Jesus, Who are You? Part One:

About a month ago, I was really frustrated with myself.

I was determined to be a good Christian, reading my Bible
but lost every time I opened it up.

“Where do I begin?” I wondered.
“Where do I even start? What am I searching for?”
I wanted to learn, and grow, but I did not know where to begin!

And then I had heard someone read from the book of John about
the part where Jesus talked about “abiding.”

“Abide in me, and I in you,” Jesus said in John 15:4.
“As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine,
neither can you unless you abide in me.”

This was a new concept to me, even though I had been raised in the faith,
and knew about “following Jesus.”

What was abiding?

And what did that mean?

I learned from this that on my own I was unable, and I
wanted to grow and “bear fruit” and be close to Jesus. But how?

And then came a struggle in trying to “abide.”

I knew that I should read my Bible and pray and focus my mind on Jesus,
but then I realized something that sent me into further turmoil.

Who was Jesus? What was He like? Who was He really? Did I even know Him?

I didn’t know where to begin in scripture.

The Gospels seemed to be the place to go to learn about Jesus, but then there were so many other
books in the New Testament with descriptions of Him and words about what Jesus said and meant.
I was not sure where to start! And then it hit me, this sudden realization. The other books in the New
Testament where mostly commentaries on Jesus! I had to start in the Gospels. That was where I
would learn about Jesus from Jesus’ own mouth and life. So I decided to start with the book of John.

I had heard that it was mostly original, a first-hand account. Someone who was close to Jesus and
KNEW Him.

So I began reading there first.

I was not far in when that week I got hit with a sudden illness. I felt awful, had to skip a whole day of
classes, and was stuck holed up in my room locked away from everyone and forced to sleep, rest,
and be still.

I think that God knew I needed to be stuck in one place without the option of distractions. I had also
pledged a few days before to not watch movies or go onto social media at all for ten days. So those
distractions were out as well. Well, at the end of the day I recall picking up my Bible, and reading
through John. Perhaps it was the rest, perhaps it was the separation from the world and it’s distractions
but I could not stop reading! My mind opened up so much! And I devoured every word until I came to
chapter 17.

This was where I truly found the answers to my hunger.

Now, John 17 has something in it called the “High Priestly Prayer.” I had remembered a little bit about
it from a class we had had on John. But it did not hit home until I was reading it for the first time myself,
alone, with every word clicking like the pieces of a puzzle together in my head.

Here in Jesus’ own words I saw HIM. I saw His desire for us, His plans, His longing, His person and
character and being. I heard Him talk about God the Father as a real and tangible being, and for the
first time in my life I felt like I got to know HIM.

Yeshua. Jesus as Himself.

Having never been able to sit with Him and talk, seeing His face and feeling the breath from his mouth
as he spoke to me. Having never watched Him move and talk and laugh with my own eyes, locking in
every detail in my mind like the strokes of a master painting; remembering everything from the hole in
his leather sandals to the soft accent of His speech.

As a Christian today I had felt jilted. I had not been alive, walking with Jesus, and learning from Him Him
self. I had never even seen His face with my own eyes or even met anyone who knew Him when he
was a man.

Because of this I had felt distant, jealous. I had faith, but no sight. Why couldn’t I just be there, back in
time, and get to actually hear His voice and talk with Him? Did He even care about me, a Gentile, in the
future ahead? Did He even remember those of us who had never seen?

How wrong I was!

So much about this prayer struck me with not only WHO JESUS WAS, but how even then we were all
on His mind! He had not forgotten me! He had not forgotten us.

“I am praying for them,” Jesus said. “I am not praying for the world but for those whom You have
given me, for they are Yours…... Holy Father keep them in Your name, which You have given me, that
they may be one even as We are one. - I kept them in Your name, which You have given me. I have
guarded them, and not one of them has been lost…. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they
may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me
through their word, that they may all be one, just as You Father, are in me, and I in You, that they
also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent me.” (John 17:9-12, 20-21)

I remember sitting up in bed crying. I sobbed, tears of joy and love and every emotion pouring out. I
was mostly, so happy! So Jesus was someone I could understand, and He was real, and tangible, and
so much more than the man with the beard and blue sash I had grown up with as a child. He was more
than the cross, the infant in a manger, the distant King, the gentle Betrothed, He was a man, and yet …
God. He, Jesus, was someone I could get to know! And from his own lips, I got a glimpse of Him I had
never had in my life!

The implications of this discovery have rippled in my life even today. One month later I still smile and
flip back to that prayer with love in my soul. I read it and cherish every word. And it encouraged me to
keep learning, but most importantly, it gave me HOPE.

Jesus could be known!

He already knows me more than I know myself - and step by step I am paving new ground in our
relationship. I still don’t understand everything, I still have to take a step back and breathe, and He
tells me that I must let Him lead.

So, when I thought about what to share on from something in one of the Gospels, this precious passage
immediately came to my mind! I thank God so much for bringing me to it! He took a lost little lamb and
gave me a foundation.

And I am forever changed.

“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see

My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

John 17:24

“Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

John 20:29