Who is Jesus? Should I give the standard Christian answer? Should I go into the historical evidence of His existence? Should I compare Him to other religious icons? But my meditation and prayers did not take me there at all. Instead, they took me to this simple answer, Jesus is the healer of my broken heart.
The real Jesus that is.
I remember a type of Jesus that was a part of my childhood. His picture was on the walls of my grandmother’s house. He was nailed to a cross in our church. My grandma talked about him often, but if I am being honest, that Jesus scared me. I didn’t feel a connection.
I remember reading some children’s books about him, and THAT Jesus appealed to me. I wanted to get to know Him more, but even as a child I struggled to understand how and why He should be prominent in my life. I was getting mixed messages. In the end, as I grew older I became jaded and I really was not all that interested in Jesus at all. I was in pain, I was in the midst of the struggle, and Jesus became nothing more than a name because He was nowhere to be found.
But as I reflect on the path that led me here, I can now understand how He was there all along. I just could not see Him yet. A series of events that are too perfect to be coincidences led me to this place, a place of healing and restoration and of confidence in who He is.
Jesus Is for the Brokenhearted
You can read entire books, some academic and some not so academic, on the theological positions of the Church on who Jesus Christ is. However, at the end of the day, most of us just want to know one thing, how can He heal my brokenness?
We are all broken and imperfect and flawed. We all have things in our pasts or even in our present that we are deeply ashamed of. If someone was to lift the veil and see us for who we really are, we would curl up in a corner and cry.
Others of us have been so abused, neglected, and rejected that we don’t know what to do with our emotions. There is anger, bitterness, sadness. We want to know why it is so hard for us to be loved. We are convinced that if there is a God, He must hate us, or maybe there just isn’t a God after all.
Others of us may feel like we have it all together. We may have a job, a career, wealth, or success, but when we look in the mirror we are terrified at the idea that we may not be as important as we think. We may just be a speck in a cosmic universe that at one point will be extinguished as easily as putting out a candle.
Jesus is the One that can mend those broken pieces even in the midst of the struggle and confusion. He is the One that can show us our worth. He is the One that can define our purpose. He is the One who can help us look in the mirror and walk away assured of our relevance.
How Does Jesus Heal and Restore?
I wish that I could give a simple answer. I wish that I was intelligent enough to explain it better. But I fear there is no adequate explanation other than to say, He just does. Isn’t that what we would expect from the One that is the Son of God? Why, as limited beings, do we think we can explain the only One who can do the impossible?
Every person that reaches out to Jesus will have a path to healing and restoration that is different. No two stories will be the same. My story is my story and yours will be yours. Some stories will be outright miraculous and instantaneous and others will take a lifetime. (You can read about one miraculous and radical transformation in “Overcoming Substance Abuse Through Christ.”) With time, some of us may get some clarity as to why He took longer to heal one struggle over the other, and sometimes we will not.
There is always an element of faith when you place your trust in Jesus, when you reach out to him and say, “Help me.” Many times, it is a shaky faith, it will look more like cautious hope, than actually jumping from the cliff knowing something is there to catch you. And as a person that is by nature an academic, logical, and relies on good sound reasoning, I can tell you that neat explanations are not always there.
Why, as limited beings, do we think we can explain the only One who can do the impossible? Click To TweetHowever, one thing I know for sure. I was once broken and now I am healed. These two stories below tell part of my story.
My Story of When I Was a Self Cutter
Who is Jesus? The Best Way to Get to Know Him
To get to know Jesus, I recommend putting aside your preconceptions. Remember earlier I mentioned the mixed messages I was getting about Jesus during my childhood? They were mixed messages because I was being taught religion. Religion typically teaches that we must do in order to get. The story of Jesus is the opposite, He says, “I did so that you can get. I sacrificed so that you could be free.”
So if you want to know Jesus, set whatever religion has taught you aside and get to know who Jesus is. The real Jesus. A good place to start is in what we Christians like to call the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You will find something extraordinary. Let me explain.
If we were to stand before a person of importance, we put our best foot forward. If we were to stand before the Queen of England, we would put on our best clothes and be on our best behavior. If Jesus is the King of kings, the son of God, should we not do the same? Should we not get our life together? Should we not overcome our sin first before we try to approach Him?
What the gospels will tell you is that Jesus would say, “Come as you are.”
Jesus Christ already sees the dirt and the grime. He knows our vilest thoughts and the darkest places of our minds. We come before Him, whether we like it or not, already exposed. There is no sin too great: sexual indiscretions, lying, cheating, murder, abortion, alcoholism, drug abuse, etc.
But He doesn’t receive us with reproach nor contempt nor condemnation. He says, “Let me first show you how much I love you despite all of this. Once you understand how loved you are, I will help you overcome the sin, and the brokenness, and the pain, and I will give you my strength in the struggle.” That is not religion, that is LOVE.
The Image of Jesus
I leave you with one final note, or better yet, a drawing. When I first thought about writing this blog, before the words came to me there was an image. I saw it in my mind and I worked on it day after day to bring it to life. Only after the image was complete, did the words start flowing. So if you ask me, “Who is Jesus? ” I might just say, “Let me show you.”
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
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