September 15, 2024

Who Is Jesus, and Why Does It Matter?

Some of the traditional evangelistic approach lines from the old-time fundamentalists have made their way into American folk lore. Like, “Have you found Jesus?” I’ll never forget the time my father was asked that question while on a trip down south. A man approached him and said, “My brother, have you found Jesus?” My dad said, “I didn’t know he was lost!”

Another one of the oldies but goodies is, “Are you saved?” Have you ever stopped to reflect deeply on that question? Aside from the overtones of condescension and theological intrusiveness, it nonetheless carries a hidden freight of assumptions and questions about faith that are terribly important to think about.

For instance, what in the world does it mean to be “saved” anyway? Many of us would simply disregard the question as irrelevant and outdated evangelical language. Others might naturally assume that there must be some standard “Bible” definition of “being saved,” and that if we have any confusion about the concept it probably just reflects our ignorance about such “theological” things. Well, the truth is, the answer to the question depends on whom you’re talking to. And it depends on who you believe Jesus is.

Just who is Jesus, and why does it matter? In response to that question, I have a story tell you about my late uncle Wayne. But before you can fully appreciate his story, we need to think together a bit about the gospel, and about the difference between “believing in Christ” and “following Jesus.”

There are those of us who read the story of Jesus and are struck by the central issue that the gospel writers seem to be addressing. It was an issue for the Jewish community, an issue for the first Christians, and it’s an issue for us: was Jesus the Christ? Was he the long-awaited Messiah? Was he, in short, the “Son of God?” The gospel writers loudly and unequivocally declare that he was indeed. And so, for them, and particularly for John, the central issue is for us to come to truly believe this. To believe that Jesus was the “Son of God” is regarded as saving knowledge. If we believe, we are saved – meaning we become inheritors of the Divine eternal promise. This is, indeed, the point of our scripture reading from John’s gospel this morning. We know it well: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” The reason, in short, that Jesus was sent into the world was so that, “whoever believes in him” would “have eternal life.” This is John’s case for being a believer.

On the other hand, there are those of us who read the gospels, and are gripped by the language of Jesus, and his persistent message. In one parable after another, in one encounter after another, we hear Jesus telling people that he wants them to live a different kind of life. His teachings are mostly ethical imperatives. On the whole, he doesn’t seem to be as much concerned with what we believe, as with what we do. He tells his followers to be patient, forgiving, generous of spirit, and wise and compassionate in the use of our gifts. He speaks of the life that he calls us to as a journey – a passage through a gate. And he says that journey is not an easy one, but requires sacrifice and struggle. In today’s reading from the gospel of Mark, he says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” This is not as simple a matter as believing. It’s doing. In this passage, Jesus refers to himself not as the “Son of God,” but as the “Son of Man.” In fact, in a surprising turn-around, in the verses that lead up to this reading, we find Peter professing that Jesus is the “Son of God.” He confesses that Jesus is, indeed, the long awaited “Messiah” – the “Christ.” Peter believes in him. And Jesus, in response, tells him to shut up. He explains that his role is to suffer and be killed, and he puts Peter down again. When Peter tries to smooth over all that talk about suffering, Jesus even calls him “Satan.” That’s when he says, “If you want to follow me, take up your cross.” He is clearly talking about his followers doing something more than simply believing in him. For many people, the very salvation of the world is seen to be hanging on the persistent efforts of those who take up their crosses and follow. For others, just finding this new path to walk in life is salvation enough.

So, I ask you, are you a believer or a follower? Is your salvation found in “believing in Christ” or in “following Jesus?” Is he “Son of God” or “Son of Man?”

I would suggest to you that the answer is to be found in deciding which audience you are part of. That may seem strange, but it’s true. Jesus spoke to a lot of different kinds of people, and he had a specific message for each of them. The scribes and Pharisees, who lived out a hollow orthodoxy and tried to entrap him in his own words, he condemned and called names. The poor and the outcast he had close relationships with and offered compassion to. The diseased and disabled he healed; the proud he humbled; the wealthy and powerful he brought low.

Indeed, it sounds at times like he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth — the original “flip-flopper.” For instance, in today’s reading he talks about the heavy price of following, and says, “take up your cross,” but in another place he says, “Come to me . . . my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

But here’s the thing: in each case, who is the audience? When he says, “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” who is he talking to? It’s to “all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens.” In other words, he is speaking to the oppressed – to those who are victims of the crushing social machinery of prejudice and injustice. It is these people who most need the comfort of something to believe in, a divine promise to cling to. It’s those who need the strength that is offered by the “Son of God” who gives them hope if they will hold out, hold on, and keep believing.

When he says to the disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me,” he is speaking to those who “want to become followers.” In other words, not to the oppressed, but to the those of us who can afford the luxury of “searching for a cause in life.” He is addressing those of us who would like to find a comfortable road to self-fulfillment by “doing something worthwhile.” To this audience, Jesus offers no words of comfort. He gives us no easy way out. He says, “If you want to follow, take up your cross.” He says to us that traveling on his path does not mean offering lip service, token involvement, and half a heart. It requires everything of us – everything.

Where we get into trouble is in our confusion about which audience we are part of. Do you need to hear the message of grace that is offered by the Son of God to the oppressed, or do you need to hear the call of the Son of Man to take up the burden of self-sacrifice? Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean to be saying this is all black and white. Surely, most of us have struggles and burdens in life of one kind or another, and surely, none of us is so consumed with greed and self-interest that we don’t give of ourselves and offer compassion to others. But it’s important to know your place in the world in broad terms. I assure you that none of us in this lovely town in the heart of this prosperous and free land are counted among the truly oppressed of the world.

Many churches are growing by exponential numbers and filling people’s hearts with happiness by selling the wrong message to the wrong crowd. In a prosperous land filled with people who have the luxury of looking for “a cause,” if the only thing a church stands for is the message to come and “believe in Christ,” and “be saved,” if they eschew the radical call to service and self-sacrifice, to mission and social justice in favor of getting everyone to simply put their hands in the air and say “praise Jesus” and “thank you, Jesus” over and over, then they’re speaking the wrong message to the wrong audience, no matter how comfortable or popular it is.

Is Jesus Son of God or Son of Man? Well, of course, he’s both. And if we, the ones who come after him, want to grasp who he is, and therefore what it means to be part of his body, then we must recognize both. We can be believers and followers. Yes, we’re allowed to say, “Praise Jesus,” and “Thank you, Jesus,” because we know we are beneficiaries of universal and eternal grace, but it’s not enough – not near enough. We are the ones who are called to pick up the burdens of the world, to take up our crosses and follow.

Which brings me to my Uncle Wayne. Uncle Wayne was a man of faith. I don’t know if a greater faith ever lived in a person. He was sure of God’s grace, and he thoroughly trusted in that grace. If ever there was a man who believed in the Son of God, it was Uncle Wayne. In the early fifties, he was a designer and construction supervisor for General Telephone Company of Southern California. He had a good job and a very promising future. He was a churchman. He and a group of friends in church would get together regularly and have a good time, spend hours together in reflection about their faith, study the Bible and pray together. Life was good, and he felt the presence of the Lord in his life. He loved the Lord.

But it was that same profound faith and trust in Divine Love that led him, through a dramatic experience at the time of the death of a friend, to hear the voice of the Son of Man, calling him to take up his cross and follow. Uncle Wayne felt called to the mission field. He gave up his lucrative position, he passed on an even more lucrative job offer, and he loaded up his young wife, their eleven-year-old daughter and three-year-old son, and left for the Congo as a missionary of the American Baptist Churches.

He spent thirty-three years in mission work. His children grew up on mission fields in the heart of Africa going off to a distant school, and learning to shoot a bow and arrow in the jungle and eat live insects. He and his family survived along with the villagers on water buffalo and crocodile that he learned to hunt. They dealt with disease, poverty, uprisings, and nervous machine gun toting soldiers at roadblocks. This was not an easy life.

Uncle Wayne wasn’t a preacher. He went to the Congo to do what he knew best. He was a builder. You could say he devoted himself to the cause of global justice. He spent his life helping to make those African jungles a better place. He built homes, bridges, high schools, agricultural schools, theological schools, general hospitals, children’s hospitals, airfields and roads. And through it all, he never stopped believing, and he never stopped trusting. It was a life well lived – a life lived as a believer, but also, in earnest response to the call of Christ, as a follower.

Now, most of us aren’t cut from the cloth that my Uncle Wayne was. I certainly don’t have that kind of total, selfless dedication. But the point is, any of us can use our gifts, commit ourselves, put our lives and spirits forward for the sake of something bigger than ourselves.

Who is Jesus? The “Son of God,” who offers hope, confidence and an eternal promise to the burdened and dispossessed. Who is Jesus? The “Son of Man,” who says to the strong and the thriving, “Do you wish to come after me? Take up your cross and follow.” And why does it matter? Because, as a Christian, your answer to the question says everything about who you are.