Who is Jesus To You?

Today is the first day of Autumn and it has been several weeks since our Global Health Outreach mission. The culture shock of returning home is diminishing. And once again the cares and responsibilities of this world occupy our time. This morning, I could not help but ask myself, an introspective question, "Who is Jesus to you?"

A number of weeks ago, our GHO Team woke on a Thursday morning in Honduras, to a cloudy overcast sky and rain. Following breakfast, we had devotional time and together we prayed for the rain to clear and that we would have a good clinic turn out at the church in Sigwua. There was a calm following the rain, and a group of us went two by two to the local street market to invite passers by and vendors. The market covered several blocks and there were rows of greens, vegetables, fruits, cheeses, and assorted household wares and items of interest. As we made our way down a row, Pastor Nate and I spotted a large man with a beard seated in the midst of the open air market behind a mound of vegetables. The man had brown skin. In India , where my parents are from, he would have also blended into a street or village market. I noticed he had on a yamaka. How unexpected I thought, to see a Jewish Honduran man amidst a sea of local vendors. I walked over and invited him to our free medical and dental clinic, slipping him a small printed flyer. He nodded and smiled Then we continued with the rest of our group to hand out more flyers and greet passersby.

We had a steady flow of patients that day and praise be to God the rains had stopped and we were treated to glistening sunshine. At midday I looked out in the courtyard and saw the Jewish Honduran man sitting in line outside the pharmacy and dental area. He came, I thought to myself. Quickly, I grabbed my bible and scanned through the Isaiah prophesies, coming across chapter 7.

I walked over to the man and he remembered me. I introduced myself. The man had a kind, cheerful face and his name was George. A happy five year old girl was tugging at his hand. This was his granddaughter, whom he introduced as Keya Emanuella. The beautiful name startled me. I asked George about the name and he told me he had chosen this very special name from Isaiah, as it means "God with us." It came from the scripture , Isaiah 7: 14, " Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." Silently I asked the Holy Spirit to help us, as in my heart, I realized I had to have more then a passing conversation with this man who had a personal relationship with God and was waiting for the Messiah..

George had come for a dental extraction . His blood pressure was dangerously high and he had received medicine from our pharmacy. They were waiting for his blood pressure to come down to do the extraction. I was able to sit with George while he waited. Ramon, a seminary student and Kenneth, a young translator joined us for a serious discussion. I asked George, what he knew of the Messiah's coming. George told us he believed the Messiah was coming soon as there was such turmoil in Israel and there were escalating crises in the nations of the world, with rising costs of basic things. George said he followed the scriptures closely since being taught by a learned man, his professor. I wondered if he may have been speaking of his rabbi.

Ramon and I began to respectfully and carefully describe how the Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus who we believe to be the Messiah. I shared with George that his granddaughter's name , Keya Emanuella is also from a prophecy that came true about Jesus. Together, we looked at the passage in Isaiah 7 and discussed the birth of Jesus to the virgin Mary. We looked through a few more passages that also speak of the Messiah. The Israelites of the time were waiting for a Savior who would redeem them from their broken circumstances.

Unexpectedly George opened my bible and showed us a passage from the New Testament, Mark 8: 27- 29 where Jesus was speaking to his disciples and said , " But what about you? " Who do you say I am? " Looking intently at us, George asked me, Ramon and Kenneth, who do we believe that Jesus is? And what does the name Jesus mean to each one of us? George wanted to hear from each of us. We each replied in our own way. I mentioned, Jesus or Yeshua is a form of the name, Joshua , and means the Lord saves. George then said, wait, it is not Jesus who saves , but the Lord who saves. He said it is all clever "marketing" , the reason why people believe Jesus is the Messiah. Each of us shook our heads. I said no, it is not true . And yes, that Jesus was a common Hebrew name at the time of his birth. However, this man Jesus , who is mentioned in the bible is the Son of God and that God sent him to show us the way to a restored relationship with the Father. A relationship that was damaged by our own sin. And that indeed the old system of animal sacrifice for our own sins was replaced by a final sacrifice of God's perfect son, the Lamb of God. We discussed how there were actual witnesses who walked with Jesus and saw him heal the sick, the blind, the lame, the deaf and that he was crucified in front of them and later rose from the dead because he is God. We mentioned the same witnesses who walked with Jesus went to the ends of the earth to share that Messiah had come.

I described how there were Jews living in India, the country from which my parents came. I mentioned that doubting Thomas was one of the disciples of Jesus who would not believe until he touched Jesus' hands and sides. That the resurrected Messiah, Jesus appeared to Thomas. Thomas as a witness , went all the way to India in 49 AD to tell the Jews in India that their Messiah had come. Thomas was martyred by the natives who did not believe him.

George thanked us for the kind conversation and said again that it is because of good marketing that people believe that Jesus is the Messiah. We pleaded with him to ask God and look carefully at the Scriptures which he loved to read and study. We blessed George and said good bye as he was ready to leave . We continued on with that day. I was thankful for the opportunity to have a conversation with this kind hearted man. I praise God for the privilege of sharing with him and for the time the Lord gave Ramon, Kenneth and me to also pray.

We continue to lift up George, his beautiful granddaughter, Keya Emanuella and his family to the Lord. May George and his family come to know Jesus, Yeshua as Lord and Savior, Redeemer and Emmanuel. We continue to pray for the people of Honduras and the work God is doing there in the hearts of men and women. May He be glorified in our own lives as we continue to also ask who is Jesus to me.