The Method of Jesus
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Rev. Dr. Steven Peay
July 20, 1997
John 12:44-50 Summary of Jesus' Teaching
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Then Jesus cried out, "When a man believes in me, hedoes not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. When helooks at me, he sees the one who sent me. I have come into theworld as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stayin darkness. "As for the person who hears my words but doesnot keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judgethe world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one whorejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which Ispoke will condemn him at the last day. For I did not speak of myown accord, but the father who sent me commanded me what to sayand how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life.So whatever I say is just what the father has told me tosay."
Almighty God, we bow in your presence. May your word be ourrule, your spirit our teacher and your greater glory our supremeconcern. Through Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Where has our journey with Jesus and the Christian faith takenus so far? First, we looked at the mission of Jesus. Jesusrecognizes the universal hunger for bread beyond physical bread.In his bread of life illustration we read, "for the bread ofGod is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to theworld." Jesus said, "I am the bread of life."Giving the bread, becoming the bread, being the bread isintertwined in the mission of Jesus to be the satisfaction ofspiritual hunger and thirst.
Last week we looked at the message of Jesus. The idea of God'spresent and yet coming kingdom is central to Jesus' message.Jesus talked about it continuously, mentioning it over 100 times.We looked at the difference it makes that the kingdom of God isat hand. It means we can look beyond life's present situation andit means we can look beyond present limitations to the reality ofGod's present and God's future.
We will soon be having Vacation Bible School. During this timeof year I remember the story of a young minister working withchildren in a vacation bible school. The minister asked thechildren to go outside and find something that represented forthem one of God's miracles. All of the kids hurried out the door,except one little boy who had been giving the VBS teacherstrouble all week. The minister thought to himself, "Whocares where this kid goes. The week is almost over."
When the children returned, one child brought a rock and toldthe class that it reminded him of God's strength and power. Alittle girl returned with a pretty flower and said "Only Godcan make a flower like this. It's so beautiful and I thank Godfor it." One little girl had a leaf that had turned brown,and a little boy had some huckleberries. Each told how God hadcreated these things and how they represented one of God'smiracles. Suddenly, the minister noticed the boy who had been abehavior problem standing in the doorway holding the hand of alittle girl. "Who is your friend?" asked the minister.The boy replied, "I have something I want to share that Ithink is one of God's miracles." The minister said, "Idon't see anything in your hand." And the boy replied,"I brought my little sister because she is God's miracle. Iprayed for a little sister, and God gave me one. She's the bestmiracle I know of."
Sometimes the kingdom of God appears in the most surprisingways, such as a mustard seed, and it grows. Sometimes it isgrowing before our very eyes and we don't see it.
Today we look at the method of Jesus. How does Christ effecthis work in the world? How does he do it? All other religiousleaders come and begin an organization, found a movement, orcreate a party, which, working through the usual ways of humanpropaganda and activity, spreads its doctrine. People then becomeconvinced of a creed and follow that particular teaching. Jesusis more than a great teacher.
In his classic book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis makes thisstatement, "A man who was merely a man and said the sort ofthings Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He wouldeither be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is apoached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must takeyour choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else amadman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or youcan fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us notcome with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great humanteacher. He has not left that open to us."
Jesus is God's methodology. His method began by what wemight call a society through which his life would touch people.Jesus is God's designated means of working to call people into aunique relationship with himself, that, through their very livesand personalities, he imparts his own nature and life to othersand touches and changes them. It is sort of another incarnation,when 'the word becomes flesh' {John 1:14} all over again. Thestrange thing about the church is that the world never sees JesusChrist until it sees him incarnate in another Christian. But whenhe has become flesh in another person's life, then, suddenly,somebody becomes aware that here beside him is something ofChrist, and they see Jesus Christ once again. That process is aworldwide process of touching others through the lives of thosewho are captured by Christ.
Jesus is God's method and we are Jesus' method. He'scounting on us! He has called us to be the church in the world.God is counting on you. Jesus made this known in variouscommissioning statements. Here are few of them: "As theFather has sent me, I am sending you." And with that hebreathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."(John 20:21,22)
"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will dowhat I have been doing. He will do even greater things thanthese, ... " (John 14:12 )
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given tome. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizingthem in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the HolySpirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commandedyou. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of theage." (Matthew 28:18-20)
From our gospel reading we learned that Jesus cried out. Thewords are given special emphasis by being spoken in a loud voice.He cried out. What did he say when he cried out? Believe in me.John ends his story of the public ministry of Jesus with anappeal for belief. It is the motivation of his method. Not justto believe in him but to realize that at the same time andsource, Christian belief is believing in the one who sent Jesus.And Jesus came that God might encounter us.
Rev. Steven Peay, Ph.D.
Ever hear the phrase, "there's a method in mymadness"? It always left me wondering a bit if theindividual was going crazy in a systematic way...still it pointsout what I would like to address: Method.
The word Method Webster's ninth tells us means: a procedure orprocess for attaining an object; a systematic plan followed inpresenting a particular discipline or art; a discipline thatdeals with the principles and techniques of scientific inquiry;an orderly arrangement, development, or classification. It comesfrom the Latin methodus, which in turn came from the Greekmethodos (meta = with/hodos = way) "a following after."
What is the implication when we begin to talk about Jesus'METHOD? Well, I want to say that Jesus is God's method. Last weekI pointed out that McLuhan's concept of the medium being themessage applied in Jesus' presentation of the kingdom. It applieshere, too. To illustrate, let me be methodical in mypresentation, I want to say that there are two movements in thelife and work of Jesus. The first is a movement from above andtoward humanity. The second is a movement from below and towarddivinity. Those two movements then give us insight into theunderlying method of Jesus as God's method -- not to mention inall that he did and taught.
The first movement from above and toward humanity is begun in theincarnation. When the Eternal Word becomes flesh in Jesus theChrist the Word becomes a WHO, not a WHAT. In doing so he"gave up" his identity as God, but did not stop beingGod. Rather he acted in and through his human nature. As DanielHelminiak has written in his The Same Jesus
In the Incarnation, the Eternal Word "stripped himself ofglory," he
"emptied himself" (Phil. 2:7). He limited himself toa human way
of being. His divine prerogatives -- infinite knowledge andpower --
he left behind. In all his activity on earth, he prescindedfrom those
divine qualities. he surrendered his former principle ofactivity,
divinity, and limited himself to a new principle of activity,humanity.
...The Eternal Word did not bring divine power and knowledgewith
him when he came to this world. This is precisely what he left
behind. He did bring himself. ThenEternally-Begotten-of-the-Father
began living as one of us, fully and completely human, andonly so.1
This is what the Council of Chalcedon talked about in 451 whenthey said that the divinity and humanity existed withoutconfusion and without change. God's method was to become one ofus so, as the council would say, he could know us and save us.
Now, you're probably saying, "But Steve, Jesus did all thosemiracles. Surely those were done as a sign of his divinity?Weren't they?" Well, actually, Jesus performed nomiracle/worked no sign that had not been already done in the OldTestament. What he did the prophets had done. In reality, we canbetter say that when Jesus did his signs, from raising the dead,to healing the sick, to calming the storm, he did them not asGod, but as fully, truly human. Remember, in Genesis God gavedominion over all the earth to humanity -- we lost that dominionwhen we exercised our free will in a selfish manner. In Jesus,God is showing us what we are called to be -- he is showing uswhat true humanity looks like. Only the Creator could do that.
Yet, it's important for us to understand that Jesus was reallyone of us, again what the Council of Chalcedon emphasizedapplies: only as human could he know us, only as God could hesave us. What Jesus did for us he did in freedom -- just like youand I have freedom both of conscience and action. As Dr.Helminiak said so well, "Eternal Word though he is, Jesusmust live his own human life starting from birth, just as everyother human being. What he will do with his life remains to beseen. How he will exercise his human freedom and exercise hisexquisite talents is his own to decide."2 At Gethsemane heagonized about doing the "right thing" -- just as youand I agonize over right and wrong. Jesus lived a human life andknows what we're going through -- God's method was to know us.
The second movement is the movement from below toward divinity.In this movement we observe the growth of the human Jesus. Thegoal of this movement is his divinization, his glorification. Itdoesn't mean that the human Jesus became God -- he was Godalready. And nothing that isn't already God can become God. Butwhat we're talking about in Jesus, and this is the concept theFathers of the Eastern Church especially would take up, is thefull participation of the human nature of Jesus in the divinenature. This is what Irenaeus was talking about when he said,"God became man so that man might become God." Ournature is the same, but we come to participate as fully as we canin God. As Augustine conceived of it, it's like when you take apiece of iron and put into fire. It remains iron, but it takes onthe property of fire -- it's hot and it can burn things. In thesame way, we can be plunged into the nature of God in such a wayas to reflect some of the properties of the divine nature. Jesuswas the one who led the way.
Because of what has happened in Jesus all of us can participatein this reality of entheosis or divinization. What we're talkingabout is nothing bizarre -- we're talking about becomingconsummately human. This relationship is what God had intendedfor us from the very beginning and it's what Jesus came torestore. It's what Irenaeus meant when he said that "God'sglory is humanity fully alive." When we are fully, trulyalive -- as Jesus was -- the image and likeness of the Creator(God's glory) is evident.
So, Jesus' method grows out of these two movements in his life.The first was in solidarity with humanity and human experience.The second in solidarity with God. The first was demonstrated inhis work as prophet and teacher. The second was demonstrated inhis suffering, his death on the cross, and resurrection. Jesus'method was to produce a model for us to follow.
I'll close with the words of Professor Marcus Borg, whosummarizes the impact of Jesus' method for us far better than Icould. This is from his book, Jesus A New Vision.
For both Christians and non-Christians, what can be known about Jesus is a vivid witness to the reality of the Spirit. Most generations have not needed to hear this, simply because most generations took the reality of the Spirit for granted. We do not, even to a large extent within the church itself, because of the pervasive effect of the modern image of reality upon the psyches of believers and unbelievers alike. For many, faith becomes the struggle to believe the church's teaching despite the fact that it does not make very good sense to us. As a set of beliefs to be believed, Christianity (and all religions which affirm "another world") is radically challenged by the image of reality which has shaped the modern mind.
In precisely this situation, the historical Jesus as aSpirit-filled figure in the charismatic stream of Judaism canaddress us. Jesus' experience of a world of Spirit challenges themodern worldview in a way that a rival belief system cannot. Whathe was like reminds us that there have been figures in everyculture who experienced the "other world." and that itis only we in the modern period who have grown to doubt itsreality The intense experiential relationship with the Spiritreported of his invites us to consider that reality might reallybe other than we in the modern world image it to be. His lifepowerfully suggests that the Spirit is "real."3
Jesus' method was, through himself, to open what was really realfor us. His method was to live as a channel of the Father's love-- and there's no madness in that method.
1Daniel A. Helminiak The Same Jesus: AContemporary Christology (Chicago: Loyola Univ. Press, 1986), pp.161-2.
2Helminiak, p. 164.
3Marcus J. Borg Jesus A New Vision: Spirit, Culture, and the Lifeof Discipleship (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987), pp.190-191.
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
There is a quote which articulates how we are challenged withthe continuing ministry of Christ and God's kingdom:
"What you are is God's gift to you, what you become isyour gift to God."
What are you becoming? Are you content with what you return toGod? As we make ourselves available for his service and allow hisspirit to shape us into a sharper image of the creator, we becomethe persons God created us to be. He's counting on you. Amen.
