"Jesus: Up Close and Personal" San Williams, UPC
John 3:1-10, John 4:7-15, Luke 18:18-25
Introduction: We’ve been asking two questions this summer: First, what is the essential message of Jesus, and secondly, what difference does Jesus’ message make in our lives and world? We’ve suggested that, in order to understand Jesus' message today, we need to hear it as his original hearers did, that is, in the context of the Roman occupation of Palestine in the first century. We’ve reconsidered Jesus’ message by placing him in the tradition of the Jewish prophets. Each Sunday we continue probing the meaning of his core message about the Kingdom of God. And last week Judy preached on why Jesus chose to teach about the Kingdom with parables.
This morning let’s hear the message of Jesus as it comes to us through a few of his personal conversations. Many of Jesus’ teachings are public occasions, when he is in the company of his disciples and large crowds. But The Gospels also record a number of private conversations. These private conversations can be helpful portals through which we can see Jesus and his message more clearly.
So let’s drop in on three conversations. The first occurs when a Pharisee named Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. The second conversation takes place between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. The third takes place when a well-to-do person approaches Jesus with a question about eternal life. Let’s listen in…
(Members of the UPC Presbyterian Players act out these three conversations.)
What struck you about these conversations? While each conversation is distinct, there’s at least one thing that they all have in common. In each of these private conversations, Jesus’ words leave the person shaken, confused, disoriented.
It’s almost humorous the way Nicodemus puts a literal interpretation on Jesus’ metaphor about being born from above, or born anew. Nicodemus is a learned person. He knows how people are born. But how can a full grown person fit back in the womb? Nic is confused.
And the Samaritan woman who meets Jesus at the well never does quite get Jesus’ meaning about living water and eternal life. Water is something this woman knows a lot about. Her life revolves around water--first thing in the morning she gathers the buckets, walks to the well, fills the buckets, hauls them back to the village, and returns at mid-day, and yet again in the evening, back and forth hauling water. That’s pretty much her life. When this woman hears the word water, she thinks of a clear liquid, heavy to carry but necessary for washing, cooking, and drinking. But Jesus talks about water in a way she can hardly imagine. His words are metaphorical, evocative. Intriguing, yes, but also disorienting.
And what about the young man who asks Jesus about inheriting eternal life? He already seems to be very close to God. He claims a sterling record of good behavior and an abundance of possessions--sure signs in that day of a person who has been blessed by God, one who enjoys God’s favor. But Jesus tries to get the rich man to see things differently. He tells the man to divest himself of his possessions and to come and follow him. With this command, the man’s way of looking at the world is shattered. He isn’t willing make the changes Jesus asks of him, so he walks away, dejected. Thus in each of these conversations, Jesus challenges his listeners' perceptions, their views and beliefs. Why?
No one believes that Jesus created confusion in these people just for sake of confusion. Rather, he must be creating disorientation for the sake of re-orientation. In other words, he must be trying to open them up to a new way of seeing and living.
And surely Jesus confronts us in a similar way today? Perhaps the Holy Spirit is at work in our time, jarring loose some of our long-held perceptions. Too many of us Christians have taken Jesus’ explosive metaphors--metaphors such as born again, Eternal Life and the Kingdom of God--and redefined them in a way that suits the status quo.
Take, for example, Jesus’ words to Nicodemus about being born from above, being born again. Many people today wear that phrase like a badge. It often signifies a status achieved through some belief or experience, so that it becomes an adjective: “I’m a born-again Christian.” But what if the common meaning of born again Christian has little in common with what Jesus meant when he used the metaphor?
Consider this troubling example. A recent Pew Research Survey found that sixty-two per cent of white evangelical Protestants voiced support for inflicting pain as a tool of interrogation. This means that those very Christians who are most inclined to identify themselves as born again are far more likely to support torture than those who claim no religious affiliation. How ironic. How disturbing. Jesus came to deliver us from a world of torture, abuse and violence so that we could be re-born as people who love our enemies, do good to those who persecute us, and to refuse to return evil for evil. In saying we must be born from above, Jesus was surely pointing us to a radically new kind of life, in which love of God and love of neighbor are the identifying marks.
Similarly, we may need to shake up and re-define our understanding of “eternal life,” another metaphor that came up in each of the conversations we heard this morning. In popular usage eternal life means “life in heaven after you die.” But didn’t Jesus care about life before we die? Brian McLaren makes this helpful corrective: “The Greek phrase John uses for eternal life literally means life of the ages, as opposed, I think we could say, to life as people are living it in these days. So John’s related phrases—eternal life, life to the full, and simply life—give us a unique angle on what Jesus meant by “kingdom of God: a life that is radically different from the way people are living these days...”
The way people are living these days, says theologian Walter Brueggemann, is the reason for the financial mess that we are in today. Our Adult Faith and Life Class is currently studying “Faith and Finance.” Last Sunday the class read an article by Walter Brueggemann about the current economic crisis. Brueggemann makes the point that the life presented in the Bible and offered by Jesus has implications for our economic practices. Brueggemann names autonomy, anxiety and greed as the unholy trinity which has led to the global economic meltdown. But Brueggemann then says that Jesus offers an alternative way of living, one that leads to economic well-being, one that is based on covenantal existence, a trust in the abundance of God and generosity toward our neighbors’ well-being.
As Jim Wallis of Sojourner’s Magazine says, “Jesus’ message is personal, but it’s not private.” The Life that Jesus proclaims would make a radical difference in the way we order our public life, conduct foreign policy or run our economy. Jesus does speak to us personally—just as he spoke to Nicodemus, the woman at the well and to the rich young ruler. His words challenge our perceptions, and invite us into the life of the ages, the life that makes human flourishing possible, the life that God yearns to give to us and to all the world.