Who Is This Man?

The point of Christmas is to celebrate a birth. We celebrate the birth of a new person, a new baby. We celebrate the birth of Jesus. The Word became flesh. God, the Son, became a man. This birth of the Son of God is filled with mystery and wonder and lots of questions. But at its heart there stands a flesh and blood man. So, what we are going to do today is spend a little time looking at Jesus, the man. My hope in this is that as you understand him a little better, you'll understand yourself a little better.

Let's start with the obvious. Jesus was born. Now, all of you have been at a birth - your own. You probably don't remember it, but it was an experience that in some way registered with you. It affected you, and it still does. It went into your collection of memories, many of which you are not conscious of. But it's there, along with that scary night when you were really afraid of the dark, the time you had a close friend say something that hurt deeply, as well as that dinner with family when someone said something funny (you forget what it was) and everyone laughed and laughed. How you came into the world, easily or with difficulty, along with all the other memories, good and bad, forgotten and remembered, come together to make you the kind of person that you are. The same kind of thing happened to Jesus. He too was born into a life filled with joys and sorrows. And all of those joys and sorrows affected him. They also came together to make him the kind of person that he is.

So, Jesus is born. And then for the next thirty years he did - what? We don't know. But whatever it was, it wasn't a big splash that everyone noticed. Do you remember when Jesus preached to the home town crowd and told them that he was anointed by God to be the promised Messiah? Do you remember how they responded? It went something like this. 'Jesus, come on! You can't be the Messiah. You're Joseph's boy. We saw you grow up in that house down the street.' Apparently, Jesus spent 30 years being pretty much like everyone else in the village. Thirty years of what some might call doing nothing, or at least nothing anyone got excited over.

There was, however, one way in which he wasn't like the others. He never married. Just about everyone got married, and they did it when they were young. Unmarried at thirty must have been kind of weird. During one of his teaching tours Jesus did talk about people staying single. He said that some make themselves eunuchs, that is, stay single, for the sake of the kingdom. And that would, of course, describe Jesus. I'm sure that that wasn't easy. Back in the beginning God himself could see that it was not good for Adam to be alone. So, what did he do? He made him a wife whose role was to be the companion who would complete him. It wasn't good for Jesus to be alone either. And don't think that he didn't feel it. Remember, he was a man. But, for the sake of the kingdom, he didn't get married. Self-denial.

So, there's Jesus, single, working in the carpentry shop, building things and selling them, making a living. And then, it all changed. Suddenly, Jesus became this street preacher. That's a pretty dramatic change. And to make it all the more dramatic, this change came in the middle of his life. We think of 30 as pretty young, and it is if people generally live to 70, 80 or even longer. But people didn't live that long back then. Jesus was actually middle-aged when this big shift in his life occurred. So, a carpenter one day and a preacher the next. A big change.

And what followed was three years of going here and there, doing this and that, teaching and healing and more. And while there still are gaps in our knowledge of those three years, we know lots more about them than we do about the previous thirty. So, for one thing, we know that he was a busy man. He was so busy that there were days that he didn't even have time to eat. There were so many needy people. And because of his care for the people, there were more than a few times that he was really tired, even weary. One place where that really stands out, at least to me, is when Jesus and the Twelve are crossing the Sea of Galilee and a storm whips up. Wind and waves were tossing their little boat. They were terrified. They knew that they were going to die. And where is Jesus while all this is happening? He's sound asleep in the back of the boat. Jesus gave and gave and gave of himself. And it wore him out. He was busy. But - and I find this is so remarkable - you never see him rushing anywhere. Never. He never comes off as stressed. There's no anxiety. You never get the sense that he is hassled by life. Jesus is busy but not driven. There is so much to do and so little time for him to do it. But he is never rushed. There was always time for people. Think of the interruption of the woman with the flow of blood. He stops everything to care for her. He doesn't rush to get everything done. And yet, when he gets to the end of his life, he can honestly tell his Father that he has accomplished all that he was called to do.

Now, none of this is to say that Jesus was always this cool, calm, almost stoical character. He had emotions, and he showed them, sometimes rather intensely. There were times when he was angry. Here, just think about that whip in the Temple. There were times when he was sad, like the time when he was grieved at the hardness of those men because he healed someone on the Sabbath. Jesus rejoiced when he saw the kingdom growing and people 'getting it', and he wept when he saw the effects of sin. The lack of a stressed life wasn't because he was this stoic without emotions. That won't explain it. He was very emotional.

And he had friends. Most people think about the Twelve here, and they should. But it's good to remember that there were some that he was particularly close to. There were, of course, Peter, James and John. But there were more than these three. Don't forget Mary and Martha. John tells us that Jesus loved them. And that makes a lot of sense. It's great to be able to hang with a bunch of guys and do guy things. But it helps having some women as close friends. And as a single guy, Jesus needed that.

Then there's the fact that Jesus argued a lot, or so it seems. It's pretty clear that he didn't get along with the community leaders. There were plenty of times when Jesus crossed swords with these guys. I think that it's fair to say that he was a bit of a rebel. He thought that there were things going on that were just wrong - and he wasn't afraid to say so. It got him into a lot of trouble, but that didn't stop him from speaking out. It's important to see, however, that his rebelling against the status quo wasn't because he was an ornery guy. He did what he did because of love, his love for God and his love for his neighbor. There was much that was wrong. So, he spoke and he acted.

And along with arguing a lot, he prayed a lot. Luke especially brings this up. There seems that he had set times for prayer. But there were also those times when Jesus stops in the midst of life and gives thanks or praises the Father for what just happened. Prayer was a big deal for Jesus.

I think that it is also helpful to note that, as popular as he became - and he was very popular - it didn't go to his head. Jesus avoided the trap of pride. In fact, one time the crowds wanted to make him a king. What a platform that would have been to spread the Gospel! But he snuck away before they could act. Another place where his humility shows is when he takes the role of a house slave and washes everybody's dirty feet. Truly great men are humble men.

There's one more thing about Jesus I should mention. He died. Just like the rest of us, he begins life by being born, he ends it by dying. If we knew a little more, we could put some dates next to his name in Wikipedia. It could read: 'Jesus of Nazareth: born 25 December, 1977; died 22 April, 2011', or something like that. Do you remember that genealogy in Genesis 5 that has that discouraging refrain that repeats over and over? 'And he died'. That applies to Jesus. And while Jesus hung dead on that cross, those community leaders that he tangled with were still in power, still running things and still doing it badly. Jesus tried to change the world, so they killed him. Nothing had changed. Everyone could see that. Jesus died, and he died a failure.

Well, how's that for a brief bio? In one sense I haven't answered the question of that's the title of the sermon, 'Who is this man?' But can anyone really answer such a question about another person, or even about himself? But we've hit some high spots.

Now, it's time for a question. What was the point of this life? I'll tell you one thing that it wasn't for. It wasn't for all of you to imitate. Jesus didn't come so that there could be all these little Jesus-clones. Think about it. How many of you could be a young Jewish man? Right off the bat, half of you are obviously disqualified. You're females. And none of you has been called to be the Savior of the world. Jesus didn't come so that you could be just like him. No, rather Jesus came so that you could be just like you. When God decided to create you, he had something unique in mind. He had you, the real you, in mind. But that's not who you are now. You are not the real you. That person is hidden underneath a ton of garbage. But Jesus has come so that you would become that person, so that you would become the real you. He has come to get rid of the garbage so that you would become who you really are. But you don't become that person by trying to be a little Jesus. Jesus was meant to be Jesus and you are meant to be you. He has come so that you can, in fact, become you.

There are, however, things about his life that can give you some good ideas about you becoming you. And we know that this is true because we know that his life was a success, regardless of what seemed to be the case at his death. And how do we know that? Well, the Father raised him from the dead. That was proof that, as far as the Father was concerned, Jesus' life was a success. The resurrection was, in a way, the Father once again saying, 'You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.' When he first said that, at Jesus' baptism, he was referring to the thirty years up to that point. And the resurrection proved that it also applied to the three years that followed. So, Jesus' life was a rousing success. And that's why I can say that it has lessons for you so that you can become the real you.

There are many things about Jesus' life that you would do well to dwell on and learn from. Let me point out just one or two things for you to consider. I find it so striking that Jesus was never in a rush. Now, someone is going to think, 'He could do that because he cheated. He was, after all, God.' But that doesn't work. Everything that Jesus did, he did as a man. There was no cheating. So, I think that it's important to say that Jesus, the man, had a full slate of things to do, but that he never got stressed out doing them. The reason that I picked that one is, I'm sure, quite obvious. Many of you also have a full slate of things to do, but you do find yourself stressed out. That Jesus was able to avoid that problem means that it is possible to be a very busy person, with lots and lots to do, and yet, not be stressed out because of that. The real you doesn't get stressed out. That's what real living looks like. Jesus' life is proof of that.

Now, of course, the question pops up, 'How was he able to do that?' There are different ways to get at that, but here's one way that fits here. It's all a matter of who gets to define success for you. At the end of his life, Jesus was surrounded by people who had their opinions about how well he did with his life. There were those who mocked him as a loser. They labeled him as a failure and said so. But even his friends and followers thought that he had failed. If Jesus' sense of success was defined by the people around him, then things would have been different. After calling those legions of angels he mentioned the night before, he would have jumped down off that Cross, gotten in somebody’s face and said, 'So, who's a loser now?' And that would have been the end of his being Savior of the world. Fortunately, Jesus knew that their opinion of his life wasn’t the one that mattered. It was what the Father thought that counted. And the Father defined success differently. The Father included dying on a cross in his definition of a successful life for Jesus. He knew that and stuck to it, even though everyone else thought that was ridiculous.

Now, all of that leads to this question. Who defines success for you? Is it possible that your understanding of success isn't defined by the Father? Could it be that it is defined by the people standing around you? If that is the case, one result just might be rushing about all stressed out. You're trying to fulfill the wrong dream, one that the Father never called you to. Are you willing to be considered a failure by everyone except the Father?

So, what do you do with this? One temptation is to tell yourself something like, 'Okay, I'm going to change things. I'm going to get my life organized. I'm going to stop this rushing and get rid of this stressing.' Oh, really? Some of you know better. You've tried all of that, and you know that it doesn't work. That kind of attitude has no Gospel in it. That kind of attitude has the stench of trying to save yourself. That kind of attitude forgets that you have a Father who loves you.

Imagine a little kid who wants a toy airplane that flies. He's gotten one of those kits made with some light balsam wood, a plastic propeller that uses a twisted up rubber band for power and some wheels. And off he goes. He puts it together and takes it outside. He winds up the rubber band, and he lets it go. It goes two feet and crashes. He picks it up and tries again. Two feet and crash. One more time. One foot, crash. It doesn't fly. So, what's he do? He could crush it in his hands and go inside and mope. 'Well, I'll never try anything like that again!' But, if he is wise, he will go to his father with his plane and say, 'Dad, I can't get this to work'. And what will his dad say? 'Well, let me teach you how to make it fly.' Because of Jesus, you have a Father who is eager to teach you, step by step, how to be you. All you need to do is go to your Father with your life and tell him, 'Dad, I can't get this to work'. If you try to be the real you on your own, all you'll get is two feet and crash. But if you go to your Father, he will teach you so that your life will fly. And Jesus' own life shows what that can be like.