SERMON ON JOHN 10:1-10                                                        GRACE – April 17, 2005

“WHO IS JESUS?”

 

I am a teacher.  I think that because when I was in 6th grade, the school principal put me in charge of the 3rd grade class because their teacher had gone home, sick.  Well, I thought that made me a teacher, so ever since then I have thought of myself that way.  I love to teach. 

 

And over the years of teaching, I have learned some things about teaching.  I know how a good teacher tries to explain difficult ideas.  One of the best ways to explain something is by using a metaphor, making comparisons, explaining something by calling it something else:  When we say that a messy person is “a pig,” we don’t literally mean that the person is a four-footed mammal, a swine.  We mean that the person has some of the characteristics of a pig.

 

In Scripture God uses metaphors to explain Himself because, in our limited human minds, we can’t fully understand, especially when it comes to understanding the nature of God Himself.

 

Seven times, in the NT book of John, Jesus uses comparison-descriptions to explain who He is.  And in each one, He starts by calling Himself by the name God told Moses at the burning bush: the unpronounceable Hebrew word [אֶהְֶיה], which we translate as “I AM.”  Incidentally, that was one reason Jesus earned the hatred of the Jewish leaders of his day: He called Himself by the holy name of God.

 

  • In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says, “I AM The Gate” (John 10:7 & 9)

 

  • Elsewhere, he says, “I AM The Bread of life” (John 6:35)

 

  • “I AM The Light of the world” (John 8:12 & 9:5)

 

  • “I AM The Good Shepherd” (John 10:11 & 14)

 

  • “I AM The Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25)

 

  • “I AM The Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6)

 

  • “I AM The True Vine” (John 15:1)

 

 

Jesus wants us to know Him—what He is like.  But even so, some of the metaphors that the writers of Scripture used are difficult for us to grasp: 

 

When Jesus says He is a shepherd, that doesn’t help me much, especially because He is referring to Palestinian shepherds of 2000 years ago.  I don’t know anything about sheep—or shepherding!  

 

And some of the descriptions are so mysterious that it’s hard to understand why Jesus was comparing Himself to the thing He uses in His description:

How is Jesus like bread?  (I can think of lots more ways that He is unlike bread!) 

            How is Jesus like light or a vine?

            How is a man (even a divine man) like these things? 

 

So we grapple with the concept by trying to explain it: Jesus is like a light because he shows us the way.   But—wait a minute—Jesus also said He is the Way.  So, how can He be the light and the way?  Sometimes it gets so confusing that we just stop trying to “get it.”

 

And some scriptural word pictures, some of the metaphors Jesus uses to describe Himself, are so general, so abstract that they leave us hard pressed to nail down much of anything about what Jesus is trying to say: 

How can a person be a “way”? 

How can a person be “the truth”?

 

 

So, because we can’t always grasp what Scripture is saying and, even more, because we, as sinful human beings, don’t want to know Jesus as He truly is, we “assign” Jesus roles in our lives that may or may not be legitimate.  Sometimes we think and act as if Jesus is-- 

 

  • A piggy bank—We deposit our niceness, our “good deeds,” our church-going, so that we can get out of Him what we want when we want it. 

 

  • Or we think of Jesus is a magic charm that will grant us wishes or ward off evil—without any relationship with us at all.  We listen to “Christian” music, we wear “Christian” jewelry or t-shirts, but we never actually talk to Jesus or try to hear what He’s saying to us.

 

  • Of course, some people think of Jesus as just a guy in a history book, whose monument is this building, where we visit like the Washington Monument—to be “close” to what He did and what He stood for.  But for those people, Jesus isn’t really here; it’s just a place about Him. 

 

  • But worst of all, we sometimes think and act as if Jesus were a total stranger who knows nothing about us, who has no business intruding into our lives, who deserves and desires no response from us—just a name on a page in some Book, a face in a picture at the church building, a strange man who lived long ago; far, far away.  We can’t really know anything about Him for sure, so why bother with Him at all.

 

 

No matter what kind of teacher I am, I can’t tell you all that Jesus is, but I can tell you that those characterizations do not line up with what Scripture tells us about Him. 

 

  • Jesus is not at our beck and call; He does not operate on the exchange system, where I give Him some kind of “good behavior” that He wants from me and He gives me what I want.  You and I don’t have anything to give Jesus.  It’s all His already!  And He’s already given us all we need.  Jesus is not the great banker in the sky.

 

  • Nor is Jesus some kind of magic force.  I can’t wear a cross around my neck or say the Lord’s Prayer everyday, or do anything else, to make Him cause something happen or keep something from happening.  Jesus is The Sovereign God.  That means, He Rules!  We don’t!

 

 

  • And finally, and best of all, Jesus can never be a stranger—just some guy who lived “back in the day.”  “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” John 1:3.  He created you and me! He knows everything about us—better than we know ourselves!  (1 Samuel 16:7; John 2:25, 13:11).  And what’s more, “[al]though he was in the form of God, [he] did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).  He suffered unimaginable deprivation and agony so that you could live in the loving arms of God—now and forever!  Jesus is alive—now and forever!

 

      You and I can pass Jesus by and refuse to speak to Him; you can insult Him by using His name like a curse; you can bring shame to Him by calling yourself “a Christian” but not behaving like one.  You can hold Jesus at arm’s length, but He will never be a stranger.

 

In the Gospels, Jesus asks Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15, Mark 8:29, Luke 9:20).  That’s the question.  How do you answer?

 

Do you say, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.  Do you say, He is my savior, my brother, my friend?  It’s easy to say, “I believe in God” or even “I worship God.”  And these days, nearly everybody will accept the reality of some sort of “spirit.”  But what about “J-E-S-U-S”?

 

Do you ever think about Jesus?  Do you ever talk with Him?  Or listen to Him? 

 

Have you ever told Him your inmost thoughts and feelings—your desires, your fears, your doubts, your questions?  Have you ever admitted to Him who you really are?  And heard Him say, “I love you”?

 

Jesus is God. 

 

He created you, forgives you, accepts you, longs to have you know Him. 

And He loves you!

 

But only you can answer the question: Who is Jesus to you?

 

 

Copyright © April, 2005 Pastor Beverly C. DeBord Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Springfield, Ohio 45504

 Publish by permission only.  Contact Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church 937.399.6257