There is so much that is misunderstood about Jesus. So much that we assume we know, but under proper biblical inspection we find that we are incorrect. Do we come to him with preconceptions? Do we come with our arguments already in place about who Jesus is supposed to be? Are constantly trying to prove or disprove something about Jesus? One of the biggest challenges in the early 21st Century is gaining a proper and full understanding of who Jesus is. John presents a clear, hard, focused view of Jesus and challenges us to accept nothing less than that Jesus. In the middle of our confusion and our misconceptions, John presents Jesus as someone fantastic who does more than represent God or who helps us figure life out. The only question for us is- will we accept the Jesus of John for all that he is and for all that he can do in us?

In his Gospel/biography of Jesus, John desperately wants us to know the Jesus he knew. John writes with an urgency and intensity that seems to be screaming out at us, "You're looking for God? You're wondering if there's any hope? Remember Jesus! Know him- he's God!" He brings in his first witness of Jesus' unique identity in the unique person of John the Baptist. John the Baptist shows up with a simply and compelling message that brought in crowds by the thousands. Would he embrace his opportunity to be elevated, to be propped up and made much of? How would he respond to the attention? John shows us that Jesus is the only One worth pointing people to and that our job is to be the unique voice for the Gospel among our generation.

Ideas are...just that- they are ideas. There's not a lot of tangibility to them so long as they remain in the realm of the theoretical, philosophical. Ideas can change to world, but they have to be "fleshed out." We can have ideas about people or things or inventions or hopes or dreams or plans- but they don't change anything, impact anything or ultimately impact anything until they are made into a reality. Man has had ideas about God for millennia, but God knew that our ideas were all wrong and out of sync with the reality of who he was. God knew that we needed a full vision of who he was- so he showed us ALL of himself through Jesus Christ. We can know God and know Jesus and be like him and worship him and live life like him!

Light has a way of making itself known, of drawing attention to itself. It doesn't usually need to be announced- "Look, the light is on!" John is intent on telling us new things about Jesus, on forcing us to see and accept him for who he really is. Along the way John also describes us, introducing us to us and revealing some things that we might rather ignore or overlook or treat with kid gloves. Here we discover Jesus as the Light of Life, the Life of God, and the fact that none of us can see him as light if left to ourselves. We see our darkness and need for sight and life and faith and find Jesus to be the Light that is worth praising and proclaiming.

We don't remember the names of the great biographers, we remember the names of the subjects of great biographies. More than that- we write and read biographies about memorable, interesting, impactful people. The Gospel of John is the account of the life, teachings and acts of Jesus Christ and John wrote it because he wants us to know Jesus in much the same way that he knew Jesus. John wants us to pay honor and respect to Jesus as a great man and to learn from him. As John was struck by the awesome love of God through Jesus, he was most overwhelmed by this: That the same Jesus who talked about love was the same God who is love. John wants us to know from the very beginning that Jesus is God and the rest of Jesus' story only matters because of that.

We often start the new year thinking about change and resolutions and improvement. We evaluate who we are, where we are in life, where we want to go and how we might best get there. Others of us ignore all of this and keep up the same patterns, choosing to repeat old failures and mistakes. The book of Hebrews makes it clear that this attitude is fatal to our faith; that we can slip quickly from not hearing God's Word to disobedience to a loss of faith and faith walking. Evaluate yourself-be honest with yourself-ask the Lord to reveal your heart and shortcomings to you- and let's spend 2011 growing from the milk of the Word to the meat of the Word!