You are here: Home › Whats New › 2009 › 05 › 01 › Becoming A Little Jesus

Becoming a little Jesus

1st May 2009 by Roscoe Holland

I recently read a great book by Mike Frost & Alan Hirsch "RE JESUS; A wild Messiah for a Missional Church" and in it there was a reference of a "Little Jesus". A question jumped into my mind- "does that mean being like Jesus OR does it mean that Jesus is too small in our life?'

You've made a decision to stop sinning and be a "Christian"? All of a sudden you say you want to live differently, you want to be holy/spiritual. What does that look like? So you want to be like Jesus? Who is Jesus?

There are so many questions when you first become a Christian; a follower of Jesus. And even for those who might have grown up in a Christian family or have been attending church for a long time now there still remains the question - "Who is Jesus?" and "How do I look like him?"

Throughout history painters, sculpters, poets and songwriters have tried to explain who Jesus is:

Our modern media; movies, comics, fashion; all try to depict what their image of Jesus is:

Even in church today, there is sermon after sermon about who and what and where Jesus is. Jesus is the basis of our faith. if we don't know who he is then we really can't say we are followers of him. I am surprised by how many teenagers at youth councils can tell me the ins and outs of the X-Men saga or the relationships of characters in Twilight or the season scoring average for their favourite NRL team captain or cricket hero... but when it comes to Jesus he is a "Little Jesus" to them. Jesus really takes up such a little space in their lives he has no significance at all.

I'm not going to give you a full theological, christocentric essay here... there's no need to...

I am asking; is Jesus little in your world OR are you trying to be a "little Jesus"?

"In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men." John 1:1-4

"Jesus is the centre of all, the object of all, whoever does not know him, knows nothing aright, either of the world or of himself". Blaise Pascal

"Come, Follow me" Jesus of Nazareth [Matthew 4:19, 9:9, 14:29 Mark 1:17, 2:14, John 1:39]

FOLLOW ME - Becoming a Little Jesus

Following Jesus involves more than simply accepting him as your Saviour via some prayer of commitment, no matter how sincere that prayer might be. In order to follow Jesus you must also emulate him, using his life as a pattern for your own; i.e. "becoming a little Jesus".

When we call ourselves little Jesus-es, we aren't claiming to be able to walk on water or die for the sins of the world. No, being a little Jesus means we adopt the values embodied in Jesus' life and teaching. Only Jesus was able to feed thousands with small amounts of bread and fish, but as little Jesus-es we can embrace the values of hospitality and generosity. We might not be able to preach to multitudes, but we can commit to speaking truth to lies and watch how we speak about others [gossip and innuendo]. We can't die for any-one's sins, but we can embrace selflessness, sacrifice and suffering.

I hope and pray to see a conspiracy of "little Jesus-es unleashed all over the world, transforming their communities the way Jesus transformed his. But to do that you need to find out who Jesus is.

Ask your Youth Pastor or Youth Group Leader; your TRIBE leader or even the Corps Officers... they all know Jesus and desire you to know him too...

Ciao for now... Roscoe