Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up!

Decades ago, from 1950 – 1967, there was a popular television quiz show called “What’s My Line?”  A panel of so-called “experts” interviewed three guests by asking them yes and no questions.  The object was to determine the authentic guest and expose the two imposters.  The authentic guest usually had some rather bizarre occupation or done something unusual which the panel and audience were told about ahead of time.  At the end of the questioning the panel of experts (that included such people as Steve Allen, Dorothy Kilgallen, Bennett Cerf, and others) each guessed at which guest was authentic.  The moment of truth finally came.  John Daly, the moderator would finally say, “And will the real (whoever) please stand up.”

  “And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him.”  Luke 2:33

That is a very intriguing verse to me.  Even though the angel had come to Mary in the Annunciation; and to Joseph in Matthew’s gospel; and though there was the great hoopla of the angels and shepherds at his birth, the truth of who their child was to be and become was understandably going to take some time to sink in.  It was as if they hardly recognized their own child in terms of what was being said about him. 

The question for us is if the real Jesus were to come along would we recognize him? 

I saw two pictures of Jesus this week.  In one, Jesus was dressed up as a boxer.  His is leaning against the ropes in the corner of the boxing ring, holding his gloves.  He is well-tanned, very handsome with long flowing hair, and his visible arm has long rippling muscles, and you have the impression he just flattened an opponent.

In the other picture Jesus is draped in an American Flag and holding an assault rifle looking upwards. 

Personally, I found these pictures offensive on several levels.  In the first one I suppose the artist may have been thinking about Jesus’ victory over sin, death and the devil: kayoed, down and out for the count.  But Jesus didn’t defeat his arch-enemy with force, but rather with suffering love. 

In the second one, the artist was apparently thinking that Jesus is on our side and sanctions violent action against our enemies.  But if we take the Bible seriously, Jesus distanced himself from being cast as a military and nationalistic messiah and never advocated violence.

One thing is for sure.  No two people have the exact same image of Jesus, among believers and non-believers alike.  In fact, in one survey, almost 85% of Americans say they “believe” in Jesus on one level or another. In America, Jesus is very popular.   But the thing is, which Jesus are we talking about?

We Americans have a history of remaking Jesus to resemble our current hero-types. We Americans are very good at creating a cultural or American Jesus more often to resemble us - more than us resembling him.  Over the long haul, Jesus has been interpreted and reinterpreted, construed and misconstrued, in the messy context of American religious culture.

I believe that many of the images of Jesus that have popped up, and even lasted for long stretches, are images that have been largely disconnected from the Jesus of the Bible.  Once Jesus is disconnected from the scriptures, Americans, believers and non-believers alike, have felt free to create their own version of him.

There are many more images of Jesus that are, or have been, culturally and religiously popular than I could ever mention here this morning, but allow me to briefly describe some predominant ones.  Please understand, I have no intention of trivializing any of these images of Jesus.  I only intend to point out the plethora of Jesus images American Christian culture has produced, and how the Jesus you and I believe in may, more or less, resemble one or more of these. 

First, there is Jesus the great teacher.  This was the Jesus of Thomas Jefferson.   When Jefferson was president he scissored out of the gospels all the references to miracles and Jesus’ divinity, ending up with a slim volume he called The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth. Jefferson’s Jesus prayed to God and believed in an afterlife, but he did not die for anyone’s sins. In fact, this Jesus did not come to save, but to teach philosophical truths and sound morals.  

Another is Jesus the “Sweet Savior.”   This Jesus was the product of the evangelistic fervor of the 19th century. During that era, the style of preaching changed from doctrinal dissertations to the life of Jesus. The call of preaching was an invitation to an intimate walk with Jesus — so intimate, in fact, that preachers felt compelled to talk more about Jesus as a buddy whom we could come to know and hang out with, rather than a challenging Lord who demanded a rather fierce and dedicated discipleship.  To make this work, this Jesus had to be described as approachable and friendly, meek and mild, rather than challenging and demanding. The religion of this Jesus was not so much to be thought about as to be felt. Hymns like the maudlin “In the Garden” are typical of this era. Jesus is someone with whom you might have a rendezvous in a place where the “dew is still on the roses.”

A third American version of Jesus, is the “Manly Redeemer.   This Jesus is a muscular reaction to the Sweet Savior. Beginning in the late early 20th century Jesus as a testosterone-powered hero came elbowing his way onto the scene. Books with titles like The Masculine Power of Christ and The Manhood of the Master appeared. This Manly Redeemer was far more vigorous than the Sweet Savior.  We might say he was a Savior with sex appeal. This Jesus brought with him strenuous demands, and he was the one who was ready to lead Christians to war against the social ills of the culture as well as other identified evils.

The fourth and most recent incarnation of the American Jesus is the “Superstar.” In the 1960s, a Jesus movement began among the youth counterculture, and some started to see Jesus as a revolutionary, a leader of an underground Christian liberation movement. When that movement fizzled in the ‘70s, that Jesus emerged unscathed and became the subject of the rock musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell.  He was thereafter adopted by rock groups, rap singers and heavy metal bands as an upbeat guy who offers an experiential high that is better than drugs. Eventually this Jesus morphed into the figure appearing on T-Shirts, bumper stickers, posters and other collectables.  Much of the Christian music industry, as well as some seeker-sensitive mega-churches, is based upon this expression of Jesus.

If we were to continue our trip through mainstream American culture, there are other expressions of Jesus that have developed over time.  But certainly these I have mentioned, and adaptations and combinations of these four, continue to be a strong part of the formation of our image of Jesus.

If I reflect too long on this cultural collection of Jesus images I would echo the words of Luke in our gospel when he said, “and the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him.”

I would also likely echo the words of the old quiz show host, “Will the real Jesus please stand up.”

So what are we to do?  Which Jesus are we to believe in?  Are they all wrong?  Are they all right?  Does Jesus change depending on the circumstances and the context?  Where are we turn?

One place to begin is in today’s reading where Mary and Joseph encounter Simeon. This devout man had been looking “to the consolation of Israel,” the Messiah. When Simeon sees Jesus, he takes the baby in his arms, and praises God, for he knows that this one he is holding is the One he has been expecting.

Given that Jesus was still an infant, a skeptic overhearing Simeon’s expressions of praise might have thought Simeon was inventing a messiah to fit his own expectations. But note, that Simeon did not rely on his own hunch about this baby being the promised Messiah. Rather Luke tells us there were two critical factors in his declaration about Jesus. 

            First, when the gospel writer Luke tells us that Simeon was “looking forward to the consolation of Israel,” Luke is saying that Simeon was steeped in the Hebrew Scriptures. The term “the consolation of Israel” derives from references in the book of Isaiah to God comforting the people by redeeming them (Isaiah 40:1-2; 52:9). So first, Simeon was basing his pronouncement about Jesus on Scripture.

            Second, Luke tells us that Simeon was being guided by the Holy Spirit.

These two sources of understanding, the Scripture and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, still stand today as the means of deciding who Jesus is. In my own life, it is these two sources that need to be in harmony in my shaping of Jesus.  I believe that one never trumps the other, but the two are to be in harmony with one another.  So obviously, if you are going to take a scissors to the gospels as Jefferson did, I rather doubt it was the Holy Spirit guiding him.  You are not going to get the bigger picture, but get a very truncated and incomplete image of Jesus.  

When Luther make his heroic stand in the face of the ecclesiastical authorities after be ordered to recant, he said that unless it could be proven to him by using the scripture and plain reason that his beliefs were blasphemy, he could not and would not recant. 

There is no way we will ever come to a total consensus of who Jesus is.  And that’s OK.  The reason being there is a very personal element in our relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.  We can look in the gospels and see that he related to different people and diverse personalities in a range of ways at various times.  Sometimes he was affirming; sometimes admonishing; sometimes compassionate; sometimes confronting; sometimes challenging; sometimes reflective and prayerful; sometimes angry; sometimes forgiving; but always, in whatever he did and said, the love of God His Father was behind it.    In my own life I find that Jesus always gives me what He knows I need, not what I want him to be for me. 

We must begin and base our conceptions and images of Jesus, first of all, on the scripture and rely on the Holy Spirit to help us interpret the Jesus of the Bible for our lives.  I admit that I often am like Peter.  One minute Jesus is affirming me for a rather astounding act of faith in His name.  And the next minute He is admonishing me for re-creating him in my own image for my own selfish agenda.  I believe this is tension that we cannot escape and that is a tension that we all live in.

I close by making three final points.

First, we must live with the scriptures and be open to the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.  If we do not say close to the scriptures and engage them regularly, we are liable to make Jesus into all sorts of characters and paint all sorts of bizarre pictures of him.  Without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Jesus simply remains an historical figure and not a living, dynamic, redeeming presence who is with us right now. 

Second, because sin continues to be a real power in our world and assaults our lives, we all live in a tension we cannot escape in this life, and we need to acknowledge it.  I believe that one moment we will get it and the angels will sing, and the next moment we won’t and the Lord will weep.  We need to live with this knowledge of our own duplicity and always be ready to stand corrected and repent from our sinful attempts to recreate the Lord Jesus in our own image, for our own purposes, to advance our own agendas.  In other words, we are all caught in the tension between us being recreated to become more like Jesus - and us recreating Jesus to become more like us. 

Third, there is one thing today we can say for sure.  We can all respond to the proclamation of Simeon and Anna.  Jesus came into the world to save and redeem all people.  He is a savior for the world; the Savior of the world; he is your Savior. 

Perhaps there is nothing more significant we can do on the first day of a new year than renew our commitment of faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. 

As we gather around the Lord’s Table in a few minutes we celebrate the Lord’s commitment to us that came before our commitment to Him.  We retell the story that he willingly went to the cross to die for our sins so that we might have a living relationship with God and be daily recreated in His image.

An old year is gone, but the sins of last year still linger.  This morning we can confess and be forgiven and renewed.  

Our new year’s journey with the Lord Jesus begins here; on our knees before His cross, where we hear the glorious words, “given and shed for you.”

There are few things we can be sure of in the 365 days that are ahead of us, other than he is our Lord and savior, and he will go with us. I promise you he will sometimes be affirming; sometimes admonishing; sometimes compassionate; sometimes confronting; sometimes challenging; sometimes reflective and prayerful; sometimes angry; sometimes forgiving; but always in whatever he does and says the love of God His Father will be behind it.    He will give you what He knows you need, not what you want him to be.