WHO IS THIS JESUS? JOHN 10; 22~38
|. GOD INCARNATE @ September 8, 1963

"We stone you for no good work but for blasphemy: because you, being a
man, make yourself God,"

The strange man from Nazareth had Just told his crowd of listeners that to
ghem he was like a shepherd: he said (i am the door: if any one enters by me_
he will be saved." The leading Jews at the temple had had just about enough.

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This peasant carpenter had gathered quite a following | + mostly sinners and riff-—

raff: [he was the subject of many wild rumors and ser bec some said he perfor=med

miracles and healed the sick.| He had made many inflammable statemerits to his
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easily inflammable folowing; such as that one about him being the door, and
all wgo enéer by him being seved.| That was quite an asgertion to make.\ After
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all, all good Jews knew that there was only one way to,jeternal life AND THAT

WAS the law and fhe conmendnents. \This fellow was destroying religion. sone
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had heard his statements and seen him im action and were saying that he, this
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illéterate, second class Jew, was God's promised Messiah.\ This was too much and
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so the temple dmws fell upon him to stone him\ their rai ionale was that he had

committed the gravest of blasphemy: he was aman but he jseemed to be making
himseff out to be a cod. mis was a crime punishable by death in anyone's

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book,

The Sheange eopbater's san elluded them this time, however. \Perhaps the

crowd was too biased in his favor thet d day.\out the temple Jews knew what they
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had to do.\11 was only a matter of time. Jone day he'd gp too far and then he'd
get what he had coming to him..\ No one, especially in Jerusaiem, could go
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ar@und claiming the things he was claiming an aget away with it.
If wasn't long big that the temple and all of Jerusalem had its day.
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Jesus returned: right into their midst with his rable-rousing followers: his

inflammatory statements: his arrogant presumptiousness, his implications and the
tide turned against him. | (uho is this Jesus?" )Jerusalem answered loudlyg and
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clearly - a fraud, a revolutionary, a pretender to the throne— and worst of all
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a blasphemer.| And so a deal wa made wit the Roman authorities whereby society
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could be rid of this terrible nutsanee. [anc he was cruct ied. [ino is this Jesus/?" ?

On that day there could be no fence straddling. |He was either a fake and a terrible
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blasphemer; or eise he was the ofstpal s0n of cod. \the great majority chose
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the former: oniy a few die~hards claimed he was the Christ; the Messiah of |srael.

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The question that Presents itself in every chap}er, every page, every verse

of fhe New testament is one which must be answered anew by each generation _— by

each individual. ree

This morning & begin a series of sermons geared to ask that question
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again. \'n the neat four weeks | will be dealing with. the beleiefs the Christian

Church holds forth about Theis man: the answers we present to the question. And

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as clearly and btuntly as possible J will be laying béfore you the picture and

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story and ideas of a man about whom you must come to. soem deci séan \ It ig not

a decision that can be made by a congregatinoal vote; a committee cannoot

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investigate and report. It is a decision that must cdme trom yhe hear? of each

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individual; standing absolutiey alone.

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We are part of what we calf the church of Jesus Christ.\We have voluntarily

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taken his name upon ourselves. have said in effect, that we are ready te Jive

and die by our beliefs about this ngn.\ teoretico!ly, at feast, the whole
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sprawling institution of the church with tts mit ti@ng of members, exists solely

s emmmuennene ee —.,

because of ifs answer fo the question, "who is this Jesus?" |eut in our time this

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is only theoretical. {It is possible to become a member of the church, to work

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in the church, without ever coming to a decision.\in fact it is possible to

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do aif this and avoid even confronting the issue.\The blame for this must be

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with the church itsel f.\ we claim him as our Lord: we call the church his Body

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on earth: we céll him Lord several times during our servi-e of worship each

Sundey.\i1 is our responsibility, and ours alone, to ‘keep him at the cendrar

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of the church's experience: to keeep thrusting the quest ion Who is he?"

before ourselyes: and before the world.
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A warnimg is in order at this point. having asked the question there is no

Turning back.\As the gospel accounts clearly testify, there is no middle groundé

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The very nafure of thé man evokes a response in us - dnd it is either positive

or negative.— there can be no blase detaciment [Secondly thre question | ask

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cannot always be answered in woeds of ond syllable. \the traditional Christian

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beliefs about ajesus begin wilth the immazneitvmmnv doctrine of the incarnation.

We believe that Jesus was God incarnate — God in the fresh. that is why we call
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him enrist, [ow to say that a man wag4God in the flesh is a logical conta@adiction

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in terminology.\Black is not white: a man is not God. }/An d so as we search our

heart for an answer we must consfant ly be awaare that our minds will take us
only so fartthat ultimately we must be preparedg to proclaim with the apostle:
Belohd | tell you a mystery.”

Standing be fore a mystery and keeping quiet is nio t , eG pK GS one of mankind's

more prevalant capaci ties.fand so menn have come up witht their own answers

about Jesus Christ.| men have worshipped a Christ of the tr own creating. [It

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is fo this that | want to turn: it is interesting to note that what men believe

about Jesus, their Christélogy, directly determines their practice of the faith

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within the chureh. [and so hopefulty we wi fl find ourselves rethinking, not only

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our beliefs, but also the way we practcéce them ope fii! ly, a periodic

confrontation with the question (who is this Jesus?') wi |i be a refreshing and

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renewing experience for us as individuals; and as congtyation trying to serve

our Lord faithfully in our community.
beens

Yo ilfustrate the fact that men do force Jesus C birct info an image of

their own liking. I begin with the most radical move iw that direction that |

know of-\you know it has always been difficult for the more anté semetic among

the Germans to accept the fact that Jesus Christ was a’ Jew. bind so fhe theory

was forwarded at fhe furn of the century and happily atiop ted by the Nazi's, ft hat

Sue ; ecked
Jesus wasn't a Jew: he was what everyone had long + 4 good German. [His

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father was a nordic Roman leggionaiire stationed in Palestine: and his a¥fair

with a peasant girl produced a son catled Jesus. \rats, as you see, not anly

explains awayg Jesus's Hebrew ancestory— but also conveniently explains the
virgin biryh as well. de orcs Wim iwhe aaa fer.

Now not many men go this far: and yet YRuch religious art portrays Jesus as

anything but an oriental Jew.\The Italian romantics drew Jesus as an Italian.

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in all the work of fhe Gennaicance, very few artists were willing to honestly
attempt to portray h s true identity.
Many of you wondered why Salman's head of Christ was removed foom the

sanctuary. \the reasons were many: but chief among them was that Saiman has

creaged an Anglicixed Christ: a good scotch irishman iwtth wavy brown hair and

rosy cheeks. 4 But the Lord of the New testament: my Lord, was 4 Jew: a Jew

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in Palestine before the Jews were dispersed throughout the world:,a Jew when

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palastine was the doorway to both Africa and the newr East.qSo Salman's work

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hangs outside the sanctuary entrance - that you may Know tHat_this is a church

of Jesus Christ: but that you may not spend one hour .a week pondering a work

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that deesn't come close to portraying the son of a peasant Jewish carpenter.

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Our g¥gq¥ artistic creations of Jesus aré’ nearly as bad ghowever, as
others. \this is the age of anxiety, the age of the tranquilizer mwith; the age

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of the atom; the age when Ged, country and motherhood have sufferred befere the

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the realism of a hatsh new cynicism.\and so many men seek a sentimental Jesus: —

A Jesus who is a vestige of the past: a Jesus who symbolizes the security and

simplicity of a bygone era.\Much of what we teach our children deals with a Jesus

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who was the friend of little ones; who picked flowers. and allowed Mary and Martha

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to compete for his atrention.\hen we teach them no mpre.| any worship a Jesus

that Salman has created: Meek, mild, effeminant; a comforting friend to whom

we can retire when life becomes to real.

Many people answer@ the questiom/"who is this Jopus?" )by saying he was a

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good man.\This is the age of reason: it's only heal thy that we should deemphasi ze

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the mysterious and irrational elements of our faith. [anger all, doexS it really

matter if we don't talk too mich about this incarnation business Jesus was just

@ good man: a vers good amn, the best man that ever lived. lsut dont + expect me

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to besieve that he was anything mbae. more.

Very close to this is the belief in a moral Jesus.\ Foe these persons Jesus

was @yAra great teacher of ethics and morais, rannking high among other great

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teachers such as Cofucious and Aristotle, \oHandus Ghandi, in a famous quote

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once soids(“11 would not matter to me if it were prover that Jesus of Nazareth

never existed: that the Gospel! writers were victime of their own imaginations:
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the Sermon on the Mount would still be true for ne.) And millions of peaple
shaking their heads said’ See, isn't if wonderful - Ghahdi'ts a christian". )
aia Sete & ,
This motif runs deep in the modern Christian expejremes.\1 don't have time
foday to do much more than mention it; buf many persons see Christ as a good man;
tig author of a sound ethis, and then Christianity as a good clean Life. [our

puritain nativity, our strong individualism, our quest ionabie contribution of

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Biblical fundamentalism; have all contributed to making. the popular image of

Christ in thés country: a good man, and the Christian fatth; a good, law abing

life,

For others Jesus is, above al| else, a spiritual being. \a1 present this

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school of thought is not peessemt in any one area or grpup of persons: feu but
| would venture the guess than many persons see Jesus ag not quite a man: a sort

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of ethereal, spiritual entitiy.\This absolves one of fading the brutality of

his death, the reality of his Sufferr lp, and of course the moéracie of his
: as

tesurrection,
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Fianeliy there are some who kb know onty a phi fosophical or theological

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Christe who deal with Jesus only in abstractions.| He has been psychoana lyzed,

and called a schizophrenic: fit has been said that héé super ego completely

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overshadows his id.| He was the perfect example of non difetive leadership, and so on.

This, by the way, js easy and appealing: it allows us to. place @ personality ia

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categories we know and understand; and isolates from a real encounter with the man.

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Like all heresies, km none of these mistaken Christologies is entirely

wrong... But history teaches us that while absolute uatruth is rarely accepted

by man, he has, with mum@ consistency been taken=in by half truths. 11 has been

the half truths,the assertions that teuch reality and then fly off into untruth

that have captigated and enslaved man.\ No better example can be found than

Communism. \Kar Marx saw the horrid conditions of 19fh century England. [He eq

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saw women and children !aboring |I6 hours a day, living in fifth and squalor.\ He

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saw a handful of men b:ecoming wealthy at the expense of the masses. tars thought

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this was wrong - and no one has ever disputed him. \pet on this small parcel of

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truth he built a philosophy of materialism and revoltaton that $row has enslaved
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the minds of millions of men. Hore fhan any other movement Communism had

capitalized on a half truth: and man's naive wiltinghess to stop thinking before
all the truth is known.

In any case ali of these answers to the qvest joa) "tho is this Jesus" )are

partly correct: they are all true - up to a point Jesus was oppable of deep

sentiment and emotion; he wept; he allowed little children éc come to him, in

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his way he was sentimental.|But let us not forget that he was wncompromiswng
atso. [It was this sentimental Jesus who entered fhe great Temple at Jerusalem

and overturned the tables of the money changers. |11 was gentile Jesus, meek and

mitd,who looked the pillars of society in the eye and said to them["woe fo you:

you'te all [ike whi ¥e washed tombs,~ clean and white on the outside, and full

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of death and corruption on the inside.)

Jesus was a good man, no doubt the best man that mag | oever lived. \But

this is. not the reason his disciples died for him, \The Christian faith grew,

net from the memory of a good man whodwas martyred for his cause, but from

the startling assertion of Peter,( "Thou art the Christ ~ the Son of the livingGod."

Jesus was a great moral teacher. But his Sermon on the fount is not

particulariy unique among the world's ethical teachings. \Hundreds of years before

Christ, Confucious taught the Golden Rule.|His ethical teachings have been retaught

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and followed by many men who didn't even claim to be Christians.

Jesus was a spiritual being: but let us not forget that his humantiy was

the same as yours and mine-\as he faced his death hig humanity cried out —

(vie it iS possible, may this cup pass from me." )From the cross his commonness

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with us and with all men expressed itself In the oft repeated phrase City God,

my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

The Christian faith throws us at the feet of this them: a Christ who was

sentimental but haed as nails: a man who was God and God whe had become a man:

a great teacher of wthics - but one who summed up al{ his ethical teaching in

the command to lave. \The New Testament, {f we take it ay ajl seriously, throws

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us at the feet of a mystery; t.e mystery of the incarnation \ 1s message and

the message of the church today is the same:{ "God hag become man: in this Jesus

God had become flesh and lived among men: in this Jegus God has sufferred and

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died em very human death: in this Jesus Christ God had defeated death and the

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grave: and offerred to all men a share in the victory.)

‘Who Is this Jesus?”

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