Cultural depictions of Jesus throughout the world.
Yes, we have many troubles in this old fallen world and in our various families and individual lives. And, yes, there a lot of things we need right now such as wiping the terrible COVID-19 virus off the face of the planet; healing from the ravages of disease and of our damaged emotions; economic stability to make ends meet; and, solutions to the awful human ailments and conditions that beset the world. We need relief, guidance, and wisdom.
So, I declare with conviction that out of all the great needs which surround us, the greatest need is for Jesus. I do not just need his teaching. I do not just need Christ’s instruction. I do not only need to imitate his model of loving service. I need Jesus himself!
Jesus was speaking with his disciples in the Upper Room on the night before his crucifixion. He told them he was leaving (dying) and that it must be this way. The disciples were understandably troubled. Thomas was worried about what was going to happen and how he and the others were going to deal with an uncertain future. (John 14:1-14)
I will tell you how millions of people have dealt with their past difficulties, their present troubles and their worries about the future: Jesus.
Jesus is the Way
Jesus is the way to deal with our current concerns and anticipated anxieties. He himself is the way. The way is not through a program of self-improvement. The way is not through a fake-it-till-you-make-it approach. The way is not through an ability to articulate well-crafted words or through being able to answer with certainty every question of faith. The way is not through finding just the right plan or system.
Jesus is our way – he is the way of rescue, the road to a life of harmonious peace and settled rest even when the world is going to hell around us, as well as the connection with God. To trust Jesus is to give up the personal delusion of control and to walk with him on his terms.
Jesus is the way for the church everywhere – fellowship, encouragement, acts of loving service, teaching, and strengthening of faith all center around Jesus because he is love incarnate.
Jesus is the way for the world – serving neighbors and nations, advocating for those who are mistreated and victims of injustice, tackling the dozens of world problems which oppress humanity come through the continuing presence of Jesus here on this earth (the Holy Spirit indwelling God’s people).
Jesus is the Truth
Jesus does not only speak truth; he is truth incarnate. Truth is more than abstract ideas and personal perspectives. What is true about God has its ultimate expression and demonstration in the person of Jesus.
“True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth… God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24, NIV)
“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32, NIV)
To see the face of Jesus is to see the reality of Truth. God’s character and attributes expressed through creating, loving, sustaining, healing, and providing all have their highest expression in Jesus.
Jesus is our truth. When troubles abound, Jesus is the ballast of truth we can rely upon, the rock of our salvation, and the anchor of our soul.
Jesus is the truth in the church. All teaching, mentoring, and instruction points to the person and work of Jesus. Guidance and direction, whether in marriage, family, work, school, relationships or interpersonal communication flows from Jesus. To merely dispense homespun advice falls short if there is no Jesus.
“Since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16, NIV)
Jesus is the truth for the world. Proclaiming Jesus is more than mere words; it is an embodying of truth. At the beginning of his earthly ministry:
Jesus “went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written [Isaiah 61:1-2] “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach [to embody] good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:16-19, NIV)
Followers of Jesus embody him, the Truth, through looking for ways to be Jesus to the lost, the least, and the lonely in acts of basic human compassion and advocating for their social justice.
Jesus is the Life
“Life” and “death” in Scripture are relational terms, not just physical references. When Adam and Eve fell into disobedience, they spiritually died without being physically dead. They originally enjoyed the connection of life with God; then, after the Fall, experienced a separation from God by being cast out of the Garden.
Jesus is our life. He is the person in whom Christians have their identity. Instead of connecting myself to a narrowly expected outcome, I tether myself to Jesus because he is my connection, my life.
Jesus is the life of the church. Christians experience life as their prayers and their praise are directed toward Jesus as both the subject and the object of worship.
Jesus is the life of the world. The good news of Christ’s redemptive events of incarnation, earthly ministry of teaching and healing, death, resurrection, ascension and glorification is good news for everyone. There is forgiveness of sins and deliverance from the hell of separation through Jesus.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” –Jesus
Our problems, concerns, and troubles on this earth are not be sufficiently addressed by simply acknowledging Jesus and his teaching. I need Jesus himself. For he has the power to give life.
“Salvation can be found in no one else. Throughout the whole world, no other name has been given among humans through which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12, CEB)
“I need Jesus!” is my affirmation and my declaration, my proclamation and my preaching. I need Jesus as the way to live my life instead of trusting in my own power and ability. Jesus is the truth I choose to bank my life upon. Jesus is the life graciously given for which I can say with boldness that I belong to God.
Jesus is the midpoint of history to which all events point; the center of my life upon which all my devotion is directed; and, the subject and object of Holy Scripture:
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is the King of Kings with authority to back it up.
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is both the Servant of humanity and all of creation’s Authority.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is the Son of Man who relates to us and is attentive to humanity.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus is the Word become flesh, the Good Shepherd, the Bread of Life, and the Light of the World.
In the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus is the risen and ascended Lord who will come again.
In Romans, Jesus secures our union with God and justifies us according to his mercy and grace.
In 1 Corinthians, Jesus is the Wisdom and Power of God, despite the foolishness of the cross.
In 2 Corinthians, Jesus is the One who has brought forgiveness and reconciliation to the world.
In the book of Galatians, Jesus is our Substitute for sin.
In Ephesians, Jesus is the One who has subdued all the dark forces of this world.
In Philippians, Jesus humbled himself and submitted to death on a cross for our deliverance.
In Colossians, Jesus is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.
In the First letter to the Thessalonians, the coming of Jesus is near and will soon be here!
In the Second letter to the Thessalonians, we are partakers in God’s glory through Jesus.
In the book of First Timothy, Jesus saves sinners of whom I am chief.
In Second Timothy, Jesus is the Righteous One who will come to Judge the living and the dead.
In Titus, Jesus is the Redeemer, snatching us from the realm of wickedness and godlessness.
In the little book of Philemon, every good thing we have comes from Jesus.
In Hebrews, Jesus is our faithful High Priest, the Pioneer of our salvation and our Champion.
In James, Jesus is the Wise Teacher.
In First Peter, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
In Second Peter, Jesus is the Divine Power that allows me to live a godly life.
In the Epistles of John, the God of Love is Jesus, who demonstrated love through the cross.
In Jude, it is Jesus who keeps us from falling and presents us faultless before God.
Finally, in Revelation, Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
I need Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man; the Lord and Judge of all, the Redeemer and Savior of humanity, my Healer and my Friend. It’s all about him.
Bronze statue of Jesus washing Peter’s feet, Pittsburgh, Texas
Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”
Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling, asked a favor of him.
“What is it you want?” he asked.
She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”
“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”
“We can,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”
When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (NIV)
Today’s story from the Gospel of Matthew is the very description of not being on the same page. There were two variant responses from Jesus and from everyone else because there were two different agendas.
Jesus was quite clear about how things were going to shake out. Torture, insults, crucifixion, and death was ahead for him. The disciples and the mother of James and John missed the memo on this. Christ’s words went way over their heads. It could be the disciples simply did not hear what Jesus was saying to them (repeatedly!). It is more likely that the message of Jesus got filtered through an existing agenda of how they believed things ought to go.
The disciples, along with a lot of other Jewish folk in the first century, were looking for a Messiah in the mold of King David – a strong leader who would come and beat up the Romans, exert all kinds of power and influence, and establish an earthly rule over all the people they don’t like. Submission to torture, humility before the very people they detested, and being killed by them were not factors into the disciples understanding of leadership and government.
Much like the powerful Aslan who had a thorough understanding of the world’s deep magic and submitted himself to the White Witch and death in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – Jesus knew what he was doing while everyone else seemed clueless about the true power which exists in the universe.
So, let us be perfectly clear about what that power really is: Grace. Yes, grace. Powerful, resplendent, subversive, scandalous, and radical grace. Mercy was the missing factor in the disciples’ agenda. Jesus is not like other rulers. He does not operate by throwing his weight around to forcefully impose a crushing my-way-or-the-highway kind of rule (even though, ironically, he is The Way). No, Jesus freely and unabashedly uses grace with its merciful tools of humility, gentleness, kindness, goodness, and love to introduce and establish a new kind of rule which is not posturing for selfish power.
Power, authority, and the positions which go with them are to be used for the common good of all persons. To be in any kind of leadership is to be a servant of grace for the benefit of humanity and the world. And, if Christ’s disciples had looked a bit closer into their Old Testament, they might have noticed, for all his power and authority, King David trafficked in grace. When David was at the pinnacle of power his first act as King was to look over the kingdom and see who from the family of his enemy, the former King Saul (who was into the power thing for himself) was around so he could show grace (2 Samuel 9). It was typical of ancient kings to secure their rule and power through killing-off rivals and former family members of previous kings. Not so with David. And not so with Jesus.
Wherever there is posturing for position, preening for power, and a pestering for privilege – there you will find everything grace is not: reliance on making and calling-in favors; overinflated egos; unrealistic expectations; suspicion; judgment, arrogance; an insistence on recognition; compulsive control over everything and everyone; unilateral decision-making; shaming of others; hoarding of resources; coups; in-fighting; hatred; and, a demand of rights. We in the western world may not be in the habit of offing leaders and killing others to consolidate power, yet, we still too often rely on violent speech and language, partisan policies, and good-old-boy systems which are foreign to the way of Christ. In contrast to this, grace exists.
Grace is the deep magic which resides within the universe.
Wherever grace operates, there you will find the heart of a servant: attending to the needs of all persons; freely consulting and collaborating with others; focusing on responsibility; loving discipline; embracing accountability; pursuing truth; sharing power and resources; encouraging others; giving generously; and, looking for ways to show mercy.
In this Christian season of Eastertide, the Church focuses on exploring new life, and new ways of being with one another and the world. The old life is consumed with unmerciful uses of position and power. New life brings a shift to a gracious means of wielding such authority. Yes, it will likely bring some short-term suffering. It will hurt. Grace, however, results in a longevity of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. True service is being a servant of grace.
May it be so, to the glory of God.
Click Make Me a Servant by the Maranatha Singers and allow it to be our prayer today and everyday.
“The Shepherd and the Lost Sheep.” By Peter Clarke, 1969
A lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They grumbled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends.” Their complaining triggered this story:
“Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me! I’ve found my lost sheep!’ Count on it—there’s more joy in heaven over one sinner’s rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue. (MSG)
Lost people matter to God. They matter so much to him that one lost soul found is the grounds for a big celestial party. Please note this simple observation of today’s Gospel reading: If there is rejoicing in the presence of angels in heaven over one sinner who repents, then who is doing the rejoicing? God! God himself is crazy giddy with joy over one lost person being found.
Celebration is an important activity for the Christian. God throws the best parties, filled with plenty of joy and recognition of persons restored to fellowship. As people created in the image and likeness of God, we are hardwired for celebration. If God can go uncorked with joy and celebration, I’m going to say with confidence that open unabashed blowouts rejoicing over people’s transformation and new life is welcome and expected. Folks baptized in pickle juice can join the grumbling of all the high mucky-muck dudes who smugly look down on the marginal persons among us. Hopefully, the party-poopers won’t be heard because of all the noise at God’s party.
This parable of Jesus is meant to give us a glimpse of God’s own heart. He would do anything to find a lost person, to restore and reconcile a person back to himself. God would go dumpster diving and wade through the stinky nasty garbage to find that one lost valuable person.
Why should reaching out to marginal people with the grace and love of Jesus Christ be a high priority? Because restoring lost people is a high priority for God. God has placed the highest of priorities on recovering those who are spiritually lost and wandering around life without a purpose or a place to call home. Such people matter so much to him that God sent his Son, the Lord Jesus, to this earth. Jesus went to the greatest lengths possible through enduring a cruel death on a cross in order to reconcile a broken lost relationship between people and God.
I can still remember what it felt like to be separated from God and estranged from the church – it was lonely and sad, like being in a deep black hole with no way of getting out and no one around to help. But God, in his great mercy, sent spiritual commandos to extract me from my captivity of the soul. So, my greatest desire is to live my life basking in the grace shown to me, grateful for new mercies which come every day, and giving that same grace to others – especially those considered as the lost, the least, and the lonely in society.
In leaving the ninety-nine and going after the one sheep, God gave preferential attention to the lost. So, because of this, I ask a sincere and probing question which I believe needs to be asked: Can you live with that? My own answer is: “I sure can, because I was once that lone lost sheep!”
Jesus, you are the Good Shepherd. Thank you for going after me when I was lost. Help me to remember that you will often leave my pasture to go after others. I’ll be willing and happy to go with you when you do. Let’s also take the Spirit with us. Amen.
Click Compassion Hymn by Keith and Kristyn Getty to remember the lengths of love God went to in restoring us.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 