WHO IS JESUS???

Pip has requested me to help us all internalize the Bible, to have you read through my e-mails and get some touches of the celestial wonders that surround us, but which we often ignore, forget, or are too busy to notice. What a lovely way to continue our e-mail conversations from this threshold of the Divine...without sounding like the fire, thunder and brimstone of the angry God Who cast the tablets of the Commandments as Moses descended the mountain.

Because, today, our God's words are no longer written on stone by the fire of lightning and with our trembling fears of a wrathful God. He has written His commands in our hearts...take a look.

And, so, let me begin by helping us all to see... and you can join me by simply reading through my e-mails, or, and this is even better, by writing back your own thoughts...for all of us to share.

Do you know what Jesus looks like?

I have worked with television as a broadcaster for two decades and have this expertise at describing events and personalities...mostly heads of states and governments, kings, tyrants, dictators, and first ladies. I counted the number of such world leaders I have interviewed -- more than 50 of them, mostly in their pompous offices or imperial thrones, complete with a retinue of security secret service agents standing guard at my every move, making sure that I have no hidden weapon that could harm their leader.

But, I never imagined ever doing an interview of Jesus. In the open field under a hot sun, dust in my nostrils and straining to listen to what He has to stay in the midst of crowd. Or, weaving my way inside a room where He asked a man to rise up from a debilitating illness. But not in a Palace -- this Son of God. Not in a huge office -- this creator of the universe. Not with bodyguards, but with twelve, smelling of salt wind men who could hardly even speak good grammar (some were just fishermen).

How would I have described Him? Was He tall, dark and handsome? From what I have read about Him, I gather that His charisma must have been strong enough to have been able to attract thousands of people who would listen to Him (and without a sound system, mind you) for hours, sometimes days, as he talked (preached, was the word they used) about something absolutely strange to them (at that time).

Remember, we already know the outcome of Christ's life today...but let's look at His life as though we were doing a reportage (a television coverage, from my perspective, that is) of this man who claims to be God. Join me as I walk us through the path of this man's life.

Visualize this: a man walks down the street, and you have the people calling out in His name in exclamations, like an athlete, perhaps, who has just made the victory for your favorite game.

We, who live two thousand and five years after Jesus, know the sound of cheers and shouts. We see this on television with football or basketball games. You yourselves have sat in stadiums shouting out the name of your favorites.

It wasn't very different, then, I think.

I have studied His gestures and words in the Gospels and the many books that they have spawned. Yet no amount of my readings gave me a glimpse of Jesus in the flesh. A poet said it beautifully: "Those of us who look for Jesus cannot see past our own noses."

If He were alive today, would he be a six-foot-six-inch 260-pound defensive tackle who would always make big plays and would be hard to keep out of

the backfield for offensive linemen?

Would He approximate Nelson Mandela, or Martin Luther King, Jr., or Abraham Lincoln, or Brad Pitt, or Harrison Ford?

Who is this Jesus?

Jesus Himself did not offer much proof of his identity. Take it from me as an investigative journalist, and I tell you He dropped clues here and

there, but He also said, after my discovering some evidence, "Blessed is He who takes no offense at me."

See that? To a remarkable degree, this man throws it back at us.

So, all those stories we read from the four great writers of the Gospel, all those records of Paul in his letters to people all over his ministry...all lead to just one truth: Jesus is for each of us to discover.

Examine me. Test me. Learn about me. And then, you decide who I am. That's what He is saying.

I leave you with that, my dearest everyone. You don't have to be analytical about this, simply close your eyes whenever you can, maybe before going to sleep, or while you're at work and resting a while, or in a restaurant and waiting for your order. Think in your mind's eye of what Jesus would look like. Not the pictures you see in holy books or the movies. You. Your thoughts. Your own version of His looks.

Believe me, even as you begin to imagine His face, you will cry from the sheer magnitude of the thought.

I intend to tell you more, but for now, you try and make your own discoveries. That is, if you would really like to know who Jesus is.