Breaking Boundaries 3: Who is Jesus Really?
Luke 7:18-35 Feb 1, 2009
Intro:
Who is Jesus?
H.G. Wells, British author, said, "I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history."
Mahatma Gandhi said, "I cannot say that Jesus was uniquely divine. He was as much God as Krishna, or Rama, or Mohammed, or Zoroaster."
Martin Buber, Jewish philosopher: "From my youth onwards I have found in Jesus my great brother."
Another Jew, Albert Einstein, said: "As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene....No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life."
Prince Phillip: "He might be described as an underprivileged, working-class victim of political and religious persecution."
Mikhail Gorbachev said, "Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind."
Martin Luther King Jr: "Jesus Christ was an extremist for love, truth and goodness."
C.S. Lewis: "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
More relevant, perhaps, and certainly more applicable to you and I, is not what a bunch of other people think about who Jesus is, but what you and I think about who Jesus is. That becomes a more critical question.
Background to Luke 7:18-35
And it is the precise question being addressed in the passage of Scripture we are going to look at today – Jesus – who is He really? It is in Luke 7:18-35, but before I read it I need to give you a little background so it will make sense. It is a story about two men who were disciples of John the Baptist, who were sent by him to Jesus to try to figure out this issue of who Jesus really is. So who was this John guy, and why did he want to know?
At this point in time, John was the most important person on the religious scene. He was known throughout the whole country, and the subject of more than a little controversy. The general population believed he was a great prophet, and many of them had gone out to the desert, where John lived a very plain, simply, rough life, to hear him teach, and many had believed John’s message and been baptized. John said they must turn away from their sins, and be baptized in water, as a symbol of re-entry into the people of God, part of the same process that any non-Israelite would need to go through in able to become a Jew. While many of the common people had believed John and been baptized, the religious leaders had rejected the message, largely because they did not believe that they were in the wrong and needed to repent. Jesus himself had gone to hear John, and was baptized by him in the Jordan river, and at that point in time John had recognized Jesus as the Messiah. The simple reason that John sent messengers rather than going himself is that by this time, John had been thrown in prison by Herod. That’s probably enough background to jump into the text:
Luke 7:18-35
18 The disciples of John the Baptist told John about everything Jesus was doing. So John called for two of his disciples, 19 and he sent them to the Lord to ask him, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”
20 John’s two disciples found Jesus and said to him, “John the Baptist sent us to ask, ‘Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?’”
21 At that very time, Jesus cured many people of their diseases, illnesses, and evil spirits, and he restored sight to many who were blind. 22 Then he told John’s disciples, “Go back to John and tell him what you have seen and heard—the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. 23 And tell him, ‘God blesses those who do not turn away because of me.’”
24 After John’s disciples left, Jesus began talking about him to the crowds. “What kind of man did you go into the wilderness to see? Was he a weak reed, swayed by every breath of wind? 25 Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? No, people who wear beautiful clothes and live in luxury are found in palaces. 26 Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, and he is more than a prophet. 27 John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say,
‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
and he will prepare your way before you.’
28 I tell you, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of God is greater than he is!”
29 When they heard this, all the people—even the tax collectors—agreed that God’s way was right, for they had been baptized by John. 30 But the Pharisees and experts in religious law rejected God’s plan for them, for they had refused John’s baptism.
31 “To what can I compare the people of this generation?” Jesus asked. “How can I describe them? 32 They are like children playing a game in the public square. They complain to their friends, ‘We played wedding songs, and you didn’t dance, so we played funeral songs, and you didn’t weep.’
33 For John the Baptist didn’t spend his time eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ 35 But wisdom is shown to be right by the lives of those who follow it.”
What is Behind the Question? vs. 18-20
Why did John need to ask? I said a moment ago that John had recognized Jesus as Messiah when he baptized Him, so why ask now? This is the subject of some debate among commentators, I think there are two likely possibilities.
First, John and everyone else were expecting a different kind of Messiah – one who would stand up and judge the corrupt leaders, and one who would galvanize a military response to the Roman invasion. Jesus was, at this point in time, not doing much of either. He was different, He was defying expectations.
Second, I wonder if John wasn’t confused about Jesus role as Messiah being “to set the prisoners free”, as Jesus had introduced himself early in His ministry, while here John was rotting away in Herod’s jail. We might understand John wondering about that apparent inconsistency in his experience: if Jesus came to “set the prisoners free”, and John was a “prisoner”, it stands to reason that Jesus should come and set John free. After all, John was important and influential, he could really help Jesus, if only Jesus would do the obvious.
I don’t want to push the point too far based on the possible reasons why John would ask the question, but I see a strong parallel here to my experience. Jesus often doesn’t do what I think He should do, and sometimes I have a problem with that. Like John, I can often see the obvious way that Jesus should act today, and then I struggle when He doesn’t. Sometimes I turn that struggle inwards: I must have messed up, maybe I didn’t pray hard enough, I wasn’t spiritual enough, I had some sin that prevented Jesus from doing what I thought He should do. Sometimes maybe you do the same. But that usually isn’t very helpful, and I think a better response is to turn that struggle outwards, and just ask Jesus the question. What are You doing, if You are not doing what I think You should be doing? I try to remove my expectations, and look and listen, and then (the tougher part) accept and rejoice in what God is doing. Of course, sometimes I am more successful at that than other times, but that is what I try to do when Jesus isn’t doing things the way I think He should.
Jesus’ Answer
So the question comes, and Jesus gives an answer: tell John what you see. Do you sometimes find it annoying when someone doesn’t answer a simple, direct question? Jesus doesn’t – it was a “yes or no” question, and essentially Jesus says, “decide for yourself based on the evidence you see”. I think there is great wisdom in Jesus’ response, because He is forcing John and others to come to their own conclusions. It is something Jesus continues to do – invite people to come to their own conclusions about who He is, based on what they see.
Now here comes a challenge to us as the people of God, seeking to break boundaries and be Jesus’ witnesses in our world. People have a tendency to look at us, the people of God, the ones who claim to be followers of Jesus, and then make decisions about who Jesus is based on what they see in those who claim to be followers of Jesus, and that is not always positive.
There are two good ways to respond, I think. First is to ensure that in our own lives, we are living in obedience to Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us, admitting our short-comings, yet living with integrity and authenticity. Then, it is possible to say to people with whom we come into contact that yes, many things have been done in Jesus name that are not positive, but then we can ask them to look at our lives and see if they see something different there. I hope the answer is yes – that they see, in our lives, the same kind of focus that Jesus exemplified, namely a biased concern for the poor, the sick, the grieving, and the powerless. I hope they see in us a people who have looked at the dominant religion of our time, consumerism and materialism, and rejected it in favor of a way of love and relationship, and I hope that they see in us a far deeper joy and purpose because of it. And I hope that points them to Jesus.
A second good way to respond is to invite them instead to look at Jesus directly, rather than Jesus just as He has been reflected in those who claim to be His followers. Take them back to the source. I think this is a challenge that open-minded seekers will embrace, and I think that Jesus Himself, the Living God, will welcome that opportunity to reveal Himself to people asking the same question that John’s disciples asked – who is this Jesus anyway? Here we take them to Scripture, and we invite them to ask Jesus the question, “who are you? are you real? are you still relevant? are you listening?” And then we watch what the Holy Spirit does, and help guide people in understanding and recognizing the voice of Jesus speaking to them.
A Turning Point: vs. 28
As the story continues, Jesus turns to the crowd and talks a bit about John affirming his important role, and then makes this really strong statement: “I tell you, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of God is greater than he is!” (vs 28). Jesus is essentially drawing the line in the sand, and saying “this is a turning point, into a new and much better Kingdom.” John is great, but he is a transitional figure between the old and the new, and the new is much, much better than the old.
I wanted to pause here because I think it reminds us of how incredibly privileged we are to be part of the new Kingdom of God. I have great respect for the prophets of the Old Testament, and believe we have much to learn from them, but we have the privilege of being part of that which they only dreamed. Adoption as God’s own children. Complete forgiveness through grace. Victory over death. The personal, indwelling of the Holy Spirit in each and every believer. These truly are amazing gifts of God to us.
The Parable of the Brats: vs. 31-35
The passage concludes with what commentators like to call “the parable of the brats”, in verses 31-35. Jesus paints a picture here of some bratty little kids, who don’t get their way and so stomp off and pout. And then Jesus says that this is what this generation of people is really like – a bunch of bratty kids. To drive home the point even further, Jesus contrasts Himself and John – John the desert dweller, living on nothing but grasshoppers and wild honey, wild hair and clothing, and the leaders of the day rejected him; and then there was Jesus, the opposite – went to parties, drank wine, enjoyed the feasts, laughed and danced, and He was rejected also. Jesus likens this to a group of children who don’t get their way, who complain that others refuse to join in and follow their rules, play their games, go along with their desires, so they pout and complain. It is like the modern equivalent of “fine, I’m taking my ball and going home…”. “The Parable of the Brats”.
And before we get all smug and look at those people in judgment, I think we would be wise to pause and ask the question: are we really so different? Are we really ready to stop playing our own games with God, expecting Him to follow our rules and play our game, and whole-heartedly dive into whatever God’s plan may be? At first, I think most of us would answer in the affirmative: “ok, Jesus, sign me up!” But what if that road leads to suffering? What if that road leads to sacrifice? What if that road leads to some rejection and pain and heartache? Maybe instead of “what if”, I should ask, “what happens when?”. Jesus suffered, Jesus sacrificed, Jesus experienced rejection and pain and heartache. It is entirely possible, even likely, perhaps unavoidable, that following Jesus means that you and I will also.
I think we have our own version of the “game” that we expect God to play, and it goes something like this: if I give my life to Jesus, I’m going to have it made. I’ll have my ticket to heaven paid. I’ll have the presence of the Holy Spirit to watch my back and make sure nothing bad happens to me. I’ll have all the promises of God to claim for my own. I’ll have a backstage, all-access pass, a guarantee, a blank check, if I do the right things, God will take care of me and only good things will happen. I think the game we play is one where we are center stage, and God is there for us. If we play weddings songs, God dances with us; if we play funeral songs, God weeps with us.” But this is not what it means to be a follower of Jesus, that is more a game where Jesus is our personal life-assistant.
To be truly a follower of Jesus means that we get on His agenda. We join in His game. We put Him at the center, and we are the ones around Jesus glad to do and go and say whatever He chooses. We embrace suffering. We are overjoyed at opportunities to sacrifice. We accept pain and rejection. We don’t seek these things, but we expect and accept them.
And then there is a by-product: when we are on Jesus’ agenda, and not expecting Him to be on our agenda, we experience true peace. We discover joy. We live in freedom, because we are not trying to be in control, God is in control and we are free. We feel the steadfast love of God, and so the response of fallen people that often let us down is less potent because there is something stronger under girding us. But again, I repeat, these are the by-product, the result of being on God’s agenda instead of expecting Him to be on ours.
God’s way doesn’t always make logical sense. We see that in-depth as we gather around this communion table. Sometimes it is hard, sometimes it seems strange, sometimes it even leads through death. But through it all, when God is at the center and we are not, the result is a life worth living.
