Who Is Jesus to You?

“And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see Him of a long season, because he had heard many things of Him: and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by Him.”  Luke 23:8

Jesus was brought before Pilate to be judged as guilty of the charges that the Jewish leaders were making against Him such as blasphemy and His claim of being the King of the Jews (Luke 23:3).  Pilate did not want to be involved in making this decision.  He thought he found a way out when he discovered Jesus was from Galilee, which was out of his jurisdiction.  Therefore Pilate sent Jesus to Herod to adjudicate His case.  Herod just happened to be in Jerusalem at that time. (There are no coincidences with God).

Herod was actually glad to see Jesus which seems strange since Herod’s father, Herod the great, had tried to destroy Jesus when He was a baby (Matthew 2:16).  However, this son of Herod the great had heard a lot about Jesus and was hoping to see Jesus perform a miracle.  I guess one could say Herod viewed Jesus as some sort of novel celebrity, a passing fancy, and/or an entertainer.  There are many in today’s world who view Jesus as even less than that.  Some don’t believe that He ever existed, others see Him as mainly a historical figure, a prophet, a teacher, or just a Man who went around doing good.

Jesus was and is all those things, but He was and is so much more.  He was in the beginning when God made the world.  Genesis 1:26: “And God said, Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness…”  The first foretelling of Jesus as Savior was right after Eve ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and it was revealed that God would send One who would defeat Satan (Genesis 1:15).  Micah 5:2 foretells the birthplace of Jesus and His future as ruler in Israel.  Micah also verifies that Jesus would be One who had always been.  Isaiah 53:2-9 describes how Jesus would be seen by the people of that day, as despised and rejected, and that He would suffer for the sins of all people without complaint.  Psalm 22, written by King David, describes Jesus’ crucifixion, even the specifics, such as how He was mocked and how the soldiers gambled for His clothing.  There are other scriptures which foretell the first coming of Christ and His mission to bring salvation to God’s creation, and these scriptures were written hundreds of years before He was born in Bethlehem.

If Jesus was just a teacher or just a prophet, why would these scriptures have been written about Him?  Why would prophecy be told about a mere man who had no ability to die for the sins of the people?  Why waste time, effort, pen, and paper to write such profound words about an ordinary man?  The Savior had to have been sinless and willing to go through all that Jesus did in order to provide salvation for any and all who would repent and believe in Him.  No mortal man could have endured the suffering of crucifixion and rise from the dead unless He had supernatural power from above.  Even Satan’s demons recognized Jesus as the Son of God (Matthew 8:39), but they had no ability to receive Him as Savior.  I suppose the most verifiable claim as to Jesus’ true identity comes from God Himself: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him” (Matthew 17:5).  Would not a Father know His own Son?  Thus to refuse to recognize Jesus as the Son of God is to not believe what God said about Him, in effect calling God a liar.  Could anyone really be that bold?  How we answer the question as to who Jesus is to us is the most important answer that we will ever give.