Jesus the Master December 10,13 & 30 2007
Jesus Who?
Brian McLaren writes in his book “A Generous Orthodoxy” in the chapter that asks the question “Would Jesus Be a Christian?”
“…the more one respects Jesus, the more one must be brokenhearted, embarrassed, furious, or some combination thereof when one considers what we Christians have done with Jesus. That’s certainly true when it comes to calling Jesus Lord, something we Christians do a lot, often without the foggiest idea of what we mean. Has he become (I shudder to ask this) less our Lord and more our Mascot?”
From that paragraph, Mclaren talks about what “Lord” could mean and how we have missed the boat.
King, Master of a slave/servant, Master of a trade – some one to apprentice after
Master Painter – Torston Hahn
4 years apprentice – 4 years watching the master paint, learning techniques, learning the trade.
This is the kind of master I want to talk about today
You may remember the Rob Bell Video, when he talk about what it meant when Jesus the Rabbi asked people to follow him. – he was asking them to apprentice under him – as a disciple, you learned to do what the Rabbi did.
I guess I’d like to put out a challenge in this last week of the “Jesus Who?” course. I’d like to challenge you to follow Jesus.
Early on in the second session of Alpha at the pub, we had the talk on “Why did Jesus Die?” Almost everyone in my small group was able to see Jesus as a great model for life, someone that they would like to follow, but the didn’t get the whole cross thing. How does his death affect my life? As I mused and talked about that discussion in the weeks to come, I started to ask the question, “what is the greater wrong, to accept Jesus as a model for life and to try to do as he did but not get the cross, or to embrace the cross for forgiveness of our sin but only give lip service to shaping our lives to mirror his life?
Christians have a strong emphasis on believing in Jesus’ death & resurrection for the salvation of our soul, but we have downplayed the things that Jesus said about doing the things that he did, about doing the things that he taught, about obeying all that he has taught us. Jesus tells a story of two sons – their dad comes and asks them to do a chore – the one says, “sure thing Dad!” and then does nothing, the other says, “no way!” and then latter changes his mind and does the chore. Jesus asks, “which of these does the fathers’ will?” Of course it is the second. But we would rather both say an enthusiastic “yes” and do the task.
I think asking questions about the greater wrong is usually wrong headed – if they are both wrong, the thing to do is to look for the right. The right thing is to believe in Jesus for the salvation of our life, and to recognize that the life that we are saved into is a life shaped to mirror his.
In the Jesus Who? Course we’ve looked at the things Jesus did and said; we’ve looked at Jesus’ character; and we’ve looked at his identity in the grand scheme of things.
You may have “believed” in Jesus for a long time – Accepted his death and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sins – I’d like to challenge you to follow him.
You may not be so sure about the Identity issues of identity, like divinity, messiah and savior… I’d still like to challenge you to follow him.
Doing what Jesus did and doing what he taught were very important to Jesus.
Matthew 7:24-27
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
In Sunday School we used to sing a song based on this story, the last verse was “so build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ…” That concept is a little to esoteric for me – and it is not what Jesus said – what he said was “DO WHAT I SAY!”
“Follow Me” – 20x
How do you follow Jesus? Do you buy a bracelet that says WWJD?
When another slogan was popular: “Be Like Mike,” if you wanted to play basketball like Michael Jordan, you would watch him play, read about his training and game strategies, find out what he ate…
If you want to be like JC, you need to know him!
Knowing the Master
Read the Gospels again and again
Following Kathy skate skiing
- skate skiing with Kathy - I did fine as long as I stayed behind her and mimicked what she would do, If not, I’d loose the rhythm and fall.
Keep you eyes on Jesus – learn his rhythm…
Hebrews 12:1-3
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
How?
- read the Gospels!
Books: The Jesus I Never Knew – Yancey
The Challenge of Jesus, The Original Jesus - Wright
At the end of last week’s talk, I read a passage where Jesus is very explicit about doing the things that Jesus did. He says:
"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." – John 20:21-23
N.T. Wright writes this amazing chapter at the end of his book “The Challenge of Jesus,” and he is trying to understand how we apply this passage to our lives 2,000 years later
He says this: p 143
The human race has been in exile; exiled from the garden, shut out of the house, bombarded with noise instead of music. Our task is to announce, in deed and word, that the exile is over: to enact the symbols which speak of healing and forgiveness, to act boldly in God’s world in the power of the Spirit. As I suggested earlier, the proper way to expound the parables today is to ask: what should we be doing in God’s world that would call forth the puzzled or even angry questions to which parables like these would be the right answer?
At the risk of trespassing in areas I know little or nothing about, let me simply hint at some ways in which this might work out. If you work in information technology, how is your discipline slanted? Is it slanted towards the will to power or the will to love? Does it exhibit the signs of technology for technology’s sake, of information as a means of disadvantaging those who don’t have access to it by those who do? Is it developing in the service of true relationships, true stewardship, and even true worship, or is it feeding and encouraging a society in which everybody creates their own private, narcissistic, enclosed world? Luther’s definition of sin was homo incurvatus in se, humans turned in on themselves. Does your discipline foster that, or challenge that? You may not be able to change the way the discipline currently works. You may be able to take some steps in that direction, given time and opportunity, but that isn’t necessarily your vocation. Your task is to find the symbolic ways of doing things differently, planting flags in hostile soil, setting up signposts which say that there is a different way to be human. And when people are puzzled at what you are doing, find ways, fresh ways, of telling the story of
the return of the human race from its exile, and use those stories as your explanation.
Or suppose you work in fine art, or music, or architecture. Is your discipline still stuck in the arrogance of modernity? Or, more likely, is it showing all the signs of the postmodern fragmentation, the world which declares that all great stories, all overarching systems, are power-plays? Is your discipline run by people with a strong political agenda, so that (say) unless you’re a committed Marxist they don’t think you can be a serious artist? Your calling may be to find new ways to tell the story of redemption; to create fresh symbols which will speak of a home for the homeless, the end of exile, the re-
planting of the garden, the rebuilding of the house. I knew a young artist who became a Christian at Oxford, and struggled with tutors who despised him for it. His answer, to his own surprise, was to start painting abstract icons. They were spectacular and deeply beautiful. He didn’t tell his tutors what they were until they had expressed their surprise and delight at this new turn in his work, drawing forth from him quite fresh creativity which they couldn’t help but admire. Then, when they asked what was going on, he told them the story.
So we could go on. If you are to shape your world in following Christ it isn’t enough to say that being a Christian and being a professional or an academic (to address these worlds particularly for the moment) is about high moral standards, using every opportunity to talk to people about Jesus, praying for or with your students, being fair in your marking and assessment, and honest in your speaking. All that is vital and necessary, but you are called to something much, much more. You are called, prayerfully, to discern where in your discipline the human project is showing signs of exile, and humbly and boldly to act symbolically in ways which declare that the powers have been defeated, that the Kingdom has come in Jesus the Jewish Messiah, that the new way of being human has been unveiled; and to be prepared to tell the story which explains what these symbols are all about. And in all this you are to declare, in symbol and praxis, in story and articulate answers to questions, that Jesus is Lord and Caesar isn’t; that Jesus is Lord and Marx, Freud and Nietzsche aren’t; that Jesus is Lord and neither modernity nor postmodernity are. When Paul spoke of the gospel he wasn’t talking primarily about a system of salvation, but about the announcement, in symbol and word, that Jesus is the true Lord of the world, the true light of the world.
From N.T. Wright, “The Challenge of Jesus” p.143-4
Not just doing what Jesus did, but also doing them the way he did them.
Following Jesus into service
Washing feet
John 13:
Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet
1 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"
7 Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."
8 "No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet."
Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."
9 "Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"
10 Jesus answered, "Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you." 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. 13 "You call me ’Teacher’ and ’Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Jesus goal is to bring in a new kingdom – but he brings it in not through violence and coercion, but through service and sacrifice.
Following into suffering
Take up your cross
A servant is no greater than his master….
John 15:18-20
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ’Servants are not greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
Jesus does not shy away from suffering himself, nor does he shy away from other people’s suffering.
Suffering is not good, but stepping into suffering for, and with others follows Jesus in to the great divine “no” that Jesus is to all that is wrong.
I’m not saying that we should be like the creepy monk in the Da Vinci Code, ritually abusing ourselves – there is enough suffering in the world without being weird about it. I’m saying that we must not shy away from it, and we should find Jesus in the midst of it.
Don’t think this will be as easy as wearing a WWJD bracelet.
Follow Jesus
