LIVING ROOM’S OPEN DOOR –

As I’ve mentioned before, Living Room’s Open Door is founded on the unconditional love of Jesus. When I sat down to tell you about him, I felt overwhelmed. Where should I begin?

I will start with what I believe:

As a Christian, I believe that Jesus was a man who lived and walked on the earth some 2000 years ago. During his three years of ministry, he fearlessly and radically revealed injustices that the world had not seen to be unjust at the time, upsetting the status quo.  Through his example Jesus showed a better way and became an example for all mankind. The world is a better place because of how he lived and what he said. He was made to die a slow and excruciating death, as though he were a criminal—a willing sacrifice for the good of mankind.

His Spirit lives on, even today, among those who believe in him. Ever since I started placing my trust in Jesus, I have felt his immeasurable love and found healing through it in the midst of my struggles with bipolar disorder.

There are billions of people who believe in Jesus as a man who was one of the most important figures in world history. The Bible’s gospels, made up of the New Testament books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, tell the most detailed accounts of what Jesus did and said. But not everyone believes the Bible.

There are some who don’t even believe that he existed as a real person who lived and walked the earth some two thousand years ago—a person who is reported to have done many great things, even changing the world through his radical teachings.

Let’s take a look at the Jesus that non-Christian historians have written about:

Was Jesus Real? an article by Christoper Klein from which I drew the following, sheds some light on it. It will show how, within a few decades of his death, Jesus was mentioned by Jewish and Roman historians that verify portions of the New Testament account.

A 2015 Biblical Archaeology Review article on the extra-biblical evidence of Jesus by Lawrence Mykytiuk, associate professor of library science at Purdue University, notes that there was no disbelief about the issue in ancient times. “Jewish rabbis who did not like Jesus or his followers accused him of being a magician and leading people astray,” he says.

Historian Flavius Josephus, thought to have been born a few years after the crucifixion of Jesus around A.D. 37, wrote one of the earliest historical accounts about him. Although Josephus was not a follower of Jesus, “he was around when the early church was getting started, so he knew people who had seen and heard Jesus,” Mykytiuk says.

In one passage of Jewish Antiquities  in which Josephus recounts an unlawful execution, he identifies the victim, James, as the “brother of Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah.”

Another account about Jesus is Annals of Imperial Rome, written around A.D. 116 by Roman historian, Tacitus. In chronicling the burning of Rome in A.D. 64, he mentions that Emperor Nero falsely blamed “the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius.”

Bart Ehrman, an expert on the New Testament and the history of early Christianity, said that Tacitus, as a Roman historian, did not have any Christian biases in his discussion of the persecution of Christians by Nero. “Just about everything he says coincides—from a completely different point of view, by a Roman author disdainful of Christians and their superstition—with what the New Testament itself says: Jesus was executed by the governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, for crimes against the state, and a religious movement of his followers sprang up in his wake.”

As we go through this series, I’ll be talking a lot more about Jesus – about what he was like and what he did. But what about Jesus’ unconditional love on which Living Room’s Open Door is founded?

There is a portion in the Bible where Jesus said:

“When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 14:12-14)

I believe that Jesus is the host at such a table and that his Spirit is with us still. With love he invites you and me to join him,

  • No matter who you are or where you live,
  • No matter how rich or poor,
  • No matter the wrongs you have done,
  • No matter what you believe or don’t believe,
  • No matter how you worship,

And no matter how much you have been rejected by others, Jesus will never reject you.

Because he loves you . . . unconditionally.

marja