Confronted by Jesus

I recently heard a sermon that pointed out something that has been troubling my mind. In the Bible people who came face-to-face with Jesus seemed to have one of two reactions...either their lives were completely transformed and changed by this confrontation (the woman at the well, the demoniac of Gerasene; Zaccheus, Saul/Paul, and many others) or they didn't want to be changed and asked him to leave or plotted to get rid of him (the people of Gerasene; the rich young ruler; the religious rulers).

The part that troubles me is that as I observe the Christian culture today, I don't see these responses. It appears to me that while the church is teaching about Jesus and people are coming to Him for salvation, there seems to be little to no transformation. We seem content to simply fit Jesus into our lives. I keep thinking that if the Jesus that we read of in the Bible elicited either complete transformation or antagonism and that's not the response to the Jesus taught today...then what Jesus are we offering to people???

I'm also troubled as I look at myself. What reaction have I had and do I have to Jesus? Have I created a Jesus that doesn't challenge me in my life or do I allow Jesus to do what He needs to do in me to transform me into the person that He desires me to be?

Being confronted with the Jesus of the Bible demands a response from all of us today, two thousand years after He walked this earth. We will either be completely transformed by this confrontation or we will push Him away and ask Him to leave because a life that is to be transformed is uncomfortable and scary. If we say that we have met Jesus and remain unchanged by this encounter, then something is wrong. Perhaps we haven't met the Jesus of the Bible, but instead a Jesus that we have "created in our own image."