The First Step

Let us begin with the Gospels. Let us forget, or at least try to set aside, what we have learned so far about Christianity. Let us go back to the original, to the founder, to Jesus himself. I know that some will question the reliability of the Gospels, wondering if these are sufficient to know who the real Jesus was. I know there are apparent inconsistencies, contradictions and some aspects of the Gospels which are hard to understand, when taken into our modern day perspective. Please bear with me, as we examine the reasons why the Gospels can be trusted, and why they remain the bedrock documents of Christianity. Clearly, we will also move past these, into the more complex reasoning of St. Paul, of the theologians and historians, who help us understand the Gospels in their proper context. Yes, to answer more complex questions we will need more complex answers, but our aim will always be to return to simplicity. I am, in fact, convinced that when the work will be done, everything will appear simple and straightforward. Even those aspects of the Bible that are a bit 'hard to swallow, will find a suitable explanation.

Meeting Jesus
It would be no use to search for something, and be ultimately unwilling to find it. Equally pointless it would be to try and understand Christianity, while unwilling to try it. To try it one must simply meet Jesus, which can happen instantaneously, or gradually, and starts with a simple act of faith, a simple yes, a prayer, an opening up to him, the raising of a hand or a look. There are many ways in which a person can open the door of their heart and let Jesus come in. There isn’t a specific formula for it, but whoever does it, in whichever way they like, will meet Him and will know it. If you, who read, are not sure if you ever met Him, I invite you to stop right now, shut everything else out and open your heart to Jesus, with your own words, or in silence, but ask him to come in and to manifest himself to you.

Knowing Jesus
As we all know, it isn’t quite enough to meet someone in order to really know them. Just the same, meeting Jesus is only the beginning, and the real discovery comes after, extending for a lifetime and beyond. Even the disciples didn’t know Jesus very well, while He was with them. There were several obstacles to their full understanding of Him, like His physical presence, which prevented them from seeing who He really was in the Spirit. They were also conditioned by the culture of that time, especially by popular expectations on how the Messiah should appear, thus they were also unable to recognise his true role till the very end. Nevertheless, they followed Him, they healed the sick, cast out demons, preached the Gospel and did many great works in His name.

Later, the apostle Paul went far beyond their first understanding of Jesus and struggled long, epistle after epistle, to try and help them see what great change had come about with Jesus, a passage from Old to New Testament. The Apostle John lived longer and went even further, including in his Gospel concepts which had not been understood by his fellow apostles, nor by Paul. In essence, discovering and understanding Jesus is a never ending process, but it’s a road worth taking, with wonders to be had at every turn and it’s worth going the distance. In the following chapters we will walk together.