WHO IS JESUS?

by D. Berg

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What does the Bible mean when it calls Jesus "The Word"?

God has always spoken to people in many ways:

Through the beauty and wonder of His Creation, through His prophets and messengers, and through His written Word. But the clearest revelation of Himself--of His character, of His Love--is found in His Son, Jesus, Whom He calls "the Word."
Words are the means by which we express ourselves, by which we reveal our thoughts, our feelings, our character.

--And Jesus is the means by which God expresses Himself to us. God's most outstanding means of communication with us, the way that He chose to communicate His Love to the World, was by His Own Son, Jesus.

So Jesus came to give us God's message, to tell us about God's Love?

Yes.--But He not only gave us God's message and God's teachings, God's Love, but He is God's message, He is God's Love to us.
Jesus, the living Word, revealed God's feelings to us in a way that we could understand and relate to. For example, Isaiah 53:3 tells us, "He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." He wept over the grief of His friends, over the suffering of humanity, and even over Jerusalem, a city that rejected its Saviour and was therefore doomed to destruction.
Jesus was so merciful, so kind and kind-hearted. There were times when He was wearied, worn and virtually exhausted from constantly ministering to the crowds that thronged Him. On one occasion He tried to retire from the busy scene for a little rest and recuperation, but the Bible tells us that when He saw the multitudes who needed His help, He had compassion upon them. He felt so sorry for them that despite the weariness and pain He felt, He went out and healed all that came to Him, and taught them all the wonderful Words of God's Kingdom of Love.--Matthew 9:36; Mark 6:31-34.
There were also times when God's anger blazed through Jesus, the Living Word, against pretense and hypocrisy. He told the self-righteous leaders of the ruling religious hierarchy of His day, "If I had not come and spoken unto you, you would not be guilty of sin, but now I have come and exposed you, so you have no covering for your sin!"--John 15:22.
Actually, most of the time He had very little to do with the lofty, rich-robed, powerful and wealthy religious leaders, the Scribes and the Pharisees.--Except when they insisted on annoying Him and raising critical questions, doubts and accusations among those He was teaching. Then He unleashed scathing rebukes against them, publicly exposing them as the "blind leaders of the blind" that they were (Matthew 15:14), even telling them on occasion that they were like "whitewashed sepulchres, tombs, which, although they appeared beautiful, clean and holy outwardly, were full of rottenness, corruption and stinking dead men's bones within!"--Matthew 23:27,28. These religious leaders considered themselves to be the most "righteous and holy" people in town, but Jesus exposed them for the hypocrites, liars, robbers and cheaters of the poor that they were, which of course infuriated them.
But most of the time Jesus avoided the self-satisfied religionists, and spent His time helping and loving the poor, the common man, speaking to them, healing them, feeding them and most importantly, giving them the spiritual answers, Love, forgiveness and Truth that they longed for.
The Bible says that He mingled with and preached to the fishermen, drunks, prostitutes, tax collectors and sinners, and "the common people heard Him gladly."--Mark 12:37. But when He went into the temple and gave His message to the religious leaders, they mobbed Him, threw Him out and finally crucified Him!

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