Jesus Has Appeared in New York City

Does Jesus continue to drop in to our larger story today, just as he did in the Christmas narrative?

Some would say yes, and I remember as a much younger person opening my Toronto newspaper and seeing a full page advertisement — which appeared in dozens of papers in North America on the same day — announcing that Jesus had returned and is walking among us.

At the time, I was too young to take an interest in finding out more about whoever had sponsored the ads — and how they had funded them — but I do remember the experience, and probably you’ve seen or heard similar things where people attest that Jesus has already returned.

So what about that?

Let me say for those of you reading this online, that the title of today’s piece is admittedly click-bait. Sorry about that. But if you came out of curiosity or hoping it to be true, let’s briefly indulge the possibility.

When we speak of Jesus, we are referring to the earthly name — a form of Joshua — we are speaking of the incarnate or if you will enfleshed 33 years of life of the second part of the community of God that we define as Father, Son and Spirit.

But many Evangelicals believe that there are appearances of Jesus (to use the name more broadly) in the Old Testament. We wrote about this in January, 2016 in an article titled Jesus Was No Stranger to Our World.

…earlier, we have examples which theologians and scholars call Christophanies, where what the writers termed “…an angel of the Lord appeared…” actually represents a visitation of the pre-incarnate Christ. Remember, since these are Old Testament narratives, the writers of those accounts had no context in which to frame what they were seeing in those terms. In a world where surrounding nations had many gods, our Trinitarian concept of the Godhead would have been confusing or even counter-productive to the idea that God is one. (However, it should be noted that they had an understanding of the Spirit, but not the same as a New Testament believer would frame it.)

If you look the word up on Wikipedia* you will read this:

A Christophany is an appearance or non-physical manifestation of Christ.

[click the link for a long list of possible Christophanies.]

But Paul the apostle believed that Jesus did just that, post-incarnation, post-resurrection with himself on the Damascus road:

^{CEB.I Cor.15.3} I passed on to you as most important what I also received: Christ died for our sins in line with the scriptures, ⁴ he was buried, and he rose on the third day in line with the scriptures. ⁵ He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve, ⁶ and then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at once—most of them are still alive to this day, though some have died. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸ and last of all he appeared to me, as if I were born at the wrong time.

Wait, what? “He appeared to me?” Let’s look at that:

^NIV.Acts.9.3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’

⁵ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul asked.

‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. ⁶ ‘Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’

The scripture is very clear on this; clear on whom Saul/Paul saw.

So can we make the leap and say that the possibility of Jesus appearing in London or Tokyo or New York City is a distinct possibility?

Not so fast.

I think first of all we all know that this how cults get started. I won’t press that further here, but the documentation is out there. People claim a direct contact with an appearance of Jesus. As a post-Charismatic believer, I still believe in the idea of signs and wonders, but I think we need to be extra careful, while also allowing that God is still always at work and always revealing himself to his creation in a huge number of ways.

But I think there are some other reasons to be cautious:

First, Jesus has appeared fully, in flesh in Bethlehem, growing up in Nazareth, ministering in the region of Bethany, and finally heading to Jerusalem. His ministry was seen firsthand by literally thousands and thousands of people.

Second, we now have the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit, which once rested on select prophets and leaders now abides within everyone who names the name of Christ as Savior and Lord.

Third, we now have the written logos, the word of God in printed form. Now, I want to be careful with this one, because this is the same argument used by cessationists to say that we no longer need miracles, healings, words of knowledge, words of prophecy, etc., because we have the Bible. I just think that taken together with the other arguments, we could see why the type of appearance touted in the newspaper advertisement I mentioned is not as urgently needed.

Most important however, I believe the scripture itself promises that, apart from any “drop in” appearances which for sake of argument I’ll allow as possible, none of these can constitute the “return of Christ” or “the second coming.”

Jesus says as much in Luke 17. The Message renders this passage:

^20-21 Jesus, grilled by the Pharisees on when the kingdom of God would come, answered, “The kingdom of God doesn’t come by counting the days on the calendar. Nor when someone says, ‘Look here!’ or, ‘There it is!’ And why? Because God’s kingdom is already among you.”

^22-24 He went on to say to his disciples, “The days are coming when you are going to be desperately homesick for just a glimpse of one of the days of the Son of Man, and you won’t see a thing. And they’ll say to you, ‘Look over there!’ or, ‘Look here!’ Don’t fall for any of that nonsense. The arrival of the Son of Man is not something you go out to see. He simply comes.

^24-25 “You know how the whole sky lights up from a single flash of lightning? That’s how it will be on the Day of the Son of Man...

We also hear something similar from two angels at the time of Christ’s ascension. (These “angel of the Lord” appearances are not post-resurrection appearances of Christ, because he is also still there, rising in the sky. Plus there are two angels, not one.) In Acts 1 (NLT) we read,

⁹ After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. ¹⁰ As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. ¹¹ “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”

Finally, in terms of dealing with reports of Jesus showing up in your hometown or mine, I think we can learn much from the wisdom of our spiritual communities and our church leaders, all of whom would tell us we have good reason to be skeptical.

Here’s Luke 17 again, this time from the NIV:

²³ People will tell you, “There he is!” or “Here he is!” Do not go running off after them.

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*I quoted this exactly as it appeared, but as a general rule, if you’re teaching or leading people, it’s better not to use Wikipedia as a source. Today, I would probably quote Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary, where it links to the broader term Theophany, which is less specific than Christophany. To get to resources like this, use BibleStudyTools.com/dictionaries.

I want to again link to the piece I mentioned from 2016 about Christophanies, as well as a 2017 article specifically about Melchizedek, and one from 2018 about Jacob wrestling with God.

Jesus Was No Stranger to Our World

^{CEV John1:1} In the beginning was the one
    who is called the Word.
The Word was with God
    and was truly God.
² From the very beginning
    the Word was with God.

³ And with this Word,
    God created all things.
Nothing was made
    without the Word.
Everything that was created
⁴     received its life from him,
and his life gave light
    to everyone.

^{ESV Col 1:16} He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

The incarnation of God the son; the one whom Mary is told to name Jesus; the one whom we call the Christ, the anointed one; this is not the first time that his world intersects with ours. One songwriter re-framed John 1:1 as, “Before the world was created there was Christ with God.”

Rather, this represents the first time he inhabits a human body. John 1 tells us,

^{NLT John 1:14a} So the Word became human and made his home among us.

Paul writes,

^{Phillips Philippians 2:6-7a} For he, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to his prerogatives as God’s equal, but stripped himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as mortal man. And, having become man, he humbled himself.

But earlier, we have examples which theologians and scholars call Christophanies, where what the writers termed “…an angel of the Lord appeared…” actually represents a visitation of the pre-incarnate Christ. Remember, since these are Old Testament narratives, the writers of those accounts had no context in which to frame what they were seeing in those terms. In a world where surrounding nations had many gods, our Trinitarian concept of the Godhead would have been confusing or even counter-productive to the idea that God is one. (However, it should be noted that they had an understanding of the Spirit, but not the same as a New Testament believer would frame it.)

If you look the word up on Wikipedia you will read this:

A Christophany is an appearance or non-physical manifestation of Christ.

So far so good, but then it emphasizes post-ascension appearances, such as happened to the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus.

³ As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’

⁵ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul asked.

‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. ⁶ ‘Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’

But others would point you closer to what GodQuestions.org has to say. Here is the final paragraph of their answer:

Some Bible commentators believe that whenever someone received a visit from “the angel of the Lord,” this was in fact the pre-incarnate Christ. These appearances can be seen in Genesis 16:7-14; Genesis 22:11-18; Judges 5:23; 2 Kings 19:35; and other passages. Other commentators believe these were in fact angelophanies, or appearances of angels. While there are no indisputable Christophanies in the Old Testament, every theophany wherein God takes on human form foreshadows the incarnation, where God took the form of a man to live among us as Emmanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).

Having shown that, this is the part of their article which precedes it:

A theophany is a manifestation of God in the Bible that is tangible to the human senses. In its most restrictive sense, it is a visible appearance of God in the Old Testament period, often, but not always, in human form. Some of the theophanies are found in these passages:

1. Genesis 12:7-9 – The Lord appeared to Abraham on his arrival in the land God had promised to him and his descendants.

2. Genesis 18:1-33 – One day, Abraham had some visitors: two angels and God Himself. He invited them to come to his home, and he and Sarah entertained them. Many commentators believe this could also be a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ.

3. Genesis 32:22-30 – Jacob wrestled with what appeared to be a man, but was actually God (vv. 28-30). This may also have been a Christophany.

4. Exodus 3:2 – 4:17 – God appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush, telling him exactly what He wanted him to do.

5. Exodus 24:9-11 – God appeared to Moses with Aaron and his sons and the seventy elders.

6. Deuteronomy 31:14-15 – God appeared to Moses and Joshua in the transfer of leadership to Joshua.

7. Job 38–42 – God answered Job out of the tempest and spoke at great length in answer to Job’s questions.

Frequently, the term “glory of the Lord” reflects a theophany, as in Exodus 24:16-18; the “pillar of cloud” has a similar function in Exodus 33:9. A frequent introduction for theophanies may be seen in the words “the Lord came down,” as in Genesis 11:5; Exodus 34:5; Numbers 11:25; and 12:5.

In a much longer article at Icthys.com the writer offers an even earlier visitation of Jesus to earth:

In my view (and not only in my view) it was our indeed Lord Jesus Christ who appeared to Adam and Eve in the garden (in Christophany, see the previous link), for He has always been the Father’s representative on earth, appearing for Him and as Him.

This is a long and complex topic, but one it may be helpful to be aware of. In general, if we refer to the verse in Colossians at the top of this article, we see that Paul holds a view of Jesus as creator (or if you wish, co-creator) of the world “by whom all things hold together.”

In the incarnation; the Christmas narrative; we see Jesus entering our world in flesh. Did the baby in the manger have full knowledge of the things which Christ “holds together” today? If not, when did come into the authority and power that could heal the sick, calm the storm and raise the dead?

That’s the subject for great speculation.

Today we’re thankful that God chose this plan, and that through his birth, his death and his resurrection we find salvation.

May you experience the blessing of God on your life this season.

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Related: April, 2014 — The Divine One Became Human