Today I'm asking probably one of the most foundational questions about Christianity:
Who Is Jesus Christ?
Is He a liar or a fool, mentally unstable, a power hungry despot, a great teacher, a good man, or just a figment of the Gospel writers imaginations?
Or is He... something more...
Matthew 4:1-11 (What kind of Saviour)
I love the account of Christ's temptation in the desert. We, as readers are still trying to understand who Jesus is and what He's about...we know He's the Son of God, who has come to save us from our sin...but we're still wrestling with exactly what that means.
The crowds at the river Jordan have seen and heard strange, bewildering things and like us, don't really know what's going on.
Jesus enters the desert and faces some foundational temptations: physical need, ego, and power...
It's as if He's being given the choice of what kind of Saviour, what kind of man He's going to be.
THE HUMANITARIAN (verses 1-4)
So let's imagine you're stuck in the desert, no food or water, starving...but with the power to do something about it, what do you do?
Pretty reasonable request I suppose, to get yourself some food, but that wasn't the point of entering the desert; it was to meditate, to seek nourishment and energy, not from physical things but from the Father. Jesus is presented with the choice of relying on His own power or that of the Father.
Now, before I get carried away, I have to clarify that food, water, a safe place to sleep etc are important, of course they are.
As a Church and as Christians we cannot ignore the needs around us, we are commanded to do something about it, to serve our fellow man.
But if we become simply a charitable organisation, we lose the heart of who we are. Jesus could have spent His earthly ministry simply doing good. He probably wouldn't have been crucified, but He would have failed in His mission to reconcile God and man, the very heart of why He was sent.
The fundamental truth of humanity is that we are not just physical beings but spiritual, and both physical and spiritual needs must be met...but really the physical only affects our short earthly lives...the spiritual, echoes into eternity. (shameless gladiator movie reference)
'Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" (verse 4)
THE SHOWMAN (verses 5-7)
The next temptation is that of ego...the desire to put ourselves on a pedestal, to make ourselves the centre of the world. In the account of Christ's temptation, His own particular challenge was to put His humanity aside, to complete His mission by putting on a show, by wowing the crowd, essentially by putting style over substance.
But Christ is not distant or aloof...He walks with us, meets us where we are. Whatever situations we are facing Christ is there at the heart of it, not playing to the crowd but invested in our situations and in us as individuals that loved and valued by Him
For us, the challenge is to remember Christ's attitude and example.
The Church loves it's Choirs, bands, stained glass windows, buildings, traditions...the list goes on of course. And these are not necessarily bad things in themselves, they can be amazing and truly make us aware of God's presence...but they aren't the most important things...not by a long shot.
We must care, love and walk beside our hurting world, it won't be healed by fancy shows and nice looking buildings...but by getting involved in our world, walking with the broken on their level, by genuinely caring about each other and the things that matter to each of us... that's where we'll find Christ...waist deep in the nitty gritty of life.
THE DICTATOR (verses 8-11)
The final temptation that Christ faces in the desert is the temptation of power.
The temptation to make the world fall into line...to use intimidation and control to achieve His ends.
Of course power like that comes at a cost...it means once again losing sight of who we are and why we're here.
Had Christ accepted the proposal He would have moved away from the Father's purpose, away from worshipping the Father and instead worshipping satan, and power itself...this always reminds me of the scene in the first Lord of the Rings movie; the Wizard Gandalf refuses to use the evil power of the ring, knowing that although he would be much stronger, the power would corrupt him and destroy everything he was. He would lose his very being in order to achieve power for powers sake.
As the Church we face a similar temptation, we seek power to achieve political and social objectives which in themselves are good and righteous.
I have met Church leaders like this... people who would make fantastic social justice champions and politicians but have lost sight of the God who calls them, the mission for which they have been equipped...Christ has been replaced by social, and political ends...again these are honourable aims...but when these leaders rely on themselves and without realising it, subconsciously push out Christ, they are worshipping a different power, putting results ahead of what their true focus and mission should be.
Putting Christ first doesn't mean that we won't be as affective at achieving social and political change, the opposite is true...what it does mean however, is that our aims and mission become aligned with God's. It means that we might have to sacrifice looking good or popular in order to make sure that the glory goes to God.
Christ made that decision...to worship God alone, it meant sacrifice and humiliation but it also meant final victory and put Him at one with the Father. He was made to be nothing so that the Father would get the glory and honour...and this is what is asked of us today.
THE REAL JESUS
"To holy people the very name of Jesus is a name to feed upon, a name to transport. His name can raise the dead and transfigure and beautify the living." - John Henry Newman
The title of this post was deliberately controversial and thought provoking... hopefully it will as intended provoke some thought and discussion and not unintentionally cause offence.
Jesus is of course far more than a Humanitarian, Showman, and certainly not a dictator. He is a Friend, guide, guardian, protector, teacher, master, servant and king. He is all of these things...but so much more.
He is not an abstract concept, or a distant unreachable cosmic entity. He's a real, living, loving, laughing individual being; God incarnate, who walks, laughs, cries alongside us, and who builds us up, rebukes, corrects and desperately calls to us to walk, serve and live by His side.
But it's one thing me telling you all this, it's not up to me to tell you what you should believe...your job is to decide for yourself who Jesus is to you. What will you do, and how will Christ change and inspire you?
Is He just a good teacher, moral example or something more...who do you say Jesus is?
I'll give the final word to C S Lewis...he gives us some brilliant thoughts to ponder as we try to answer all these questions for ourselves:
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
- C S Lewis (Mere Christianity)
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