Why Did Jesus Die? Part II:
Disciples of Jesus or Disciples of a Doctrine about Jesus?
Mark 14:53-62, 15:1-15; Phil. 2:5-11
April 13, 2003; Pastor Marcia Sietstra
Welcome to the strangest Sunday of the church year. Palm Sunday begins with joyful “hosannas” recalling Jesus’ welcome into Jerusalem by people who recognize him as a king, albeit a new kind of king who rejects violence in favor of love. But in today’s service we also anticipate what’s coming this week. The crowds will turn ugly and shout “crucify him, crucify him” by week’s end! On Palm Sunday we have two very different themes going…happy “hosanna’s” and cruel taunts of “crucify him.”
But you know, that’s typical of the Jesus story, this mixture of good and bad. This story is full of paradox. Most of us have been taught that Jesus’ death was a terrible thing that ought not to have happened. At the same time, were you not also taught that it was God’s plan to save the world? So which is it, a bad thing or God’s will? Were you taught that the crucifixion was the work of sinners…but that it intentionally fulfills prophecy? Was it a good…bad thing? We risk over simplifying if we do not face these paradoxes. If nothing else, let us admit today that explaining Jesus’ death has perplexed the Christian church ever since it happened, because it is so difficult to analyze and to explain in precise language.
Last week, in Part I of this sermon series I described two of the most popular theories about why Jesus died. If you missed that sermon you may want to read it on our internet site when it is posted at the end of the month. In it, I explained that there have been at least 5 major theories of how Jesus’ death makes us “at one” with God, all based on the Bible. I told you that the most commonly accepted theory today is that Jesus died as a substitute for us to pay a penalty for human sin. Recall that this was not the most popular theory in the early centuries after Jesus died. And in the 20th century, theologians are increasingly moving away from this popular theory, for a variety of reasons. [One important reason is that the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940’s increased our knowledge of how the Bible and these theories were formed and underwent change.]
Today I want to look at the titles given to Jesus, and briefly touch on some things that Jesus said about himself. First, let me review quickly some basic information about Jesus. He was a devout Jew who, in his late 20’s or early 30’s, began a teaching and healing career. He was a teacher of wisdom who called for radical justice and he could, according to many witnesses, heal people of spiritual and physical infirmities. People were strongly attracted to his message of brotherly love, social justice, and a God of grace. But after about 3 years, he became such a threat to the religious and civil authorities that they had him executed on a hill outside Jerusalem.
Almost immediately his followers, most of whom were fearful and discouraged, experienced his presence in a variety of different ways, but in ways that convinced them to abandon their old ideas about the divisions between life and death, body and spirit. During this time they believed he gave them a mission—to follow him by spreading his message and living the way he had shown them.
As Rev. James Gertmenian of Plymouth Congregational Church writes, “They realized that in some way, Jesus had broken history open; that is, he had lived in a way that was so radically new that everything that came after him was colored by his life. His had been no common charisma, no traditional teaching, no ordinary presence. They found the evidence for this in their own lives. Emboldened by his unaccountable presence to them and later by the indwelling of his spirit in them, they found themselves infused with power, re-born with new purpose, and imbued with a joy that surpassed anything they had known before.”1
How could they describe the impact Jesus had on them? They used images and words familiar to them from their own Jewish tradition and from the Greco-Roman culture in which they lived. They called him “Lord” which could mean “master,” but also could mean “teacher” or “rabbi.” They called him “Son of Man,” which was one of Jesus’ favorite terms to use about himself. “Son of Man” at various times meant anything from an ordinary human being to a powerful figure who ushers in a new age. They called him “Christ” which is the same as the word “Messiah” in Hebrew; both words mean “anointed one,” and were used to describe all the kings of Israel, who you may remember, were anointed by the prophets.
They called him “Son of God” which at that time was routinely applied to many powerful individuals, including Caesar. In that day, “Son of God” was what you called someone who was very important. Like the title “anointed one,” “Son of God” was the title used for the current reigning monarch of Judah. So “Son of God” was used to refer to Solomon, Rehoboam, Hezaekiah, and others to signify that this was God’s chosen favorite and right-hand man. In Jesus’ day, popular belief was that God would raise up another royal messiah in the Davidic line to restore Jewish independence as in the old days. It was later that “Son of God” took on connotations of divinity.
In all of these instances, the early church and the writers of the documents that became the New Testament tried to speak accurately about the person of Jesus. But imagine how inadequate words were to describe someone like Jesus. I like what Robert Price says about their struggle to use the titles they were familiar with: “These were lenses through which they sought to gain some perspective on this Jesus of Nazareth, to put his blinding light into some kind of manageable focus.”2
The writers of the gospels and of the letters that became the New Testament struggled to find language, but still there was not agreement on who Jesus was or how he reconciled us to God. So they held councils where the bishops came and debated, sometimes hotly, and they wrote creeds that not everyone was happy with, but which reflected the majority opinion. James Gertmenian writes, “From the first and simplest declaration, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ they built and argued and thought and experimented and voted and prayed and edited so that they might say it just right.”3 And even back then, as early as the Council of Nicaea, where a group of bishops wrote the Nicaean Creed, one of the church fathers said they were spending too much time trying to explain Jesus. The year was 325, and he wrote these words: [Christ did not] “teach us dialectics, art, or vain subtleties, but simple-mindedness which is preserved by faith and good works.”4 Way back in the 4th century, theologians were already warning—let’s not forget to follow Jesus in our attempt to analyze exactly who he was.
And that is precisely where I am going with this today. When I look at the person of Jesus, I am convinced that he would not want us to get so wrapped up in doctrines about him that we forget to follow him. And yet, it’s a common claim among many Christians today—that unless one believes that Jesus died as a substitute for humans, to pay a sin penalty, that you aren’t a Christian. I disagree. To be a disciple of Jesus means to follow him, to model your life after his, which is far more demanding than getting your head wrapped around some idea about Jesus.
Repeatedly Jesus refused to play the game of titles and doctrines. Most often he referred to himself simply as Son of Man, a deeply humble term. He didn’t claim equality with God, but was radically obedient to God and subsumed his will to God’s. Over and over again, he was mysterious when asked who he was. Look at our text, he answers the question, “Are you the king of the Jews?” with the strange response, “You say so.” Earlier he was asked, “Are you the Messiah, i.e. the “anointed one?” Jesus says yes, and simply calls himself Son of Man again. These titles are very complicated, because you need to know what they meant to the people using them 2000 years ago.
So often the disciples wanted him to explain who he was, but Jesus would not play that game. He was far more interested in pointing to God. When Peter pressed him to explain just exactly who he was, Jesus countered, “Who do you say I am?” Over and over Jesus stresses that to follow him means a course of action…it is to live in relationship with the God he reveals.
Here is what Albert Schweitzer says at the end of his famous book The Quest of the Historical Jesus:
The names in which men expressed their recognition of him as such, Messiah, Son of man, Son of God, have become for us historical parables. We can find no designation which expresses what he is for us. He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lake-side. He came to those men who knew him not. He speaks to us the same word: “Follow thou me!” and sets us to the tasks which he has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey him, whether they be wise or simple, he will reveal himself in the toils the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in his fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.5
To follow Jesus Christ is to encounter and experience him in your life by living in his light. I see people experience Jesus Christ in wide and varied ways. Some identify with his suffering when they suffer, and it makes them feel less alone. I have talked with a cancer patient who knew there was no chance for cure, and the text we talked about was Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, when he prayed, “Lord if it be thy will, take this cup from me,” but it was his cup to suffer. Like my friend dying of cancer, God was with Jesus even though the suffering was not taken away.
How have you experienced Jesus? When I am discouraged, I take strength from the way Jesus continued to witness for nonviolent love as a way to change the world. Lately, I cling to that often. When I am complacent, Jesus is a constant challenge to me…he challenges my attachment to my own wealth and my reluctance to stand up for people who suffer unjustly. When I confront evil, I think of the evil that he faced with perseverance and faith. Even if it meant death he would not deny the truth of the God he revealed. And he inspires me to struggle to follow in his Way.
I stand in a long line of pastors and theologians who see Jesus as an exemplar of how we are called to live, and die. 6 He saves us because he shows us how to live in right relationship to our God, whom he revealed as a God of love. Jesus inspires, even challenges us, to live in this love relationship with God and all God’s children. In the words of Isaac Watt’s hymn, “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
I want to close by reminding you that in the UCC we center our beliefs on Jesus Christ, while honoring varying beliefs about exactly how Jesus’ life and death reconcile us to God. I am far less concerned with which theory of atonement you choose, than I am with how you live your life, because I think we are called to be disciples of Jesus, not disciples of a doctrine about Jesus. Amen.