Of Gods And Men Series

Good Morning. A quick question. How many of you have ever seen the movie Of Gods and Men? How many of you have ever heard of the movie Of Gods and Men? A few of you. That is not surprising because it is a foreign film with subtitles. It is actually quite a well-respected film. It came out in 2010 and received critical acclaim. The plot is quite simple. It is a true story about a group of monks who lived in a monastery in the mountains of Algeria. They lived there very peacefully. In fact, even though they were Roman Catholic and they were Muslims they basically coexisted peacefully in the village. The people began to become somewhat dependent on the monks. Relying on some of the basic necessities through their generosity such as food, clothing, and medical care. They had this peaceful coexistence going on. One day, in 1995, the peaceful coexistence was shattered when a group of fundamentalist Islamic terrorists came in and killed some workers. It pretty much caused havoc in that particular village. These monks were faced with a touch decision. Either they remain in the monastery caring for the people and in some sense risking death every day or they jump ship. They leave. They abandon the people that they had been specifically called to serve. When I was looking on the internet, I found a movie trailer from this movie and I thought I would show it because, to me, it shows the very good contrast between the peaceful existence of the monks and now the very tough decision that they are forced to make. (Trailer showed here.)

In case you are wondering where the title Of Gods and Men came from for that movie, it actually is referencing a scripture we will look at in a few minutes from Psalm 82. The point of the title is that these mere men, these monks, who were considered average everyday monks who were called to do a specific purpose for a specific time in this particular village, somehow went to achieve God-like status because of their commitment to the death. To the point of martyrdom. To their willingness to stay with those people. If you have your Bibles, please open up to John 10:30. You may recall we have been looking at the book of John. Today, we are finishing up chapter 10. Chapter 10 was primarily about the metaphor of Jesus as the good shepherd. You may recall at the beginning of 10, Jesus was the good shepherd in contrast to the bad shepherds. Jesus was the shepherd who used the front door when he came in to meet the sheep whereas the Jews were kind of like the robbers and the thieves who came in from a different way and messed with the sheep. Jesus also said that not only did he use the front gate, he said he was the gate. He was the door. If any man would come through him, the gate, he would be saved. We also saw that Jesus was one who knew his sheep. They knew his voice and he knew them and he loved them so much that he was willing to lay down his life for the sheep. Last week, Chris talked about the idea that there was no way the sheep could be snatched out of the shepherd’s hand. The last verse that Chris talked about last week was John 10:30 when Jesus said “I and the Father are one.” As we know, this type of talk would upset the Jewish leaders because in their mind Jesus is making little bit of a too close connection between him and their creator, God. They don’t like that. They decide they are going to pick up stones and try to kill him. That is where we pick up the verse at John 10:31. (Scripture read here.)

Once again, the situation here is that Jesus is causing trouble again. He is saying I and the Father are one. That is a charge of blasphemy. It is an insult to God to put himself on the same status as their creator God. So they pick up stones and get ready to throw them at him to kill him again and Jesus stands there and he says in verse 32 “Jesus said to them, ‘I have shown you many great miracles from the father. For which of these do you stone me?’” All the while Jesus knowing that is not the reason that they are about to stone him. Once again, they go on to say in the next verse “‘We are not stoning you for any of these,’ replied the Jews, ‘but for blasphemy because you, a mere man, claim to be God.’” In other words, you are putting yourself on a status that is a little bit too close for comfort. We cannot accept the fact that you would dare put yourself on the same level as our God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and Jacob. We cannot stand for that. What does Jesus do? He does an interesting thing. He draws on a very obscure passage out of the book of Psalms. Psalm 82. An ancient passage that probably the Jews were familiar with but probably a lot of us, including myself, aren’t that familiar with. It is a passage that gives an illusion that there are some other types of gods out there. Mere men can be referred to as gods. What Jesus says here is “Is it not written in your law that ‘I have said you are “gods”?’ If he called them ‘gods’ to whom the word of God came – and the scripture cannot be broken – what about the one whom the father set apart as his very own and sent him to the world?” What Jesus is doing is pointing back to this obscure scripture that we don’t know but I guarantee the Jewish scholars knew. It is a scripture once again where the psalmist writer is actually referring to a group of men as gods.