Who was Jesus?

I'll be honest... I have no idea how to start this post. That doesn't mean it's going to be a downer, there's just so many places to go with such a question. The short answer is this: I don't know.

I know that to be a Christian means to live with the conviction of who Jesus was and how He lived. But how can we live with that conviction if we fail to grasp who Jesus was and what exactly He did?

Jesus was a Jewish carpenter who thought about his religion in radically different ways; ways that eventually got him killed. He was a man who wept. He was a man who reached out beyond the social stigmas and touched lepers, dined with tax collectors, and spoke with prostitutes, more often than not at the cost of His ritual cleanness and religious reputation. He was a man who spoke with great authority. He was a man who taught in parables in circumstances that most teachers today would cause most teachers today to use the simplest terms possible. He was a man who called all kinds of people to follow him before they even knew who He was. He was a man who challenged those around him to rethink everything they thought they knew about faith, life, and the world around them.

I've called myself a follower of this man for several years now, and yet I can look back and see how often I've totally neglected who Jesus was and how he lived, and at times even spoke against certain aspects of the way I now know that He lived. I also look at myself now and wonder how much of what I do and believe and understand about the world around me in incongruent with who Jesus was and how He lived. I wouldn't say I worry about it, because God's gracious enough to love me in spite of whatever I may believe about Him... but I certainly hope that whatever inconsistency I may have with the life Jesus lived causes as little pain and divide in those who are looking for Jesus in me.

God either has a sense of humor or is a horrible judge of character when choosing who goes into ministry.