Versions of Jesus float through our world. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, is popular. Advocate Jesus lends his name to various causes. Genie Jesus, who just wants us to be happy, gives unlimited wishes. All these slice off a piece of Jesus and mold it into a more useful form. But John in his Apocalypse blows up such images and introduces a Jesus that’s not so pliant.

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

Notice some characteristics of Jesus. He’s faithful and true and just. With eyes aflame he wages war. Jesus wears a robe dipped in blood. He’s followed by the armies of heaven, but he doesn’t need them because by the word of his mouth he slays the nations. He presses grapes of furious wrath. Finally he bears his true name—KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS (all caps in the Bible means snap your head around and pay attention).

Forget all the flippant ways we think of Jesus. Because there’s nothing flippant about this rider. Jesus charges from heaven with power and glory and all will fall before him, either in destruction or in worship.

I can follow this Jesus.

Gentle Jesus and advocate Jesus and genie Jesus all bore us, because they’re not really Jesus. These are figments of imagination, invented in the Wonka-verse, created to buttress arguments and get our way.

The real Jesus puts that all to rest. Reflect this Christmas season on the Jesus found in Scripture. The babe worshipped by shepherds will grow into the rider on the white horse. Don’t be guilty of passing along insipid caricatures of Jesus. Instead speak of the King of kings and Lord of lords—the Jesus worthy of our lives and our worship.

Revelation 19 in reading the Bible in 2023

 Photo by Domie Sharpin