Undercover Jesus John

Undercover Jesus John 1.1-14 Hands up if you received a DVD this Christmas? DVD s are handy presents, aren t they? Easy to buy and locate, entertaining to receive. I guess the only problem is that no matter how you wrap them they still look like DVDs so you can t really surprise people. Anyway, as a way of introducing my theme this morning, we re going to talk a little bit about DVD titles. I m going to put some DVD titles up on the screen and I d like you to think about which title best sums up for you what Christmas is all about. No need to raise your hand, just have a think about it. First title: Simply Ming: Cooking with friends and family I don t know whether you ve heard of this guy, but he s one of the many TV chefs out there, And the title of this DVD is Cooking with Friends and Family. Maybe that summarizes Christmas for you. You spend a lot of time in the kitchen, but you love it because its food prepared in love as they say. Or maybe this title is more accurate: Grimm s Fairy Tales. That s all Christmas is: a made up story that s good for kids and teaches them a few good morals. It s something that s good for a time but you soon graduate from it. File it under fantasy, that s where it belongs. Or maybe this third title is better: Survivor. Just get me to the end of it and I ll be happy you find yourself saying. You battle through the shopping, you battle through the food prep, you battle through awkward conversations with relatives over lunch. And then you collapse in a heap at the end of it. Maybe that s how you think of Christmas. But as I was thinking about the message of Christmas and as I was reflecting on the bible passage that we set for this morning there was one other DVD title that sprung to mind: Undercover Boss. You may or may not be familiar with the premise of the show, but what happens in Undercover Boss is that CEOs leave the executive suite and they spend some time on the factory floor (or on the production line, or in the shop front) working incognito with the rank and file. 1

Now I m sure some of you are thinking What s that got to do with Christmas? And I admit, the concept is a little left field and it s a far from perfect analogy, but as I read John Chapter 1, I do see some parallels between the premise of the show and what we Christians believe happened during that first Christmas. Let me show you what I mean. Open up John 1, and we ll begin by looking at the first few verses, starting with the very first phrase: In the beginning was the Word, To understand what John is saying here you need to understand the context in which John was writing. He was writing at a time when people had this religious concept called the word. The word was like this force that was heavenly in origin but not quite the same as a god, and it was sent by god (or the gods) to organize things in the world. It was a common religious idea at the time. And what John is doing is he s taking this concept and he s correcting it a little bit so that it becomes an accurate way of describing Jesus; he s adopting the language of the day and giving it new meaning. It s as if John is saying to the world around him You guys have almost got it. Yes, there is a powerful thing that has been sent by God into the world. But it s not an impersonal force, rather it s a person who is God himself. This word that you re looking for is in fact Jesus Christ. And as the Word, Jesus was with God, John says. Jesus has a heavenly origin. and the Word was God. Here s the bit where John s correcting the concept. Jesus isn t some kind of lesser heavenly being. Not at all. Rather, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, Jesus is God himself. And because he is God, Jesus does God like things. He acts like a cosmic boss. If the universe were a tower in the CBD Jesus would have the corner office. Verse 3: Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. Often human bosses are lauded for building empires. Henry T Ford had a dream of selling a car to every household in the US. I believe Bill Gates had a similar vision when it came to PC s and software. These bosses built empires. But that s nothing compared to building an entire universe. That s the claim made for Jesus here when we read that without him nothing was made that has been made. Jesus is behind everything that we see. Other times bosses are lauded for their entrepreneurial skills, for their ability to create jobs and expand industry. In our western society we need leaders who are going to create opportunities, because those opportunities give people the chance to work and get paid. And its not only leaders in the profit driven world, we need leaders who are creating space for the less fortunate too. 2

If you think about it, and this is hard for us Aussies to swallow I know, but very often leaders are responsible for our lives; they re creating opportunities for us and they create space for us And it s no different when we re considering Jesus. Verse 4: In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. John is saying that whether we realize it or not, there is a vital connection between our very existence and Jesus Christ. He is the conduit through which we receive our very capacity to live. Mediated of course through all the different process and systems that are in place here in the universe, both natural and engineered by human minds. But when we get to the very top of this organization which we call planet earth, there sits Jesus. He s the one who is in the first chair. He s the one who gives shape to our world, he s the one who makes life possible. And at on that very first Christmas day, he left his corner office on the top floor, and he joined in with the lowest ranks. Born in a shed next to the animals, to a father who we presume would die before Jesus came of age, to a mother who would for the rest of her lifetime would live under society s judgment for having a baby out of wedlock. Jesus felt what it was like to start at the bottom. John puts it this way if you skip down to verse 14: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. In other words, his demotion was full and complete. This was no quick visit to the production line in the morning and then back up to the executive lunch room with all the finery. Jesus set up camp as one of us; he slept as we sleep, he ate as we eat (In fact, we probably sleep and eat a whole lot better than he ever did); and he felt what we feel and feared what we fear. God himself experienced all that we experience in the human condition. Good on him! That s what you feel when you watch a show like Undercover Boss isn t it? Good on them for giving it a go. They re not too proud to don an apron, to give up what s comfortable for them. And this is exactly what Jesus decided to do. He gave up all the privilege that came with being with God, in order to become one of us. Corner- office Jesus became factory- floor Jesus And so how does this cosmic episode of Undercover Boss work out? Well, in the regular episodes of the series the Boss is incognito but then comes the big reveal. That big reveal provides a big part of the narrative; we want to see how the rank and file react. It s the same with the story we read in the Bible about Jesus. At times Jesus is secretive about who he is, but the big moments come when he reveals something about himself and we see people s reaction. Now, as if to prepare us ahead of time, John tells us how people will react. Verse 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. If you read through the rest of John s Gospel you ll see that Jesus does some amazing things that reveal who he really is, but equally amazing are people s responses! At one point 3

after doing all these miracles Jesus says that he has come down from heaven, and the people don t buy it, even though they ve witnessed all these events Bah! they say Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his family, How can he now say, I came down from heaven? It s an incredible response. And we see it today don t we? It s Kids stuff, fairy tales! If Jesus did exist then he was little more than a successful Rabbi who managed to pull off a few magic tricks. It s a like a worker on the TV show saying, Oh that guy just looks like the boss. In fact I don t think the boss really exists. I mean, can you imagine if someone on the TV show actually said that? I don t believe there is a corner office on the top floor of a building because I ve never been there can t exist if I ve never seen it. All we have is this production line, and that s it. How ridiculous. What is most sad is that these people exclude themselves from what the boss wants to do for them. When I was thinking about this illustration I actually had hesitations in using it. Because who actually likes their boss? I mean even if you have a great boss, do you notice that everyone s just that little bit more relaxed when the boss is away? Oh she s not going to ask me about that report. Oh, maybe I can leave early and not feel guilty. The boss always brings out some mood of reservation within you, and here I am comparing Jesus to a boss! Perhaps that s not a bad thing to think when we are speaking about Jesus; he is worthy of respect and we ought not to treat him lightly. But if you are going to have a boss (and in life we cant really avoid having them), then you want one who s going to be a help, not a hindrance one who s going to do things for you rather than just be critical. This is the plan Jesus has in coming into our world. John 3.17 says For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. As the boss, Jesus has a clear preference as to what action he wants to take. He doesn t want to condemn us, he wants to do something for us, even though we may not be that impressive as we stand there in front of him. This is one of the tensions that makes Undercover Boss interesting viewing. What if the boss sees something she doesn t like? What if she finds herself next to bad workers? Will the Boss loose her temper? Will she fire that employee? Well, Jesus didn t have to become one of us to see us in our weakness, Given that he s God and has existed forever, he sees everything! He sees our imperfections, he sees our sins. But the amazing thing is that instead of condemning us he decides to do something for us; he decides to forgive us, retrain us and reassign us into his service. And in the end he actually wants to promote us into his position. Have a look at v12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband s will, but born of God You see John explains that not only is Jesus the word, but that he s also God s own Son and that he wants us to be promoted into that position as well. Jesus comes down to the factory floor to experience life with us, and then when it comes time to get in that lift and go back up to the c- suite he offers to take us with him. And we can 4

go, provided we let go of our cynicism and we take up a firm belief that Jesus is the word and that he is God s own Son who wants to do something for us. So sure, this concept of Jesus being an Undercover Boss, it ought not to be treated flippantly. But it needn t crush us. Rather it s a cause for celebration. The boss has come into our world, and he has some news for us. What news is it? A redundancy? An invitation to stay back and work extra hard? A negative performance review? No. He brings with him a wonderful offer: a promotion into his world where we too can enjoy all the privileges of being with God. Will you allow me to lead us in prayer? Father, we thank you for the willingness of your Son to step into our world. We thank you that he comes with a willingness to serve and not to be served. To promote and not to demote. We believe that he is that one whom the ancients called the word, we believe that he is your son, that he is fully God. We honour him this morning as the one with all authority, and we accept what he has to offer us, a share in his own privileged position. And we thank you for this grace extended to us. Amen. 5