"I want to be like Jesus."
Sounds familiar. As in, everyone is saying it. And in all honesty, everyone may be having good intentions and 'meaning it' when they say it.
But what does that even mean? Probably not what we are intending when we say it. How often does "I want to be like Jesus" translate in the average Christian's mind to "I want to be loving and compassionate, I want to be sacrificial and selfless, I want to care for the poor and weak and needy, I want to live fearlessly, I want to make a difference in others' lives and in the world, I want to make my life stand for something that will remain constant even past when my life ends"? All the time.
We look at the ministry of Jesus and point to those few years when we say that line. We look at the Jesus that others loved and point to that when we say that line. We forget a lot about Jesus though, we leave a lot out when are desiring for our lives to be Christ-like.
It sounds good, right? And it will get a lot of Christians to nod their heads in agreement, for sure. It makes sense... until you think about it.
We leave out the Jesus that was chased to a cliff by a mob of people that wanted to kill Him because what He said was unheard of. We leave out the Jesus that was persecuted, beaten, ridiculed, hated, and suffered the death of sinners. We leave out the Jesus that others didn't understand. We leave out the Jesus that left all comfort. We leave out that Jesus was homeless. We leave out the fact that some of the lives He impacted and made a difference in were the same lives that spit in His face and turned their backs on Him. We leave out the Jesus that spend thirty years doing mundane things that although made up 90% of his life, were barely even documented in the book we get to know Him through. We leave out the Jesus that sought the heart of God relentlessly, prayed without ceasing and demanded God's Will for His life, no matter how bad it sucked.
We want the good parts of Jesus' life, and we just want to forget the hard stuff ever happened. Or at least, we want to just leave the hard stuff for Him to handle and keep the goods stuff for ourselves.
The question is, if we were alive when Jesus came to Earth, would we have wanted the life He lived? We say we want to be like Jesus. But do we? We want Heaven but not the hardship. We want a good reputation but forget that Jesus didn't have one. We want to be on the winning team but aren't willing to train and get to know the captain before we are picked for it.
