This is the third sermon in our series on Christology the study of Jesus.

Transcription

1 Jesus: God s humanity revealed Mark 1: 9 15 Suzanne Knight This is the third sermon in our series on Christology the study of Jesus. When I was at Theological College 11 years ago I can remember grappling with an essay title which was something like; Compare and contrast the Christology from above and the Christology from below I had no idea what it was talking about and I hadn t a clue how I was going to answer the question let alone write 3000 words on the subject and looking around at some of your faces, you have no idea either! I can remember asking Tony what it meant and he explained it all to me as an academic term for the study of Jesus as man with some divine qualities and Jesus as divine with some human qualities. And I just thought why on earth do scholars complicate things so much and why do I need to remember or even use the term Christology from above or below? But when Vincent asked me to preach on the humanity of Christ It was like I had a memory recall moment! Do you know what I mean - when the lights go on? I think I said to Vincent oh yes so you want me to preach on a Christology from below and Richard spoke a couple of weeks ago on a Christology from above. So here we are 11 years on and it s still there in the cobwebs of my brain. Now I am going to try to talk to you today for ten minutes or so on a few things that I have found as I have studied this a bit further and I pray that you may be drawn closer in worship to the man Jesus and that we will be caught up in love, wonder, and praise of our blessed Lord Jesus. Jesus, we know, has many names and titles. We also have very different ideas of what he means for us. He is son of God, The Son of Man, Saviour, Messiah, King of kings, Lord of lords. What we have reflected on least, perhaps, is his humanity, his being fully human. So, what does the Bible say? And what do we believe? Someone said to me: 'We get so taken up by the fact that Christ is God - and he is God - that we ignore the fact that he is also man. Jesus is man, because the Bible says he is. When you go through the Gospels, particularly the first chapters, you see that he was born of a human mother, he has human ancestry, he is of the seed of David and the Gospels refer to his family. It also tells us that he had a human appearance. If you think of John chapter 4 where you find the story of the woman at the well; so far as she was concerned, Jesus was - at first glance - just another hated Jew to her. There was nothing special about his appearance and nothing unusual about Him. And also you remember the story of two disciples that walked along the road to Emmaus after Jesus had been crucified and he came alongside them but to them he was just a stranger - another fellow man - and they couldn't understand why he hadn't heard what was going on in their home town. Even after the resurrection, you remember, Mary mistook him for the gardener. All of these things combined testify to the humanness of the physical appearance of Jesus.

2 But what sort of person was he? What does the Bible tell us about his humanity? What was he like as a fellow human being? How did he really treat other people? How was God present in his humanity? Our gospel reading two weeks ago was from John chapter 1 and Richard opened his talk with in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. A little further on verse 14 tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He didn't just look like it and he didn't just pretend. He actually became flesh, he became human. His hunger was real, his tiredness was real, his pain was real and his death was real. When his flesh was subjected to more stress than it could handle, he died. Based on all that I have read in the New Testament, it is clear to me that Jesus was just as human as we are. He was lonely, hungry, angry and upset. He felt pain, he felt abandoned by God, he got tired out, and even so exhausted that he fell asleep on a cushion at the back of a boat. He was compassionate, especially in his dealings with young children, embracing them and blessing them. He was grateful when Mary poured pure nard over his feet and wiped them with her hair. He laughed and he cried when his best friend Lazarus died and he felt grief and sorrow. As a child, like all human children Jesus had conflicts with his parents and had to be disciplined so there were family difficulties too just as there are in all families, Jesus had to learn obedience to his Father, just as we all do. The relations he had with his friends were also full of very human touches. He travelled about in the company of men and women, sharing with them the close contacts of daily life. However he also had his opponents who came up against him, awkward people who tried to trick him and catch him out but - he drew strength to deal with all the questioners, and outsiders and he also tried to meet their needs. And another thing he did that all humans do, he grew and matured in the company of his parents, of the men and women who were his disciples. He grew and matured in the company of all the men and women who challenged him. They gave him something and he gave them something. It s only in our interactions with each other that we learn and it s only in our friendships and conflicts that we grow and mature in our humanity. And it was in this human way that the divinity of Jesus became visible, became tangible to those around him and active in the world. Throughout our lives we are expected to grow in our knowledge of God, learning from the trials which we experience in life. In this, Jesus was our great example. He did not have complete knowledge of God beamed into him any more than we have. The Bible says from childhood "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, in other words he grew physically and he grew spiritually. And by following his example he wants us all to grow spiritually.

3 Now let s move on to look at how God was present in Jesus' humanity? Our Gospel reading today started with Jesus Baptism but we have to ask; Why Did Jesus get baptized? If baptism is about turning away from all that is wrong in our lives and being cleansed of our sins, why did Jesus who was without sin need baptism? Jesus came to John at the Jordan intentionally. As he was just beginning his ministry and this was important. He signified publicly that he was committed to honoring the promises he had made to his Heavenly Father. By choosing to be baptized at the start of his mission, he set an example for us all to follow. We learn that no one is exempt from the commandments of God, not even Jesus. If He needed to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness as the Bible says, or to reveal the will of God then surely we do as well. As we are one with Christ we are baptized in the same way that Jesus was. We come out of obedience to God to receive the Holy Spirit. At Jesus' baptism, Father, Son and Holy Spirit were present. So, it is at our baptism. We are baptized in the presence and in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we have a mission to minister to people the Good News of Jesus Christ in our lives. After Jesus baptism he was lead out into the wilderness and he was tempted by the Devil. In his desert experience Jesus suffered and grew weak. And in his weakness he was tempted. He was tempted to doubt that God would provide all that he needed. He was hungry, it would have been easy to turn the stones into bread but that would only have been a temporary satisfaction, it would never have been enough because man cannot live on bread alone. Next his faith in God was tested how much did he trust God? And thirdly his obedience to follow God was tested. have you been there? I know I have, it s not an easy or comfortable place to be is it? But isn t it comforting to know that Jesus was there too, yes even Jesus who is God was tempted as we are but he never fell into sin as we do. The forty days in the desert was not the only time Jesus was tempted. Heb 4:15 says that Jesus was tempted in every way that we are. There was no freedom from temptation for Jesus just as there isn t for us. The temptations of Jesus were real. The Bible says: "Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." (Heb 2:18) From the temptations of Jesus in Matt.4: 1-11 we can learn two important things: First, to know the process of temptation, and Second, how to overcome temptation. We must take the humanity of Jesus seriously. He overcame temptation and in this he is an example to us all. Finally I want to say something about verse 15. The right time has come the Kingdom of God is near. After John's ministry ended with his imprisonment by King Herod, Jesus began his ministry. And his message was there was no need to wait any longer. The time that was pre-determined by God had come into completion. God had taken care of everything. There were no missing pieces to the plan. All was set. The power of God was present. The mercy of God was available. The time was fulfilled. The

4 Kingdom was at hand. This was not the time to wait. It was time to act. "Repent, and believe the good news." There is no better time to say "yes" to God; and Jesus in his humanity has fulfilled the time. He has brought the Kingdom near. The time is right for getting right with God. So, what are you waiting for? Sometimes we think that a better time will come along for getting serious with God. Mostly we think this way when we think of God as a big inconvenience in our life. We're doing fine with our lives. We're making good progress toward our goals. We're developing nicely on our own, but then you don t know what s waiting just around the corner. To conclude -- Jesus is both God and fully human. Because Jesus is fully human, and lived his life on earth subject to the same pressures and temptations we face, he can sympathize with us in our trials and temptations, he can strengthen us, and make it possible for us to live as he did. We, therefore, have no excuse for our sins. It is only because Jesus was a man like us that his death could atone for our sins. And it is only because he was a man that his resurrection gives us the hope of the resurrection. He now appears before his Father for us, as our advocate, because he is like us he has experienced life as a human being so he knows what life is like. But let us suppose just for a moment that he had been only human. How could he have helped us? His sympathy would have been of little help because we need not only human sympathy, we need divine power! But Jesus was fully human and he is fully God. He is willing and able to hep us and save us; are we willing and able to put our trust in him?

5 Jesus: God s humanity revealed Mark 1: 9 15 Suzanne Knight This is the third sermon in our series on Christology the study of Jesus. When I was at Theological College 11 years ago I can remember grappling with an essay title which was something like; Compare and contrast the Christology from above and the Christology from below I had no idea what it was talking about and I hadn t a clue how I was going to answer the question let alone write 3000 words on the subject and looking around at some of your faces, you have no idea either! I can remember asking Tony what it meant and he explained it all to me as an academic term for the study of Jesus as man with some divine qualities and Jesus as divine with some human qualities. And I just thought why on earth do scholars complicate things so much and why do I need to remember or even use the term Christology from above or below? But when Vincent asked me to preach on the humanity of Christ It was like I had a memory recall moment! Do you know what I mean - when the lights go on? I think I said to Vincent oh yes so you want me to preach on a Christology from below and Richard spoke a couple of weeks ago on a Christology from above. So here we are 11 years on and it s still there in the cobwebs of my brain. Now I am going to try to talk to you today for ten minutes or so on a few things that I have found as I have studied this a bit further and I pray that you may be drawn closer in worship to the man Jesus and that we will be caught up in love, wonder, and praise of our blessed Lord Jesus. Jesus, we know, has many names and titles. We also have very different ideas of what he means for us. He is son of God, The Son of Man, Saviour, Messiah, King of kings, Lord of lords. What we have reflected on least, perhaps, is his humanity, his being fully human. So, what does the Bible say? And what do we believe? Someone said to me: 'We get so taken up by the fact that Christ is God - and he is God - that we ignore the fact that he is also man. Jesus is man, because the Bible says he is. When you go through the Gospels, particularly the first chapters, you see that he was born of a human mother, he has human ancestry, he is of the seed of David and the Gospels refer to his family. It also tells us that he had a human appearance. If you think of John chapter 4 where you find the story of the woman at the well; so far as she was concerned, Jesus was - at first glance - just another hated Jew to her. There was nothing special about his appearance and nothing unusual about Him. And also you remember the story of two disciples that walked along the road to Emmaus after Jesus had been crucified and he came alongside them but to them he was just a stranger - another fellow man - and they couldn't understand why he hadn't heard what was going on in their home town. Even after the resurrection, you remember, Mary mistook him for the gardener. All of these things combined testify to the humanness of the physical appearance of Jesus. But what sort of person was he? What does the Bible tell us about his humanity? What was he like as a fellow human being? How did he really treat other people? How was God present in his humanity? Our gospel reading two weeks ago was from John chapter 1 and Richard opened his talk with in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. A little further on verse 14 tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He didn't just look like it and he didn't just pretend. He actually became flesh, he became human. His hunger was real, his tiredness was real, his pain was real and his death was real. When his flesh was subjected to more stress than it could handle, he died.

6 Based on all that I have read in the New Testament, it is clear to me that Jesus was just as human as we are. He was lonely, hungry, angry and upset. He felt pain, he felt abandoned by God, he got tired out, and even so exhausted that he fell asleep on a cushion at the back of a boat. He was compassionate, especially in his dealings with young children, embracing them and blessing them. He was grateful when Mary poured pure nard over his feet and wiped them with her hair. He laughed and he cried when his best friend Lazarus died and he felt grief and sorrow. As a child, like all human children Jesus had conflicts with his parents and had to be disciplined so there were family difficulties too just as there are in all families, Jesus had to learn obedience to his Father, just as we all do. The relations he had with his friends were also full of very human touches. He travelled about in the company of men and women, sharing with them the close contacts of daily life. However he also had his opponents who came up against him, awkward people who tried to trick him and catch him out but - he drew strength to deal with all the questioners, and outsiders and he also tried to meet their needs. And another thing he did that all humans do, he grew and matured in the company of his parents, of the men and women who were his disciples. He grew and matured in the company of all the men and women who challenged him. They gave him something and he gave them something. It s only in our interactions with each other that we learn and it s only in our friendships and conflicts that we grow and mature in our humanity. And it was in this human way that the divinity of Jesus became visible, became tangible to those around him and active in the world. Throughout our lives we are expected to grow in our knowledge of God, learning from the trials which we experience in life. In this, Jesus was our great example. He did not have complete knowledge of God beamed into him any more than we have. The Bible says from childhood "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, in other words he grew physically and he grew spiritually. And by following his example he wants us all to grow spiritually. Now let s move on to look at how God was present in Jesus' humanity? Our Gospel reading today started with Jesus Baptism but we have to ask; Why Did Jesus get baptized? If baptism is about turning away from all that is wrong in our lives and being cleansed of our sins, why did Jesus who was without sin need baptism? Jesus came to John at the Jordan intentionally. As he was just beginning his ministry and this was important. He signified publicly that he was committed to honoring the promises he had made to his Heavenly Father. By choosing to be baptized at the start of his mission, he set an example for us all to follow. We learn that no one is exempt from the commandments of God, not even Jesus. If He needed to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness as the Bible says, or to reveal the will of God then surely we do as well. As we are one with Christ we are baptized in the same way that Jesus was. We come out of obedience to God to receive the Holy Spirit. At Jesus' baptism, Father, Son and Holy Spirit were present. So, it is at our baptism. We are baptized in the presence and in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we have a mission to minister to people the Good News of Jesus Christ in our lives. After Jesus baptism he was lead out into the wilderness and he was tempted by the Devil. In his desert experience Jesus suffered and grew weak. And in his weakness he was tempted. He was tempted to doubt that God would provide all that he needed. He was hungry, it would have been easy to turn the stones into bread but that would only have been a temporary satisfaction, it would never have been enough. Next his faith in God was tested how much did he trust God? And thirdly his obedience to follow God was tested. have you been there? I know I have, it s not an easy or comfortable place to be is it? But isn t it comforting to know that Jesus was there too, yes even Jesus who is God was tempted as we are but he never fell into sin as

7 we do. The forty days in the desert was not the only time Jesus was tempted. Heb 4:15 says that Jesus was tempted in every way that we are. There was no freedom from temptation for Jesus just as there isn t for us. The temptations of Jesus were real. The Bible says: "Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." (Heb 2:18) From the temptations of Jesus in Matt.4: 1-11 we can learn two important things: First, to know the process of temptation, and Second, how to overcome temptation. We must take the humanity of Jesus seriously. He overcame temptation and in this he is an example to us all. Finally I want to say something about verse 15. The right time has come the Kingdom of God is near. After John's ministry ended with his imprisonment by King Herod, Jesus began his ministry. And his message was there was no need to wait any longer. The time that was pre-determined by God had come into completion. God had taken care of everything. There were no missing pieces to the plan. All was set. The power of God was present. The mercy of God was available. The time was fulfilled. The Kingdom was at hand. This was not the time to wait. It was time to act. "Repent, and believe the good news." There is no better time to say "yes" to God; and Jesus in his humanity has fulfilled the time. He has brought the Kingdom near. The time is right for getting right with God. So, what are you waiting for? Sometimes we think that a better time will come along for getting serious with God. Mostly we think this way when we think of God as a big inconvenience in our life. We're doing fine with our lives. We're making good progress toward our goals. We're developing nicely on our own, but then you don t know what s waiting just around the corner. To conclude -- Jesus is both God and fully human. Because Jesus is fully human, and lived his life on earth subject to the same pressures and temptations we face, he can sympathize with us in our trials and temptations, he can strengthen us, and make it possible for us to live as he did. We, therefore, have no excuse for our sins. It is only because Jesus was a man like us that his death could atone for our sins. And it is only because he was a man that his resurrection gives us the hope of the resurrection. He now appears before his Father for us, as our advocate, because he is like us he has experienced life as a human being so he knows what life is like. But let us suppose just for a moment that he had been only human. How could he have helped us? His sympathy would have been of little help because we need not only human sympathy, we need divine power! But Jesus was fully human and he is fully God. He is willing and able to hep us and save us; are we willing and able to put our trust in him?