One of my biggest concerns is that I may not know Jesus when He comes. How will I know Him? This fear is both good and bad. It causes me to question everything I know, but at the same time it drives me to study the Bible and try to know who Jesus really is. In Matthew 14:34-36 Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee and spent some time in Gennasaret. I found verse 35 very interesting because it said “when” the men of that place “recognized” Jesus…
Someplace in my unrealistic thought process I thought that people took one look and they knew Jesus was Jesus. I thought I was the only one missing the boat on how to recognize Jesus. Verse 35 says “When.” This means he didn’t just walk off the boat to everyone’s wide-open arms. I do not know how long it took for them to recognize Jesus, but it wasn’t immediately.
If they didn’t know Him immediately, “How did they recognize Jesus?” They didn’t have pictures on the post office walls. He didn’t come with papers to announce His presence. He didn’t have the paparazzi following Him around, no Tweets®, Facebook® or any of the other things that make one readily available to be identified. There were prophecies about Him, but they were not fully understood by everyone and often misunderstood. The only prophecy that discusses His physical appearance is found in Isaiah 53:2; basically it says Jesus isn’t anything to look at or to make us desire Him. I tried searching for characteristics of Jesus or His personality traits. It was very interesting, especially the personality profile I found. (http://www.ccel.us/psychology.ch3.html). Depending upon the author and the purpose of the resource, there was anywhere from 9-60 traits that are associated with Jesus.
Although I still don’t know how the men in the town recognized Jesus, I know for me the only way to know Jesus and to recognize Him is through studying Him through the Bible. Deuteronomy 11:18 – “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.”
How will you identify Jesus?