The Question on our Minds
6th Sunday of Easter
1st John 5:1-6
1st John 5:1-6
There has been a question on our minds this week. Every person I have run into has a common question on their minds. They might not even be able to verbalize the question – but it’s there. Here’s the question.
Just how human was Jesus?
Hollywood has tried to drop this question right in our laps. And John has an answer. Read with me again – verse 6 of our passage. “This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.”
Fully God – Fully human. That’s what they taught us in seminary – fully God, fully human. We talked about it in nearly every class I attended over in the theology school at Southwestern. We talked about it when we were sitting around the lunch table, and some even ventured to write papers on the subject. I never did – because all the talking and all the discussing never made it any clearer to me. I didn’t understand it then, and I don’t understand it now. Jesus was a one of a kind – born of water and blood, and testified to by the Spirit.
John was actually dealing with a growing problem of the day. There were those in that society that taught that Jesus wasn’t fully human – that He could do all that He did because He was God – it was His divinity that allowed Him to live a perfect life. They were known as Gnostics. There were a couple of variants to their thinking – one group of them thought that Jesus was born of a virgin, but because His heavenly Father was God, He was never really fully human – more like a God in human flesh. The other group was convinced that He was human just like any of the rest of us, but at His baptism, the Spirit of God came upon Him, and at that point He became something more like a God – more like a human with divine attributes. Either way, the Gnostics couldn’t conceive that Jesus could be fully God and fully human at the same time – and so they chose not to believe it. I go with them about half way – I can’t conceive it – but the difference for me is that I choose to believe it, whether I understand it or not.
Believe me; I’ve tried to understand it. I think a lot of people try – and whenever I get in a conversation with some theolog who thinks they know how to explain it, I can always find some wrinkle they haven’t thought of, and eventually they just end up saying, “Well, that’s the way I see it.”
For me, I’m torn. If Jesus wasn’t fully human – if He did the things that He did – and did them with perfection – only because He was God, then I have a problem with God asking me to live a perfect life. I have a problem with a God that hasn’t experienced every kind of temptation that I’ve known asking me to live up to something that He didn’t have to do – as a full human. I have a problem with a God like that asking me to live life perfectly when the life stuff comes around – like when I lose a job, or when I’m blessed with a mentally handicapped son. A lot of us can say offer our personal version of that same argument. As far as we know, Jesus never experienced divorce. As far as we know, Jesus never developed cancer. As far as we know, Jesus never got old enough to walk into a room and forget what He went in there for. We could use our own personal version of the argument in a lot of different ways, and we just might be justified – if Jesus wasn’t fully human.
On the other hand, if Jesus was fully human – well, that doesn’t make things easier for me. If He experienced every kind of temptation known to man, but without sin – well, that doesn’t make my puny, pitiful, sin-stained life any easier. I try, and I try, but I haven’t figured out how to life the perfect life. I continue to sin. I continue to fail. I continue to miss the mark and disappoint people and disappoint myself and trip over my own shoestrings. It doesn’t make it any easier for me if Jesus was fully human. There’s a side of me that hopes that the only reason He could do what He did was because He was God.
Fully God, fully human. One of a kind. I don’t understand it – there’s not another example. He’s the prototype, and they threw away the mold. Only one Jesus. One of a kind. Fully God, fully human.
That’s the question that’s on our minds – just how human was Jesus. But it’s the wrong question. We can ask that question till we’re blue in the face, and in the long run, it doesn’t make any difference. Our only two options, really, are to say, “It’s not fair,” or to throw up our hands in despair at our personal failures. Those are the only two options. In the long run, it doesn’t make any difference. And, it diverts us from our more important obligations.
John is trying to wrap things up by the time he gets to chapter 5. But he makes one last stab at reminding us of the things God thinks are important when it comes to our faith. Three things – believe, obey, and love. Those are the three tests of the Christian life. John says it just that forcefully – that these are like the barometer of our Christianity. This time around, John throws them at us in combinations.
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child.” Here John mixes the theological test with the social test. We must believe that Jesus is the Christ, and we love the children of God. Pretty simple. Next verse. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.” This is the mix of the social test and the moral test. We must love the children of God, and the way that we do so is by obeying the commandments. One more time. Verses 3 and 4 – “For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.” A mix of the moral test and the theological test. We obey the commandments, and in doing so we prove our faith.
You remember that other Ron Howard, Tom Hanks movie – Apollo 13. Remember the line from it that got everyone’s attention – “Houston, we have a problem.” Well, John does something like that with these three tests. He would liken the three tests to a three legged stool. If any one of the three legs isn’t there, well, we have a problem. Here’s the way he would say it. If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and you keep the commandments, but you fail to love God’s other children, well then, we have a problem. Or, if you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and you love all God’s children, but you aren’t interested in keeping God’s commandments, well, we have a problem. And again – if you keep the commandments, and you love the brothers and sisters, but you don’t believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, well then, we have a problem.
Believe, obey, love. Three tests.
This week, I thought of another way to look at each of these three tests. Jesus offers us life. That’s the message of Easter, really. About all He asks of us in return are three simple things, according to his good friend John. First, He wants us to believe Him. He wants us to believe Him when He says that He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no man comes to the Father except through Him.” He wants us to trust what He’s already done for us as though it’s our only option.
Do you remember the story of the little guy who fell off the cliff and caught a branch sticking out of the sheer wall on his way down? He’s hanging there, and he decides to call out to God. “God, can you help me?!?!?!” God calls back – “Let go!!” And the little guys hollers back, “Is there anybody else up there???” We have a tendency to trust Jesus, and then keep looking for a better deal, or more truth, or an easier way. Jesus wants us to trust Him like there isn’t any other option.
Second – Jesus wants us to keep the commandments. And not like the guy who came up and asked him, “Which is the greatest commandment?” as though he was looking for the cliff notes on obedience. Jesus wants us to keep all of the commandments – and to do so like it was partly our idea to come up with each and every one of them. John says that they aren’t a burden – and if they feel like a burden to you, well, maybe you’re going about keeping them all wrong. Maybe you need to see the beauty in the commandments – they keep us out of trouble, and if we keep them, we’re not always trying to climb out of a hole. And when we think that we’ve got ‘em licked, we mess up, and they remind us just how much we need Jesus in the first place. It’s a great system, really.
Third thing – Jesus wants us to love each other. And again, if you’re like the guy who asked the question about this “who’s my neighbor” stuff, you’re probably going about it all wrong. Jesus died for the whole world, so that’s the answer – they’re all your neighbors. Muslims and Jews and Baptists and Methodists and Catholics and pagans and Democrats and Republicans and women and men and children and bosses and employees and moms and dads and brothers and sisters – they’re all your neighbors. You don’t have to ask again – just love ‘em all, and love ‘em like you’d like to be loved in return.
Well, that’s what John had to say. Jesus said it this way. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”
Amen.
On the other hand, if Jesus was fully human – well, that doesn’t make things easier for me. If He experienced every kind of temptation known to man, but without sin – well, that doesn’t make my puny, pitiful, sin-stained life any easier. I try, and I try, but I haven’t figured out how to life the perfect life. I continue to sin. I continue to fail. I continue to miss the mark and disappoint people and disappoint myself and trip over my own shoestrings. It doesn’t make it any easier for me if Jesus was fully human. There’s a side of me that hopes that the only reason He could do what He did was because He was God.
Fully God, fully human. One of a kind. I don’t understand it – there’s not another example. He’s the prototype, and they threw away the mold. Only one Jesus. One of a kind. Fully God, fully human.
That’s the question that’s on our minds – just how human was Jesus. But it’s the wrong question. We can ask that question till we’re blue in the face, and in the long run, it doesn’t make any difference. Our only two options, really, are to say, “It’s not fair,” or to throw up our hands in despair at our personal failures. Those are the only two options. In the long run, it doesn’t make any difference. And, it diverts us from our more important obligations.
John is trying to wrap things up by the time he gets to chapter 5. But he makes one last stab at reminding us of the things God thinks are important when it comes to our faith. Three things – believe, obey, and love. Those are the three tests of the Christian life. John says it just that forcefully – that these are like the barometer of our Christianity. This time around, John throws them at us in combinations.
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child.” Here John mixes the theological test with the social test. We must believe that Jesus is the Christ, and we love the children of God. Pretty simple. Next verse. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.” This is the mix of the social test and the moral test. We must love the children of God, and the way that we do so is by obeying the commandments. One more time. Verses 3 and 4 – “For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.” A mix of the moral test and the theological test. We obey the commandments, and in doing so we prove our faith.
You remember that other Ron Howard, Tom Hanks movie – Apollo 13. Remember the line from it that got everyone’s attention – “Houston, we have a problem.” Well, John does something like that with these three tests. He would liken the three tests to a three legged stool. If any one of the three legs isn’t there, well, we have a problem. Here’s the way he would say it. If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and you keep the commandments, but you fail to love God’s other children, well then, we have a problem. Or, if you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and you love all God’s children, but you aren’t interested in keeping God’s commandments, well, we have a problem. And again – if you keep the commandments, and you love the brothers and sisters, but you don’t believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, well then, we have a problem.
Believe, obey, love. Three tests.
This week, I thought of another way to look at each of these three tests. Jesus offers us life. That’s the message of Easter, really. About all He asks of us in return are three simple things, according to his good friend John. First, He wants us to believe Him. He wants us to believe Him when He says that He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no man comes to the Father except through Him.” He wants us to trust what He’s already done for us as though it’s our only option.
Do you remember the story of the little guy who fell off the cliff and caught a branch sticking out of the sheer wall on his way down? He’s hanging there, and he decides to call out to God. “God, can you help me?!?!?!” God calls back – “Let go!!” And the little guys hollers back, “Is there anybody else up there???” We have a tendency to trust Jesus, and then keep looking for a better deal, or more truth, or an easier way. Jesus wants us to trust Him like there isn’t any other option.
Second – Jesus wants us to keep the commandments. And not like the guy who came up and asked him, “Which is the greatest commandment?” as though he was looking for the cliff notes on obedience. Jesus wants us to keep all of the commandments – and to do so like it was partly our idea to come up with each and every one of them. John says that they aren’t a burden – and if they feel like a burden to you, well, maybe you’re going about keeping them all wrong. Maybe you need to see the beauty in the commandments – they keep us out of trouble, and if we keep them, we’re not always trying to climb out of a hole. And when we think that we’ve got ‘em licked, we mess up, and they remind us just how much we need Jesus in the first place. It’s a great system, really.
Third thing – Jesus wants us to love each other. And again, if you’re like the guy who asked the question about this “who’s my neighbor” stuff, you’re probably going about it all wrong. Jesus died for the whole world, so that’s the answer – they’re all your neighbors. Muslims and Jews and Baptists and Methodists and Catholics and pagans and Democrats and Republicans and women and men and children and bosses and employees and moms and dads and brothers and sisters – they’re all your neighbors. You don’t have to ask again – just love ‘em all, and love ‘em like you’d like to be loved in return.
Well, that’s what John had to say. Jesus said it this way. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”
Amen.
Richard W. Dunn, PhD.
posted by the sojourning pilgrim | 6:52 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home