Sermon 3rd March 2013

Today, our Assistant Minister, Gill Tayleur, preaches, based on the reading from Luke 9: verses 18-36

WHO IS JESUS? 

One solitary life.

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village, where he worked in a carpenter’s shop until he was 30. Then, for three years, he was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office.

He never went to college. He never visited a big city. He never travelled more than 200 miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things usually associated with greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his garments, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave,

through the pity of a friend. Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today Jesus is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind’s progress. All the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that have ever sailed, all the parliaments that have ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned – put together – have not affected the life of humankind on this earth as powerfully as that one, solitary life. 

Attributed to James Allen in 1926.

But why has Jesus had such an impact? The simple answer is that it’s because of who Jesus is that he has had such an impact on our world.

So who is he? Who is Jesus?

Plenty of people have their own ideas about who he is. When you do an internet search on “Who is Jesus?”, 291 million links pop up! We each have to make up our own minds, but surely we need to do so based on solid, historical facts about Jesus. There’s plenty of historical information about Jesus, not just in the Bible, but this Lent we’re working our way through what one of his disciples, Luke, wrote about him. In the first 8 chapters of Luke’s gospel, he says things like “who is this, that even the wind and the waves obey him?” “Who is this, that forgives sin?” And in today’s reading from chapter 9,we get answers to this crux question, who is Jesus?

Who is Jesus? And so what? What does that matter for my life today in 21^st century London?

At the beginning of today’s reading from Luke, Jesus himself asks this question of his disciples, first in a slightly roundabout way. He asks, who do the crowds say I am?

And the disciples reply that: some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah or that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life. This isn’t ‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild’, not a cosy comforting friend, but someone like the wild prophets of ancient or recent times,

who had stood up and spoken God’s word fearlessly against wicked and rebellious

kings and people.

But what about you, asks Jesus, who do YOU say I am? And Peter speaks up, “You are

God’s Messiah.

And Jesus strictly tells them not to tell anyone. What did this mean and why would Jesus say don’t tell anyone?

Well many Jews of Jesus’ day believed that God would send an anointed king, who would be a leader to free Israel from oppression and bring justice and peace to the world at last. Nobody knew when or where this anointed king would be born, though many believed he would be a true descendent of King David. God had made some wonderful promises about David’s future family. The word for anointed king in Hebrew was what we translate Messiah. In Greek it is Christ. The two are interchangeable.

So what would God’s Messiah be like? How would people recognise him? Nobody knew exactly, but there were many theories. A lot of people saw him as a warrior king who would defeat the pagan oppressors, the Romans, and establish Israel’s freedom. Others saw him as the one who would purge the temple and establish true worship. Everybody who believed in such a coming king, Messiah or Christ knew that he would fulfil Israel’s scriptures, and bring God’s kingdom into being at last. But nobody had a very clear idea

of what this would look like in practice.

Even so, Peter and the disciples saw in Jesus such a combination of authority, power, insight and fulfilment of the Scriptures that was enough to convince them that Jesus must be the true Messiah.

I say ‘true’ because in the first century there were several would-be Messiahs or Christs,

who came & went, attracting followers, who were quickly dispersed when their leader was caught and executed by the authorities. So one thing was certain. To be known as a would-be Messiah or Christ was to attract attention from the authorities, and most likely hostility too. Therefore for the moment, Jesus being the Messiah had to remain deadly secret. If it were to leak out it could be deadly indeed.

So first we’ve heard from Peter, and from Jesus himself, who Jesus is: God’s Messiah.

And as soon as this had been said out loud, Jesus started to explain what sort of Messiah or Christ he was. Far from the sort of victorious conquering king overthrowing the Romans

that they expected, Jesus talked of suffering and death! In verse 22 he said he must suffer much, be rejected by the religious authorities, put to death and 3 days later rise to life.

And bring in God’s kingdom that way! (verses 26/27)

The disciples didn’t understand it at the time. It was only much later, after it had all happened, that it began to make sense. Jesus was the one to bring in the kingdom of God, the ruling, healing power of God, to repair and restore humankind and our relationship with God. But he did that not with a political coup, but by his suffering, death and resurrection. It was his death on the cross in our place, that conquered our sin, evil and death. And one day he’ll return in glory to set up God’s kingdom rule forever.

So who is Jesus? We’ve heard what the disciples say about who he is; we’ve heard what Jesus himself said he about who he is. Now we get to SEE something of who he is. In the transfiguration. A week later, Jesus took Peter John and James up a hill to pray. (Again. We see Jesus going off to pray a lot.) While he is praying, his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. And he is joined by Moses and Elijah, who represent the law and the prophets from the Old Testament, as Jesus would be the fulfilment of both.

All three of them appear in heavenly glory. They literally shone with the glory of God! I love the word glory! Because it’s so beyond my understanding, beyond anything we can grasp. We can only get a taste of it, but even that taste is exquisite. Think of pictures you sometimes see of the stars and planets in the universe, zillions of them, zillions of miles big,

absolutely breathtakingly beautiful, majestic and awe inspiring. Or a glorious sunset, flaming across the sky, or the dazzling glory of the diamonds of the crown jewels. Glory, splendour, beauty, power, majesty!

Jesus, and Moses & Elijah shone, literally shone, with God’s glory. They were so bathed in his love, power and beauty that they shone with light. And Jesus and Moses and Elijah talked – about Jesus’ dying in Jerusalem. That was how the Messiah would be king.

And in the midst of this glorious spectacle, literally, Peter blurted out, Let’s make 3 tents for you! Luke says,“He didn’t know what he was saying.”! Honestly, you wouldn’t put this in if you were making it up, would you?! It’s priceless!

But before Peter can stop blabbering, something else extraordinary happened. A voice came from a cloud, saying “This is my Son, whom I have chosen, listen to him.”

And then it’s over. Moses and Elijah are gone, and Jesus and the disciples came down

the hill. The disciples were so overwhelmed, and confused probably, they didn’t tell a soul until much much later.

 “This is my Son, whom I have chosen, listen to him.” Now we hear from God who Jesus is,

he’s God’s chosen Son, the one we should listen to.

So who is Jesus? He’s God’s Messiah, or Christ, that is the anointed one from God, his own Son. One we should listen to. Well that makes sense, if Jesus is God’s Son, the Messiah or Christ, that is, anointed by God in some special unique way, then we’d be pretty foolish

not to listen to him.

And what he says, is FOLLOW ME.

Let’s go back to the part in the middle of our reading, verses 23 to 25. “If anyone wants to come with me, he must forget self, take up his cross every day, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his own life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Will a person gain anything if he wins the whole world but is himself lost or defeated? Of course not!”

Jesus says Follow me – come where I lead, do what I say, build your life around my priorities and my will, not your own. This means absolute surrender to Jesus, to give up my own plans and ambitions, accept and put God’s first.

When we’ve seen who Jesus is, the only appropriate response is to follow him wholeheartedly, putting him first as the absolute master of my life, the absolute focal point of my life. No half measures here. Think again of the vastness of the universe – I said earlier it was zillions of miles huge, but to be more accurate it’s 93 billion light years across,

where a light year is just under 6 trillion miles. Think how powerful God the creator must be!

Can you say to that God’s son, I’ll follow you just a bit?! Follow you when it suits me?!

I want you to love me and be my friend, and answer my prayers and forgive my sins – be my personal assistant if you like – but not have charge of my life? No. Jesus is God’s anointed Messiah, and he calls us to follow him wholeheartedly. If he’s not the highest priority in my life, if I’m not ready to give everything for him, I haven’t really grasped who Jesus is.

And Jesus spells out what following him will mean, when he says we’re to forget or deny ourselves and take up our cross. Taking up your cross didn’t mean simply carrying a burden. Jesus’ disciples knew what a cross was. Everyone did. It was a means of execution, and an excruciating one at that. People in those days saw criminals being crucified, and saw them have to carry their cross, or at least the cross beam if they weren’t strong enough to carry it all, to the place outside the town where crucifixions took place.

Carrying your cross meant carrying your execution device while facing ridicule along the way to death.

So when Jesus says we’re to take up our cross, he means we’re to willingly embrace the ways we can die to self, to our self centredness, and take every opportunity to learn to root out our selfishness and sin.

There’s a famous anonymous description of what dying to self looks like;

When you are forgotten or neglected, and you don't sting or hurt with the oversight,

but your heart is happy being counted worthy to suffer for Christ;

That is dying to self.

When your good is misinterpreted, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinion ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient loving silence;

That is dying to self.

When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any annoyance; when you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility, and endure it as Jesus did;

That is dying to self.

When you are content with any food, any clothing, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption that is the will of God;

That is dying to self.

When you never refer to yourself in conversation or record your own good works or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown;

That is dying to self.

When you can see your brother prosper & have his needs met, and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy, nor question God, while your own needs are far greater

and you are in desperate circumstances;

That is dying to self.

When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself

and can humbly submit, inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart;

That is dying to self.

This is hard stuff, isn’t it?! BUT the consequence of this taking up our cross, of denying self,

of losing our own self centred life, is actually, surprisingly, to find it! When we give everything we are & have to Jesus, paradoxically we find a new identity, a new self, in him, in his love.

“For whoever wants to save his own life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

The Greek word used for life in this passage is not the one used for physical life, bio,

but psyche – our self, or inner life. As we do away with our old selfish self, as we deny it and put it to death, we find, through Jesus, a new, true self, the self as God designed each of us to be. Jesus says we find ourselves by finding him.

The ordinary way of trying to find yourself is by gaining things from the world, wealth, status, family, relationships. If you have some of those things, you’re really someone! But Jesus says

the whole world can’t give you a lasting, true sense of self – you’ll never know if you have enough of those things, and keep wanting more. And if something happens to them,

you’ll not just be unhappy, you’ll feel you’re falling apart – because you’ve built your sense of self on those things. Anyway, you won’t be able to keep hold of those things forever,

they’ll pass away, and you will.

Jesus says if you build your self on following me, you cannot lose that self, it’s your true self, your very self, as God designed – because you were designed to follow me.

And following is a journey. It has to begin, we have to set off. Have you started this journey? There’s a decision to be made to set off! To go on this journey means I let go of control of my life; I give up self determination to follow Jesus. It means I will go where he says, do what he says, I will obey, with no IFs or BUTs, I’ll drop my conditions. When we’ve said those things, we’ve begun the journey.

And that is only the beginning. A journey is a process, it takes time, and following Jesus takes a life time. We’re to keep going. Jesus said to take up our cross every day.

And yes we’re bound to veer off the path of following Jesus, often. But every time we look to Jesus again,

and get following again.

So today the question comes back to us, who do we say Jesus is? Will we listen to him, will we deny ourselves take up our cross and follow him? How will we do that today?

And now let’s pray.........

(With thanks and acknowledgement for Tom Wright and Tim Keller’s ideas that fed in to this sermon)