What You Can Believe About Jesus

John 14:9b -21

Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson were out camping. They’d gone to sleep beneath the night sky, when Holmes awoke and shook his companion. “Watson, look at the sky and tell me what you see!”

“I see millions of brilliant stars,” Watson answered.

“And what does that tell you?”

“Astronomically, it tells me that there are countless galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically speaking, Saturn is in Leo. Theologically, I see that God is all-powerful and that we are small and insignificant.  And you, Holmes?”

Holmes paused. “What I see, Watson, is that someone has stolen our tent!”

Several years ago, a book entitled “Stealing Jesus” was written about the fundamentalists in America re-interpreting Jesus in a way that isn’t consistent with who he was as an historical person. The author titled the book “Stealing Jesus” because it was his assertion that the American fundamentalist movement had, in reality, stolen Jesus from mainline Christianity. Like the Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson story, perceptions about what has happened are as varied as the people who have those opinions.

Did you know, for example, that someone actually bought (for tens of thousands of dollars) the official publishing rights to the family tree of Jesus? It was sold on ebay. What the purchaser got was the individual family tree of some 114,800 people over a 2,000-year span who are ancestors of Jesus. Although I was not the successful bidder for this, I do have a copy of the ebay sale information, including a list of names of Jesus’ direct descendants. You’ll be happy to know that the entire British Royal Family, as well as George W. Bush and John Kerry are listed as heirs.

With all the fuss over “The DaVinci Code” novel and its claim that Jesus was married, had children, and that there is a secret society of people spanning the centuries with “special, secret information about Jesus”, it seems like a good time to ask: What can we believe about Jesus?  

This is our 2nd in a series of 5 sermons for open-minded Christians who are examining what we can believe in a world where there is so much propaganda that it is easier to deny belief in things than it is to profess a certainty about anything. Next week we’ll talk about what we can believe about God. The following weeks we’ll discuss what we can believe about the Holy Spirit, other religions, and moral questions. But today, we’re focused on Jesus.

To ask who Jesus was–and is, therefore, is to invite a discussion on an issue that goes to the heart of what it means to be Christian. But, as we all probably know, it’s not an absolute about which all Christians (or perhaps any Christians) agree. You’ll notice that most of what Jan Linn tells us we can believe about Jesus uses the phrase “more than”. Jesus was more than a man. His death was more than the death of a good man. His resurrection was more than a body coming to life again. Heaven & hell are more than places to go when we die. The communion table is more than a supper. He doesn’t specifically say this, but I think the reason Linn uses that phrase is because most Christians are stunted in our growth. We stop at the literal and don’t take seriously the meaning behind the stories about Jesus. We never grow past the simplicity of elemental facts. That’s why it’s important for us to have a conversation about what we can dig our teeth into when we hear about Jesus.

The name Jesus has two referents. On one hand, Jesus refers to a human person of the past: Jesus of Nazareth, a Galilean Jew of the first century.  On the other hand, in Christian theology, devotion and worship, the name Jesus also refers to a divine figure of the present: the risen living Christ who is one with God.  Although Christians agree that our Jesus was and is both Jesus of Nazareth and the risen Christ, we often have arguments about what that really means.

The first thing author Jan Linn suggests we can believe about Jesus is that he was a man in the fullest sense of what that means. And because he was fully human, our lives connect to his. This goes to the heart of the good news that “God became flesh and dwelt among us.” In a very real sense, then, by becoming human, god revealed that it is all right to be human; that God knows we are human, that we are sinful, and that we are God’s people anyway. Nothing we can say or do can keep us away from God’s love. And nothing other people say or do can keep them away from God’s love. Jesus has been there, done that and gotten the T-shirt.  

To dig a little deeper, it also means that Jesus knew who he was within the limits of being human. And although we also believe that he was also divine, his own awareness of his divinity had to be within the boundaries of being human. In other words, Jesus and God did not sit down in heaven and discuss the plan of salvation and then Jesus came down to earth to fulfill it, knowing every step of the way what was going to happen. If Jesus wasn’t fully human, he could have changed what was happening. But that would make the gospels harder because they would be witnessing a charade of sorts in which God was playing a cosmic trick on the human race; a kind of “catch me if you can” game in which Jesus knew when we could be caught and when he could not be.

But we can also believe that Jesus is more than a man. The humanity of Jesus has to do with who he was in flesh and blood. That’s a statement of fact.  The divinity of Jesus has to do with who he is. That is a statement of faith. Because we believe that Jesus is divine, through him we know the will of God, the mind of God, the compassion of God, and even the love of God.  

Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen God. How can you say, ‘Show us your God’? Don’t you believe that I am in God and God is in me? The words I speak are not spoken of myself; it is God, living in me, who is accomplishing the works of God. Believe me that I am in God and God is in me, or else believe because of the works I do. The truth of the matter is, anyone who has faith in me will do the works I do - and greater works besides. Why? Because I go to God, and whatever you ask in my name I will do, so that God may be glorified in me. Anything you ask in my name I will do. If you love me and obey the command I give you, I will ask the One who sent me to give you another Paraclete, another Helper to be with you always - the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept since the world neither sees her nor recognizes her; but you can recognize the Spirit because she remains with you an will be within you. I won’t leave you orphaned; I will come back to you. A little while now and the world will see me no more; but you’ll see me; because I live, and you will live as well. On that day you’ll know that I am in God, and you are in me, and I am in you. Those who obey the commandments are the ones who love me, and those who love me will be loved by God. I, too, will love them and will reveal myself to them.”  John 14: 9b-21  The Inclusive New Testament

Jesus was one who not only announced but also embodied the actions of God. Before him, and after him, there were persons who were Godly, persons who spoke God’s truth. Jesus was that, but he was more.  Marcus Borg, known as a leader in the Jesus Seminar describes Jesus as a sage–a teacher of the kind of wisdom that teaches how to live. Jesus, he says, speaks of the nature of reality and how to live one’s life in accord with that reality.  

Jesus not only spoke about God with authority and truth, he enacted, symbolized and personified God. That is what makes Jesus different than other human beings. His life was the personification of God.

The third thing we can believe about Jesus, writes Linn, is that Jesus’ crucifixion was more than the death of a good man. There are a number of doctrines about the significance and symbolism of Jesus’ death. Some of them involve God being a ruthless and tyrannical dictator sentencing his own child to death. Most of us do not believe that. But what can we believe about Jesus’ death? The way for open-minded Christians to move beyond these theologies is to understand that God did not send Jesus to die. God sent Jesus to be “the bread of life”.  

And yet, he did die a gruesome and horrific death. His disciples were devastated. Their grief had to be profound. They huddled in grief and agony wondering what to do next. Part of the reason they met after his death must have been to console one another. Part of the credibility of the resurrection of Jesus lies in the fact that it was these same grief-stricken, scared people who all of a sudden began to speak openly and boldly that he was alive.  

That’s the next thing we can believe about Jesus–that his resurrection was about more than an empty tomb. Without Jesus' resurrection, there would be no church; he would have been forgotten, and world history would be a different story altogether. I’ve heard people argue for hours over the possibility of physical resurrection, whether Jesus really came alive again, and so forth. To argue about that is to miss the point.  Jesus’ resurrection was not about these things. The resurrection is about divine forgiveness. It was the final statement of divine love that declared our death could not separate us from God.

Speaking of forgiveness, you can believe in it; and if you’ve experienced forgiveness you know that forgiveness is both awful & wonderful. Why? Because forgiveness cannot be experienced until our masks are taken away and we see the truth we have gone to great lengths to avoid. I can’t tell you how often people come into my office to talk to me about the embarrassment of receiving a gift. Very seldom do people have trouble giving, but receiving is another thing altogether.  It’s extremely difficult to accept an undeserved, unexpected gift. If you received $100 cash in the mail without any note, explanation or reason...how would you react? Forgiveness is like that. It’s undeserved, unexplainable, and difficult to accept.  

Because of the awful & wonderful gift of forgiveness, we are told in the Bible that we can go to heaven. Linn suggests another thing we can believe about Jesus is that what he described as heaven & hell are more than places to go. Remember that heaven & hell are metaphors. Metaphors lose their power and relevance when they are literalized. A deeper and more helpful way to understand the Biblical metaphors of heaven and hell is to understand heaven as living in the presence of God and hell as living outside that presence.

The final thing we can believe about Jesus is that he promised to meet his followers in the poor. Although the presence of Jesus can be experienced in many ways today, the fundamental way to meet Jesus is to look into the face of an outcast–a homeless person, an elderly person living alone, a child injured in the war on Iraq, a hungry young man, a person living and dying with AIDS. According to Jesus’ own words, he will always be found among the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable. This is not only something we can believe. It is something about which we need never have a doubt. If you want to get to know Jesus personally, you must – you must–come face to face with him in the eyes of another person. And then, perhaps only then, you will know what to believe about Jesus.

Resources Utilized:

        Borg, Marcus J.  “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time.”  San Francisco: Harper.  1994.

        Borg, Marcus J.  & Wright, N.T.  “The Meaning of Jesus”.  San Francisco: Harper.  1999.

        Linn, Jan G.  “How to Be an Open-minded Christian without Losing Your Faith”.  St. Louis: Chalice Press.  2002.

        Spong, John Shelby.  “Why Christianity Must Change or Die”.  San Francisco: Harper.  1998.