Who is Jesus?
Chi Rho aureloe, central section, “Paul’s Call,” art-glass window, FPCE.
SIXTH IN A SERMON SERIES, “CONFIRMATION FOR ADULTS,” ISAIAH 53:1-6; JOHN 3:16-21
THE REV. JOHN HEMBRUCH, D.MIN. + MARCH 8, 2020
We continue the sermon series “Confirmation for Adults,” with part 6 of 11. The first five sermons all may be found on my blog. This past Sunday’s sermon contained a primary statement of Jesus’ identity. From the perspective of the Gospel of John, Jesus is the Word who was with God from the beginning, the Word within the words of scripture. Today, we continue to focus on Jesus as we work toward answering the question, “Who is Jesus?”
For a period of twenty years beginning in 1985, a group of Bible scholars known as the “Jesus Seminar” met regularly in an effort to answer questions about who Jesus is, and what really can be known of his life, ministry, and teaching. Each time they met, they would take as their subject all the research upon one particular biblical teaching of Jesus. At the end of each meeting, the scholars would vote on their belief in the historical accuracy of that teaching. In its heyday, each meeting’s vote was as exciting for Bible scholars as a presidential primary is for political pundits.
The scholars voted by casting one of four differently colored beads into a ballot box. “The different colors - red, pink, gray, and black - represent a spectrum of historical probability. A red vote means, ‘I’m pretty sure Jesus said that’; pink, somewhere between ‘probably’ and ‘more likely yes than no’; gray, somewhere between ‘more likely no than yes’ and ‘probably not’; and black, ‘I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t say that.’”
You probably can guess what the Jesus Seminar thought of today’s gospel reading. Most Bible scholars believe the Gospel of John was written last. For several generations, New Testament studies have presented John as a highly stylized rendition of the Gospel, with Jesus’ life reinterpreted with philosophical concepts taken over from the Greeks. And so it is no surprise that the Jesus Seminar votes on most of the Gospel of John with a gray-probably-not or black-I’m-pretty-sure-Jesus-didn’t-say-that bead.
That kind of vote casts a shadow over the Gospel of John for many Christians. Because of the knowledge revealed by contemporary scholarship, some have a difficult time appreciating the Gospel of John. If Jesus didn’t literally speak some of the words attributed to him, then how can we answer with confidence the question, “Who is Jesus?”
Marcus Borg was a primary figure in the Jesus Seminar, who wrote a popular book entitled, “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time.” In it, he shared his struggle with the impact of scholarly criticism on the life of faith. He took our gospel lesson for today as the starting point for describing his spiritual and intellectual journey, a journey that may be instructive for us.
Borg started with his childhood memories of Sunday school, remembering pictures of pastoral scenes, Jesus the Good Shepherd of his sheep, and the recitation of his beloved memory verse: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you asked him at this stage of life, “Who is Jesus?” he would have answered that Jesus is the divine Son of God who died for the sins of the world.
As Borg grew through teen years and into early adulthood, his college training taught him to be critical of sacred history, and he learned to de-emphasize the miraculous stories of the Bible. He learned there was a difference between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. There came a point where he actually felt angry toward the Gospel of John, when he learned that it might not be a literal portrayal of the historical Jesus. And so his focus turned to the other gospels, the powerful words recorded in Matthew’s sermon on the mount. If you asked him then “Who is Jesus” he might have answered that he was the Master Teacher who taught the Great Commandments to love God and neighbor, and the Golden Rule of doing to others as you would have them do to you.
In his mid-thirties, Borg had a number of mystical experiences of God. In the terminology of Rudolf Otto, these were experiences of the “numinous,” i.e. the awe-inspired and wonder-evoking “holy,” the tremendous, overwhelming mystery that elicits trembling even as it attracts one in a compelling manner. If you had asked Marcus Borg during this period, “Who is Jesus?” then might have answered that Jesus is a charismatic, holy prophet, deeply in tune with the movement of God’s Spirit.Marcus Borg began to realize that if his personal understanding of Jesus could develop and grow over time, then it is ok that the Church’s understanding of Jesus grew and developed, too. He came to understand that when you ask the question “Who is Jesus,” the gospels tend to give us two categories of answers. Sometimes the Bible answers by telling about the “pre-Easter Jesus,” i.e. Jesus as he understood his identity and mission before the events of Holy Week. These answers tend to tell us more about the human nature of Jesus. He is Spirit-filled mystic, faith healer, wise prophet, and religious reformer. And, sometimes, the Bible answers by telling about the “post-Easter Jesus,” as his followers experienced him based upon the events of his crucifixion and resurrection. These answers tend to tell us more about the divine nature of Jesus. He is Messiah, Savior of the world, son of God. It’s not as simple as keeping one part, because it appears reasonable from today’s standards, and throwing out the other because it does not. Each kind of text carries weight and authority.
Borg’s work and experience provide a model for other Christians. As I’ve said before in other sermons, a whole new world is opened when we approach portions of scripture like the Gospel of John, not as newspaper-reported history, but rather as spirit-inspired theology. It’s ok not to take the Bible literally in all cases, and instead take it seriously, on its own terms, for what it tells about Jesus Christ, the Word within the words.
Borg says, “This awareness has helped me to see the gospel of John in a new light. The anger I felt toward John when I first learned it was not an accurate portrayal of the historical Jesus has been replaced by a deep appreciation . . . . Why would the early Christian community . . . portray Jesus as saying . . . ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life . . . ? I now see the answer: this is how they experienced the post-Easter Jesus. For them, the post-Easter Jesus was the light that led them out of darkness, the spiritual food that nourished them in the midst of their journey, the way that led them from death to life.”
A sermon like this one likely will come across as left-brained and full of complicated thoughts, so I’d like to spend just a moment operating out of my right brain, and helping you understand why I feel a proper understanding of the Bible and Jesus are so important.
A former confirmation student, with whom I was speaking a few years ago, shared his perspective that he felt he was leaning toward being an atheist, and perhaps already was there. He had grown up in the church; he was Sunday-schooled, Bible-schooled, and thoroughly socialized in youth group. But no one had ever helped him move beyond his childhood understanding of Bible stories to a more adult-like appreciation of the Bible’s diverse literary genres. No one had ever helped him appreciate that it was ok to see Jesus as more than the two-dimensional portrait on a Sunday school wall, to know Jesus both as profoundly human in every respect, yet also God’s divine Word within and underneath the words of the Bible. The fact that today a life based on following Jesus seems irrelevant to him leaves a pastor like me quite sad.
I tell our students that confirmation is not the destination, but rather a milestone on a lifelong journey of faith. For those of us well beyond confirmation, it’s important to realize that when faced with the question, “Who is Jesus?” we will answer it in different ways during different periods in our lifetime. The relationship we have with Jesus as an adult is different than the one we had as a child. The experiences and needs and dreams and goals we bring to Jesus today have changed from the ones we brought a decade ago.
As we meet Jesus again and again, as we see, and understand, and experience him in different ways, may the verse we learned in childhood be a part of the answer that always rings true. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
