St. John United Church of Christ, Arlington Hts., Illinois

March 14, 2010

John 12:17-19, 37-50

Rev. Jeffrey L. Phillips, pastor

 Who is Jesus?  Who is Jesus to you?

You might answer that question with words that come from creeds or catechisms, or what you’ve heard from pastors and Sunday School teachers – Son of God, Savior, Lord, Messiah, one who died to take away our sins.   

But if you were to answer in your own words, what would you say?  Who is Jesus to you?  What difference does he make in your life?  What role does he play in your relationship to God?  What difference does he make in how you live your life?  If you were to think on a deeper, more personal level, how would you answer that question: who is Jesus to you?

Jesus seems to trouble a lot of tolerant, open-minded, well-intentioned people these days.  A friend of mine in another state told me just this week that he doesn’t like the new pastor of his UCC church because he talks too much about Jesus, and my friend just isn’t in to Jesus.  He likes God well enough, but not Jesus.  He preferred the interim pastor who didn’t talk about Jesus all the time.  I replied, “Well, we are the UCC, and that last ‘C’ does stand for ‘Christ.’”

Believe it or not, I have a lot of conversations like this.

What’s wrong with Jesus according to good liberal folks?  Let me count the ways. 

For one, Jesus separates Christians from non-Christians, they say.  To many, emphasis on Jesus implies that we Christians are saying that we’re the only “correct” people when it comes to religion, and that others are therefore wrong.  Such theological difference, they say, leads to division and even violence.  Therefore, they maintain, it would be better just to talk about God, and leave Jesus as an occasional sermon example, perhaps on Christmas.    

Second, a lot of reasonable, rational people (people like us, right?) have trouble with Jesus’ divinity.  Many are cool with Jesus as a human being like us – well, like us, but a little bit better.  He’s so approachable, they say, so nice, they say.  A lot of people are OK with Jesus as a prophet - a kind and gentle teacher, and even one who was executed by narrow-minded, mean people (people not like us, right?).  But, they ask, how could a human being be God?  It’s clear, they argue, that people elevated him to divine status after he died, and they did so for unseemly reasons (and I know it’s true, they say, because I read The DaVinci Code).  But we’re too smart to fall for that sort of thing, they say.  We know the truth: he was just a nice man who said nice words, did nice things, and who met a bad fate.  But that’s it!  He’s not God, so stop talking so much about Jesus!

Who is Jesus?  Who is Jesus to you?

The Gospel of John has one purpose, frequently stated by its author – that its readers believe in Jesus.  Belief in Jesus is a key theme in the Gospel.  John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  “Whoever believes in him,” and by “him” the text is talking about Jesus, not God.  In John, belief in Jesus leads to knowing God, and knowing God is life – eternal life, abundant life.  Believe in Jesus, John says, and you know God and all of God’s blessings.  Why?  Because Jesus was sent by God, Jesus and God have a unique relationship, and Jesus and God are one.  Jesus and God are one.    

Today’s reading is typical.  “Although he performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him,” it says.  After those words, the author of John goes on to struggle with how it could be that the very people God sought to save by sending Jesus did not perceive Jesus as God’s unique agent of salvation.  How is it that some people believe and others do not?  How can it be that some people fail to see the goodness, light, joy, and life that come from belief in Jesus?  It’s the same figure, Jesus, appealing to both groups, yet some seem to “get it,” while others do not.  What accounts for this, asks the author of John.

And today, how can some people know Jesus as the way to God, the clearest revelation of God, the light of life, the bread of life, the giver of life, while others only see Jesus as an ethical and logical problem?  How can it be, even today, that some experience God’s joy and love because of Jesus, their lives make sense because of Jesus, Jesus is their friend, their rock, their hope in times of darkness, while others hear of Jesus and are bored or offended?  How can it be?

Who is Jesus?  Who is Jesus to you? 

Remember, as you think about that question, don’t just draw on the words that circulate in your head because of your training and tradition.  Think for yourself!  This is too important to allow the words of others to speak for you!  If you were to put it in your own words, based on your own spiritual experience and your own life today – not what you were taught in Sunday School or confirmation – who is Jesus to you?

Lent is about growing spiritually, so I’m asking you to stretch a little this morning.  Which side are you on?  For you, is Jesus the one who separates you from those who cannot affirm his uniqueness?  Was he just a historical figure, a guy who walked around Galilee saying and doing nice things, but then got caught up in politics when he wandered into Jerusalem one Passover?  Are you on that side? 

Or is he the basis of your hope?  Is he the source of your joy and purpose in life?  Is he, for you, the light of the world?  Is he your friend, someone who not only lived long ago but lives today?  Is he your shepherd who knows you by name because you know him by name?  Is he your good shepherd who takes care of you in the darkest night? 

Who is Jesus?  Who is he to you?  I cannot answer for you.  You must answer it for yourself.  You have spiritual work to do that your pastor and others can assist you with, but cannot do for you.  You have to do this work. 

On Good Friday, will you skip coming to church because you can’t see what difference the death of a Jewish peasant two thousand years ago could possibly mean for you and for others today?  Will you skip Good Friday because all that talk about Jesus and his suffering and death are just too morbid and depressing, and who needs that? 

Or will come to a Good Friday service because you know that his death long ago has a lot to do with your life today – something to do with being free of sin and remembering again, as you ponder this man hanging on a cross, how much God loves you [gesture] – that he loves you this much?  And, by sitting in church on Good Friday, you realize that you have a lot to learn about how to love God and others as fiercely and completely and wonderfully as Jesus did?

Which is it?  Which is it?  Which attitude is yours?  You can’t have it both ways.

Will you come to church on Easter morning because, well, it’s Easter, and you’re supposed to come to church?  Will you come to church because every year you meet your family at church and then go to brunch afterward?  Will you come to church on Easter morning because it’s so nice to see the church so full and the music is so wonderful?  Will you come to church on Easter because, after all, it’s a celebration of life and spring and all things green and lovely, and that makes you feel all tingly inside?

Or will you come to church on Easter because God can raise the dead – and not just the dead in general, but because God raised Jesus from the dead in particular, everyone else will also be raised, and this gives life meaning, purpose, and hope?  Will you come to church on Easter to worship the God who raised Jesus as a sign that this man was not just a man, but God’s unique agent of salvation?  Will you come to church on Easter to worship this risen, glorified Christ whom neither death - nor the cynicism, doubts, and rationality of the world - can kill?

Which is it?  You cannot have it both ways.

Who is Jesus?  Who is Jesus to you?

By “believe,” John’s gospel doesn’t mean believing in your head, but in your heart.  By “believe,” John doesn’t mean that you believe he existed, or that you merely think certain thoughts about Jesus.  He means that you have some kind of ongoing spiritual connection with Jesus that brings you to an ongoing spiritual relationship with God.  John means that belief in Jesus leads to a life in which God’s light dispels your darkness and the darkness of the whole world, and in which you – and the entire world - are saved from all that separates humanity from God’s grace and living a life of spiritual abundance. 

If you say you “believe” in Jesus, is that how you define the word? 

Today’s passage says that some did not believe in him because of “fear.”  What are you afraid of?  John says that some of the Pharisees did not believe in Jesus because they feared being put out of the synagogue.  OK.  That was their hang-up.  What’s yours?  What’s keeping you from embracing Jesus Christ, not as a concept you’re supposed to believe in because you’re a Christian and that’s what Christians believe in, but as a living spiritual reality in your life who can bring you all of God’s spiritual blessings. 

What scares you about that?  Are you afraid of being happy?  Are you afraid of living with real joy and purpose?  That’s what belief in Jesus promises, according to John’s gospel.  In John 1, the author says that Jesus is the light of the world, but some people prefer living in the shadows to living in the light.  How about you?  Do you prefer living as you do – with more complaining and grumbling and hopelessness than thankfulness, joy, and hope?

It’s really up to you.  The choice is yours.  Shadows – light.  Darkness – hope.  What will it be?

Today’s passage not only says that some people refused to believe in Jesus because of fear; it also states that, despite their fear, some did believe in him.  In the closing words, Jesus himself reminds the readers of this text that they have nothing to fear by putting their trust and faith in him.  “I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them,” he says, “for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.”  Jesus is not interested in scaring people into belief in him.  He’s not interested in using threats of punishment or forcing people to do what they do not want to do.  That’s not the way he rolls, as the young folks might say today.

What he is interested in is you.  Jesus simply says, “It’s up to you.  Believe in me, or don’t believe in me.  If you do, it’ll be a life of supreme joy.  I’ll show you God.  I’ll share your burdens.  I’ll give you hope for tomorrow.  I’ll give you life with God forever.  I’ll be your rock when you lose your job or your loved one dies or when you are at the end of your own life.  If you don’t believe in me, it’ll be your loss.  But it’s up to you.”

Who is Jesus?  Who is he to you?

The Pharisees were trying to stop Jesus.  After seeing all the people who believed in him after he raised Lazarus from the dead, they remarked, “Look, the whole world has gone after him!”  Well, of course, it wasn’t the “whole world” that had gone after Jesus, although it must have seemed that way to the fearful Pharisees.  The truth is that some people do not go after Jesus.  But many, many do.  One billion or more of the world’s population today worships the man of Nazareth as Son of God, Lord, and savior - and they live on every continent.  So, in a way, the Pharisees were right: “The whole world has gone after him!”

The question is: are you one of them?  Who is Jesus?  Who is he to you?