JESUS: Wimpy and Passive? Think Again.

My last post explored how men are experiencing a full fledged attack on their Godly assignment as a protector. Going hand in hand with this is culture's perversion of the MAN that Jesus was, and is today. Culture tries to paint Jesus as passive, wimpy and peaceful. Peace filled I'll give you, but passive and wimpy, I think not, and scripture has plenty of firepower to back that up. Many of us, even growing up the church and sitting in services weekly weren't shown how Jesus is the man we should be. We were shown a cheapened picture of Christ.

Jesus is referred to as the second "Adam". Meaning the Adam of the book of Genesis. Meaning the Adam we should not forget, who had the most epic ball drop in history when he stood by Eve, not protecting her from the serpent (satan) and taking the bite of the apple that ruined the intimacy they had with God. Jesus' life on earth was intended to model the Adam that should have been in the garden. Now there's all kinds of theological in's and out's here, but the bottom line is Jesus came to show us as men who we are to be and how we are to act.

So was Jesus a push over? Let's take a look. If one of our original assignments as men is to be a protector and Jesus was sent to model what Adam failed to model as a protector, it stands to reason that Jesus' life should be filled with examples of Him being a "protector". We can then as His followers, know how we should act in our role as Protector. We will look at three (there are more) examples of Jesus as protector. They fall into three categories: society, women and family.

Society - probably one of Jesus' most epic "man moments" is found in John 2: 13-17. He makes a whip of cords and drives the money changers out of the temple and flips their tables. This is what we call "righteous anger" and some cultural context is needed to understand what Jesus was doing and why his anger was indeed righteous. At this time in Jerusalem it was Passover and people would travel from miles and miles away to be a part of this sacred time. They would be required by Jewish law and custom to bring or buy their sacrifice for their sin atonement to the temple. While as opportunity would have it, prices for sin covering sacrifices would sky rocket around Passover. Modern day we know this as price gauging. Well this wasn't okay with Jesus. So on behalf of the people (society) at the time, He made a point by tossing some tables and running these "money changers" out of the temple. He was protecting the society's most vulnerable He was a part of.

Women - no greater example in scripture is there of Jesus being a protector of women than is found in John 8: 1-11. This is the story of the woman caught in adultery and by Jewish law, was to be stoned to death. Jesus in the middle of the chaos begins writing in the ground as the Jewish leaders challenged him to take action. Many theologians believe Jesus was writing out the ten commandments in the sand. This makes sense because Jesus straightens up and says "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." The stone throwers had to examine their own hearts against the ten commandments. The older (and probably wiser) walked away first knowing their own sin left them condemned. Jesus protected that woman that day caught in an egregious sin. How much more should we as His followers protect women regardless of their circumstance? The second Adam protected women inside His assigned role from God.

Family - lastly and sometime overlooked in scriptural teaching is Jesus assigning of his earthly mother Mary's protection under his disciple John. Found in John 19:26-27 Jesus while hanging on the cross notices his mother Mary. He says to John (the disciple whom he loved) "Here is your mother". The context of the passage is that John would now be responsible for Mary's welfare and protection. The passage goes on to say that "From that time on, the disciple took her into his home." So even in Jesus' imminent death He was protecting those around Him and fulfilling His original assignment and identity from God.

Was Jesus a wimp? Nope. Chasing money changers out of the temple and flipping tables, standing up for a woman caught in a major sin bucking cultural norms and bleeding out on the cross but making sure His mother was taken care of, none of those events qualify as wimpy. Jesus is our model as men and the fulfillment of what Adam was supposed to be. When we follow Him and examine our own flawed programming from this fallen world and renew our mind to reprogram to His, we walk in God's will for our lives. There is no better place to be.