Jonas Stutzmann’s Chair for Jesus
I Corinthians 3:10-19a
February 3, 2008
On a chilly, rainy day in October of 1871, Jonas Stutzmann was buried in the old Stutzmann cemetery in Holmes County, Ohio. He died in the home of his son Daniel and one of his last wishes was that his casket be carried to his grave. This posed a problem however, because the cemetery was seven miles from Daniel’s home. Nevertheless, two teams of pall bearers took turns, and they made the long walk to his gravesite.
At age 21, Jonas migrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio with a group of his Amish relatives. Everyone else stopped in Tuscarawas County, but he continued on a few miles farther west and became the first white man to settle in Holmes County. He settled in, began to farm the land, married and fathered nine children, taught school, built the first saw mill in the county, and bought the first grain thresher.
Two aspects which made him memorable to his friends and relatives, and which continue to astound historians today, is his down-to-earth practical and his profound spirituality. You see, Jonas Stutzmann believed that he has been given a special vision by God: a vision which was to guide his entire adult life. He is remembered primarily for two things: his white clothes and the hickory chair he built for Jesus.
In contrast to the black clothes worn by his religious tradition, he wore white and became known as Der Weiss or “The White One.” When someone once asked him why he refused to wear anything but white, he replied that the Lord had put that color on sheep, so he was going to wear it too.
By wearing white, he identified with those spoken of in the book of Revelation whose robes were made white in the blood of the Lamb. Just so, he believed that his hickory chair, built especially for Jesus, would be the throne upon which the Lord would sit upon his return. His white clothes and hickory chair for Jesus were reminders for him to pray and worship daily as well as strive to live on earth with the same kind of love as the angels of heaven, so that he would be ready when that great day appeared.
In Roman Catholic theology, the throne in St. Peter’s Basilica is reserved for Christ when he returns, but occupied in the meantime by the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. Like the Bishop of Rome who occupied Christ’s chair in white robes, so Stutzmann occupied his chair dressed in his white attire.
In Jonas Stutzmann’s theology, Jesus was expected to return to earth, not in Rome, or Constantinople, or Jerusalem, but would come to rule from a hickory chair in Millersburg, Ohio.
Stutzmann’s final vision from God, received in January of 1850 was that the end of time was near…only three and a half years away. So he expected that it would be May or June of 1853 which would see the return of Christ to set up his new kingdom.
Obviously he was wrong. The spring of 1853 came and went, as have many springs since. That mistake in date-setting probably explains why so many people laughed at him then and why he is considered sort of a joke of history today.
Despite his mistaken time-table, he continued to wear white until his death in 1871. The hickory chair that he made for Jesus is still there. You may see it in your visit to the Mennonite Visitor’s Center in Berlin, Ohio.
Before you go and laugh about old Jonas Stutzmann and his hickory chair for Jesus, I want you to consider him as a faithful servant of God. Mixed up? Maybe a little. Mistaken in his reading of the Bible? Yes. Non-conformist? Absolutely. Joke of his neighbors? Yes, indeed. A curiosity of history? Without a doubt. Would I want him as a fishing buddy? Probably not. But then I’m not sure that I would like to spend a day on the lake with the Apostle Paul or John Wesley either. But let me ask you a simple question. Where was Jonas Stutzmann’s heart?
Let me remind you for a moment, of King David. David has fought long and hard to solidify his grip on the throne of Judah and Israel. Taken from the hill country around Bethlehem, he survived the treacheries of King Saul, the sword of Goliath, palace intrigues, and the ravages of old age.
Finally, he was at peace, and he could stop long enough to contemplate his heart’s greatest desire. He had, with the help of God, established a kingdom. He has mastered his enemies. He had built for himself a magnificent palace in which to live. But his heart was heavy. He was aware of the opulence of his palace, all the while the ark of the Covenant was till resting in a tent.
After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord has given him rest from all his enemies around him, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent. (II Samuel 7:1-2).
The Apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to the church in Corinth, these words:
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit lives in you? (I Corinthians 3:16).
He used that image of the Temple of God residing in human beings on two occasions. In chapter 6, it is in reference to the individual. People were committing all sorts of grievous acts of immorality against their physical bodies and Paul warned them that their bodies were temples in which resided the Holy Spirit.
Here in chapter three, we find the first time he used that image. Here it was in the context of the corporate life of the church. He used the plural “you.” “You yourselves are God’s temple.” God’s Spirit resides in God’s temple…the church.
At this point, it is not the world-wide church of which he speaks, but the local church, the local body of believers. Therefore, there is no longer any need to wait for Jesus to come among us. He already has.
Jonas Stutzmann was looking forward to the return of Christ when he would set up his kingdom on earth. King David wished to build a Temple where God could reside. Our affirmation is that God through Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit is among us, right here, right now, in the church.
We could laugh at Jonas Stutzmann and reject his teaching. He was eccentric at best and terribly mistaken in many things. He incorrectly interpreted a vision of God and was completely wrong when he set his time-table for the consummation of history. But I have a question.
Given all these things, is it reasonable to reject his vision of God and the lifestyle he encouraged? Goodness knows, if we reject him because he was wrong aobut some things, we have to place ourselves under the same judgment because we too make mistakes sometimes when we speak of God. Would it not be better to ask where his heart was? Would it not be better to affirm his desire to live in the presence of God like King David?
He may have misread the Bible and misunderstood his place in history. But we know that the Holy Spirit dwells among us in the church. Are we as intent on living in God’s presence as he was? He waited for God to come to a hickory chair in Millersburg, Ohio. Are we waiting to receive the Spirit which is already present at Calvary United Methodist Church here in Fort Wayne?
