What would we have noticed about Jesus?
One night, about 2000 years ago, Jesus was sitting alone with his friends. I always picture them in the warm Palestinian country side around a fire at night. At this point in the story, Jesus is becoming very popular. Thousands upon thousands are flocking to hear him teach, watching in awe as he performs miracle upon miracle, and they are following him as he sets forth to proclaim truth. But on this particular night, Jesus is alone with his friends and he looks at them and says,
"Who do the crowds say I am?" (Luke 9:18)
“Well, there isn’t consensus, Jesus. In fact, there’s a lot of confusion. Most people aren’t sure who – or what – you are. They are saying a lot of different things.”
"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" (Luke 9:20)
Who is Jesus?
The question was asked 2000 years ago. The question is still being asked today. And, just as it was 2000 years ago, today there is a lot of confusion. A lot of different people saying a lot of different things. But the question remains the same. Who was Jesus?
Three years ago, Angus Reid released a poll…*
It’s a very telling statistic that only 6% of people in Victoria consider themselves part of a church community. A sad commentary on the church.
But the majority of Canadians are drawn to, and – in one form or another – are looking for this man. If you are going to be genuinely thorough in your quest for an authentic spirituality you can’t ignore him.
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The trouble is: we have all kinds of different interpretations of who he was … even what he looked like. PICTURES
Historically there has been confusion.
Right now there is a lot confusion…
Is he, as the Soviet dictionary described,
• “A mythical figure who never existed.”?
• Was he a political rebel?
• A mystical poet?
• Simply a wise moral teacher?
Or…was he something else altogether?
It seems like everybody wants to justify their ways in the name of Jesus…CEO vs. Marxist…
Buddy Jesus … “Marry Mary Magdalen and father the blood line of the French Aristocracy.”
In your groups…
I think some of us have an image of Jesus that is quite contrary to what is actually written about him.
When I was growing up, my image of Jesus was always calm to the point of being stoic. My Jesus growing up was kind of like my Jesus action figure…
As Simon said two weeks ago week, way back in the 1700’s Voltaire wrote, “If God made man in his own image, then man certainly returned the compliment.” This is very true of Jesus. Everybody wants their own personal Jesus.
Writer Philip Yancey, after spending a lifetime in the church, went back to actually read the gospels for himself. He wrote about it in a book called The Jesus I Never Knew. A book you should all read. And this is what he says…
The Jesus I found there [in the Bible] bore…*
What I want to do tonight, is strip away all the stuff and fluff, and all historical misrepresentations and all the present media hype – as best we can – and explore what the Bible has to say.
Because, when I read the Bible, I find someone really there, someone substantial, someone who can’t be silenced by generations of skepticism and misrepresentation. Someone who is real and too alive to be ignored.
But before we turn to the Bible … many people today are asking the question, can the Bible itself be trusted as a historically reliable document? Is the history written there legit? It’s a valid question. We are not going to really go into depth on the question tonight, but I want to point you to a couple of books if you are interested…
But let’s at least say this for tonight…
There is so much evidence for the existence of a man named Jesus, that no serious historian today can maintain any other position.
This evidence not only comes from Christian sources, but from non-Christian sources as well. Two pagan historians at the time Tacitus and Sue - tonius both wrote about him.
And even before the gospels were written, a Jewish historian named Josephus – probably the most credible historian at the time – described Jesus and his followers…
Now there was about this time, Jesus, a wise
So for the sake of getting somewhere tonight, let’s move right into the substance of the scriptures.
So let’s begin with His Birth: Jesus was born around 0 A.C.E. give or take 30 years…
LK 1:5 In the time of Herod king…
Herod was not from the line – the lineage – of the Jewish Kings. He was a descendant of Edomites. Most Jews at the time to not truly accepted him as their true Monarch.
It didn’t help that he had taken control of Jerusalem by laying siege to the city. He was, in many ways, a conqueror.
He was a man who had an instinct for survival. He was a little wild. These qualities, combined with an intense loyalty to the Roman Emperor, made him the perfect puppet king for Rome.
LK 2:1 In those days Caesar Augustus…
Rome was ruled by a different kind of man. He was cool and calculating. His name – actually – was Octavianus: Gaius Octavius.
Instead he chose Augustus. It had a religious significance. It was an attempt to deify himself. The word means “reverential awe” or “an object of worship”. Thus, he had himself declared the son of a god and the empire established rites of worship.
Augustus brought decades of civil war to an end and established Rome as a unified world power. He made two basic demands of all people: that they accept the rule of Rome and that they pay taxes. A tax the Jews would come to hate.
This is the world that Jesus was born into.
There was Roman law and governance, a Greek alphabet but the spoken language was Aramaic and the spiritual language was Hebrew. There was Jewish religion, but it was fragmented into different conflicting groups…
…there was smatterings of Egyptian paganism and Hellenistic culture everywhere. And we think things are confused today. Things were more multicultural, pluralist and perhaps even more relative then, than they are today.
Interesting context to be talking about Kingdom
So in the corner of this manic confused world that Jesus is born…
At Christmas, when we deck the nativity scene up with glitter and magic, we may be missing the point. The scene was anything but a sweet fantasy. It would have taken the eyes of faith to see anything but a tragedy.
Two rural teenagers, after nine months of awkward explanations, and the lingering scent of scandal, arrive in overcrowded Bethlehem town: a picture of pure anarchy.
So when God is born into the world he didn’t play favorites. He was born into the most humiliating circumstances possible…He plays by the rules…and they were hard rules.
What did he teach? Read MARK
More than we can get through tonight. But I’m going to focus on three themes. But before I even do that...
I want to say something about his method of teaching. Jesus primarily told stories and asked questions.
Love.
He taught that loving God and humanity was our highest calling. It is the most important thing we can do.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart
And as you can see, even in this statement, love is not some just a sloppy feeling. It is a call to a complete re-orientation of life against any kind of self-interest. It is something that is going to start from the inside out. Soul…mind…strength. One of the first things Jesus ever teaches is a great reversal from worldly ambitions.
Blessed are those people who grieve.
Again, this goes against the grain of the times he lived in. And it certainly goes against the grain the times we live in.
Happy are the pushers:
Jesus was and still is very counter-cultural. Understand: this is something that Jesus not only taught, but it was something he lived. And we will talk more about that next week.
Religion.
I think it’s a bit amusing that the founder of the biggest religion in the world was probably the most irreligious person there ever was.
The most religious people of his time were these religious leaders called the Pharisees. They had 613 rules, 248 commands, 365 prohibitions and 1,521 amendments. Their job was to keep religion pure…by distancing themselves.
They didn’t like Jesus very much. Again and again they criticized Jesus because – from their perspective – he was hanging around the wrong kind of people. He had a lousy reputation in the faith community.
And the whores and tax collectors seemed to love him.
Jesus went to them. He dined in their houses and he brought them the truth in their language.
Luke 15:1-2
Matthew 9:10-13
Teaching woman the law. QUOTES
Jesus always threatened these people – not because he too exclusive – but because he was too inclusive. He was scandalously inclusive.
It went both ways. Religious people infuriated Jesus too. In fact, if there was one thing His teaching confronted, again and again, it was religion. “Woe to you”. “You are not better.”
He hated hypocrisy and he saw it everywhere.
In fact, he goes on to say this …
Matthew 21:31-32
The Prodigal Son example…Tell it.
The Father.
His teaching is littered with references to character of God. For Jesus, God isn’t some Cosmic Vengeful Tyrant, so much as he is a Merciful Father who loves and cares for His creation. FATHER? MALE?
This infuriated the religious people of the time. God was distant. This was a Jewish introduction to prayer at the time of Jesus…
Blessed art thou, O Lord, God of Abraham,
LK 11:2 He said to them, "When you pray,
Or read the simplicity and tenderness in these words…
MT 6:28 "And why do you worry about clothes?
The last thing that Jesus taught about was announcing the Kingdom.
Let me set the scene for you. Jesus is in Jerusalem and teaching in the temple courts.
And he is surrounded by all these religious leaders. Now the whole history of the Old Testament – the first part of the Bible – points to a time when a New Kingdom was going to be established. LAST WEEK.
Jesus is saying that he is the fulfillment of that longing. He is bringing the New Kingdom. But this isn’t making them very happy. He isn’t what they expected. They were expecting a military king who would wipe out the Roman Empire and establish an earthly kingdom. They were conquered subjects of the Romans and they weren’t too happy about it. But Jesus is saying, “This New Kingdom isn’t about politics. It isn’t about race or geography. It’s about God’s reign in the lives of all people.”
He was saying God’s rule is present…his saving activity is at hand…it is a reality to be experienced now.
What does it look like?
A lost sheep…
A lost coin…(woman)
A lost son coming home…
What is the common thread through all these stories? Celebration! The shepherd rejoices! The woman throws a party! The dad comes running!
When we look at these parables – and by the way, most of Christ’s parables – we don’t see a crisis of condemnation, Jesus isn’t saying, “People, you are not feeling bad enough about yourselves, you should be feeling more guilty than you are!” We don’t see a crisis of condemnation but a crisis of approval.
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