We come in contact, both in person and online, with hundreds – if not thousands – of people every day. As we do, we tend to subconsciously divide these people into a series of concentric circles. These circles represent our relationship to those people, moving from simply being in their vicinity, to being an acquaintance, and eventually to our inner circle of those closest to us. In general, the further out a person is in our concentric circles, the less we have to concern ourselves with them. If a person is on the outer ring, they do not have to be “dealt” with; we can simply encounter them and then move on about our day.

We come in contact, both in person and online, with hundreds – if not thousands – of people every day. We can simply encounter them and then move on about our day.”

Jesus breaks this mold. He is the only person in history who must be dealt with. His identify demands this and our identity is shaped by how we respond to him. Much as a person might try to keep Jesus in that outer circle, He demands to be dealt with. The question, in fact, is not whether every human being will deal with the identity of Jesus; it’s a question of when and how they will deal with the identity of Jesus.