No More Wimpy Jesus.

I think everyone has their own picture of Jesus.

Some pictures are more popular than others, for instance the ever-popular Christ with child (or lamb), or the soft, clear complected face of Jesus in prayer.


These images are fine, but are there not other pictures that are just as much a part of who Christ is?

For instance we don't see very many pictures of Jesus clearing the temple? Or the image of Jesus that John of Patmos gives in Revelations 1. Not very many pictures of Jesus with flaming eyes and swords coming out of his mouth hanging up on Sunday school walls. Just saying.


I've also never seen a picture of an annoyed and wearied looking Jesus rebuking Peter, although it happened more than once.

I reference these pictures to demonstrate a point, We (the church) have made Jesus a, wimp.


Christ is more than one thing. Christ is everything holy and everything holy is Christ. That means that while love, grace, compassion , and mercy are all elements of the essential character of Christ, so are his demands for responsibility and accountability, loving rebuke, and the hatred of all things sinful.

My picture of Jesus is a mixture of the loving and kind Jesus we so often see depicted and the terrifying Jesus we rarely depicted. I think of a stern and fear inspiring Jesus standing in front of his followers (who can also be viewed as his children), ready to defeat any foe that comes against them.


Unfortunately this idea of wimp Jesus has a much greater significance than pictures on the wall in Sunday school classrooms. Wimp Jesus has also become a construct of Christianity for many.

Some of these people feel that Jesus simply lacks the ability to handle their problems even though he said:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7: 7-11

Some of these people have come to believe that they will not be held accountable for sins after their salvation:
Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us. (Hebrews 10: 25-29)
(Please note that I am not saying mistakes will condemn those who have been saved, but instead those who use Christ as a license to sin. For example, "I can commit adultery anytime I want because I'm already saved". Yes there are people that think like this.) 

While I'm already here, I want to say something. Christ did not dissolve the Old Testament, he fulfilled it. There are churches which choose to identify themselves as "New Testament Christians", and in my humble opinion these people have completely missed the point.

All the moral demands of the Old Testament (The Ten Commandments) were about physical acts, the "Thou Shall" and "Thous Shall Not's" were about physical acts (Thou Shall Not Commit Adultery, Thou Shall Not Murder") , the moral demands of Christ however are spiritual & mental as well as physical. (If a man even looks at a woman with lust he has committed adultery,  Don't even think of murder)

In terms of moral code and obligation Christ did absolutely nothing to abolish the Old Testament, instead he increased the demands for purity. It's the need for an earthly priest and temporary sacrifice which are declared obsolete as both have been replaced by Christ.
 (see the book of Hebrews for more information) 

So the main point I'm trying to make is that Christians MUST stop creating and worshiping wimpy Jesus. This wimpy Christ has little respect outside of Christianity (although I'm not sure he truely has much within it), and turns many people off of the faith. Why should they trust their Earthly lives and eternal destiny to a wimpy God?


I don't.