“A Funny Thing Happened

On the Way to the 21^st Century...”

Luke 4:1-13

One of our church members was telling me a few days ago about seeing Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion Of The Christ.” For her, the film was a deeply moving experience that left her feeling awed and humbled by the magnitude of Christ’s suffering. Others see it differently, of course – some concerned about possible anti-Semitic messages that might be taken from the film – some worried that the violence obscures the message of the Gospel and appeals to the visceral emotions of people.

Someone on television – a Christian leader being interviewed about the movie – said something that struck me as being wonderfully insightful, although I don’t think he realized the power of his comment. He said, “I don’t see why we all just can’t watch the movie and accept it as it is. Why do we have to pull it apart?”

Maybe you feel the same way. But this morning, I want to share with you what I think is the answer to that question of why we can’t just sit back and accept the movie as it is.

The answer is, “Because we can’t!”

The last time a Jesus movie came out that stirred up so much controversy was in 1988 when Martin Scorcese gave us “The Last Temptation of Christ.” In that movie, the last temptation faced by Jesus was that of avoiding the suffering of the Cross and taking up instead the life of an ordinary man enjoying a love relationship with Mary Magdalene and settling down to a marriage and having a family. So controversial was this movie that it was condemned by virtually every denomination, and was protested, picketed against, subject to boycotts and bomb threats, and even excluded from the shelves of the Blockbuster video stores.

There is something about some of the Jesus movies that stirs stuff up, and we can’t help but struggle over them.

These past few weeks, we’ve been focusing our sermons on the idea that “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The 21^st Century…” We live at a time when a great paradigm shift has occurred in history. The world as we once knew it has changed. The invention of the Internet has brought about the dawn of a new age in the same way that the invention of the printing press did in 1650. Historians describe the shift as a movement from the modern era to the postmodern era. And in this new postmodern world of the 21^st century, things are different – people have access to huge amounts of information and knowledge – more than ever before; cyber-communities routinely bring us across national, cultural and even religious borders; and the things we most deeply believe are – for the first time in history – forced to stand up alongside things that others most deeply believe.

Christianity is no longer the only game in town.

So why can’t we just sit back and accept things like Mel Gibson’s “The Passion?” Why can’t people just make up nice movies about Jesus without making him out to be an ordinary human guy just like the rest of us?

Well, because we can’t. You see, the story of Christ is no longer playing in theaters into which only Christians are allowed. Now, the person and the passion of Christ belong to the world – this big, broad, multi-cultural world whose people see and hear and experience things differently than we do.

And if you ask me, this is exactly where the person and passion of Christ need to be! And as it happens, we are discovering something about Jesus that we’ve sort of glossed over before.

You see, “A funny thing happened on the way to the 21^st century…!” God introduced us again to Jesus the MAN – a man who struggled, who hurt, who doubted, who questioned, who was tempted…and in whose suffering God embraced the world with saving grace

I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed it before, but the salvation that comes through Jesus Christ comes in the context of human struggle, not religious certainty!

And people everywhere are seeing it now - thinking about it, dissecting it, talking about it! As one of my friends recently said, “I never realized how human Jesus was until I saw ‘The Passion of the Christ.’”

I once had a friend named Tom. Tom was one of those great, salt-of-the-earth kinds of people. Genuine. Unpretentious. In some respects, very innocent. For instance, Tom bought himself a Septic Tank Pumping business. Along with the business came a big bright red Septic Pumping truck whose name, scrolled all the way down both sides of the tank was, “The Prince Of Poo-Poo!” I don’t think it ever occurred to Tom that maybe it wasn’t the best thing to drive his truck to church on Sunday morning and park it out front where everybody could see. But he did. Go into our parking lot here at Tellico and you see nice Fords and GM and Chrysler products. There are a few Mercedes and Lexus’ too. But drive by the old First Congregational Church even today and you’re likely to see a big red Septic Pumping Truck that’s named, “The Prince of Poo-Poo.”

The humanity of it all seems out of place in such a religious setting, don’t you think? Well, that was Tom – a true human being. And just as that red truck didn’t quite fit into anyone’s idea of religious propriety, neither did the question he’d asked one day years before.

You see, as a young man, Tom met Helen. They fell in love and wanted to get married. The only problem was that Helen was Catholic and Tom wasn’t. So he agreed to convert, and started attending catechism classes. Well, at the end of the first session, the priest who was teaching the class asked if anyone had any questions. Now, I’m sure the priest probably meant “Does anyone have any RELIGIOUS questions?” But Tom didn’t know that. A question is a question is a question.

So Tom asked the priest if he ever fell in love with a woman!

Well….after the priest picked himself up off the floor, he answered that priests take a vow of celibacy, and so that isn’t really an issue. Tom said he didn’t about that celery stuff, but what he wanted to know was if, when an attractive woman walked by, the priest felt any…well, desire.

Again, the poor cleric described the celibacy rule. And again Tom said, “Yeah, I know all that, but what I want to know is if you FEEL anything.”

And that was when the priest told Tom he didn’t have to come back to class anymore! So Tom passed catechism with flying colors. Didn’t even have to take the test!

There was a time, you see, when Christians could avoid the humanity of the world, and all the questions and struggles that go along with it. But no more.

The world has changed. God has brought Jesus into the center of public attention not as a religious object merely to be worshipped and revered, but as a true human being who is the epitome of struggle – the struggle of suffering that we see in Mel Gibson’s movie, and the epitome of struggle that we saw in “The Last Temptation of Christ.”.

During the month of February, we’ve been using a Communion liturgy at our 8 o’clock service that includes the recitation of the Apostle’s Creed. All month long, people have been pulling me aside and asking questions about it. Do we really believe that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary? What does it mean when it says that Jesus descended into hell? And what the heck is this about us believing in the one holy catholic church? Aren’t we Protestants, after all?? And what if I don’t agree with all the parts of the Creed? Should I still say it all, or leave parts out? Does it make me less of a Christian?

And my answer is always the same. “No, the struggle that you’re having with these things will make you MORE of a Christian!”

Does that sound strange to you? Let me tell you a story.

One day, when Jesus was more full of the Holy Spirit than he’d ever been before, the Spirit led him out to the desert where, for forty days, he STRUGGLED with temptation.

Some people don’t understand that when the Bible says Jesus was tempted, it means he was tempted. Some want to think that Jesus, because he was the Son of God, had some special power to overcome temptation. But he didn’t. The Bible teaches that when Jesus became a person, he gave up all his godly powers so that he could became a HUMAN – a REAL person, no different than you or me. May I ask you, “Do you ever find yourself TEMPTED? In what ways does temptation come to you?” Well the Bible teaches that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are. Go over the list of the temptations you’ve struggled with in life, and you’ll get an idea of what Jesus faced, too!

Jesus struggled with temptation. There was always the possibility he might give in to it. All his life, Jesus struggled – from the time he was a little boy testing the authority of his parents to the time at his death when he would have done anything not to die.

And God wants us to know this. That’s why the Bible reminds us that immediately following his baptism – when he was full of the Spirit – even so he faced temptation. And did you notice how it came in Luke chapter 4? First, Jesus was tempted to want a faith whose purpose was to meet his own needs. And he STRUGGLED with it! I struggle with that one, too. It seems to me that we all ask the question, “What’s in it for me?” and we sometimes try to define our faith as a device we use to get ourselves good jobs, nice homes, good health, and sometimes – if you’re like me – even parking places by the door! Jesus struggled with that, too. I mean, if you’re hungry, you need bread – and faith ought to be able to meet all our needs. Shouldn’t it?

Jesus was also tempted to want a faith that would give him prosperity and power to control how life goes. You know, you don’t have to turn very many Cable TV channels to find out how popular this gospel is! Faith will make you prosper. Faith will give you power over life. So we talk about the riches of life we enjoy here in our community as though they are the fruits of our faith. But in so doing, we lose sight of our brothers and sisters of faith who live where the average yearly wage is less than $200 a year, and where poverty ravages the lives of their children. Is their faith not enough to change that? We’d all like to believe that faith really is the magic formula that will help us prosper and succeed in life. That’s why when you go to many churches today you’re much more likely to hear a sermon on “The Five Keys To True Peace” than one on “Five Reasons To Suffer For The Sake of the Kingdom of God.” I struggle with this. Maybe you do, too. And Jesus STRUGGLED with it! He was tempted to want a faith that was prosperous and powerful so he could avoid suffering in life! And don’t we all? Well, Jesus STRUGGLED, too!

Luke 4 shows us that faith is not simply a way of believing. No, it is a way of struggling TOWARD belief.

Jesus struggled. And so must you and I. For it is in the struggle that God leads us to faith.

I hope you’ll go and see Mel Gibson’s movie. And I hope you’ll go down to Blockbuster and rent “The Last Temptation” too – if they have it on their shelves now. But not only that – I hope you’ll go and engage these movies with some friends. And then go back to your house afterwards and grab some coffee - or maybe some Tellico Village fine boxed wine – and sit for a while and talk about it all.

How did Jesus struggle? What were his questions? What were his doubts? What were his deepest temptations?

And why, if Jesus is our Leader and Example, do you think he struggled as he did?

And finally, how did God respond to the struggles of Jesus? And how do you think God will respond to yours?

“A funny thing happened on the way to the 21^st century…” God reclaimed the humanity of Jesus.

And the whole world is talking about it!