Why Did Jesus Come?

If we have not yet experienced the Living Presence of Jesus, our first response would probably be something like, "He came to teach us how to live."  But if we do not rely on the words of Jesus Himself, we are just shooting in the dark.  It is not our own ideas of why He came, but His words themselves that will answer the question:

John the Evangelist was a very young man when he met Jesus -- probably not more than 17 years old.  He was the "one whom Jesus loved," probably because of his youth.  He lived to be a very old man, in exile on the island of Patmos, where he had time to contemplate all that he had experienced of the Lord.  While the other apostles preached and were martyred, John prayed and wrote his Gospel and the Book of Revelation.  It was given to him to "see" and to explain what he saw of the Risen Jesus:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....through Him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God...from the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

Jesus came to make known the Father.  In the Hebrew, to "know" is not to have ideas about, but to experience, to enter into.  Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly by entering into the life of the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.

If we can imagine a three-sided pyramid, with each face representing one Person of the Trinity, eternally loving, eternally acting, eternally pouring out their life and love toward one another, we might begin to see the point.  We have to get inside the pyramid in order to experience Divine Life.  Once inside, we are swept up in the on-going motion of Love's Eternal Exchange and Energy.

No matter which "entrance" we find, as we enter, we are enveloped and instantly embraced in the life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said He was the "door," the entry into this divine life:  No man comes to the Father but by me.  He came that we might also participate in this life, knowing the Father as He knows the Father, receiving from the Father all that He has to give through the Breath, the Spirit.  And returning everything without reserve to the Father in an exchange of total love. 

Jesus wanted to embrace us "that where He was, we also might be."  He wanted to place us in Him so that we might also be children of God, sharing in the same life that He Himself has in the Trinity.

It is not a matter of "being good;" it is a matter of "being in."  Can we be "good people" without Jesus?  Certainly.  That's hardly the point.  So many "bad" people, if you will, entered into the life of the Trinity through knowing Jesus before the "good" people of His time.  He even said that the sinners, the tax collectors, and the prostitutes would enter the kingdom of God before the Pharisees. 

Anyone who wants to can enter through the door.  NOthing else is required, but "believing in" (trusting) the One God has sent to gather in the lame, the halt, and the blind.  Jesus came to gather in whoever would come.  To the good thief, He said, This day, you will be with Me in Paradise.  Jesus did not "teach" the Good Thief; He simply gathered him into the kingdom of His Father.

Now here is the good news:  The kingdom of heaven is here, now, among and within us.  Today, we can enter into the Presence of God.  It's not about "being good so we can go to heaven."  Not at all.  It's just about entering through the Door into the Pyramid, where the Divine Life is breathing, living, acting, laughing, being exchanged.  Today is the day; we can enter today!

I once saw a cartoon, where Jesus was standing at the edge of Niagra Falls with a wheelbarrow.  Across the Falls was stretched a tightrope.  He was asking a young person, "Do you believe I can walk across the Falls on this rope?"  "Of course," said the youth, "YOU can do everything."  "Then Get IN," said Jesus.

All we have to do is GET IN.  He will do everything else.  If we want to know the Father of heaven and earth as Jesus knows Him, all we have to do is GET IN.  If we want the breath of the Holy Spirit in us, all we have to do is GET IN.  We don't have to have the right ideas, or the right position, or the right behavior to get in.  We just have to TRUST JESUS to get us to the other side.  He can do it; He will do it; He wants to do it; He was dying to do it.  Hop in!