Over the past summer, we have spent “moments with the master” each Sunday morning. Intuitively, we recognize that as Christians we want to know about Jesus. I want to take that intuition deeper and ask why it is important for us to learn from Jesus today.
Many people in Canada would acknowledge that Jesus was a great teacher, but they would suggest that studying his life and teachings is more appropriate for the classroom than for anyone to use to orient their own lives. Why do we believe that Jesus makes a difference for us today, and not just for the people who were alive two thousand years ago?
The “Trilemma”
The people of Jesus’ day asked the same question, if we believe the Gospel records. “Who is this man,” they asked, “that the wind and the waves obey him?” Jesus was aware of the speculation that swirled around him. He asked the disciples, “Who do people say I am?” They reported the general speculation that they had heard on the street: “Some say you are Elijah. Some say you are ‘the prophet’.” Jesus asked them directly, “Who do you say I am?” Peter responded, “You are the Messiah, the Son of God.”
Jesus’ own words and actions were designed to force the question. In John’s Gospel, John records a series of teachings that made clear who Jesus saw himself to be. We did a series here at SMC some years ago on the “I am” passages in John, culminating in the provocative statement, “Before Abraham was, I am!” “I am that I am” – or more briefly “I am” – is the most common translation of Yahweh, the Hebrew name for God. No wonder that the religious leaders were clear that Jesus had committed blasphemy. If he was not telling the truth, he deserved to be punished with death!
Jesus’ claims about himself – that he was the Messiah, the Chosen One of God, One with the Father, the Son of God – these claims presented the Jewish people with a problem. They were strict monotheists, and they saw immediately that Jesus was claiming to be one with God. C.S. Lewis has described the problem they faced as a “trilemma”, that is, as a problem with only one of three possible solutions. Either he was lying – and therefore an evil man, or he was like someone who thinks he is a poached egg – and therefore clinically insane, or he was telling the truth. His contemporaries gave all three responses.
We also face the same question. Jesus claimed to be one with God. If he was right, then the very basis of all reality is found in him. We should pay attention to him! If we say he was wrong, we have to show that he was out of his mind or lying. How do we answer this trilemma? One way is by reading the Bible and taking the text seriously, but many people have not read the Gospels or researched the Scriptures – either to learn about Jesus or to determine if they are credible sources for us today. They would probably say that Jesus was a great moral teacher – like Mohammed or Confucius or the Buddha or any other great religious teacher from the past. They would add that he was certainly not God.
It is important that we notice how Jesus’ contemporaries actually responded to him. Mark 3 records the response of Jesus’ contemporaries when he burst on the scene:
Then he went home; 20 and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21 When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” 22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.”
You see that the religious leaders said he was demonically-inspired, and other people said he was mentally unbalanced. What his family thought we don’t know, but they tried to get him out of the spotlight, perhaps to give him time to be healed of whatever was wrong with him.
As we read the Gospels, however, it becomes clear that he was not possessed by the devil. As he hung on the cross, the thief dying alongside him said, “And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” The common view today – that he was a great teacher – speaks against the possibility that he was an evil man. Whatever else he was, we know that Jesus was good.
It is also clear that Jesus was not insane or mentally unbalanced. The Sermon on the Mount, with its repeated “You have heard that it was said of old, but I say to you”, shows how well he carried authority and sanity within himself. At the end of Matthew 7, we see this response to his teaching: “28 Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, 29 for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” He was good, and he was sane.
That leaves only the third option: Jesus was telling the truth about himself. C.S. Lewis summarizes the argument in this way:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. 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 the 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 patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. … Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. (In Mere Christianity)
Lewis’ argument has been described as saying that Jesus was a “liar, lunatic, or Lord”. It is not proof that Jesus is divine, but it makes clear the logical force of the claim that Jesus is truly the Son of God. If this argument is correct, then all of reality derives its shape from Jesus
If reality derives its shape from Jesus, we should take what he said and did really seriously. We should spend as much time with Jesus as possible – “moments with the Master”.
People of the first centuries could read the Scriptures and find them relevant. What about us today? Does this still hold true today for us, two thousand years later? If most people do not read the Scriptures and do not know anything about Jesus, on what grounds will they decide that this “trilemma” has any meaning in their lives?
The Trilemma in our Lives
The trilemma has power if people read the Bible and accept its authority. People around us may not read the Bible, but they do read our lives. You and I are the only Scripture that many people will ever read. If they see Jesus in us, and if the Jesus they see is attractive, they may stop and pay attention to who Jesus really is.
Unfortunately, some Christians show a picture of Jesus in their lives that is profoundly unattractive. If you ask some people what they think of God – based on what they see in Christians around them – they might say that God must be ready to judge everyone who doesn’t agree with him and send them straight to hell. We have said often in this church that God is love and that the heart of our faith is to love God and love others. Lee’s sermon last week reminded us again that we live out a costly and difficult love, made possible only by God’s Spirit living within us. Many people around us would laugh at what we say, because they don’t see it in Christians’ lives. I say again, you and I are the only Bible many people will ever read.
For many, the claims of Jesus, then, rest on the way we show Jesus in our lives. What could be more important, then, for us to spend “moments with the Master”, that is, time with Jesus? If people see Jesus in us, then we can lay his claims before them. If what they see in us is not good, people will not turn to God because we are not showing the reality of God.
Psalm 110; Hebrews 1
This brings us finally to the Scriptures we read this morning. Jesus and the first Christians used the first verse of Psalm 110 to point to Jesus as the Messiah. “The Lord says to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.’” Jesus himself quoted this verse (recorded in Matthew 22) to suggest that “the Son of David” was he himself. Peter used in (recorded in Acts 2) to argue that Jesus fulfills the messianic prophecies. The writer to the Hebrews used it in the chapter we read as part of his argument that Jesus reveals God fully. Psalm 110:4 also appears in Hebrews 1 and is picked up later in the letter to the Hebrews as evidence that Jesus is the Messiah.
The key point is that Jesus reveals God fully. Here how Hebrews 1 says it:
1 Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. 3 He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.
Jesus is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s being. When you see Jesus, you see God. That’s why it is so important for us to spend time with Jesus. That’s why it is so important for us to spend “moments with the Master”.
Moments with the Master
We had 11 different moments with Jesus this past summer.
A Thrilling Moment: Jesus Cooks Breakfast for the Disciples. Jesus brings life into the worst moments of our lives. We also are people who bring life to each other.
A Trusting Moment: Jesus and the Leper. Jesus rewards those who trust him with healing and self-worth. We also are people who inspire trust in those who know us.
A Teaching Moment: Jesus Washes the Disciples Feet. Jesus taught his disciples to serve each other. We also are people who model service in every area of life.
A Touching Moment: Jesus and the Bleeding Woman. Jesus was open to a woman seen as unworthy. We also are people who recognize people on the margins as “images of God”.
A Terrifying Moment: Jesus and the Woman Caught in Adultery. Jesus replaced the fear of judgment with the transformation of forgiveness. We also are people who extend forgiveness and life to those our world condemns.
A Tempting Moment: Jesus and the Rich Man. Jesus presents us with a choice – follow God or follow wealth. We also are people who choose Jesus before anything else in life.
A Tender Moment: Jesus and Thomas. Jesus accepted Thomas’ doubts as evidence of his authenticity. We also grow through questions rather than trying to shut them down.
A Terrific Moment: Jesus and Zacchaeus. Jesus saw beneath the surface and extended grace to a sinner. We also are people to whom and through whom God’s grace flows.
A Tearful Moment: Jesus and the Sleeping Child. Jesus responded to the end of life by bringing new life. We also are people who embrace the new life that endings bring.
A Telling Moment: Jesus and Peter Walking on Water. Jesus gave Peter a clear vision of strength in the storms of his life, transforming impetuous Peter into a steady rock. We also are people who discern the presence of God in the storms that we face.
A Tenacious Moment: Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman. Jesus healed the woman’s daughter when she clung to her faith although he had rebuked her. We also are people who break the categories of our society to embrace and follow our Master, Jesus.
These moments reveal God’s nature to us, and we in turn show who God in Christ is to the world. Remember: You are the only Bible most people will ever read. It’s vital that you and I know Jesus intimately so that we can be God’s people in this world fully. There’s an old song that says it in the chorus: “Be like Jesus, this my song, In the home and in the throng; Be like Jesus, all day long! I would be like Jesus.”
Steinbach Mennonite Church
6 September 2020
Texts: Psalms 110; Hebrews 1
Psalm 110
Assurance of Victory for God’s Priest-King. Of David. A Psalm.
1 The Lord says to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” 2 The Lord sends out from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes. 3 Your people will offer themselves willingly on the day you lead your forces on the holy mountains. From the womb of the morning, like dew, your youth will come to you.
4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” 5 The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter heads over the wide earth. 7 He will drink from the stream by the path; therefore he will lift up his head.
Hebrews 1God Has Spoken by His Son
1 Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. 3 He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
The Son Is Superior to Angels
5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you”? Or again,
“I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”? 6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
7 Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire.” 8 But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
10 And, “In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands; 11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like clothing; 12 like a cloak you will roll them up, and like clothing they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will never end.”
13 But to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? 14 Are not all angels spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
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