Your Personal Jesus

By Rev. Gaven Mize

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

This description of Jesus from St. John’s Revelation is the clearest of Jesus’ divinity. The imagery and sense of awe flows right into John’s eyes, to his heart, and out through his pen. It is so descriptive that we who are reading the text see Jesus in a way that we have never seen Him before. Nowhere else in Scripture does it define what Jesus’ eyes of flame or feet of burnished bronzed feet are. Nowhere else in Scripture do we find the voice of Jesus like the roar of water or His mouth as a two-edged sword. Only in St. John’s Revelation do we find Baptism flowing from the mouth of Jesus in such a way that we become afraid for our own lives. This is a Jesus who means business. This is the Jesus who we know will come to judge both the living and the dead. This is far from the Jesus in the Gospels.

Or is it?

Peter, James, and John saw a glimpse of Christ’s divinity on the Mount of Transfiguration. They witnessed the face of Christ shining bright like the sun and His garments white as snow. Then appeared the bastions of the Law and Prophets: Moses and Elijah. Peter in his excitement wanted to remain with Christ, Moses, and Elijah. He wanted to be with Christ there on the mountain forever. Yet, this could not be. For Christ came to earth to rescue men from their sins.

Years ago, the phrase, “My personal Jesus” ran wild. And while it still lingers today there is a massive problem with this saying and Peter learned this lesson first hand. We all want our own personal Jesus. It’s easier that way. We find no idiocy in the fact that it just so happens that our “personal Jesus” agrees with whatever we feel or want to do at any given time. To twist Jesus’ will and purpose is to create and idol out of “god” or the idea of Jesus. We sinfully desire to take Jesus off ourselves, rub the lamp, and have Jesus pop out to do our bidding. By using this “personal Jesus” man has given himself over discord, slander, disruption, hate, and even splitting the church down the middle. We have put up far more than three tents. We have put up as many tents as we can and we live in them, calling our plight right and our brothers and sisters wrong. We sit in those tents and in our own sin like people who have no ears to hear nor tongues to confess.

This is where we miss the beauty of Christ’s transfiguration. In our text Peter comments, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” And who could blame him? He wanted to be where Christ was for all time, yet he didn’t understand how that was to be possible. But Christ did make it possible, just not on that mountain. God’s voice came booming out of the clouds, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” And the following words that Peter, James, and John heard was, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

There we have it. Christ could not remain on that mountain for He was heading toward a completely different mountain—a mountain where His Divine splendor would not shine like the sun, but where His humanity would be on full display as He hung from the cross and died. He was heading to Golgotha: the place of the skull.

Between the Mount of Transfiguration and the place of the skull we find ourselves as wandering and filled with longing as the disciples. “Let us set up tents for you Christ that we might always be with you.” And Christ cries, “Forgive them Father for they do not know what they are doing.”

If you as a sinner want to see a “personal Jesus,” then go to where the person of Jesus is found. Go to church and find Him in Holy Communion. Enter into His Holy House and remember your Baptism. Go into the streets and to your vocations as one who has been covered by the blood of the Lamb and has been washed clean and white as snow.

There will come a day when we shall be in a tent with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Through the death of Christ that forgives our sins and the resurrection of Christ that gives us the hope and promise of our own resurrection we remember that Christ will come again to raise the living and the dead. Christ, in all His divine glory with come as the judge that final day. We will see Christ as St. John saw Him. We will see Christ sitting at the throne and we will be invited to the feast of the lamb in His kingdom. This tent, where we will see Christ, is not just any tent. It is the great wedding tent and you, His Church, are the Bride.

On that day we will hear the words of Christ, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” And the faithful shall enter the Kingdom of God and the pagan into eternal hell.

You have been saved by grace through faith. You are baptized Christians. Do not build up tents to the false god of self, but believe, trust, and rejoice in the salvation that Christ has won for you. For in this we have been given much more than a mountain. We have been given the entire Kingdom of God. Enter the doors of this Kingdom through your Baptism. Sustain yourselves with the Body and Blood of Jesus. And when your body fails and returns to the earth from which it came you will fall into the embrace of your master. Then, in that Kingdom, you will see Christ face to face. And because Christ didn’t stay on the Mount of Transfiguration but died for you, when your time to die comes you will say with joy and confidence, “All is well.” Amen.

Rev. Mize is the pastor of Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hickory, North Carolina. He is also the author of Beauty and Catechesis and serves on the doctrinal review team for Higher Things.