Who Jesus Is for You

Jesus was raised in Nazareth in the home of Joseph, a carpenter, and his wife Mary. Jesus most likely went to school in a room attached to the synagogue. He

was a faithful Jew and followed all the Jewish customs. Jesus was a human being.

God took on a human form in Jesus in order to live life like we do. God ‘s love for us is unconditional and infinite. To communicate with us in a personnel way like we do with our friends and family, there was no better way for God to be with us than for God

to become one of us. Jesus walked along the same roadways and experienced the same trials and tribulations as other people. Accepting Jesus as fully human is as important as accepting him as fully divine. Jesus experienced stress, anger, frustration and loneliness but he chose never to respond sinfully to these experiences. Given the choice between popularity and telling people the truth, he chose the path that ultimately turned people against him and led to his death.

Jesus is a role model for me. Like Jesus I have been baptized in the faith.

I was baptized as an infant whereas Jesus was baptized by his cousin John the

Baptist when he was about thirty years old. During his life Jesus was tempted in the desert by the devil three times to give up his complete dependence on God and accept the easy forms of power the devil offered. Jesus resisted for he knew that only his faith in

God would give him the power. As I grow up many times I am tempted to do the wrong

things. Doing the wrong thing is sometimes easier than doing what is right.

Understanding that Jesus also faced these obstacles and that prayer can help

you resist in these tough situations in life is reassuring to me.

Jesus taught his disciples and us how to pray. He taught people to pray

simply and trustingly to God as father, without trying to impress God with fancy language. Through Jesus I learned to talk to God like a son does to his father;

to say what is in your heart, to ask for guidance when you need to make tough

decisions.

Jesus has taught me to be thankful for all the blessing I have in life.

Blessing are not necessarily being rich in material goods. But being rich in the

things that matter most like the love and respect of family and friends. Jesus

teaches that in the Kingdom of God the usual values and priorities of the world are turned upside down. The poor are truly rich, the most powerful are the weakest and a person who wants to lead must first become a servant. Jesus could not stand hypocrisy and injustice and he let people know. The Pharises and the Sadducces debated with him

on the fine points of Jewish law and healing a person on the Sabbath a day of rest.

Jesus loved the law, but he could not bear to see it abused as a way to control people and put them down. By following Jesus example, I try to reflect on our