Who is Jesus?

I was fortunate enough to hear Chris Stefanik speak at a youth event over the weekend.  He is a well-known Catholic speaker who focuses on ministering to teenagers. 

His second keynote address was about the mass.  It was a great talk, but I definitely had a favorite part.  He discussed how we have these false pictures of Jesus that tend to keep us at an arm's reach from him.  (I loved his examples...mostly because they are the same examples I would have used in a presentation like this.  It is always exciting to find out that someone does actually share your sense of humor and you are not completely psycho.) 

For example (stealing from Mr. Stefanik), some of us tend to imagine "Hippie Jesus" who talks to animals and loves the earth:



Others picture "Happy Jesus" who is chill and okay with whatever we choose to do:



Finally, others think of Jesus as the guy who plays basketball with little kids but always wins because he is 33 and God.














It is definitely entertaining to put a face to these stereotypes we have of Jesus and, at the same time, it challenges us to move beyond them.  Even more it made me think about the situation of modern man.  Is it possible that our confusion about the human person is a reflection of our confusion regarding the face of Christ?  Not simply in imagining a historically accurate version of Christ, but in understanding His life, His message, His death and His resurrection?  If Christians truly believed that Jesus was more than a plastic figure on a cheap crucifix, wouldn't we be setting the world on fire with the message of His Truth?

....But coming back to the issue of Jesus playing sports with the children, I would have to echo the words of another writer who mentions the theological concerns with these figurines.  Although I am not a fan of the beliefnet.com website she writes for, I think her considerations are quite thought-provoking.  For example, "If you were playing a sport with Jesus, would you let Hm win?  Should He let you win?  When He's playing with them, whose side is He on?  Where is first-century Palestine did He obtain ice hockey skates?"














Good questions, Laura.


Updated:
If you want a chuckle, check out this blog post