“But Who Is He?”
July 10, 2022
Dear brothers and sisters, grace
and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, Amen.
Jesus is everywhere! Well yes, we know that already: we know Jesus is everywhere because He is God, but that’s not what we mean at the moment. Instead, if we think about it, Jesus is more a part of our culture than we realize. Pictures, images, and statues of Jesus can show up in the most unexpected places, whether it’s in a cartoon, in an ad, or in a song. Jesus is even frequently invoked to justify various opinions or causes. But what all of these do is cause confusion about who Jesus really is – different images of Jesus show Him in different ways, but few of them really show who Jesus is.
So who is Jesus? The answer is
probably easier than we imagine: Jesus is Jesus. Jesus is the one who came to
show us all God’s love by healing the sick, raising the dead, and helping
people in every kind of need. He is the one who came to tell everyone that God
is free and fully accessible to all people. Most importantly, He is also the
one who came to suffer and die to save us from the power of sin and death, to
die as a sacrifice for all our sins, past, present, and future. Jesus’
suffering had even been predicted long before by the Prophet Zechariah, whose
words we hear in today’s First Reading: in verse 10, it says “They will look on
me, the one they have pierced.” As Zechariah also prophesies, God even promises
victory through Jesus’ suffering and death, as all the enemies which come
against us, especially sin, death, and the devil, are destroyed by Jesus’
rising again from the dead. But He is more than a historical figure who just
did things in the past: He is a real person, someone who is still here with us
today. He is our King, but He is still here close to us. Just as He was when He
was on earth, He is freely and fully accessible to everyone – especially to
you. As many of us have experienced just this week, He answers prayer for
everyone who needs any kind of healing, and hears and answers prayers of
everyone who asks Him for help. He is our best friend – He is your best friend
– someone you can go to at any time, who you know always has your back,
supports you, cares for you, and loves you. He is someone who, no matter how
close you may feel to Him, always keeps close to you. He will never let you
down or disappoint you, but will always do what He promises for you.
But, here’s what each of us can
be thinking about this morning, maybe something we don’t think about all that
often: what does Jesus mean to you? When you think of Jesus, who is He to you?
Not just what has He done for you, but what kind of relationship do you have
with Him? How important is He to you? What does it mean for you to follow
Jesus? And this is actually something for which, for each of us here today,
there may not be a single answer. Jesus means different things to each of us,
because each of us have had a different experience with Jesus. Jesus has helped
us and spoken to us in many different ways. But if we were to ask each other,
and ask other people, who Jesus is and what He means, every answer we give, or
other people give, is perfectly valid. No one answer is more correct or
incorrect than the other, because Jesus helps us in many different ways, ways
that He has been able to help us best at any given time. But all of these
experiences we have had with Jesus have one thing in common: they are meant to
bring us to where He wants us to be. As we talked about last week, being
crucified with Jesus means letting who we used to be, especially everything
that has been harmful to us, die, and a new, and better self, replace who we
used to be. It means letting go of all of our old habits, thought patterns,
actions, reactions, and instincts, and letting Jesus replace them with a new
way of being. This is what it means to deny ourselves: to let go of who we are,
especially what is not where God wants us to be, and allow God to change us. Here,
we have to be clear, though: this does not mean that everyone is expected to
end up becoming the exact same way, nor are we to expect to end up exactly like
other particular Christians we know. The outcome of where Jesus is leading each
of us and how He is changing us is different and unique for each of us. We
certainly are not to assume that everyone is going to have the exact same
behavior and lifestyle as a result of believing in Jesus, nor are we to try to
impose a certain kind of way of being on each other or on everyone else.
Instead, following Jesus means freedom – giving ourselves the freedom to be
transformed by Jesus, with whatever happens being between us individually and
Him; and letting others be transformed by Jesus, becoming themselves, and who
Jesus is helping them to become. It also means freedom from having to think
that following Jesus means living according to a certain set of rules or laws.
As Paul points out in today’s Second Reading from Galatians, now that Jesus has
come, we are free from having to think that living by a law code, especially to
prove that we are good people or good enough people. Instead, it means being
free to be ourselves, who God helped us become, and allowing others the freedom
to be themselves and who God has made them.
However, this does not mean that
following Jesus is always easy. Following Jesus is a life of becoming, as well
as being. As we become who we are meant to be, there is often a lot of struggle
involved. Every day we are involved in this struggle: the best kind of example
is cleaning out a closet or a room. Our struggle is what to keep and what to
throw away, and trying to figure out what we need or don’t need any more. We
try to figure out what’s just taking up space, or what we can actually use. And
that’s what following Jesus means: throwing away what we don’t need any more,
what’s just been taking up space in our lives, something we may think is useful
or even enjoyable for us, but has been keeping us from moving forward. This
struggle might even involve pain, since some things we have held on to tightly
for so long, things we have thought were important to us, are painful to let go
of – but necessary to let go of. Sometimes, following Jesus may even mean
following Him to places we don’t expect, or maybe even in directions we may not
have wanted to go in the first place. But when we get there, we find that where
He has led us has turned out to be the best thing we’ve needed. Even though we
can’t see the end of where Jesus is leading us, we can still trust that what we
are becoming is who we are meant to be. But it means having a great amount of
trust, something which itself can be a challenge. We want to be completely in
control, to be able to make all our decisions entirely on our own, and to have
everything planned out down to the last detail. But following Jesus means
surrendering any desire to be in control, and plan out everything ourselves:
instead, it means letting Jesus take charge and determine our direction. It
does not mean that where we end up will be the same as where someone else we
know has ended up or will end up, but instead where Jesus knows we are to be.
And, when we trust and follow Jesus, where we are will often be more wonderful
than we could ever hope for. Jesus Himself, after suffering and dying, rose
again in victory. If we continue to follow Jesus, and trust where He is leading
us, we too will end up in victory. Even though not all the problems we face in
this life will be overcome, we still have the promise that, ultimately, we will
live with Jesus forever. We are also to support and encourage each other as we
each struggle, and pray for each other to be able to follow where Jesus leads.
And as we each follow Jesus in our own way, let us continue to be changed by
Him.
Now may the peace of God, which
passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord,
Amen.
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