Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, Amen
Were Jesus to
come to us today, there is a good chance we might not recognize him, and
perhaps, we might even view him as evil, or at least misguided.
Those who are convinced
they know him the best may in fact not know him at all.
At least that’s
the Biblical witness.
That’s what
happens time and time again in the Gospels.
And today’s
Gospel lesson is the epitome of that.
He’s out of his
mind. . .
That’s the
concern of Jesus family, and who better to know him than his mother and
brothers and sisters.
This Jesus they
did not know.
There were two
things that had come up that particularly concerned them.
Jesus was casting
out demons.
And those very
same demons were declaring Jesus to be the Son of God.
His popularity
had spread to the point that he couldn’t even eat, the demands from the crowds
being so intense.
I find this a bit
humorous.
That Jesus’
family seeks to intervene at this point.
“Jesus, you need to take care of yourself. Eat!”
But actually, as
we go deeper into the lesson, there is a greater concern.
Namely, that he
has gone mad. Out of his mind. Crazy.
“He has
Beelzebul.”
The devil’s
gotten into him.
The theme
throughout the Gospels is that more than any other group, the religious leaders
of Jesus day were most concerned about him, and most convinced that he was not
of God.
The Messiah?
No, not this one,
for he was a threat to them and all they held dear.
"He has
Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons."
“Beelzebul” means
“Lord of the House” and is used by the scribes to refer Satan, as the Ruler of
the Demons.
They are quite
convinced that what Jesus is doing is not good, but evil.
And his family,
likewise, is deeply concerned.
Jesus’ rebuttal
of their concerns is strong.
“”Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven
for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes
against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal
sin" — for they had said, "He
has an unclean spirit."
To see good as evil
and evil as good, is unforgivable.
That’s what Jesus
means here.
If we believe the
Holy Spirit to be demonic, we have crossed the line.
Who is Jesus?
Would we know him
if we saw him?
And if we met him, would we too think that at
the best he’s gone out of his mind, at the worst, is possessed by the devil?
And is it
possible, that we who above all people should be most familiar with him, may in
fact be unable to recognize him for who he truly is?
In First
Corinthians, the thirteenth chapter Paul writes:
“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then
we will see face to face.”
Therein lies the
problem.
We see Jesus, in
a mirror, dimly.
What that means,
I believe, is that as we try in all of our religious fervor, to understand who
Jesus is, we see a reflection of ourselves.
During the last
couple of centuries one of the theme’s that has dominated Biblical scholarship
is “the Quest for the Historical Jesus”.
People want to
know Jesus for who he truly is.
But what happens,
every time, is that the “historical Jesus” they discover bears a striking resemblance
to themselves.
We want to see
Jesus, but looking through a mirror dimly, we see instead a reflection of
ourselves.
On a most basic
level, this phenomenon is evident in how Jesus has been traditionally portrayed
in portraits.
The most familiar
paintings of Jesus are from the Italian Renaissance, and Jesus is portrayed as an
Italian.
In the
Scandinavian churches I grew up in, it was common place for Jesus to be
portrayed as white.
If you go to
Africa, or the orient, Jesus is portrayed as being black, or oriental.
We imagine Jesus
as a reflection of ourselves.
But it goes much
deeper than the outward appearances.
The Jesus we
believe in is a reflection of who we are.
When
conservatives seek out the historical Jesus, they end up with a conservative
Jesus.
When liberals
seek to understand who Jesus actually was, he predictably, is quite liberal.
People who a
moralistic see Jesus as a great teacher of morals.
People who are
political activists see Jesus as a political revolutionary.
“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then
we will see face to face.”
We cannot avoid
seeing our own image as we try to look through the mirror to see Jesus.
And that is our
heresy, that we see Jesus as a reflection of ourselves.
It is as bad as
seeing Jesus as the devil.
The temptation
now for me, is to conclude this sermon by telling you who Jesus really is—and in
so doing simply do what I’ve been talking about, that is, casting Jesus in my
own image.
That’s the
struggle.
Another way
to state this is that we, in all
sincerity seek to conform our lives to Christ, but too often in doing so,
conform our image of Jesus, to ourselves.
If I try to tell
you who Jesus is, you will probably learn more about who I am, than who Jesus
is.
Uff da.
But I’m foolish
enough to at least try to cast some light behind the mirror.
What can we say
about Jesus, and who he is?
The first thing
is simple.
He is not us.
Our human
inclination is to see Jesus as a reflection of ourselves, when in fact we are to
become a reflection of him.
And he is wholly
other. He is not out of his mind, but
rather beyond our comprehension.
Secondly, Jesus
is far more spiritual than he is religious.
What drives Jesus
is not religious devotion, to the law, for example, but a powerful sense of the
presence of the Holy Spirit within him, and a oneness with the Father.
Jesus’ holiness
is rooted not in what he did, but the relationship he had with the Father.
“Abba”, “Father”,
that is how he addressed God and it says much about who he is.
Thirdly, Jesus
cares for the least of these. Compassionate. Forgiving.
Loving like no other.
This is in stark
contrast to who we’d like Jesus to be.
Too often we’d like Jesus to “kick butt”, that is to confront and
condemn those people who differ from us.
"Indeed, God did not send the Son into
the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved
through him.”
Jesus is a
healer.
A teacher.
A friend.
There are many
other things I suppose we could say, but the most important of all is this:
If you want to
see Jesus for who he truly is, you need to look away from the mirror, and
toward the cross.
It is in the
suffering, in the dying, and the rising from the dead that we see Jesus. The Crucified One.
And it is this
Jesus that comes to us anew, around this table every Sunday.
When he was at the table with them, he took
bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they
recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.
It is in the
breaking of the bread that we see the crucified and risen Lord.
Jesus. His body, his blood, given and Shed for you.
On final note:
A few weeks back
I had a moving experience during the communion.
As I looked out, one of you had put down the hymnal, and with hands
folded was intently focused on what was happening here at the altar.
It was a reminder
for me, at that moment, that this was an incredibly holy thing that was taking
place.
Here, in the breaking
of the bread, the pouring of the wine, we see Jesus.
We see Jesus.
Stand in awe and
deepest reverence.
And know that God
is with you.
Amen
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