context<\/em> of His close relationships with his disciples, relationships that are also clearly evident in the Gospels.<\/p>\nMany, if not most, of the known words of Christ are related to His profound teachings. The inspired writers of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are greatly interested in setting forth an accurate picture of the Man in relation to His mission. This is because the most important things that we need to know are found in what Jesus said when He was acting in the role of Preacher, Prophet and coming King. All of those roles involved communicating sublime truth to a human race desperately in need of both that truth and, more importantly, the One who embodied it.<\/p>\n
But there had to be another side of Jesus.<\/p>\n
He could not have spent his three years with the Twelve speaking only magnificent and glorious words to their awed ears. These men were the traveling companions of their Teacher. Beyond that they were also His friends. It seems safe to conclude that Jesus also spoke to His apostles as any man would to his friends. That would appear to mean that sometimes, perhaps even the majority of the time, their conversations were casual. Whether they were discussing the routine events of the day or where to eat or the prevailing weather they must have spoken to each other with the informal banter characteristic of people who are close to one another. Perhaps they shared in the laughter of impromptu humor. Could it even be that the Lord and Savior of humankind occasionally entertained his disciples with a good joke?<\/p>\n
After years steeped in the New Testament, with its frequent admonitions and exhortations, devout Christians can be forgiven if they find themselves a bit uncomfortable with the idea of \u201cthe casual Jesus\u201d. After all we are called to reverence the Son of God above all things, and well we should, but that said the One we worship was and is both fully God and fully human and part of being fully human is the simple warmth and intimacy of friendship. We do not always speak to our friends in formal language suffused with deep meaning, far from it. In fact we rarely communicate this way and maybe that is what enables such language to have such a profound impact when we do use it. Is it unreasonable to think that it was the same with the human Jesus?<\/p>\n
If this is true than it is also logical to assume that the Gospel writers knew that the most important words to record from Christ\u2019s earthly ministry were the words He used when He was making a greatly important point. The fact that they did not try to convey three years of casual banter on the road stems from the need to distill the words of Christ which would have that most \u201cprofound impact\u201d on the fallen race He came to save. However this does not mean that casual banter was not part and parcel of the experience of following Jesus in the flesh.<\/p>\n
Today some believers may believe that we have somehow cheapened the value of the One we worship by making Him more \u201caccessible\u201d as a human being. I submit that this is only the case if we forget that the One who truly is our friend is simultaneously also our Master, the Ruler of the universe. If we know Him first and foremost in a spirit of reverence for His Deity we can then also safely know Him as a human being, not a pious caricature of one. It may actually enhance our knowledge of, and love for, the God-Man to think of him walking with His twelve friends along a dusty Judean road telling a humorous tale and joining in the laughter His Father designed all men to enjoy. The only thing such a thought \u201ccheapens\u201d is our false piety and, if that is the case, let it be so. What really matters is strengthening our true connection to the One who became one of us. Pondering the full-breadth of the humanity of Jesus Christ might do just that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Copyright\u00a0 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved Because the only recorded words of Jesus Christ are found in the words of scripture we have a natural tendency to develop our idea of who He is based solely on those words. If we desire to get a more complete picture of the Son of Man we… <\/p>\n
Read more The Informal Jesus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6GkOA-dq","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":275,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2012\/09\/20\/beyond-words-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":832,"position":0},"title":"Beyond Words","date":"September 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Beyond Words Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved Many have written of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The number of words devoted to this event is probably only surpassed by the number used in the many accounts of His death. This seems unfortunate in a sense. It is not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1243,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/30\/beyond-words\/","url_meta":{"origin":832,"position":1},"title":"Beyond Words…","date":"March 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved Many Christians have written of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The number of words devoted to this event is likely only surpassed by the many accounts of His death. In a sense this seems unfortunate. It is not that His Passion is to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":502,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2014\/04\/17\/identity-and-the-words-of-others\/","url_meta":{"origin":832,"position":2},"title":"Identity and the Words of Others","date":"April 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved Entering into the identity given us by God often requires that we receive His knowledge of our true selves through others. In and of ourselves we are not able to see who God made us to be in Christ. We need the perspective\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2012\/04\/13\/the-only-answer-to-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":832,"position":3},"title":"The Only Answer to Sin","date":"April 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Only Answer to Sin Copyright 2012 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved \u00a0 We can only progress in our sanctification if we trust Christ to bring it about. This may seem like a spiritual \u201cno-brainer\u201d but it has become somewhat of a revelation in my life of late. After\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1346,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/08\/the-only-author-and-perfecter-of-human-obedience\/","url_meta":{"origin":832,"position":4},"title":"The Only Author and Perfecter of Human Obedience","date":"October 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2018 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved The only hope the sincere Christ-follower has of learning the way of submission to God Himself, and any legitimate human authority, must begin with understanding the ultimate submission of God, the Son, to God, the Father. In fact, if it were not\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":474,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2014\/02\/21\/sold-out\/","url_meta":{"origin":832,"position":5},"title":"Sold-Out?","date":"February 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved What does it really mean to be wholly devoted to God? Beyond that, what can be done by any believer to get to the place of living for Christ and Christ alone? The term \u201csold-out to Jesus\u201d is an evangelical clich\u00e9 that nonetheless\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836,"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions\/836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}