August 23, 2020
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois
Romans 12:4-8; Matthew 16:13-20[1]
He’s been called by many names: Prince of Peace, the
Nazarene, Teacher, Mighty Counselor, Rabbi, Prophet. The disciples reported
that he was called John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or another ancient
prophet. We know him as Messiah, Christ, Son of God, Savior. But there were
some who thought of him in a different way.
He was an outlaw, a trouble maker, a rabble-rouser who hung
out with sinners, tax collectors, even (sniff) fishermen. Those in power were
threatened by him. John’s Gospel tells us, “Now the chief priests and the
Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them
know, so that they might arrest him.”[2]
They came for him, finally, at the end of what we call Holy Week, and when they
caught him, Jesus said, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me
as though I were a bandit?”[3]
I mean really, what had he done that was so bad? Well,
breaking the laws about doing work on the sabbath could get you in trouble, I
suppose. Matthew tells a story: “Jesus went through the grain fields on the
sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and
to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are
doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.’”[4]
Maybe it was because he kept forgiving people’s sins. The
scribes said, “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can
forgive sins but God alone?”[5]
Maybe it was because of that whole “God is my Father” business. According to
John, they wanted to kill him, “because he was not only breaking the sabbath,
but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.”[6]
There were some who clearly labeled him because of the
company he kept. A tax collector, some fishermen, a bunch of women with
questionable history – they were quite a motley crew. And Jesus even called
them out on it. He said, “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you
say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”[7]
He must be bad news, I mean, just look at his friends!
I think it probably had something to do with stirring up the
crowds, and that show he put on of cleansing the Temple of the buyers and
sellers. Whatever the reason, some people had it out for him, and they labeled
him “Outlaw.”
There is a song I heard many years ago called “The Outlaw”[8]
by Larry Norman. I won’t sing it for you right now, but it begins like this:
Some say he was an outlaw; that he roamed across the land
With a band of unschooled ruffians and a few old fishermen.
No one knew just where he came from or exactly what he’d done,
But they said it must be something bad, it kept him on the run.
Some say he was a teacher. Matthew tells us, “When Jesus saw
the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came
to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them.”[9]
This is the introduction of what is known as the “Sermon on the Mount” which
encompasses three chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. The people listened for hours,
and even for days. Later in Matthew we hear Jesus say, “I have compassion for
the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing
to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the
way.”[10]
This begins the story of the “Feeding of the Five-Thousand.”
He taught them in parables, little stories that put the
Kingdom of God in metaphorical imagery. “Jesus told the crowds all these things
in parables; without a parable he told them nothing.”[11]
Here was a poet, or perhaps a master storyteller, who mesmerized the crowds.
Mark tells us they were “spellbound.”[12]
The parables captured their attention, put the big cosmic questions into terms
they could understand, and were so simple that you could memorize them.
And yes, his voice could make the waves stand still.
A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so
that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the
cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that
we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace!
Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why
are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe
and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey
him?”[13]
Who is this? A magician? Is he a sorcerer? Is he an ancient
alien, as the History Channel show would have us believe? “And early in the
morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him
walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they
cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart,
it is I; do not be afraid.’”[14]
He certainly did many things that can only be described as miraculous. “He
could walk upon the water; he could make the blind man see… [He] did tricks
with fish and bread.”[15]
John’s gospel is filled with the mysterious acts of power
that Jesus performed. At the wedding in Cana, you might be OK with me leading
the ceremony, but Jesus is the one you want at the reception. Wine conjured out
of water, six large jars full, and good quality at that! John also tells the
story of a resurrection that came before Easter. His friend Lazarus, brother of
Mary and Martha, had already been in the tomb four days when Jesus arrived.
Deeply moved by the grief of Mary, Jesus shows them the glory of God. “He cried
with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and
feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to
them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’”[16]
This was no zombie. Lazarus was himself again. Of all the amazing signs that
Jesus did, this is probably the one which scared the Pharisees the most.
Jesus had another side, the prophet. He did not fear the
religious authorities, or the Roman authorities. He spoke out, and to large
crowds, about the hypocrisy and corruption of the leadership of Israel. During
the first days of his ministry, in the synagogue, on the sabbath day, he took
up the scroll of Isaiah and read this quote: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me
to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let
the oppressed go free.”[17]
And then, in a manner we’re unaccustomed to with people who make big promises
in our time, he went out and started actually doing it.
The Gospel of Matthew records a series of blessings, from
the Sermon on the Mount. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.”[18]
But there is also a series of “woes,” almost a tirade against the scribes and
the Pharisees, which comes after the entrance to Jerusalem. “Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of
heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop
them.”[19]
“You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel! Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of
the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.”[20]
Pretty strong stuff. You can imagine Jesus using his fire-and-brimstone voice,
and the crowd, at first stunned, soon cheering him on. It’s no wonder the rulers
wanted to get rid of him, yet they were afraid of the crowds.
The people may have expected him to be a conquering hero;
that’s certainly what the procession into Jerusalem was about. For the
Pharisees, that may have been their great fear. He would incite rebellion, and
bring down the heavy hand of Rome upon them all. But Jesus didn’t come to be
served, but to serve. He told them many times, “The greatest among you will be
your servant.”[21]
He even went so far as to wash the feet of his disciples, just to drive the
point home.
So, who do we say that he is? “When he entered Jerusalem,
the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’ The crowds were saying,
‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.’”[22]
Some say he was an outlaw, a teacher, a sorcerer, a prophet. He is all of those
things, and much, much more. This is the Messiah of God, the one who has come
to make all things new. He is our amazing God, revealed in the flesh of a human
being, and he has overcome the world.
Amen.
[1] The
scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version
Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National
Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Used by permission. All rights
reserved.
[2] John
11:57.
[3] Mark
14:48.
[4] Matthew
12:1-2.
[5] Mark
2:7.
[6] John
5:18.
[7] Luke
7:34.
[8] Larry
Norman, “The Outlaw” on Only Visiting
This Planet © 1972 Verve.
[9] Matthew
5:1-2.
[10] Matthew
15:32.
[11] Matthew
13:34.
[12] Mark
11:18.
[13] Mark
4:37-41.
[14] Matthew
14:25-27.
[15] Norman.
[16] John
11:43-44.
[17] Luke
4:18.
[18]
Matthew 5:3.
[19] Matthew
23:13.
[20] Matthew
23:24-25.
[21] Matthew
23:11.
[22] Matthew
21:10-11.
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