TKO - Antagonistic Teaching of Jesus in John

I want to ask a simple question of you this week that falls in line with my message from this past Sunday - "Who is Jesus to you?"  This question springs from a statement Jesus made in John 7 when he was in the middle of a teaching battle during a very holy week in Jewish traditions, known as the Feast of Tabernacles.  In John 7:28, Jesus is teaching about the authenticity of his claims as the Christ, and as He teaches he makes this statement - 

"Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me."
John 7:28-29 (NIV)

  
The phrase for "cry out" means to scream.  Jesus screams a rhetorical question in this passage – “Yes, you know me, do you?”  In other words, you claim you know me, but do you really?  So I had to ask myself, what does it look like to KNOW Jesus, and what is the proof in my life?

We all have images of what Jesus looks like and how we are to follow that image, but what if we had the direction and flow wrong.  What if it were to be more like this is what Jesus looks like and this is how he flows from us.  

Last week I shared about Christ's statements in John 6 about being the Bread of Life, and how Christ called us to consume His flesh and drink his blood.  I don't believe for a second that Jesus was being literal, but I do believe He was calling us to an action that involved consumption and absorption of Christ.  This is a change of direction and flow.  It is us consuming and absorbing Christ and allowing Him to flow from within in us, so what people then see is less of us and more of Christ.  

Some might suggest that this strips us of our individuality and freedom.  I don't necessarily think so, because then Christ would be stripping us of those two very things which is contrary to His nature.  The creative processes of Christ in creation was to provide individuality and freedom that each fell in place with the loving nature of God.  

So when I ask, "who is Christ to you," I ask wondering directionally if it is Christ "flowing" through me, or if it is my following Him.  Both are imperative, yes, but if out of order, a definite struggle.