I’ve been reading through the Gospel of John while eating my bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats each morning as I get ready for work. I rarely make it through an entire chapter in the 10 minutes it takes to scarf down the cereal, but I always look for something in the text to reflect upon during my 40-minute commute and in those quiet moments throughout the day.

I’m currently about halfway through John’s Gospel, but my mind keeps returning to a couple of verses back in John 1:10-11 read, “He came into the very world He created, but the world didn’t recognize Him. He came to His own people, and even they rejected Him.” I know I’ve read this passage at least a dozen times, but for some reason these two verses struck a nerve this time. The world He created and even His own people did not recognize Him. His own people rejected Him. Wow.

This just baffles me. I mean, the religious leaders—the establishment—those who had been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the Messiah for hundreds of years not only didn’t recognize Him when He showed up, but rejected Him and then demanded His execution. Those seen as the most spiritual and pious wanted nothing to do with the Savior they’d waited hundreds of years to see. Again, wow.

This started me thinking, we the church in the 21st century have been eagerly anticipating the second coming of the Messiah for about two 2,000 years, and we are probably just as deeply entrenched in our theology and just as self-assured of our piety as were the devoutly religious folks of Jesus’ day. Those referred to in the text as “His own people” were very sincere in their faith and earnestly believed they wholeheartedly were following God and His commands the same as we do today; yet, they didn’t recognize Him.

This made me wonder, would we—His people—recognize Jesus if He appeared today in flesh and blood? If He walked into our churches’ Sunday services, our youth groups or some other church function would we notice?

Those questions led to others, such as…I wonder to whom in our churches and youth groups would Jesus be drawn? With whom would He hang out and socialize? Who would be drawn to Him? Which kids in our youth groups would be attracted to Jesus? Who would want to go hang out with Him?

These verses and these questions have left me with a very unsettled feeling as I have wrestled with attempting to answer them. Frankly, I’m a little scared what the answers might be.

Then I started thinking, we are the body of Christ in this world in the 21st century. We are here, in His stead, to reach a fallen world for Him. If that is the case, do others see Christ in us? Not who we think Christ is or some sociopolitical agenda with the name of Christ slapped on it, but the real Christ? The Word made flesh?

If we are to be the body of Christ—His ambassadors—in this fallen world, then we first need to get to know the One we represent. We need to see the Man and the heart imbedded between the lines of the text. We need to observe His interactions with others. We need to listen intently to His words. We need to study His character; we need to know His heart.

This character study can’t be purely academic in nature. We need to get to know Jesus. This needs to become very personal. As we commune with the Messiah, we need to allow our hearts to be molded into the shape of His. We need to be drawn to those Jesus was drawn to and rejoice about the things He rejoiced and weep about the things that broke His heart. To be like Jesus, we need to know Jesus.

We live in a world in which the real Jesus often is unrecognizable. As a church, we have often failed to represent him accurately. Let’s change that by getting to know Jesus, and then by being Jesus in the lives of all those we meet.