A Close Encounter of the Jesus Kind
Matthew 16: 13-16
—William Willimon, “Who do you say that I am?” August 22, 1999, Duke Chapel Web Site, chapel.duke.edu.
A student came to me and asked me to explain to her the difference between Christianity and Judaism. She is in love with a student who is Jewish. They are both law students, thinking about marriage. How will they deal with the difficult differences?
I told her that I had known people who marry lawyers and go on to have happy marriages, despite the difficulties!
Just kidding. The differences that trouble her are between two related but disparate faiths. Well, we discussed rituals, festivals, beliefs. Then she asked a fundamental question.
“When it comes down to it, what is the one thing that makes Christians, Christian?”
The answer is not pot luck-dinners, WWJD bracelets or pushy preachers. The thing that makes us who we are is Jesus. Jesus Christ is Christianity.
Names for Jesus assembled by Alice Camille in U.S. Catholic (August 2002):
Saint Thomas Aquinas called Jesus the perfect mediator between God and humanity.
Protestant theologian Horace Bushnell named Jesus the “poor man’s philosopher, the first and only one that has appeared.”
Fidel Castro said Jesus is “a great revolutionary.”
George Bernard Shaw called him “a first-rate political economist.”
Johnny Cash said he was “the foundation of my life and my strength.”
Author and storyteller John Shea describes Jesus as “God’s challenge and invitation.”
For Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Our Lord Jesus Christ ... is our hero, a hero all the world wants.”
So, who is Jesus Christ?
This morning, we are invited by God to answer Jesus question… “But what about you, who do you, say I am?”
(Briefly challenge the congregation….)
How do we think about Jesus? When we look at the cross, do we see an object and say yes, because Jesus died on that cross, I am saved. Do we look at it as an object that is separate from us? Something we view from a distance and acknowledge as something special? Oh yes, acknowledging its power and grace and significance, but somehow still, something apart from us.
Or, when we look at the cross, do we see our hope. Do we see who we are in Christ? Do we see ourselves as a reflection of Christ? Are we a part of the Savior who sacrificed all for us. Do we look at the cross and see ourselves as having Christ living within us, loving us, guiding us and giving us a Holy peace within.
Jesus asks us this morning…. “who do you, say I am?” Am I real for you? Are you and I one?
Jesus has an encounter with a woman at a well. She is a Samaritan woman and Samaritan’s and Jews don’t particularly like each other… and surely a male Jew wouldn’t think of speaking to a Samaritan WOMAN! Yet Jesus engages the woman in conversation. This woman He has never met, yet knows everything about her. Her past husbands, her present situation, living with a man who is not her husband… He knows… during the conversation, Jesus promises her “living water”…a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Who could make such an offer? The woman says “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us. Jesus declares, “I who speak to you am He.”(John 4: 40- 39-42) Jesus offers eternal life.
(Look at congregation) “who do you, say I am?”
Jesus is walking … a large crowd follows, a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years, a woman who had been under extensive medial care but never cured reaches out and touches his clothes… she believes that if she can just touch His clothes she will be healed… and immediately the bleeding stops. Jesus, realizing that “power” had gone out from him turns and asks who has touched my clothes? The woman falls at His feet and, trembling with fear, tells Jesus the truth…..Jesus tells her “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” Jesus can end your suffering. (Mark 5: 24-34)
(Look at congregation) “who do you, say I am?”
A group of religious leaders bring an adulterous woman before Jesus proclaiming she must be stoned. Jesus bends down, begins to write on the ground and when the questioning continues, He challenges them “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then He bends down and writes on the ground again. What did He write…. Could it be the sins of those who were the accusers? When Jesus challenged the first without sin to be the first to throw the stone…… one by one they leave… the oldest first. Did the words of Jesus pierce their souls? He didn’t accuse, He only invited the first…… but they all left. Then Jesus straightens up, looks around and asks the woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? No one sir she replies. “Then neither do I condemn you, says Jesus, go now and leave you life of sin.” Jesus offers forgiveness, and a new way of life. (John 8: 1-11)
(Look at the cross, look at the congregation) “who do you, say I am?”
As Jesus and His disciples travel along, they come to a village where a woman named Martha opens her home to them. Martha has a sister named Mary who comes and sits at the Lord’s feet listening to what He says. But Martha is distracted by all the preparations that she feels have to be made. She comes to Jesus and asks Him if he cares that Mary has left her to do all the work she perceives in important and demands Jesus to instruct Mary to help her….. Jesus replies… “Martha Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Are you worried about things that don’t really matter? Things, that, when viewed in terms of life eternal seem suddenly trivial? Do you have time for Jesus. Jesus offers you hope, grace, peace and love and Jesus promises it will not be taken away from you.
(Look at congregation) Jesus asks us this morning“who do you, say I am?”
Jesus enters a village named Jericho. There is a many there by the name of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is a chief tax collector, wealthy, but not very popular among the people. Zacchaeus is a short man, but he is determined to see who the Jesus is. He races ahead of the crowd and climbs a tree to get a good look. As Jesus passes under the tree, He looks up and speaks to Zacchaeus…”Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” None of the people liked this tax collector, and so they began to grumble and said “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner” Of course, they never thought of themselves as sinners……. Zacchaeus life, his soul, his spirit is immediately moved and changed by the love, the kindness, the firmness of Jesus words “come down immediately”… and Zacchaeus life if forever changed….. Jesus says to him “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.” Jesus offers salvation to all who would come to Him. Why did Jesus come…. to seek and save what was lost.. Have you ever felt lost. Have you ever felt no one cares for you. Jesus cares for you. Jesus gave His life for YOU. Jesus loves YOU.
(Look at the cross, look at the congregation) “who do you, say I am?”
It is the time of what we call the last supper. The original twelve disciples are all gathered about the table. Jesus spirit is troubled and He testifies…”I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.:” Jesus looks into each of our souls. Nothing escapes Jesus. He is here this morning. He already knows the hurt in your hearts. The burdens you are carrying deep inside, and He wants to take those hurts, those burdens from you.
After the betrayal, the mockery of a “trial” Jesus is taken and crucified on a cross. There are many people gathered there… a few followers, …..a lot more who are mocking Him. He has been spit on, whipped, scorned and finally…. Finally nails are driven through His hands and through His feet, and the cross is lifted and plunged into the ground. Blood is flowing from the wounds from a crown of thorns place on His head by His tormentors and from the nails holding him to the cross. And there, in the midst of such agony that we can not begin to imagine, Jesus implores His Father… “forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”…. Jesus is not the only one crucified this day. On either side of Him is a convicted thief. One chooses to mock the Christ. The other pleas with Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when you come into you kingdom.” Jesus responds… responds while hanging nailed to a cross with blood flowing from His body… Jesus turns to the thief, looks into his eyes and into his very soul…Jesus sees this thief’s pain, not just the physical pain, but the pain deep in his soul, He understands the pain this man has realized for so long of knowing he had lived a sinful life…., Jesus knows this thief now recognizes Him as the Messiah, the Christ, the long promised Savior and Jesus, there, bleeding, suffering excruciating pain only feels love for this sinful man, and give him the promise of peace and eternal life … “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” Jesus is here this morning. Jesus extends the same offer to each of us here today.
After the crucifixion, after the burial, Mary Magdalene …. Mary whose hope was in Jesus, who had changed her life… whose hope now lies in the bottom of her heart, flat and lifeless… Mary makes her way along a dark garden path toward the tomb of Jesus. In spite of what all logic tell her, about the hopelessness of the circumstances…. Something helps her survive… something resilient, like a blade of grass that springs up after being stepped on… like the tree that drops it’s leaves in the fall only to burst into bloom in the springtime…. And that something is love. Love brought Mary to His cross. And love brings her now to His grave. But, she discovers a terrible sight… .the stone has bee rolled away and the tomb has been violated.
Just when Mary thinks life can’t get worse, it gets worse. The night gets darker, her hope grows dimmer.
She runs to tell the disciples… she finds Peter and John and tries to tell them what she has found…..John and Peter immediately race toward the tomb. Mary tries to keep up, but her side is splitting with pain from the sprint to tell the disciples what she has seen… and
she can’t keep up… Tears roll down her face as she struggles to the tomb. The tears are still with her as she enters the tomb to see for herself what Peter and John found. And suddenly, this woman who was once possessed with demons finds herself in the presence of angels.
One stands at the head of the stone slab; the other at the foot. Mary is despondent as she tells them the reason for her tears….. then, from behind, another voice reaches out to her,….”Woman, why are you crying?” She whirls around, perhaps her eyes are still blurred from her tears… Maybe Jesus is the last person she expects to see. Whatever the reason she doesn’t recognize Him… That is until……. He speaks her name “Mary” She blinks away the tears … she can hardly believer hr eyes…. “Master.”
She races to Him and throws her arms around the Lord she loves so much. She had been there when He suffer at the cross; now His is there when she is suffering. She had stood by Him in His darkest hour; now He is standing by her in hers. He had seen her tears; now He is there to wipe them all away.
Jesus interrupts the embrace to send her to the disciple with the good news.
“He is risen. I have seen Him. I have touched Him. He is alive”
And so, too, is her hope.
In His triumph, Jesus could have paraded through the streets of Jerusalem. He could have knocked on Pilate’s door. He could have confronted the high priest. But the first person our resurrected Lord appears to is a woman without hope… And the first words He speaks are.. “Why are you crying?”
What a Savior we serve, or rather, who serves us. For in His hour of greatest triumph, He doesn’t shout His victory from the rooftops. He comes quietly to a woman who grieves… who desperately needs to hear His voice… see His face… and feel His embrace.
That same savior is here with us this morning. I don’t know where you are in your relationship with Christ. I don’t know the burdens on your heart. I don’t know the hurts you carry deep inside. But Jesus does, and He offers you healing, peace, grace, forgiveness and love. 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
After you come to the table this morning, Jesus invites you to the altar to spend a few intimate moments with Him. There, you have the opportunity to answer His question…..”who do you, say I am?
