For some reason, when people picture Jesus, they often imagine him to be some kind of religious wimp with a strong mind and a weak back. The version of Jesus most often portrayed in movies and famous works of art is introspective and passive, or as John Eldridge put it, “We project into the Gospel stories a pastoral backdrop, the quaint charm of a Middle Eastern travel brochure – picturesque villages, bustling markets, smiling children – and Jesus wandering through it all like a son come home from college.”
But that’s not the real Jesus; his reality was much more severe. Jesus grew up around scarcity and poverty, surrounded by death and disease. From the time he was 2, his life was in danger, and he was perpetually on the run. His cousin and closest friend, John the Baptist, wound up with his head on a platter. That was reality for Jesus, so everything he said and did should be understood in that context. That’s why the Jesus we often imagine – the taller-than-average, skinny guy who talks like a philosophical hipster – just doesn’t line up with the Jesus you find in the gospels. Perhaps more than anything else, Jesus’ personality was intense.
I once read an article in a business journal about the fifteen most intense people in business. Among other tycoons of modern industry, the piece featured the great Michael Jordan. Anybody who grew up in the 1990s can attest to the intensity of MJ. It was in his eyes. He intimidated his opponents. I got to see MJ play in person once – at Reunion Arena in Dallas in 1993. The Mavericks were the worst team in the league that year – they went 11-71 – that was the 3rd worst season in NBA history at the time. Suffice it to say, I didn’t go to see the Mavericks; I went to see MJ.
The most amazing thing I saw the GOAT do that night wasn’t during the game; it was in the pregame warm-ups. I got there early, thinking maybe MJ would put on a show for the fans – maybe he’d dunk from the free throw line or something. He went to the free throw line, but not to dunk. He stood there shooting free throws for 45 minutes. He must’ve shot two hundred free throws before the starting lineups were introduced.
At 14 years of age, seeing the greatest player of all time shoot so many free throws before a game against the worst team in the league made an impression. Throughout his career, Jordan shot 84% from the charity stripe, even doing THIS once – proving that, when you’re intense enough about something for long enough, you can do it with your eyes closed.
Like MJ, Jesus was intense to the point of intimidation. He intimidated powerful people without saying a word; they hated him because they were afraid of him. There are dozens of stories in the gospels that say how badly the Pharisees wanted Jesus dead.
After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. – John 7:1
Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. – John 10:39-40
For his whole life, Jesus was a hunted man. Maybe the worst part is that the people who hunted him were the ones who should have been helping him the most. He was their enemy, but they weren’t his enemies. His enemies were Satan and his demons. His enemies were sin and death. But while he was fighting the Devil, he also had to deal with a bunch of religious cowards who should’ve been standing in line to help him.
Instead, they hunted him, and he escaped them long enough to get the gospel into enough people’s hearts. Then “Jesus set his eyes resolutely toward Jerusalem.” He knew that’s where he was going to die, and when he rode that donkey into the city, it was his way of saying to the religious experts, “Come and get me.” But they were so afraid of him, they were scared to kill him. That’s how intense he was! They asked the Romans to kill him for them, because they were cowards, and cowards never know what to do with intensity.
The soldiers arrested Jesus and did unimaginable things to him. They stripped him naked. They blindfolded him and punched him in the face. They kicked him and spit on him. They beat him with a whip that was embedded with bits of metal and clay at the end to separate flesh from bone. They nearly killed him before he was even on the cross. They secured him to the cross by driving nails through his wrists and ankles. He never fought back. He never even cursed them. He only said, “Father, forgive them.”
And then, he was gone. What happened the next several hours is one of the Bible’s greatest mysteries. Today, Christians seem to think Jesus was out cold for 36 hours. But the first Christians knew something more happened the day Jesus died. The Apostles Creed is one of the earliest statements of Christian beliefs, and many of the earliest manuscripts included a line that’s been largely forgotten: “He was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose…”
The earliest tradition within Christianity held that Jesus went to hell to demand the keys from Satan. It paints a pretty funny picture when you think about it. Imagine: there’s a knock at the door in hell. Satan looks through the peep-hole: “Jesus Christ! I’m so embarrassed…this place is a mess.”
We don’t know what exactly happened between Good Friday night and Easter Sunday morning, but it’s clear the people closest to Jesus knew something transcendent took place. To me, it seems unlikely that the early Christians would make up something so random as Jesus marching into hell. Peter, who was as close to Jesus as anyone, knew something more was going on between crucifixion and resurrection:
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits, to those who were disobedient long ago… – 1 Peter 3:18-20
The only way Peter would ever have known something like this is if Jesus came back from the grave and told him. Whatever happened, Jesus “resolutely set his eyes toward hell,” just as he’d “resolutely set his eyes toward Jerusalem” days before. In one way or another, Jesus went to hell and back, and led a parade on the way out, while the demons stood by, helpless and trembling with fear.
You have to understand what this means: Jesus is so intense about saving us that not even the fires of hell can stop him. He is so adept at defeating the Devil that he chose to die and do it with his eyes closed. That’s who Jesus is, and his heart burns with intensity for you.
