Let The Truth of Jesus' Life Speak For Itself

One of the challenges for those who teach about Jesus is to tell the whole truth about His life—to attempt to give a fair and complete account regarding what He said and what He did.

There is, sometimes, a tendency to want to over-emphasize certain truths about Jesus and His life; and to de-emphasize or maybe even ignore other truths about Jesus and His life. For example, when we look at Jesus’ life in the gospels we find He was loving, gracious, tender, patient and kind. I find myself wanting to emphasize these truths about Jesus. I want Jesus to be likeable. My experience is that people like hearing about these characteristics of Jesus.

However, in those same gospels we also find that Jesus was firm and uncompromising in His teaching, never afraid to present unpopular truths. He was boldly confrontational with the religious leaders of His day, referring to them as “whitewashed tombs” and “a brood of vipers.” That’s not the type of approach that wins popularity contests.

We even find Jesus exhibiting righteous anger when He threw the money changers out of the temple.

Occasionally, it is helpful for me to remind myself that I do not need to manage Jesus’ image. He does not need me to handle His PR. The best thing to do is present His life and teachings as honestly and accurately as possible and let the truth of who He is speak for itself.