I notice that they’ve revived one of the old-time television shows. We can once again see, “To Tell the Truth”. The idea of “To Tell the Truth” is that three people come out, and they all stand and give a name – the same name. Then someone reads a few sentences about the person who actually has that name – his occupation, his accomplishments, something distinctive. The contestants listen to all of this, and they ask questions to see if they can figure out which one of the people presented really is the person described. After they have guessed, the show’s host calls out, “Will the real Joe Blow, whoever, please stand up?” and you find out which one actually is the person who was described.
When you ask people today about their understanding of Jesus, you want to ask, “Will the real Jesus please stand up?” There are about as many ideas about Jesus as there are colors in the rainbow or chads on the ballot. Will the real Jesus please stand up?
For some people, there is the “gentle Jesus, meek and mild”, who would never hurt a flea, who is always mellow and calm and soothing. When I was growing up there was a radio program called, “The Greatest Story Ever Told”; it was a weekly dramatization of some event in the life of Jesus. Our family used to listen to it, and I would always know when the actor playing Jesus was about to speak, because there would be some shimmering music, a pregnant pause, and then this incredibly deep, sonorous voice – “Blessed are the pure in heart … blessed are the peacemakers … blessed are you when men shall revile you”. That was the gentle Jesus, meek and mild.
But for others, Jesus is not gentle or meek or mild. For others, Jesus is feisty. He is ferocious. The devil-may-care Jesus. The Jesus who walks with abandon through grain fields and plucks off what He wants to eat. The Jesus who goes to a wedding and whips up more wine when the strong drink runs out. The Jesus who looks up in a sycamore tree and grins at a little man hiding up there and invites himself to dinner! For some, Jesus is not at all meek and mild; He is a feisty party animal!
Oh, and let’s not forget that for some folks Jesus is the revolutionary, a fiery unkempt rebel, teaching people to defy the keepers of the establishment; and for other folks Jesus is a wild-eyed, unfathomable seer, talking about a day when God’s judgment will fall.
There are as many ways to look at Jesus as there are colors in the rainbow; there are as many ways to see him as there are personalities. You want at some point to call out, “Will the real Jesus please stand up?”
But when He does – mark it down – when He does stand up, trouble comes. When we truly understand who Jesus is and what He teaches – when we get it about Jesus, there’ll be some problems! Be sure of this – the real Jesus is not easy to deal with.
In this coming year, we intend to test that. We are going to tackle, as seriously as we know how, the question of who the real Jesus is. We’ve neglected that. As I look back over the years, I find that I have not preached enough messages on the specific teachings of Jesus. I have neglected, to a degree, an analysis of what Jesus said and what He did. Oh, I have preached sermons out of nearly every book of the Bible. And I have preached about the gift of salvation that Jesus Christ offers. I have spoken about the importance of seeing life as He leads us to see life. But we have not, spent nearly enough time looking carefully at what Jesus did, how He did it, why He did it, and what He said. We have let ourselves hang on to our images of Jesus, whatever they may be; but this year, we are going to ask, “Will the real Jesus please stand up?”
But, I say again, when you do that, issues arise. Things get sticky. What may we expect when we walk with Him, talk with Him, listen to Him, and take Him seriously, this Jesus?
In the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus has taught about Himself. He has said some things that were very hard to understand. They still are. He has spoken about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. He has described Himself as the living bread of heaven, come down so that others may eat and live forever. Now that’s pretty difficult stuff. And so there were several reactions, as there always are when the real Jesus is out there, up front and personal. When the sixth chapter of John opens, there are five thousand excited camp followers; but when it closes, we are down to twelve anxious disciples. Pretty good ensmallment campaign, isn’t it? How did that happen? Well, the real Jesus stood up, that’s how; and that creates issues.
I
The first group of people, a big group, left Jesus because they thought that what He said was too difficult. It was just plain hard to understand, and harder to accept. A lot of folks left Jesus when He stood up because they found Him too hard to take.
When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?"
The issue always is whether we are willing to take Jesus as He is, or whether we repackage Him to suit our own preferences. Some of us want a Jesus who is a patsy, not too tough, not too clear, not too demanding, not too anything, bland and blah. We want a Jesus who is easy, who makes no demands, who doesn’t strain the brain. Anything more is too difficult, and we’re out of here.
The issue was that what He said was difficult and hard to understand. Hard to accept. Did you hear that word, accept? “This teaching is difficult, who can accept it?” When Jesus taught, there were many who just couldn’t deal with it all. It was hard to accept. The real Jesus does not call us merely to agree with Him in some sort of armchair philosophy. He calls us to come, follow Him. He calls us to put ourselves on the line. And that is what many people, even the vast masses of people, find hard to accept. It’s too difficult to live the Jesus way.
Mark Twain once said that it was not the parts of the Bible that he didn’t understand that gave him trouble. What gave him trouble were the parts he did understand. They were too difficult to accept and to obey.
What a challenge it will be to us this coming year to hear Jesus say that if anyone strikes us on the one cheek, we are to turn the other also! Mike Wallace on “Sixty Minutes” interviewed young children talking about getting even. School children, ten, eleven years old, said they would use a gun to get even, if somebody dissed ‘em. Turning the other cheek is too difficult.
What a challenge it will be for us to hear Jesus urge us that if anyone asks for our coat, we are to give up our cloaks as well! Hey, let the poor go to the Salvation Army store! Giving up what is rightfully ours is too difficult for us to hear.
And surely Jesus didn’t mean it when He taught us not even to lust in our hearts; President Jimmy Carter found out there are a whole lot of people who don’t give that a second thought, among them certain of Mr. Carter’s successors. It’s too difficult, hey, we’re only human!
Many left Jesus because what Jesus taught was too hard to accept. When the real Jesus stands up, be prepared to become anxious, be prepared to feel like running the other direction. His words are like swords of steel that puncture our pretensions and tell us what we don’t want to hear. Thomas Paine spoke of the “summer soldier and the sunshine patriot” who gets out when things get tough. We don’t want “tough”. We’d rather think that “just a little talk with Jesus makes it right.” No! Many find Jesus too difficult to accept, and they walk away.
II
There is another group of people who are troubled when the real Jesus stands up, another group who find it a problem when they hear all that Jesus says. These are church people, Christian people, nice people, but people who don’t like controversy, people who don’t like expectations, people who don’t want to be challenged. Some of us would rather just get along and give no offense. We would rather just smooth everything out to a watered-down soup, so that coming to church will always be pleasant and positive, upbeat and soothing. When Jesus speaks about His uniqueness, some of us are offended. Jesus recognized such folks:
But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, "Does this offend you?”
Complaining. What were they complaining about, exactly? They were complaining about the inconvenience of an exclusive message. They were complaining that Jesus rocked their little fellowship boat. They just wanted to have things nice and comfortable and uplifting, but here He comes talking about how you have to make Him and Him alone your Lord. That offended them.
How bout us? Are we offended when the real Jesus stands up? Let’s test ourselves. Does it bother you when I say that no one comes to the Father except by Jesus? Does it offend you, church folks, when we preach that unless you participate in Him, there is no life in you? Does it trouble you when the church insists that there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we may be saved? I tell you, the pivotal struggle within the churches today is not over denominational labels, it is not over musical styles, it is not over ordaining women, it is not over anything so much as it is a struggle over the character of Jesus. Who is the real Jesus? Is He Lord of all, or is He a nice teacher who said lovely things? Is He the word made flesh, or is He one of the ancient world’s fine philosophical minds? The difference is important; and in many churches the difference is offensive. There are plenty of people who want a tame Jesus, a Jesus who is kept in a cage like a zoo animal, but whose awesome authority is never let out.
I have sat in too many interfaith meetings where Christians have given away the company store, talking about how sincere Muslims and sincere Hindus and sincere whatevers are all on the same path as followers of Jesus, and I want to shout out, “Not if the real Jesus stands up.” Not on your life!
But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining– complaining about His teaching concerning Himself, said to them, "Does this offend you?” My answer is yes. Yes. Jesus’ teaching that He is the way, the truth, and the life is offensive to our sloppy way of doing church. It is an offense to our haphazard witness. It is an affront to our lazy, easy, relaxed ho-hum, nonchalant way of being church. When the real Jesus stands up to teach, and we never even so much as invite our non-Christian friends to come with us to hear, then we have joined this crowd of complaining disciples, who were offended at His inconvenient message.
When the real Jesus stands up to teach, many leave because He is too difficult to grasp and to accept; and others leave because He is an offense to their easy convenience.
III
At the end of the chapter things have boiled down to the hard core. Just the twelve. Just the few you can always count on. Sort of like the folks who will always step up and do things when needed – the folks whose names appear four or five times on the slate of officers. The folks who show up for the messy tasks like cleaning the floors or for the drudgery jobs like stuffing mailings. The ones you couldn’t drive away with a stick if you had to, because this is their church!
But Jesus asks a penetrating question to even the hard core Christians:
So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?"
Do you also wish to go away? Don’t tell me, deacon, that there haven’t been times you wanted to give it up, this church thing. Don’t tell me, Sunday School teacher, that there haven’t been Sunday mornings you wanted to pretend to be sick so that you wouldn’t have to come teach. Don’t tell me, choir member, that there haven’t been nights when choir rehearsal was a turnoff and you wanted to stay home. Don’t tell me. I know. Some Sundays I come feeling full of the Spirit and ready to preach, and some Sundays I go home drained and exhausted and just want to go to bed. Even the hard core get weary of church. So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?"
Oh, but Peter, how he got it right! Peter, who had blundered so many times, how he got it right this time!
Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."
To whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know …
The hard core get weary of church because church gets bogged down in meaningless busywork. A friend of mine likes to tell about his days as a college student, when he was one of only four students in a Christian group. Somebody told them that to qualify as a proper Baptist Student Union they needed twelve officers. So they divided the twelve offices among four students, three jobs each, and ran themselves to death by the end of the first semester! It was meaningless busywork, and they wanted to give it up. Jesus asks, “Do you also with to go away?” Somebody needs to help the merely busy to say, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know …”
The hard core get weary of church because they get on each other’s nerves. They have a hard time dealing with one another’s petty ways. I don’t know about you, but I can identify with the little girl who prayed, “Lord, make all the bad people good and make all the good people nice.” I can also identify with the fellow who noticed that you can either go to a large church, where people don’t know each other, or you can go to a small church, where people do know each other and are sorry that they do! Sometimes you just want to run and get away from these folks with all their faults. Somebody needs to help the battered and bruised and say, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know …”
I am so glad if you’ve stayed by the stuff long enough to know that the words of Jesus give life. Have you come to believe and to know? Understanding Jesus does not happen overnight. You have to stay with Him. You have to trust Him. You have to struggle with what He teaches. And when you do, you will come to believe and to know.
I’m so glad that some of us are works in progress. We don’t have it all worked out, but we’re still here. I’m so glad that we are works in progress. We don’t have all of our feelings resolved, but we are still here. Works in progress. I’m so glad that even in me, with fifteen years of pastoring at Takoma, with six hundred sermons on the books, with feelings and thoughts, frustrations and victories, sorrows and joys, anger and elation, despair and hope, mired down in church and yet ready to get up and do it again – I’m so glad that I too am a work in progress. I too have come to believe and to know that He has the words of eternal life.
What a journey – what a challenging journey – we are going to ride this year, 2001! Will you go with me? Works in progress. Let the real Jesus stand up and receive us as works in progress.
