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Our Purpose: ReJesusing Jesus
Romans 8:29
January 25th
So who are you? Are you Colonel Mustard? Mrs. Peacock? Perhaps Professor Plum or Miss Scarlet? Remember the game Clue, that famous “whodunit” game? When you begin the game, you choose which character you will be.
This morning we want to look at an account from our Lord’s life. As we work through this story, I want you to ask yourself, “Which character am I in the story?” Turn to Luke 8:40-56 (p. 732).
Jesus and His disciples had come back to Galilee following the casting out of the legion of evil spirits from the demon possessed man. As Jesus and the disciples returned, they were warmly welcomed. Many had heard of the healing He’d done, many gathered to meet Him who had some sickness that they wished to be healed from. Let me introduce our cast of characters.Character #1 – Jairus. They’re met by a very distressed father whose daughter is dying. Jairus is a leader in the local synagogue. Though head of the local synagogue, he’s desperate and so he came a made a request of Jesus. In the hour of his extreme need he comes to the only One he hopes can help. He reverently makes his request for “he fell at his feet” and passionately makes his case “he begged him to come to his house.” Casting aside all of his pride, Jairus falls on his face at Jesus’ feet, desperate for this one last lifeline for his little girl. Without a word Jesus sets out for this man’s house. But the crowd is so great, that Jesus and the disciples can barely make their way through the throng. As they are pushing and being pushed by the crowd, Jesus hits the brakes and asks who touched Him. It seems like a ludicrous question. On the way to help this dying girl, Jesus is touched by another very desperate woman.
Character #2 – Diseased Woman. We’re told that this woman had “flow of blood,” an abnormal bleeding from the womb. In Mark’s account it’s twice called “a plague” (Mark 5:29, 34). The word translated plague carries the connotation of “whip.” This disease was beating her to death, now for some twelve years. It had beaten the life and strength and health out of her. For twelve years she’d steadily grown weaker and weaker. Today we know that diseased blood is highly contagious. Because of her disease this poor woman could not touch or be touched by anyone. It ostracized her from Society. Three things in Jewish daily life could make a person ceremonially unclean; touching the dead, menstrual bleeding and leprosy. Add, to that she could not go to the Temple because of this disease. She’s a desperate woman.
Humanly, she’s incurable. No doubt she’d spent every penny she had on physicians and still could not be healed. She still suffered pain; all the different treatments she’d tried had only succeeded in bankrupting her. This poor woman is broke, cut off from family, society and even the Temple and she’s still in pain and declining health. She probably could not have felt any lower. I suspect that she had to deal regularly with bitterness and anger - anger against her circumstances, perhaps even against God who had allowed these circumstances to continue: loneliness, self-hatred, fear of the future, alienation from God.
Character #3 – The Crowd. They’re confused and fickle. At first we find them waiting for Jesus to return so that He can do miracles that they can watch. When the news of the death of Jairus’ daughter hits the headlines, they go into despondency and grieving. When Jesus says that she’s sleeping, inferring He can still help her, they laugh, mock and jeer.
Character #4 – Jesus. Always looking to touch folk – rich or poor, to heal, and to meet needs, to show mercy, grace, love and compassion. Available to be interrupted, to touch someone’s life. Encouraging others. Tenderly touching them…living in faith.
So which character are you? Which person in this story represents you? Take your sermon insert and write it at the top, just for you to see. Are you Jairus? The Diseased Woman? The Crowd? Jesus? Which one are you?
When Baptist theologian, Harvey Cox, was addressing a convention of Christian leaders – pastors, doctors, nurses, and therapists – he did what I just did and retold that wonderful story from Luke 8. After having related the story, Dr. Cox asked his audience of some six hundred Christian “healers” to indicate which of the characters in the story they most strongly identified with. The diseased woman? The anxious father? The curious crowd? Or Jesus? What Dr. Cox discovered was astounding. He found that around a hundred felt that they could relate to the desperate woman; several hundred identified with Jairus, whose daughter was dying; the majority identified with the perplexed group standing by. But only six, that’s right, just six Christian “healers” felt that they could identify with Jesus.
There’s something seriously wrong with our Christianity when only one in every hundred Christians can identify with Jesus. Here was a story about Jesus the healer, told to “healers,” yet very few of them identified with Jesus. Why? I want to suggest that somewhere in our spiritual journey, we’ve lost the incarnation. We’ve lost why Jesus came to save us – it wasn’t just for heaven. It was for living heavenly now, today! Maybe we’ve made Jesus so divine, so otherworldly, that we can’t connect with Him anymore. We can't really be expected to follow Jesus because we perceive ourselves way down here and Jesus way up there, beyond identification. But Jesus did not just come to give us eternal life; He came to model for us how to live – now. We're supposed to identify with Jesus, act like Jesus, be like Jesus. That’s what Christianity is supposed to be about: the imitation of Christ! My Bible is open to Romans 8:29 (p. 801).
C.S. Lewis wrote, “In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose. It says in the Bible that the whole universe was made for Christ and that everything is to be gathered together in Him.”
That’s what we mean when we say, “Grace Church exists to glorify our Heavenly Father by continually making more disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.” What’s a disciple? A little Christ! To put it another way, Our Purpose is to ReJesus Jesus. Jesus called us to follow Him. We’re to make disciples – that means we’re to lead folk to being like Jesus. This truth runs throughout our New Testaments. Acts 11:26, “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” They were identified as belonging to Christ. To a lost world, they were “little Jesuses.” Paul wrote, “For to me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). Or, as he states in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” That’s ReJesusing Jesus! That’s what God has called us to do. That’s our purpose here at Grace. Our Purpose is to ReJesus Jesus. This morning we want to talk about our purpose, what it means to reJesus Jesus. If you’re taking notes…
1. ReJesusing Jesus is not the Jesus most people think of. “WHAT A LOSER!” Joan Vennochi writes, that those “blunt words come from the red-haired, freckle-faced boy whose quick wit and sly irreverence always make me laugh out loud at least once during our weekly religious education class. This time the seventh-grader with the slightly devilish, totally irresistible sparkle in his eye catches me off-guard. When he blurts out that sentiment, he is talking about Jesus Christ. We were just finishing a section in our book about how crowds in first-century Galilee came from miles to hear Jesus teach and how he, in turn, was kind and patient to all who approached. The whole point of the lesson was to show the generosity of spirit and message that Jesus displayed during his life on earth.
Yet the very qualities celebrated in this chapter elicit quite a different reaction than the author of the text likely had anticipated. A person who treats everyone politely regardless of wealth or social status, who walks away from fights, who is humble and forgiving? Someone who welcomes beggars and lepers? That person is a role model? That they find amusing. And the notion that such a person could entertain and indeed inspire others for hours is incomprehensible to these middle school boys, grounded in the values of 21st century America - not to mention the mesmerizing influence of Playstation and Nintendo.”
By making Christ seem otherworldly, even ethereal, the Church has inadvertently put Him out of reach to us as an example or a guide. Even though Jesus routinely called people to follow Him, the Church often has represented this following in purely metaphysical or mystical terms. It’s “we can follow Jesus in our heart,” but not necessarily with our actions. Add to that there are some weird pictures of who Jesus is…and who would want to be like that. They’re losers…
a) Some picture a mystical Jesus. Most films about Jesus until Mel Gibson’s, The Passion of Christ, saw Jesus as some wide-eyed Buddha type mystic character. Soft-spoken, always wearing a white robe. Many have been turned off to the church because the object of our faith seems bland and insipid, wimpy.
Recently, I came across a blog talking about why Jesus was not attractive to so many, particularly teens. The blogger (Jessica) wrote, “They need a hero and the Jesus we give them isn’t a hero He’s a plush cartoon figure. Instead we give them Queer eye for the straight guy…a touchy feely Jesus who “loves” everyone. I think that Kids now realize that that isn’t real…and they desperately want to be real. And if we can’t get who Jesus is REALLY, then they don’t want any part of him. There are a hundred flashy gay guys on tv that are WAY more popular than Jesus is so who needs this guy?”Some of you know that I rarely ever introduce myself in public as “Pastor Carson.” Part of that is because people get all weird around you when they know that you’re a pastor. It also takes away outreach opportunities. But another reason is that some pastors are just strange. I remember on one occasion walking into a restaurant for a pastors’ meeting, and the hostess asked me, “Are you here for the pastors’ meeting?” I quickly quipped, “No ma am, I’ve just been sick.” One of the blessings of being an evangelical is that we don’t wear collars or robes. But many people think that Jesus is some “holy, mystical wimp” – and who would want to be like that?
b) Some picture a celestial Jesus. He’s completely otherworldly. He walks on clouds and is out there in the deep blue space. He’s completely separate and out of touch with the here and now. He’s kind of the Force Jesus from Star Wars. That distant voice, “Luke, use the Force.” And He’s so distant and so separate that we feel that we can’t relate. He’s totally heavenly minded and does us no earthly good. Many people think that Jesus is like that – and who would want to be like that?
c) Some picture a judicial Jesus. They know how Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and cast the money changers out of the Temple. They know that He’s is holy and separate from sin and they also know that they have sin and struggles in their life. So they conclude that Jesus wants nothing to do with them. And if He knew them, He’d throw some lightning bolts their way. They think of Jesus as one ticked off dude – at them. Many people think that Jesus is like that – and who would want to be like that?
d) Some picture a financial Jesus. Whenthey go to church, all they hear about is money. They continually get letters from their church telling them to step up the giving. They see Jesus with His hand out, wanting all of their cash. They think He’s after their wallet and that He’s going to take it all.
Friend, if Jesus really wanted your money, He’d just take it. I mean if the IRS wants your money, they just take it. And the IRS is small potatoes compared to King Jesus. But many think that Jesus is some money grubber – and who would want to be like that?
2. ReJesusing Jesus means that our model is the Jesus of Scripture. I love Gordon MacDonald. God just uses him to bless my heart. In a recent issue of Leadership, he shares this story. He writes:
One morning last month, I arrived at London's HeathrowAirport at 5 A.M. to check in for an early flight. I was physically tired and emotionally spent from several days of giving lectures and sermons. The woman at the ticket counter hardly looked up as she asked where I was going and how many bags I'd be checking. "I'm headed for Boston," I said, "and I'm not checking anything."
For the first time she looked up and over the counter at my well-worn Brookstone roller bag (advertised to conform to FAA specifications for carry-on luggage) and said, "I'm sorry, but you'll have to check that." My amygdala (the fear-sensor in the brain) immediately awoke, prompting memories of misplaced luggage and long waits at baggage-claim in Boston. I said (trying to be calm) that I didn't want to check my bag, that I'd carried it with me on the flight over to the UK a few days before, and I carry this particular bag on flights all the time.
The woman replied rather bureaucratically: "I'm telling you that they're not going to let you take that bag on the plane." I had the distinct impression that we were not connecting. Conscious of my rising frustration, I deliberately coached myself into calmness and into a choice of words that would not accelerate tension between us. "Is there any way we could start this conversation over again and rethink the problem?" I asked.
She took a very deep breath. Perhaps she was trying to keep cool also. "Do you see that over there?" she asked, pointing to a contraption made of tubes that outlined the shape of an apparently legal suitcase. "If you can fit your bag in that thing, I'll let you take it with you." I went over to the thing and lifted my bag into it. With a modicum of encouragement, it fit. I returned to the ticket counter feeling inwardly smug but careful not to show it.
The woman made no comment except, "Passport, please." I handed it over. She opened my passport and studied it. Then, looking up and engaging me for the first time with any sort of feeling that suggested personal contact, she said, "Are you the Gordon MacDonald who writes books—Christian books?" "Yes, I do write," I said. The change in atmosphere was instant. A broad smile came over her face as she said, "I've got several of your books at home. In fact I'm reading your latest book right now. I can't believe I'm meeting you." It was one of those moments you enjoy just a little too much. I had migrated from chump to champ in three seconds. We went on to exchange a bit of warm conversation (no one was waiting in line behind me). Finally, she sent me on my way to passport-control with my roller bag and a final word of gratitude for my writing.”
Gordon MacDonald then makes this powerful observation, “At 5 A.M. one's capacity not to vent in irritability or contentiousness is strained. While I'm not normally pugnacious, it would have been easy to have expressed my feelings harshly toward the woman who wanted to separate me from my bag. No small matter for a frequent flyer. I'm the customer, after all; she is the vendor. She is a stranger, an employee of an airline that often seems to care little about me. And who would ever know about my less-than-Jesus-like behavior in such a depersonalized location as Heathrow airport? This time, while tempted to protest in strong terms not necessarily approved by God, I hadn't.
But suppose I had. How would the woman behind the counter have felt about my books then? Had I acted rudely, what impression would she have formed of me or the things about which I write? Quite likely I will never again meet that woman—whose name I never got—this side of eternity. But I wonder how often she is likely to pick up a Christian book and remember how one such author she met behaved in a moment of stress. Hopefully she'll recall the one she met chose to be patient, kind, gentle, and reasonably self-controlled.” And may I add, hopefully, she’ll remember a Christian who looked a lot like Jesus.
Each day in our human transactions, we inject into this world of human relationships either a bit of virtue or a bit of vice. It's really that simple. There is no exchange between people that can be considered neutral. It's either value-added or value-subtracted. It’s either Jesus or it’s not! “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).
My challenge, your challenge is to be taken captive by the agenda of Jesus, rather than seeking to mold Him to fit our agendas, no matter how noble they might be. We acknowledge that we can never truly claim to know him completely. We all bring our biases to the task. But we believe it is inherent in our faith to keep trying and to never give up on this holy quest. The challenge before us is to let Jesus be Jesus in our lives and to allow ourselves to be caught up in His extraordinary mission for this world.
Jesus is calling us to come and join Him in a far more reckless and exciting adventure than that of mere church attendance. We need to see and live out the Jesus as He appears in the pages of Scripture every day. The heart of Christian spirituality is to increasingly become like our Founder. True Christianity models itself on Jesus. It’s God's unambiguous aim to make us to be more like His Son. In fact, this is our eternal destiny, “to be conformed to the likeness of His Son” (Rom 8:29). One author has labeled this the “conspiracy of little Jesuses.” It’s fundamental to God's plan and purposes for His world.
3. ReJesusing Jesus will revolutionize our perspective. So what does it mean to reJesus Jesus? What does it mean to be taken captive by the agenda of the flesh-and-blood Jesus? Can I suggest that this rediscovery of the Incarnational Christ, the flesh and blood Jesus of the New Testament, will radically reshape our view of God, the church, and the world?
a) When we reJesus Jesus, we see God differently. When our hearts are taken captive by Jesus, we will see God differently. Obviously, we will see the holiness of God. In Leviticus 8:44 God says, “I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.” Because of His holiness God cannot tolerate sin. The penalty of sin is death, both physical and spiritual. But we also see the love of God. 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” At Jesus’ Cross we see both the holiness and the love of God.
But when we reJesus Jesus, we also see the mission of God. In John 8:29, Jesus speaking of His Father says, “The One who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do what pleases Him.” God sent Jesus. Mission, then, is understood as being derived from the very nature of God. It’s God the Father sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit. That then expanded to include yet another movement, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit sending us, the Church into the world.
When we see God as Jesus understood him, we see a God so devoted to His broken planet that He issues Himself forth to redeem it. The result is that we can’t keep the Trinity locked up in church. God escapes the stained-glass crypt and sends Himself out throughout the world: Father, Son, and Spirit. But this doesn't mean that the Church is not involved. Far from it. The cycle continues with the Triune God sending us, the Church out into the world.
Part of the process of reJesusing the church involves dismantling of much of our much-loved “temple theology.” Jesus is sending us out into the world, but we want to retreat into our “temple,” buildings, spiritual circles, religious habits, etc. We want to stay where it is safe, in the “holy huddle.” But that’s not an option in God’s plan. This leads us to our second aspect of being shaped by Jesus.
b) When we reJesus Jesus, we see the Church differently. Through Jesus’ eyes, we see the Church as the sent people of God. A church is not a building or an organization. It’s an organic collective of believers, centered on Jesus and sent out into a dying world to reach it with the Good News that sin can be forgiven; sin’s penalty has been paid. There’s new life in Christ.
Think of the metaphors for the church. We’re to be salt. Salt to be effective must get out of the shaker. We’re light. Light is to shine in the darkness. We’re an army advancing the Kingdom and storming the gates of Hell. This isn't to say that such participation is a solo venture for individual Christians. It’s instead to be seen as a communal commitment. God calls together bodies of believers to participate in His mission.
As John Eldridge writes, “God is calling together little communities of the heart, to fight for one another and for the hearts of those who have not yet been set free. The camaraderie, that intimacy, that incredible impact by a few stout-hearted souls-that is available. It is the Christian life as Jesus gave it to us. It is complete!” Our church is not a fortress, it’s an assault team!
c) When we reJesus Jesus, we see the world differently. We recognize that each person is created in the image of God and thus possesses the inherent dignity and value that accompanies it. To say that we are all made in the image of God is to acknowledge that there are certain, special qualities of human nature that allow God to be made manifest in us. It’s a statement about God's love for humans but it’s also a statement about the uniqueness and beauty of humans. A belief in the imago Dei is not a denial of the inherent sinfulness of all people. To deny such is not only heretical, it's just plain ignorant. The human race continues to give myriad examples of our depravity and potential for evil.
Rather, this perspective recognizes that God's image is so indelibly stamped on our very nature that not even the fall can completely erase it. We, of all creation, are the creatures through whom God's plans and purposes can be made known. In other words, when Christians acknowledge the image of God in every human being, we can see ourselves as participants or partners with God.
That’s powerfully seen in our study in Luke 8. When we see the world as Jesus did, we don’t see an arrogant aristocrat named Jairus. We see a distraught, desperate father whom we can minister to. We don’t see a dirty, diseased woman. We see a hurting soul who needs the healing of the Cross. We don’t see death and decay, like the little girl. We see those for whom Christ died so that they can be regenerated and have new life.
We see the image of God in the most unlikely people, just as Jesus did: the criminal, the diseased, the rich, poor, the addict, the immoral – everyone. If we reJesus the church, we will lead it toward a greater respect for the unbeliever, a greater grace for those who, though they don't attend church services, are nonetheless marked by God's image. It will lead to a greater respect for people in general. It will lead to compassion for a lost and dying world.
Conclusion: Put simply, to undertake the reJesus project one must first be committed to being marked by Jesus, to submit oneself to being conformed, shaped and changed to reflect more and more the lifestyle and teaching of Jesus.
This morning let me close with a magnificent story from Marie Chapian's book, Of Whom the World Was Not Worthy. The book told of the sufferings of the true church in Yugoslavia where so much wrong had been perpetuated by the politicized ecclesiastical hierarchy. That which has gone on in the name of Christ for the enriching and empowering of corrupt church officials has been a terrible affront to common decency.
One day an evangelist by the name of Jakov arrived in a certain village. He commiserated with an elderly man named Cimmerman on the tragedies he had experienced and talked to him of the love of Christ. Cimmerman abruptly interrupted Jakov and told him that he wished to have nothing to do with Christianity. He reminded Jakov of the dreadful history of the church in his town, a history replete with plundering, exploiting, and even the killing of innocent people. "My own nephew was killed by them," he said and angrily rebuffed any effort on Jakov's part to talk about Christ. "They wear those elaborate coats and caps and crosses," he said, "signifying a heavenly commission, but their evil designs and lives I cannot ignore."
Jakov, looking for a means to get Cimmerman to change his line of thinking, said, "Cimmerman, can I ask you a question? Suppose I were to steal your coat, put it on, and break into a bank. Suppose further that the police sighted me running in the distance but could not catch up with me. One clue, however, put them onto your track; they recognized your coat. What would you say to them if they came to your house and accused you of breaking into the bank?"
"I would deny it," said Cimmerman.
"'Ah, but we saw your coat,' they would say," retorted Jakov.
This analogy quite annoyed Cimmerman, who ordered Jakov to leave his home.
Jakov continued to return to the village periodically just to befriend Cimmerman, encourage him, and share the love of Christ with him.
Finally, one day Cimmerman asked Jakov, "How does one become a Christian?" and Jakov taught him the simple steps of repentance for sin and of trust in the work of Jesus Christ and gently pointed him to the Shepherd of his soul. Cimmerman bent his knee on the soil with his head bowed and surrendered his life to Christ. As he rose to his feet, wiping his tears, he embraced Jakov and said, "Thank you for being in my life." And then he pointed to the heavens and whispered, "You wear His coat very well."
That's our calling too! We are called to wear His “coat” before a watching world. When we do, when we live out our mission, we will see God, the church, and our world differently. We'll have the heart of the Apostle Paul who cried out in Romans 9, "I speak the truth in Christ-I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit-I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel." That’s one of those shock verses in the New Testament. Paul was willing to go to Hell to see others come to the Lord.
I’m not there, yet I find every day that there is more of Scott that I want to put on the altar, more of Scott that I’m willing to have reJesused to reach my world. Surely, we can let Jesus live through us and our church so that others will see Jesus truly living in us! It's time to reJesus the church!
My friend, the world around us is disillusioned, confused, searching and dying. They need the Savior...how well are we wearing His coat!?!