Who Is This Man?

"I need Jesus to clean me up," we said to the player on our left the other day during a tournament.  We'd taken a small bottle of hand sanitizer to use as our card protector and conversation-starter.

"What do you think of Jesus?" we asked the man.  "Is He your Savior?"

"I think Jesus existed."

"But is He your Savior?"

"I didn't come here to discuss that."

Clearly the question caught him off-guard, and made him uncomfortable.  But that's the thing about Jesus.  Many people came face-to-face with Him when He walked on Earth.  They knew He existed.  But how many really accepted the fact that Jesus was more than a man?

Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. - John 20:30-31

Jesus came from heaven to Earth to fill many roles.  He was the Son of our Father God....

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.... And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." - Matthew 3:16-17

Jesus's disciples saw something more than that:

The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). - John 1:41

And here's the curious thing about what that poker player told us -- the name "Jesus" in Greek means "savior," according to the notes in one of our King James Bibles:

And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. - Matthew 1:21 (KJV)

Some people have made a big deal about President Obama's middle name "Hussein."  Few apparently noticed the middle name of former Federal Reserve Board chair Ben Bernanke - Shalom, as in "peace."  (Have you felt at peace with the U.S. economy the last eight years?)

But Jesus's name actually refers to one of the things He came to Earth to do - save us from our sins. Do you simply think someone by that name existed?  Or do you accept and embrace what that Name means, to have eternal life through Him?