He could have written a book. He
could have created a travelling evangelistic campaign, complete with
special music and healing sessions. He could have started a cult,
proclaiming the greatness of his viewpoint and why people should drop
their faith patterns and follow him. Instead, as our scripture
states, Jesus simply came preaching the gospel of God.
We must remember that Jesus was a
Jew. He was born into that tradition, acquainted with its
history and familiar with its scripture, which we call the Old
Testament. As he grew, Jesus was not comfortable with the
legalism of its leaders, nor with the requirements that had been
imposed upon believers by those leaders. In many instances, law
and style became more important than belief in God. Jesus, like the great spiritual
leaders of Jewish history, simply wanted people to repent and
believe. Mark correctly points out in verse 15 of the scripture
lesson, that his message was, “repent for the Kingdom of God is at
hand, repent and believe in the gospel.” His message was clearly
an Old Testament emphasis, present in many of Apocalyptic texts. It is thus very important to
understand that the ministry of Jesus was never an attempt to create a
new faith. Jesus was teaching the spiritual quality of his
faith. Christianity is a faith emphasis that came into being
after the death of Jesus. It was during the ministry of Paul in
Antioch, that they were first called Christians or
Christ-ians.
It can be truthfully said that much of
what Christianity is, is in reality a product of Paul and the teaching
of the early Church, called the Kerygma. The ministry of Jesus
was not the construction of a system of beliefs. Jesus came preaching the gospel;
that is, he proclaimed the necessity of a relationship with God in the
manner in which the people of that era knew and understood. He
was constantly in trouble with the authorities because he insisted that
the relationship to God was spiritual, and did not require the
ceremonial or legal requirements that the leaders were
proclaiming. It’s still true that religious leaders are much more
concerned about requirements, process, theology, reporting, financing
and buildings than they are about the simple spiritual life of
followers.
It was in Chapter 8 of Mark, when
Jesus and the disciples were in Caeserea Phillipi, now called Banias,
that Jesus asked “who do men say that I am?” The disciples
answered “some say you are John the Baptist, some say Elijah or one of
the prophets”. Jesus asked, “who do YOU say that I am”?
Peter blurted out immediately “You are the Christ.” Christ is
Greek for Messiah, so Peter was saying "you are the messiah"
I recently read, and this illustrates
the mind set of many scholars, that when Jesus asked, who do people say
that I am?" if Peter had gone
to seminary, he might have answered like this, “You are the incarnation
of eschatological hope; the theological consummation of the suffering
servant motif.” And Jesus replied "What!” You see Jesus was not concerned about
whether or not the clergy join a union. In my mind, people who
are faithful and doing their job don’t need outside intruders to help
them remain in their positions. (Sorry folks, but I wanted to
insert that editorial, because I am tried and embarrassed by church
leaders putting their agenda ahead of God’s and placing the Church in
an unfavorable light.)
Jesus believed and proclaimed the gospel, which for the Jews then and
now, is the Shema. It
is found in Deut. 6 verse 4. It is repeated every time the
faithful gather to worship within Judaism. It is, “Hear O Israel,
the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” That was the message of Jesus, and
the only thing that was added to that message is recorded in Matthew 22:
37-39. To the Shema,
Jesus added, “you shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
There you have it. That is the
religion of Jesus. It is unconscionable what we have done to that
simple and powerful faith. In many cases, Jesus would not even
recognize what we call Christianity. We have distorted the
simplicity of the gospel with a host of theological points of view that
some make mandatory.
Church groups have created barriers that separate believer from
believer, and in some instance, even here in Squamish, forbid Christian
believers from sharing at the Lord’s table. Worship styles have
been imposed stretching from the most liturgical where all of the
senses, sound, touch smell, sight and taste are involved, to the highly
charged ecstatic groups whose interpretation of being "born of the
spirit" requires glossilalia, or speaking in tongues.
I have just finished reading the
autobiography of Robert Schuller, well known by some of you because of
his popular TV religious show called, "The Hour of Power." I usually
find that I don’t have much in agreement with Schuller, except that I
think he is an honest, sincere believer, which is more than you can say
about many TV evangelists.
I was struck, however, by his words after he was instrumental in
getting religious activities accepted once again by the Russian
governing authorities after the fall of Communism under Premier
Gorbachev. Through all of the restrictive regimes in Russia, the
American industrialist and oil tycoon Armand Hammer had remained
accepted and friends with the Russian governing authorities. When the government loosened up,
Hammer took his friend Robert Schuller over to Russia in his private
airplane. There he introduced Rev. Schuller to Gorbachev and other
political leaders, as well as to the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox
Church. Any freedom for other faith persuasions to come to Russia
had to be granted by the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church. When Schuller was granted permission
to telecast into Russia, other groups had the ban lifted for them
also. At this point Robert Schuler said he was so discouraged,
because many of the truly radical groups went into Russia, and promptly
told others how wrong they were, and why they had to believe as their
group stated. Schuller
decided he would not call himself a Christian. because of the dogmatic
approach and unconventional worship styles that were proving to be a
stumbling block in Russia- and I would add here too. When asked what he
was, Schuller would reply "I am a follower of Jesus." I like
that, because that is exactly what Jesus requested.
Think of what a powerful personality
Jesus must have been. Walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee (we
would call it a lake), he saw Simon and Andrew casting their nets and
he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you a fisher of
humans.” And they left their nets, and followed him. Try that
down at the booming grounds, and see what reaction you get! A bit later, he saw John and his
brother James, who were mending nets with their father Zebedee.
Jesus said "follow me." And they left their father in the boat
with the hired help, and they followed him- can you imagine it? Notice very carefully, all that
Jesus said was follow me! Put down to its basics, that is what it
means to be a Christian: following Jesus. All that stuff that
some groups require ad nauseum
is not essential. If it enriches one’s life, great, but it is not
essential. We are Christians not because we belong to this Church
or that, or don’t belong; not because we believe the Nicene Creed, or
the Apostles creed, or even the New Creed. We are Christians because we
are simply trying to follow Jesus. Being a Christian is not
reduplicating the lifestyle of Jesus. You are not going to be any more
religious by donning a robe and wearing some sandals and stopping
shaving, if in fact that is what Jesus was like; we really don’t know. To follow Jesus means to accept the
principles that characterized his life and bring them into the 21st
century. We are to live our history, but (and it’s a huge but) we are
to try and live the faith that drove him, and the compassion that
marked him in our day. We are to believe in him, but also we are to
believe like him.
Jesus did not stand apart from life.
He did not cloister himself away in some cave where he would not have
to face the realties of life. Jesus lived right in the middle of the
culture that was his.
Jesus didn’t bring a magical formula to life that enabled him to escape
its grim realities. He faced the mysteries of life head on.
He rebuked the religious
leaders of his day, because they were restrictive and created barriers
to the worship of God. They were more interested in the protection of
their roles, and those of their institution, than they were in the
faith. He had compassion on the forgotten of
society; He cared for the halt, the lame and the blind. He was
magnificently forgiving. When the woman caught in adultery was about to
be stoned to death, as the established faith proclaimed, Jesus simply
said, “let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.” Then he
said to the woman "where are your accusers?" "They are none," she
said. "They have gone," Jesus said. "Neither do I accuse
you, go and sin no more." Powerful! He never compromised his
principles. He ate with sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors and
the like, because they were the objects of his love and forgiveness.
They were the ones he wanted to turn from their ways and follow him.
When he became a thorn in the flesh to
the authorities, and they determined that he had to silenced, Jesus
never wavered. He heard the advice of his disciples, but he never
backed down even when a trumped up charge saw him killed by hanging to
death on a cross. His
message is so simple- "follow me." But at the same time, it is so
difficult. If you wish to be a follower of Jesus, your life will
be questioned to the marrow of your bones. If I am following Jesus, why do I
have so many friends who are just like me, and so few among the poor? If I am following Jesus, why are my
closets bulging with clothes, while so many have so few? If I am following Jesus, why do I continue
to want and buy things that really aren’t essential? If I am following Jesus, why am I so
willing to pay my country club dues, or my service club fees, and so
reluctant to give a larger portion of my goods to the work of God? If I am following Jesus, why I am so
unwilling to serve on Church boards, or visit people in my community? If I am following Jesus, why is it
so hard for me to find time to read the Bible and pray, when I can find
time for many other things?
If I am following Jesus, why am I more interested in the business page
than in looking for ways where I can be of help? If I am following Jesus, why is it
so easy to allow so many things to crowd out my worship of him? If I am following Jesus, how come I
have so much left for my self when I am done giving? If I am following Jesus, how come so
few of my friends know that he is my Lord?
Follow me. That’s all he asks. When we
decide to follow him, our lives are audited to the core of our being.
Either we do follow him, or we do away with him.
When he walked the earth and
people had to decide …………… Jesus was crucified!