on Jesus’ apostle Paul in about AD60.  Being very religious and having mix & match gods for every occasion, they said “… since we are (God’s) children, too …”.  And Paul’s response was something like “OK fellas, you’ve kinda got a point there but you’ve really, badly missed the core truth”.

Read the following three passages and get a picture for yourself of a few key understandings of Jesus. It will turn upside-down the ideas of our first paragraph, and maybe you will see that Jesus is the main point, the central, point, the overarching point!!

Acts 17:22   So Paul stood up in front of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in every way. For as I was walking around and looking closely at the objects you worship, I even found an altar with this written on it: ‘To an unknown god.’ So I am telling you about the unknown object you worship. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth. He doesn’t live in shrines made by human hands, and he isn’t served by people as if he needed anything. He himself gives everyone life, breath, and everything else. From one man he made every nation of humanity to live all over the earth, fixing the seasons of the year and the national boundaries within which they live, so that they might look for God, somehow reach for him, and find him. Of course, he is never far from any one of us. For we live, move, and exist because of him, as some of your own poets have said: ‘…Since we are his children, too.’ So if we are God’s children, we shouldn’t think that the divine being is like gold, silver, or stone, or is an image carved by humans using their own imagination and skill. Though God has overlooked those times of ignorance, he now commands everyone everywhere to repent, because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world with justice through a man whom he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

Colossians 1:15  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross

John 14:1  (Jesus speaking) “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?  When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.” “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”