JESUS CHRIST FOR MODERN MAN John M, Buchanan

Mark THE MAN Broad Street Presbyterian Church
ark - selected Columbus, Ohio

March 2, 1975

Several years ago my wife and f attended a Good i
er,
Passion ans

Tenebrae Service, fn ancient Iiturgy to observe the crucifixion

of Jesus Christ. \ 2 wes held ina large down-town church: | the

music was excellent;\the components of the service had been chosen

_

with greatest gare \ We felt that the Church nad appropriately and

beautifully observed the central event of ps existence. \ there were
oR :
no more than fifty people present, scattered throughout the huge
CCE ss maetemianiiien
Sanctuar \ Nevertheless, it was a ood experi d
¥ 3 g P ence and we were glad

we had taken the Cime to attend.
——

Then, on the way home, we drove past a shopping cénter whare a

carnival was in full process \ the traffic was honrentous | policemen
en nese | |

were frantically trying to make room for all the cars that iggisted
ee on.

On Squeezing into the already over-crowded tot The lights of the
—- TE oe

ferris wheel and other amusements shone garishly against the @ood
Friday night sky:| an Oover-amplified rock tune pushed the strains
‘Sorenaacias Sererteeercieeriatel oma

of 3, §. Bach from mm ind: | and the hundreds cf peo le lined u
yy TR | Beop P

to throw balls at bottles or rings over pegs, to buy snow cones
ee em he

Si,
and cotton candy compared inevitably with that pitiful number who
Co be ci petri |
am eur beaters

had remembered a crucifixion. / my emotions ~ already on edge from
ny Peace: ee
the beauty of Tenebrae - turned to anger. \ And I could not help
(aaieniiamaea ial, ond Lemme rns od
but recall that oft-guoted line from Lamentations, \"ts it nothing
ee

to you, all you who pass by]

For some reason that experience has stayed with me as a kind rasid
bal

parable, a sequential picture story that defines the agony of a
omen raursrctaahmsanetnerensariss aces teeamemienmen corm

Christian in our culture. There is no more important day for us
Lr ne oon

than Good priday:| we take it seriously: [we know that Easter is
a

Lemeshinenen nan
ba el

coming but Good Friday is a strange, introspective, sometimes sad
cheat ee, ee EE

day for sensitive people. | But no one seems to care \ Life goes on.

— pe COE eet Sate eae

The market place bustles and people choose the occasion to take a
‘oc, =_ear il

tide on a ferris wheel.
[Seo

The whole experience came to mind again this week, but in a
aT Cd

different vay \ TI was reading through a Little book written by
Cl

J. B. Phillips, the great British Churchmap and scholar. Listen

cE,
— to what he wrote,

“Sy

"the significance and meaning of the crucifixion of
Christ is completely Lost upon the non-Christian of

today...It is not because of mere heartlessness or

=r,

sinfulness that the cross, which is so important to
—

—_——

Christians, means nothing to them that pass by.| Tt
1 i that: tc slightest
is far simpler than that: |they have not the slightes

idea of what the Christian faith really says about God
ie.

and Man." (p 171 Good News }

Phillips goes on to suggest that it is true, also, for

churchnen.| raitLiartty may not always bread contempt, but it
—, | Le aie

does generate a certain apathy. Perhaps we have heard the

banal St nel

es

story so often that it has lost its cutting impact \ Perhaps

we sophisticated twentieth century church people have keen so

caught up in thinking about the implications and relevance of

things Christian that we have forgotten about the "“things'' themselves.
Sel Sens

That is at least one way to understand what has been happening

religiously in cur culture for almost a decade agw| We have tried
el a

desperately and valiantly to be relevant:] we have spoken our wis-
— . Te a ae
dom to every societal problem, every sociological crisis that has
Cowes. Aowa Va we ¥d

ieapearennenie: Jame a problem and the odds are that the institutional
epic —— (RR

Church has a Task Force somewhere studying it.| Please understand:
ee

tT am in no way opposed to the institutional Church's involvement

in the werld - our mission is in the world and we are called to be
ae ed

in the world, in the name of Jesus Christ, with as much sophistication
Fe al Se il

and power and influence as we can nuster. \ put a very curious phe-
— —e —_

nomenon has been happenige.\ Growing numbers of people, particu-

larly the young, have watched_us for a decade and have said

|

tee 0

eloquently, \"Your relevance is ixreLevant,"| and they have flocked
Sd

is

back to the Bible, back to the simple story of a man who lived and
Seen aaah

died and rose again. | trey have gathered under various banners -
——t 000 Per er cnet

few of them cotmmected with the Church.

And if that evidence is not enough, take it from the sociologists:
—_—_ Ene

the ones who, a decaddego, solemly pronounced that we are now, finally
ee oa Ped sO

a secular society;|and the theologians who could not wait to be
eT

be ania el
relevant by agreeing and pronouncing ear (“nan has come of ae." )
— epee Pieri weetasaal

Behold, we have looked again and discovered that secular man was,
—!_ ce

in fact, superficial man and that he is not really very secular
eC ER

after all.

—

A proreaage gt Vale Divinity School read the pulse of the
ee
A sey OC

times eat years ago and said, \ "Just when we had almost convinced

ourselves and one another of the ubiquity and permanence of sec-

ularisn, suddenly we have the Jesus Movement, Jesus People, Jesus

Freaks, Jesus highs, even a Jesus revolution, \ If we turn on the
oe ge

~34 eee

radio we find Jesus in the hands of the disc jockeys and high on the

charts, and literally within minutes someone will be informing us plain-
al

tively,(*r don't know how to love uin' J or counseling, Gout your hand

in the hand of the man from Galilee.') Tf we watch a football game on

television we hear an opening prayer ("1 the name of Jesus, the MVP

of all time’. | (Thesis Theological Cassettes Vol.2, No. ll
&

And of course there is the strange phenomenon of Jesus, after 2,900
ears, finally making it on Broadway. | "Superstar"! rossed 20 million
¥ ¥ & y \ p g
in the first year, and along with "Godspell"celebrated and told the

story of Jesus mor ide i t missionary! ild
¥ J e widely than the most. fervent missionary's wildest

dream,
Religion, in vaxious packages - most of them offensive to our
. have: .
sense of propriety, has never been auwipar.| I discovered a revealing
Lanai [ee
editorial in the current Christian Ceptury, on Theological Seminaries.
Bet
The writer observed ,\ "much theological education in the 60's assumed
Le ell _—_
as fact the ‘worldliness' of the period - assumed that people were

"beyond belief! \ sre irony is the recognition that the world is more

Sl
\ ‘religious! than the seminaries understood,,. The problem is not one of

‘doing theology for a religionless time, but of doing theology ina

£ [rime of growing feligiousness.""| (Cristian Century 2/5/75, p 102)

Smee

story, the story of a man who lived and died and rose again, a story
i a _——e Sl —

which we have found makes all the difference in the world and which
eee

w.we would like to share with others. \ rus in Lent - a series of sermons:

bal

Gesus Christ for Modern Man." (we begin this morning with "The Man,"
re en cmRER

a aw ‘ He was born in Bethleh (a rew through boyhood, adolescense
sh! ¥ ove aves n in Be em e gre ug ¥
a Es wee. ve to, manhood in Nazareth.| He was a carpenter.,\ At the age of thirty
ad ty woe 9
ayo’ * hae

he began to travel around Gali}ge with some friends, teaching, healing

and consistantly running into trouble with the religious authorities.
be | Fe aanamanl il

After no more than three years of this he took his small entourage of
Sa]

followers south to Jerusalem for the Passover.\ In five short days he
Senne el Leer ane anmail Lemania)
was routinel ecuted near a garbage dump outside the city along with
two other criminals \ Thirty eight hours later his friends began to
br aie ol Lal

claim that he was no longer dead. Several weeks later they seemed
a ed

sure of it and the world has never been the same since.
oe

Who was nee Twenty centeries of Church histery, that is- two

thousand years of asking the question ~ has resulted in the doctrine

of the Incarnation, the keystone to Christian faith.\ He was fully
el Le be |

God and fully nan.\ He was God incarnate, God in the Flesh, God in

—> Peter Ba |

history, God walking among us. \He was, also, at the same time, fully
neces oe a rr aw meter

and totally a man, \ The incarnation ~- that is what we believe about
ae ital one pee

him that is how we understand bin.\ It is, philosophically, a paradox -
Saaremaa jee metre

logically incompatible,\ One cannot be God and nan; \God acting like a
De tal el

man, perhaps \a man, acting Like God, perhaps :\ but not both, at the same

——

tine. \ Nevertheless; that is precisely the truth about him, the church

maintains. “ht is not to be understood: \it will never be understood
eae

in ordinary categories of logic: \ic is to be affirmed and celebrated,
an, _——ee ee

and the tension maintained. \ie was God. | was a man. 4|And the truth
SE nal nh ateatninl OTE —

about him is incomplete when the tension is broken - which is exactly
De inp ana arnae ie

what happened no more than a century after his life, and which continues
sonnel aCe emen EE s aneemenaenaeel

to happen,

Within one hundred years of the crucifixion the early Christians
—eee ere ECT

were on the way toward denying his hunaniity \ He only "seemed to be

a man" they said. \ He was God pretending te be a nan. \ Huma nature
5 aa —

&

puniner ~ we share T Hit, He reluelauce of
wor oot russ” | Nv Oa as cou bbiaus ~ Ae deal Vervasadehion nam

: tte :
was simply a disguise God put on ~ and took off, of course, before Jesus
‘Srnec —cr mee

died on the cross. \ that earliest heresy has recurred through the centuries,
i een ee edited cenzias.

It appears whenever we back away from the sometimes alarming implications

of his humanity, when we can't imagine that he was in every way one of us. &
Seer La

At the opposite end of the spectrum there has always been a certain
——Eeee

intellectual appeal in the position that he was a very good man, perhaps
ee

the best man who ever lived, an excellent teacher and a brave martyr ~-
Cena ‘evubmmceeieyemmmncorr AAACN NINN

but not God,
re al

My estimation is that we do not go to either of those extremes
a ena

but in the best tradition of thesis - antithesis - eynthegis take the
Cael a feecree Seen eianneresmad

two statements - he was God - he was man - combine them and come out
ee bn al be SY

with something in betweens|e person neither fully human nor guite divine.

ote That appears to me to be the innuendo expressed in what is known as

Cn cell
Sunday School art. \‘rne Jesus in the picture frame looks slightly
EEE, nn ena

effeminate, unreal, not God, but certainly not man cither.| Robert
exec a

Clyde Johnson in his little book, The Meaning of Christ, calls him

'yalvety", more at home with little lambs than a hammer and saw,
7 berate or epEEKincE

Suis burn, the poet, referred to him as the "Pale Galilean",

ie eine

He was a man, totally and fully, with all that impties | Ancient

manuscripts show that before the end of the first century many stories

were told and written about the supernatural childhood of sesus;\ how
=

he restored a favorite pet to Life for instance \\ None of them made
—_——— Sees an aaemmamamiiiad

it into the Bible, however, For the Biblical writers understood that
el

the heart of the Gospel was the astounding assertion that Jesus, wha
Ee a

was God dwelling in the flesh was totaily and fully a man,
eee

Sometimes we find that uncomfortable to contemplate. | Tt means that
ed

“=

he was a child, that he had to learn to walk; that he was scolded by
ey

Worth hed
his parents \ It means that he talked the language of his ponente ”-
ial

a rough aranaie. \ re means that he saw the world through the eyes of
eapammiiiaminminial Diam

a first century van. \ ie thought the earth was flat, and had no reason
Neer a aca eal meee

to doubt that the firmament above him was in fact an inverted cup;
a

holding back the waters. | Jesus was as limited by his humanity as
eal Cnr carne | oa

we are by our own.
maa

ft means that he experienced the same things emotionally and
er pice a

physically as we ao. \ He felt joy and happiness :\ he liked people

and enjoyed a party\ he felt the same tension between his conscience
nl * heeememnnaienmnenl Eo

and his desire to impress his friends that we ao.\ He became angry

and discouraged. \ He got tired and hungry and chirsty.\ When he
baie ed i ae

suffered, he suffered as we would under the circumstances.
‘rem ‘tay,

When he died, he did so trusting God, but he died a very buman

reper &
deati.| His anguish has been peewee in the words from the cross
Le]

ve

which the early church remembered. (15 thirst") (my God, My God,
te aad eel
why have you forsaken me", \'It is finished". \ those are very human
re, Sd

words from the lips of a dying man,

God has dwelt among us in a life that was fully human; \ chat is
the miracle - the ancient truth that somehow is dulled \ Jesus was
ny bd a

our brother.

Chad Walsh put it this way: bromcise was God fully entering into

ba

the human condition and paying the price of that condition God was

—

not Like some wealthy visitor from the right side of the tracks who
a ee

schedules a brief tour through the slums to distribute Thanksgiving
hemi

a

baskets. \ re made his home in the slums and endured everything,"

-7~ (He Speaks from the Cross p 82)

The implications of Jesus’ manhood are nany.\ I should like briefly

to focus on two, \ First, because Jesus was fully human, human life is
‘eae

——

supremely dignified and enobled. | Human life is part of God's good
mel emer

creation, | And even though the Greeks insisted that things physical
Sad Lisa mn ro

were tainted and the noblest goal was to rise above the flesh, the body,
epee ame

[ee

—_
the Christian faith roundly disagrees, \ resus lived life fulty.\ And

because he did, human life, our Lives, are made holy.) Our bodies are

part of the goodness of God's creation: Your needs and drives and

aper shes “> deaiwes, not embarrasing remnants of our lower nature, but part of
a vale =e

God's intent which Jesus himself experienced.
re

io
oe Second, the life of Jesus is what God means by human life, | sesus
=e — bel

not only reveals the nature of God, he aiso reveals the glory and
al

potential of man.\ He is what God created us to be. In his obedience
ill eee TE aici CE

and courage and faithfulness and integrity he shows us what God
wee Ee

intended when he gave us the gift of life.
nal

We need, you and T, a Lord who is rea1-\ And my concern this
_ueci iad

morning is really rather simple: \ it is that in our attempt to be
arte Secs

relevant ,| in our effort to understand ,\ and in our familiarity with
al

the story, we may miss the basic and fundamental truth of the Gospel -
— ad

namely, that Jesus Christ was a man, like us in every way.
eee aii

I confess that IT need that kind of Lord, and I would presume
ee ce al =e

to suggest that you do too, \we are intellectually curious about

Da al

the theology of incarnation, about the nature of christ s\but our
or

ae
deepest need cries out for reality we can feel as well as understand.

ecm ee ETI Cereceriaitinmenes
God has answered ~ in a naa: \ not @ withdrawn mystic, but a strong
_— Le el

man with callouses on his hands and muscles in his arms from hard

EE
work:|God has anawered our deepest need, not in anpther-worldly

—nl a -S-

jake» ant Fuk at

visionary, but in a man who loved thé world of flowers and mountains,
ae CEE I EET

and people’ a man who passionately loved his own life. | God has answered

our need in a way every person can comprehend, in a man who had hopes
Late aie Ca ietintill
and dreams and the courage to die with a beauty and dignity that de-
a Ra rg eg Ce el

feated the ugliness and cruelty and inhumanity.
ee ae

God was in Christ - and that man = Jesus - was our brother.

hat Rejoice in that.

Grasp gnat.\ contenplate that.\ Live with

Amen.

Father, we are grateful that in Jesus you have not only dwelt
among us, but given us a brother, a friend, a picture of your intent
for us. In this Lenten season, help us to see in him what you want

us ta be, Amen,