Who does Jesus belong to?
Some people are not very impressed with the church. They look at the bad side of church history and conclude that the church has not followed Jesus Christ very well and so perhaps the church doesn’t have the moral authority to talk about Jesus. Of course they are right – in some ways.
The church has done many things in the name of Jesus Christ that are just plain wrong and can’t be excused or explained away. There can be no defense. But then Christians don’t claim to be perfect and every day seek God’s forgiveness. The church is not immune from power struggles, pride and selfishness. Of course it also saddens Christians that the bad is remembered whilst the much greater good that the church has done is ignored.
Yet despite the churches failings it is clear from all the evidence we have (both from the New Testament and other historical sources) that Jesus founded the Christian church so that his message could be taken throughout the world. The message of Jesus and who Jesus is was entrusted into the hands of the Christian church – something which the Christian church has been very aware of and careful about since its earliest days.
I’m not suggesting that this makes the church perfect but I am suggesting that Jesus knew what he was getting himself into when he founded the church and yet he still did it.
This doesn’t mean that Jesus belongs to the church. The church doesn’t have any copyright of Jesus and people are free to look at the evidence for themselves and draw their own conclusions. It is sad that at times in it’s enthusiasm for preserving the message of Jesus it sometimes persecuted those who thought differently. However, the church does have a responsibility for saying what it believes is the message of Jesus and for speaking out against what it believes is not the message of Jesus.
So then you are welcome to ask anyone what they think about Jesus but if you want to know what Jesus thought about himself you have to go to those Jesus picked to pass that message on – the Christian church. Of course this is a complex issue but understanding the essence of who Jesus is, what he taught and what that means for the world is the very reason that Jesus created the church in the first place (as well as for worship, service, etc).
