Blog # 291 Jesus in the Bible / Jesus Today

Blog # 291  Jesus in the  Bible / Jesus Today

Whenever a high school football team wins a State championship in their division it means they played good football.  I remember living in Sandersville back in 1997 when our local team did that.  Their record was 15 wins, no losses.

You could have known our team played good football if you actually attended the games.  But if you did not attend the games you could still know they played good football by the record.  And the more you knew of football either by playing  the game yourself or following it as a fan, the more you appreciated and found interesting and exciting the experience and performance of the local team.

Then when the season was over, the final game was won and the trophy brought home, large enthusiastic headlines in the local newspaper proclaimed the victory and exalted the team. A parade was organized and the team rode through town in their uniforms on an open flatbed truck.  Cheers went up. The memories and excitement of the games came alive.  Parents of the players were proud of their sons again.  The team was not actually running tackling passing scoring and winning now.  That had all been done.  Now was the time of glory appreciation and celebration of what had been done.

I see all you have been reading so far lived out in relationship to Jesus. 
Here's how.  As any Sandersville Hawks fan knows, the team played well, so, any believing Christian knows Jesus did something great with His life. But a difference comes  here. None of us was alive two thousand years ago when Jesus actually spent His life for others. This would be something like having none
of us from town being actually present at any of the fifteen games our team won.

We know what Jesus said and did primarily from the Bible.That would be something like knowing how our team performed  by the newspaper accounts, and by the pictures in the high school year book. The sweat has been washed away, the victory has been won, the games are over. Some of us can get really excited just by reading about a good season  this way.  We watch the parade and cheer the team even though we did not actlually attend any of the games. With Jesus it can be similar.

We know we cannot  physically eat with Him in Martha's kitchen, walk with Him on the streets of Jericho, hold the scroll for Him to read from it in the synagogue in Cepernaum.  We were born too late for this.  We could accept this and be satisfied and thankful reading it in the pages of the Bible. The actual physical games our team played, and the actual limited physical human experience of Jesus in history on earth are over.  The memory of it handed down through the centuries is exciting in itself.  It is fitting and proper that we bring high praise and deep appreciation to Jesus for all He has done as His story is told for us in the Bible.. 

This is the way it would be for someone coming to Sandersville years from now, when all the current end guards, centers, coaches and quarter backs will be gone. You could get out copies of old newspapers, read about the games, and rejoice in the victories that were won.  But the real action of it all would be in the past, real in that sense, but only in that sense.

Here is where my analogy parts from the reality of the Bible story of Jesus. We can take that up tomorrow
in another blog.