WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM????

WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?   Sermon based on the video depiction of Jesus from the SON OF God movie, based upon Luke 9:18-22

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WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?   Jesus asked his disciples, and Jesus asks us.  “Who do you say that I am?’

In today’s video, after Jesus miraculously fed the multitudes, Jesus was all smiles until they began calling Him the Messiah.   The He looked disturbed and troubled, and He ran away.   Yet later in the video when Peter proclaims that JESUS is the Messiah, Jesus is happy. Whaaaaat gives here? 

It all has to do with expectations.  The crowd wanted  and expected a Messiah who would  feed them with food,  who would lead for a political revolution  & war against their Roman oppressors, who ran a tyrannical empire with tactics similar to that of the Nazi Germany is the 1930s & 40s.   But Jesus ran away from the crowd,  because He was not the type of Messiah that they expected.  This misconception would follow him up until the day that the same people, feeling misled by Him, would  call for his crucifixion on the day He was tortured and murdered.

Who is Jesus?  Was he a fake, as the Temple hierarchy believed?   A nuisance, as the  Romans believed?  A holy man?  A simple Rabbi?  Or maybe even a traitor against his own country? And people?

Even in our own day and time, this question persists.         WHO IS THIS JESUS?

1.    Most people rejoice that he was born at Christmas—but their belief in Him has no depth beyond the holidays.

2.    Some people believe Him to be only a man , who was a great moral teacher; but they omit the fact that Jesus taught that He was the Son of God.  So, they believe what they want to believe, and dismiss the foundation of his teaching.

3.    Muslims are comfortable defining Jesus as a prophet, who preceded Mohammad.  Yet, Mohammad’s obsession with jihad totally contradicts the teaching of Jesus, who called for Peace on earth, good will to all people.”

4.    Jews will not even consider Jesus to be a prophet.  Instead, Jesus was a heretic who perverted God’s law & word.

5.    Some near eastern religions consider Jesus to be an expression of their own religion.  In Buddhism, the Buddha performed miracles and died and rose from the dead.  Since Buddhism predates Christianity, they believe that Christianity copied Buddhist mythology.

6.    Still others consider Jesus to be a mere man, who was extraordinarily blessed by God; and that stories of His birth, His miracles, and His resurrection, are just fantasy legends from long ago. Therefore, since Jesus was just a man, He did not rise from the dead.

7.    Still others revile Jesus as the uncaring God, who stands back and lets bad things happen to good people.  Through their pain and grief, they blame  redesign Jesus to fit their own world view; and in so doing, Jesus becomes a convenient scape goat for tragedy and misery.

WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?  In the video, Jesus fed the hungry people with bread and fish, to satiate their physical hunger.  But that was not his primary mission from God. Jesus’ chief mission was to satiate our spiritual and emotional hunger as the Son of God, who claimed, “I am the bread of life.”   So, what does that mean?

·       Ask Frank and Alice.  At age 12, their beautiful daughter was diagnosed with anorexia.  She had lost so much weight, that she had to be hospitalized for 12 weeks. Alice & Frank took their tragedy to their church, and asked everyone to pray for her healing.  It took years and years, but slowly and surely their daughter was healed as she grew in age and stuck to her treatment. Today she is happily married and the mother of 2. Who do Frank and Alice say that Jesus is?  He is the Son of God.

·       This past week in Oregon, various students and others boldly stood up and claimed that they were Christians, even though it meant that would be executed by an anti-Christian terrorist.  Why would they do that?  Because they know that Jesus is the Son of God.

·       George was a member of this parish.  As he navigated his middle school and high school years, he faced questions about his personal identity; his personal self -worth; and the emptiness of life.  Through our Youth Group, George made some solid Christian friends with peers and the advisors, who prayed for him and who encouraged him in the ways of God.  Before George graduated, he told me how he believed that it was God working through Jesus who had given him hope for the future.

·       Susan was a woman who came to church to enroll her son in  our Sunday school.  She was invited to attend a small group, where she studied the bible for the first time; and she learned the wonderful truth about Jesus Christ, who has a plan for all of our lives. As Susan committed her life in faith, she proclaimed that Jesus, the Son of God, had led her to find peace and contentment, like she had not experience previously.

What do all these people have in common?  They grew too comprehend and to worship Jesus as the Son of God, the King of the Universe, because in one way or another, they were fed with the spiritual bread of life, Jesus, the Son of God.

   I remember recognizing that spiritual hunger in my heart, when I was in my late teens.  I tried to fill it with all sort of emotional junk food, including a new age

“ah-ooom” religion, séances, booze, drugs, adolescent rebellion,  & wild living.  But nothing could satisfy my spiritual hunger.  The key to understanding who Jesus is, cannot be found by drifting away from the church, nor can it be found by filling up our lives with too many activities and keeping busy all the time; nor worrying about our finances; nor by withdrawing into our own safe shell, where we feel comfortable and protected.  You see, millions of people do not know who Jesus is, because they cannot admit that their lives are and will continue to be incomplete without him

And beware of you who understand that Jesus is Lord, because He once came into your heart, and then you let that relationship slide and become inactive.

Recently, there was a study done that identified how some strong church people , who were once very active, are drifting away from the church, and becoming inactive. Now if these people had gone to worship elsewhere, that is understandable.  That happens sometimes. But too often, a withdrawal from church is symbolic of a decaying relationship with the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

So, those who really know Jesus to be the Son of God are those who recognize that either God has helped us in the past or present; and will help us in the future; and in the age to come when we all leave this planet.

Last week in our video, Jesus spoke to Peter, telling Him that they were going to change the world. Ever since then, He has been changing the world—slowly, patiently, methodically, with mercy and love. May we all come to share in the mission of the messiah, who is the Son of God.  Amen.

--The Rev. John Donnelly,   October 4, 2015