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The Fourth Sunday of Lent March 2, 2008The average height of an American woman is 5’ 4”, and the average height of an American man is 5’ 9”. Recently studies have been done on the beneficial effect of height upon self-esteem, romance, and success. Every inch above the average height adds an extra $1,000 to annual income. A recent study by two Princeton economists attempts to prove that the reason taller people make more money is that they are smarter than short people. Taller candidates usually win the presidency, so it looks like Obama is the one.
Fortunately for me, my mother was advised by my pediatrician – who knew I’d never be tall - to treat me as if I were normal. It worked. I’ve never thought of myself as small. In fact, I think I’m quite large, at least inside. You will be happy to know that your Rector and your Associate Rector are the same height as many great people: Ludwig von Beethoven, Salvador Dali, Dustin Hoffman, and King Tutankhamun. So don’t even think about reducing our salaries.
You obviously don’t see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but you look on the heart – just as the prophet Samuel was told to do by the Lord in our first reading today. Samuel and the Lord were peeved with King Saul because in wiping out the Amalekites, as God ordered him to do, he didn’t kill every living thing: he spared the best animals for sacrificial worship. This is one of those charming Old Testament stories we’re all so fond of. Anyway, a new king was to be chosen.
The Lord sent the prophet Samuel to the least of Israel’s tribe, to the least important family of that tribe, to the least of the family’s sons, David. This short young man wasn’t even invited to the family meeting with the prophet. He was out tending sheep. But he was sent for, and anointed as the new king of Israel. He was chosen because God saw him not as mortals see, not by appearance or stature, but by looking into the heart.
This is the same issue of the gospel today. Jesus heals a blind man, who sees Jesus’ heart, who recognizes him as the Messiah. He and his parents are questioned sharply by the religious authorities in the synagogue, but he stands firm. In fact, he turns the tables and interrogates them.
The Pharisees cannot see who Jesus really is, because he doesn’t fit their preconception of what a Messiah is supposed to be. They perceive only the unimpressive appearance and stature of Jesus, not a powerful deliverer of Israel. The poor beggar is the one who sees as God sees. He looks into the heart of Jesus and sees God. As Jesus said, I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.
This is one of the great themes of the whole gospel of John. As we’ve been discussing at the 10:15 Sunday class, this gospel claims that Jesus came into the world in order to reveal God’s glory. In John’s gospel, new life comes not by imitating Jesus the rabbi, but by seeing Christ for who he is, and by becoming one with him. In John’s gospel, Jesus doesn’t say follow me; he says come to me, drink my living water, eat my bread of life.
The lowly, like the blind man, saw Jesus with the eyes of God and were given the light of new life. The powerful ones, like the authorities of the synagogue, rejected him, killed him, and continued to live in darkness. It is a cosmic drama, played out through the Christ story, a mystery play of good and evil, truth and lies, life and death, God and the devil.
Now it is easy to dismiss all this as a dualistic myth. It is certainly true that the author of John takes this theme to an extreme, ending up with a Jesus who in some ways is inconsistent with the Jesus of the other gospels, condemning those who don’t accept him.
But John’s also got something. He was writing out of a profound spiritual experience that his community had. They saw Jesus with spiritual eyes, as the Risen Lord who was within them and among them. Like St. Paul, they were less concerned about the biography and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, and more concerned about being transformed by the presence of the living Christ within them. For them, when they placed their trust in Jesus, he lived through them and made them new people. He resurrected them spiritually.
And so when they wrote their gospel, they portrayed Jesus as they knew him. He revealed the glory of God to them. He was living water to them, the bread of life, the Good Shepherd, the light of the world. Jesus and the Father were one for them. To come to Jesus was to pass through a portal into the life of God. They just went a little too far in making this the only portal.
Some 50 of you are currently attending the video/discussion series Saving Jesus. It is a presentation by some of the contemporary New Testament scholars who emphasize the historical Jesus of Galilee – who he might have really been, what he might have really taught. This is Jesus the teacher, the rabbi, the human who calls other humans to follow him, to live as he lived.
Some of these scholars entirely dismiss the Christ of John’s gospel. They say that the historical Jesus would never have pointed to himself as divine, that all these “I am” statements are not historically accurate. They’re probably right about that. But then they take the next step and conclude that because this image of Jesus is not historical, it is worthless, or even destructive. We should throw out the Creeds, the doctrine of the Trinity, the importance of believing in Christ, and anything about Jesus that smacks of the supernatural, including walking on water and being transfigured on a mountaintop. We’re left with a human teacher.
They insist on seeing Jesus as mortals see him. If it is supernatural, it can’t be true. If it can’t be proven historically, it didn’t happen. If it isn’t like our experience, it isn’t real. Seeing Jesus only as mortals see him, we conclude that he is like us, and we exclude anything otherworldly about him.
But when we look upon Jesus’ heart, we see as God sees. We see him as the icon of God, a window through which we are able to glimpse the unfathomable mystery of the divine. We see in him as the light of the world, come to illuminate our darkness. We see him as the Word made flesh, revealing the glory of God’s glory, full of grace and truth. Why couldn’t a person whom God fully inhabited walk on water, or multiply loaves and fishes to feed a multitude? Why couldn’t he turn into pure light on a mountaintop?
Leave aside the excesses of John’s gospel, the exclusive and condemning tone. But don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. Know that John and his community wrote out of a very real encounter with the Risen Christ, and here is the key thing: this mystical encounter was just as real and just as historical as the experience of earlier disciples who walked with Jesus around the shores of Lake Galilee.
So pray to Jesus, gazing at an icon of his face. Receive the Eucharist with devotion to him. Kiss a crucifix on your wall. Ask Jesus this day, every day, to guide you into all truth. You will find that he will live in you, and he will make possible what you cannot do alone. By looking upon Jesus not just as mortals do, but as God does, by looking into his heart, he will take you into God’s heart. Millions of faithful Christians have proved this by doing it over the centuries. This is the Christ of Paul’s letters and John’s gospel, the Christ of the Creeds. This Christ is the mirror image of Jesus of Nazareth. They are, in fact, one and the same person.
We know this because of the things that the divine Christ leads us into are the exact same things that the human Jesus leads us into: mercy, compassion, justice, humility, brother- and sisterhood, forgiveness, healing, peace of mind, and union with God.
So in the end, it may not matter whether you try to follow the teachings of the human Jesus, or you come to the divine Christ and place your trust in him. Perhaps, like many of us, you could try doing both. He will, in either case, lead you into the quality of life he called the kingdom of God. He will resurrect you.
End Document — St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church