We are in the second week of a series called [Slide] “hostile witness” that’s as much
for my benefit as yours. I say that because in trying to figure out what this series should
be about I asked myself: What’s bugging you, Skip? What is the thing that has been
dogging your heart and mind? And the answer came back: The thing my heart is
most bothered by is that–both outside and inside the church- people don’t want
Jesus to be Lord. From childhood what we want is to be our own boss.
Imagine you have a two-year old. And you say: “Sweet little suzy it’s time for you to pick up
your toys and go to bed.” The two-year-old says: NO! Or when you were a kid and a
friend told you to do something and you said: “You’re not the boss of me!” That’s the
unfortunate human trait of asserting our autonomy: I’ll do what I want to do when I want to do
it. But we are not our ultimate authority.
The NT asserts that authority over all creation belongs to Jesus and the OT backs
that up. In Matthew Jesus declares [Slide]: Matt. 28:18 …All authority has been given to Me in
heaven and on earth. That includes authority to forgive sin [Mark 2:10] and authority to Judge
[John 5:27 Mat25] like the Son of Man from Daniel 7 to whom it says God gave [Slide] 14
“… dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every anguage Might serve
Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will
not be destroyed. Or, back in the NT, Eph1 tells us that God the Father [Slide]: 22 …put all
things in subjection under [Jesus’] feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His
body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. And, of course Phi 2: telling us [Slide] God
exalted Jesus… Phil. 2:9 … to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Of course we’re okay with Jesus as Lord at a distance. He’s out there keeping the
planets turning and the sun burning and the oxygen cycle going and the hydrologic
cycle flowing and looking after the birds or the air and the lilies of the field. Jesus as
Lord of All that is fine. It’s when THE LORD says: that spare time you thought was
yours isn’t; or sell what you posses and give it to the poor; or no, you can’t hate them, I told
you to love your enemies; or you need to love me more than your family; or No one comes to
the Father except through me…that’s when our inner two-year-old takes over.
As a society -maybe as a species- we don’t like anyone telling us what’s absolutely right
or absolutely wrong- not even the Son of Man and Son of God.
And that makes me sad because a devout love for our own autonomy runs
particularly deep in this community that I love and am called to serve. I was thinking
about that when the Holy spirit nudged me out of the dark saying: “You know Skip,
it’s not as if your community is the first one ever, that didn’t want Jesus to be
Lord.” THAT’S RIGHT! And I’d never thought of that before.
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Lots of people didn’t want Jesus to be Lord: Priests and Governors, Jews and
Gentiles, the sophisticated and rednecks, his own family and absolute strangers. Last
week our Hostile Witness was a nameless Samaritan village [from Luke 9 that, having
never even met him absolutely refused Jesus. And the Lord of All honored their choice
and left them.
But that village didn’t know Jesus. They only met a couple disciples. Certainly if you
knew Him, lived with him, had him in your home, worked beside him, you’d recognize
that he’s more than he appears to be. Or maybe not. [Slide]
Early in his ministry Jesus stops in to visit his hometown of Nazareth. You’d think:
“Local boy makes good” would be the headline. But no! Mat, Mk & Lk all tell us about it.
We’ll reference all of them but our focus will be on Mark 6: 1-6 as out hostile witness
this week is Jesus’ hometown, Nazareth.
Mark’s gospel is fast moving and a lot’s happens in the first five chapters: He’s baptized
and a voice from Heaven says: You are my beloved son, in you I am well-pleased. In Capernaum He
commands a demon out of a man and heals multitudes amazing people with his authority. He heals a
paralytic proving he has the authority to forgive sins. The Pharisees spar with Him over healing on the
Sabbath. He chooses the twelve, is called demon-possessed, and tells some fascinating and
challenging parables. He stops a storm by speaking to it, easily frees the Gerasene Demoniacleaving him clothed and in his right mind- and hopeful crowds following him around are the norm. He
heals a woman’s blood problem without knowing it, and raises a dead little girl to life again [strict
orders: tell no one!]
Mark says: Mark 6:1 Jesus went out from there and came into His hometown; Between the secrecy
and the quick exit and at least eight prior references to “the crowd,” like: Mark 3:9 And He
told His disciples that a boat should stand ready for Him because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd
Him; Having just resuscitated a dead little girl and with some idea of how “the crowd”
might respond to that and some sense that his mission is on a schedule, Jesus needs
someplace to lie low for a while. And so he leads the boys into the hills southwest of
the lake to the tiny, clannish, farm-town of Nazareth [Slide].
Luke says he was “brought up” there. Matt & Mark call it his “patris” [Fatherland or home town.]
Nazareth was so small… How small was it!? Nazareth was so small it’s zip code was a
fraction… Main street dead-ends in both directions…a night on the town takes 3 minutes 28
seconds…. Nazareth is so small the city limits signs are both on the same post. And it’s so small
Nazareth is not mentioned by Jewish/Roman historian Josephus-who wrote a lot about
Galilee- and it’s not named in the OT or included in a list of Galilean towns in the Jewish
Talmud.
This has led some- in particular those called Mythicists – who refuse to accept that Jesus
ever existed an historical person- who see Nazareth as an imaginary town made up for an
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imaginary Jesus. Rene Salm is a Mythicist who’s written a whole book on the subject
called: “The Myth of Nazareth.” Interestingly enough agnostic/atheist Bart Ehrman
who’s convinced Jesus was historical but that his divinity was “made up” wrote an
article that utterly undoes Salm’s logic and lists many, recent archaeological
discoveries [coins, pottery even a house all from the proper era] and concludes [Slide].:
No wonder this place is never mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, Josephus, or the Talmud. It was far
too small, poor, and insignificant. … Even though it existed, this is not the place someone would
make up as the hometown of the messiah. Jesus really came from there, as attested in multiple
sources. [The Bart Erhman blog March 2015] And this from a skeptic.
Rabbinical law required that if you had ten families in an area there should be a
synagogue. The gospels indicate Nazareth had a synagogue. So there were at least
ten households in Nazareth but probably not more than 50 at most. And maybe
Nazareth wasn’t thought of as the most pleasant of villages as One of Jesus’ disciples,
Nathanial, asks 1:46 …“ Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
Remember, Jesus has been teaching all over Galilee. He’s arriving in his home town,
probably for the first time as a popular Rabbi, complete with disciples. But it’s also
important to remember Jesus has not had the traditionally expected training of a Rabbi.
In John’s gospel Jewish leaders wonder Jn 7:15… “How has this man become learned, having
never been educated?” We can assume that starting at 5 Jesus received Torah training in
the Synagogue. But at some point Jesus’ education came to a halt.
The conjecture is that Jesus’ earthy Dad –Joseph- died and Jesus, as the eldest,
had to step up and be the bread winner for his mother and his siblings [Mark lists four
brothers and at least two sisters- clearly after Jesus’ birth Mary & Joseph had a normal and healthy
sex life]. So with Joseph gone and a large family to care for in a small town it’s likely
Jesus had to give up education in order to provide which he did until he was 30.
And his Nazareth neighbors knew that. [Slide].
Again, Jesus isn’t coming for a family barbecue. He comes to Nazareth as a Rabbi
traveling with his disciples. His neighbors know him as “the handyman” but he’s here
as a teacher. It was the way of things for a traveling Rabbi to be invited to speak in the
synagogue service. And so 2 When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; And you
can bet there were a lot of people waiting to see what the outcome of THIS would be.
Mark says [Slide]: 2… many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things, and
what is this wisdom given to Him,…? They knew this man when he was a boy and a young
man and a laborer. But the Jesus they remembered didn’t sound like this.
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Their shocked surprise and the nature of their questions -“What’s this wisdom GIVEN TO
him? Where’d THIS man get THESE things?- sound as if they can’t believe the teaching
could be his. As if, in their minds, his message and person didn’t match up.
When I was in grade school at Light and Life Christian School in Sylmar CA I was a talkative
and active child [report card comments] and I was not a stranger to the principal’s office. I suspect
they’ve all passed away by now but sometimes I wonder what they’d think of me –little Richard- doing
this. Would they be pleased or think: this doesn’t fit.
A group of local pastors met for coffee one morning and one of them was all infatuated and
running off at the mouth about the “amazing speaker” he’d had at his church: “You should hear him,
his style, his illustrations, his power…he’s wonderful.” Another offered: You ought to hear me 300
miles away from home. I’m downright brilliant!
Will Willimon is a Christian theologian, author, Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry
at Duke Divinity School, former Dean of the Chapel at Duke University and one of America’s top 25
influential preachers tells this story:
It’s 10:30 Sunday morning and the Chapel phone rings. He picks up the phone “Duke University
chapel.” The caller asks: “Who’s preaching in Duke chapel this morning?. Without identifying himself
he replies: “Uh…Dr. William Willimon, Minister to the University.” Silence, then: “Oh, is that the
short man? Nobody special then?
In that same message Willimon says: “Sometimes our knowing is our undoing.” That’s right.
Sometimes familiarity blinds us to Truth before our eyes. Jesus was most definitely
“somebody special then” but they couldn’t grasp it. How can Mary’s uneducated little
indiscretion be sitting here holding forth on the goodness of God?
How can he know what he knows when he’s no better than one of us?
And their questions continue to minimize his value and assert that he was “nobody
special, then.” [Slide] 3 “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and
Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?”
In every one of these questions there’s an implied “just.” Isn’t he JUST the
handyman? Just last year he repaired that leak in my roof, finally. Isn’t he JUST one of the ben
Joseph kids. His brothers and sisters live right here with us and they’re nothing special.
Isn’t he JUST Mary’s son? [Which could mean Joseph’s been dead for some time OR maybe the
local gossips remember Jesus as Mary’s little accident- who’s father’s identity was still up for
discussion. Talk about minimizing his value.]
He sounds thoughtful and deep and educated sitting there instructing us in our own
synagogue like a real Rabbi with his “working stiff” followers pretending to be “real
disciples” and agreeing with everything he says. Look at him up there: thinking he’s
someone special.
Mark puts it clean and clear [Slide]: 3b … And they took offense at Him.
Well we’ve known him all his life, so we know the truth. We know he can’t be anybody
important, he can’t be anybody special, because we’re not important and he’s no
better than any one of us
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.
I’ll say it again: “Sometimes our knowing is our undoing.” As it was for the people of
Nazareth. 4 Jesus said to them, “Prophets are respected everywhere except in their own hometown…”
6 And he was amazed at their unbelief.
“Many” of the people of Nazareth were offended and repelled to the point of unbelief
because, out of some kind of reverse superiority, they refused to accept that Jesus
could be any more important than any of them. We know who we are. And we’re nothing
special. And he’s just one of us.
See accepting that Jesus might be- in some sense- superior to them- even to simply
accept him as a Rabbi with disciples- meant giving him some level of deference, some level
of honor. And giving him some level of honor meant a certain level of submission to
him and within that a certain loss of autonomy.
You can’t do or say what you want about Jesus if you accept that he is a well-known, much-loved
Rabbi. There can be no more cutting remarks or snide questions about his parentage.
And that’s a loss of autonomy.
Ah, but if you minimize his importance, if you shrink Jesus down to your size or
even smaller, you limit his authority over you and increase your own autonomy.
Conveniently in our society this can be accomplished in a lot of ways. In Mere
Christianity C. S. Lewis offered that along with Lord, considering the things Jesus said
of himself we might also conclude he was either a Liar or a lunatic. A little later the
option of Legend was also suggested.
Shrinking Jesus down to Liar or Lunatic is less popular as Jesus said so many
wonderful things. But marking him a Legend has become a very popular way to shrink
Jesus and limit his authority.
Former Evangelical Christian turned Atheist/Agnostic, Bart Ehrman who so
kindly validated the existence of Nazareth for me definitively sees Jesus as legendary.
Referring to one of his many books he says [Slide]:
“The big point I make in the book is how Jesus is remembered is more important than the
historical Jesus because the historical Jesus did not make history. He is a construct of scholars.
The late Marcus Borg, a popular author and friend of N.T. Wright and a strong
proponent of Jesus as legend wrote [Slide]: “Jesus almost certainly was not born of a virgin,
did not think of himself as the Son of God, and did not see his purpose as dying for the sins of the
world.”
As to the resurrection he says: “I do not think that the gospel stories of Easter require us
to think of the resurrection in material physical terms. I see them as parables...”
You see by shrinking Jesus from Lord to Legend nothing is required of us. Jesus
authority is minimized. Our autonomy increases exponentially taking us right back to
“You’re not the boss of me”
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We can also minimize Jesus by preferring a generic spirituality to a robust faith in
Jesus Christ. I got an email this week inviting my comments about a Spiritual
Community Read. The proposed book was by the Interfaith Amigos. These three
men- an Imam, a Pastor, and a Rabbi have done a lot of speaking and writing together
since 9-11. They’ve helped create some good inter-faith dialog. BUT they do so by
separating their scriptures [Hebrew Scriptures, Koran, NT] into universal truths [Do unto
others] and particular truths [I Am the Way…] They advocate that the particular should
be sacrificed for the universal. Here’s a quote [Slide]: The biggest problem is the problem of
exclusivity- using words like “the chosen people,” “the only way,” etc. We can meditate on the Islamic
metaphor: “all rivers flow into the ocean.” This can help us overcome being “holier than thou.” You
may follow one particular river, but don’t mistake it for the ocean.
To my way of thinking that does not match up with “Every knee will bow and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”
Engaging this generic spirituality shrinks Jesus to manageable proportions.
Less dramatic but important still, Like the folks of Nazareth you and I minimize Jesus
whenever we don’t do what he calls us to do. You’ve just sat down for the first time today and
the phone rings and someone needs your help or your ear or your encouragement. And in that
moment you KNOW what THE LORD wants from you. And it’s NOT assert your autonomy.
Jesus says in Luke 6: Luke 6:46 “ Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
[Slide]: And let’s be honest despite the folks at Nazareth, the mythicysts, the Ehrmans
and Borgs and Interfaith amigos- despite all of them Jesus WILL NOT be minimized.
You cannot shrink the Lord Jesus down to fun-size. Paul tried hard to minimize Jesus
but when he met Jesus on the Damascus road it literally knocked him to the ground. And in Rev. 1
John turns round and sees Jesus as the glorious Lord of All, the alpha and omega and
says: Rev. 1:17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.
Our hostile witness from this week testifies: whatever we think, however we try to minimize Him and
his authority over us, Jesus will always be Lord- to the Glory of God the Father.
And that is no myth.
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