More Than Just A Feeling
John Fischer

In my newspaper this morning there was a story about Naomi Wolf, author and outspoken feminist, finding Jesus. She apparently has explained her conversion as coming through a profound vision she had in which she was a 13-year-old Jewish boy sitting next to Jesus “feeling feelings I'd never felt in my lifetime.” Such a story raises the obvious question as to how she or anyone else would know if this was really Jesus.

We live in a time when truth is anyone's guess. And in many cases that's all it is -- a guess. We all have heard, during a discussion of religion, the statement: “Well that may be true for you, but not for me.” It makes you wonder how many versions of truth are out there. And if that's true, then Jesus (who, by the way, said he was the embodiment of truth) is up for grabs, too. And if someone says they sat next to him in a vision, how would they know? How would we know whether or not to believe them?

Well there is a way to check it out. Here's how anyone can do it. It's not very hard. You just read the gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) a few times over until you think you have a handle on who Jesus claimed to be, what he did while he was here and what he said. And if, as you are doing that, your heart is leaping out of your chest and everything in you says: “That's him alright!” then you've got the real Jesus.

It's that Jesus whom we believe and follow -- the one who healed the sick, raised the dead, gave sight to the blind and had the power to forgive sins. The one who cast the moneychangers out of the temple and had harsh words for the religious leaders of the day. The one who claimed he was from God and was going back to God. The one who said he would die and rise again on the third day and then went and did just that. The one who said that the poor and hungry were better off than the rich and satisfied. The one who told us that the most important thing we could do was love God and secondly to love our neighbor. The one who said he was the truth and the life and thus the only way to get to His Father in heaven. That one! That's the real Jesus, and what you and I do with that Jesus is the real crux of the matter.

I don't know about Naomi Wolf and her vision, but I do hope she's got a Bible and that she's reading about Jesus.

PDL