Both of today's Scriptures capture scenes that could come from a Hollywood blockbuster.
Jesus the bedraggled hero; bloodied and apparently beaten before the tyrant captor; and yet just under the surface runs an undercurrent of hope….
Then the final scene, the hero has overcome, and everyone recognises him….
Revelation tells us that; He will come in glory, and we will wail at the sight of him….
And we find ourselves asking; Is this the same Jesus who was born in a rough hewn stable swaddled and placed in a manger by his mother?
We read further that; He will ride in on the clouds and every eye will see him…
Do we shake our heads in disbelief; Is this the same Jesus who learned carpentry in his fathers shop, and spent his early adulthood amongst sawdust and sweat?
Finally our hero speaks; He declares himself to us as the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is and was and is to come…
Do we wonder if this is the same Jesus who called fishermen his friends, the same Jesus who healed the sick and did not scorn the outcasts?
A quick read through the gospels reveals to us that this is indeed the case and that though his apparent ordinariness concealed his glory and power there were times when the concealment slipped and he was revealed in glory….
Peter recognised him when he calmed the storm with words…Peace, be still….just a glimpse of the glory of Jesus was enough to draw from him the strangled cry "Get away from me Lord, I am a sinful man…"
Lazarus responded to the commanded of Jesus "Come forth" as life re-entered his lifeless body
At Jesus command demons fled and the sick were healed, five loaves and two fish fed thousands and water turned to wine….
And we will see him coming again in the clouds, Jesus the Alpha and the Omega, the author and perfector our faith…
I wonder how we respond to this Jesus, this King whose kingdom is not of this world….
If he had wanted worldly power he could have seized it…
If he had wanted worldly riches they lay within his grasp…
If he had wanted popularity and acclaim the means to both lay within his grasp, and yet he turned them all down, refusing the things of this world he proclaimed that His kingdom was different…
…and he called people to follow him
…and he went to the cross…
So how do we relate to this Jesus today?
Through the gospels we encounter him as Jesus in human form- Jesus the God who laid aside the glories of heaven and took on flesh. Jesus who became as small as a pinhead in his mothers womb, and who grew in stature to be the greatest teacher the world has ever known- and yet he knows our frailties, he knows what it is to be hungry and to weep, to feel pain and to be utterly exhausted. He knows the joy of relationships and what it is to laugh with friends- and because he knows he can relate to us, and we to him….
…and yet he is so much more….
He is God in the flesh, and God in Spirit and substance, he is able to calm the storm and walk on water, at his command sickness flees. He is God-full of grace and truth…
Pilate's power could not hold him, for although he was condemned to die death did not have the last word, for Jesus was raised to life from death ( as he said he would be), as the mighty Spirit power flowed through him…
AND HE WILL COME AGAIN IN GLORY AS HE SAID HE WOULD…
As for us, he calls us to follow, and although we look around and see our weaknesses he sees our potential. We the church are his body on earth today, and he calls us to walk through the mess that is life in the fullness of that truth….
As we do, we can expect every now and then that the veil of frailty that holds us will be drawn back and we will be who we truly are, for Jesus has promised to pour out the Holy Spirit upon us, to equip and empower us to walk in his ways, to be members of his upside down unworldly kingdom.
As Jesus who stood before Pilate he could have chosen to save himself, and Pilate might just have listened, he may not have done it for Jesus sake, but he might just have done so to upset the Jewish leaders. We know however that the story went differently and that Jesus did abandon himself completely to Gods purposes and went to the cross…
He died, AND HE WAS RAISED TO LIFE!
He calls us to follow, to be among those who are being raised. We might look around us at the state of the church today and despair of the state we are in- we might look longingly at the past and weep over what was and what might have been.
BUT Jesus calls us to look up and out, to see the new things that he is doing, to seek fresh vision and to follow him. The story of the people of God has always gone through peaks and troughs of successes and failures, and success often follows risk and obedience.
We are being challenged by our denomination to seek fresh ways of being, I believe that that is something we must do, but that we must do it in obedience to God with our whole lives, and dare I say that includes our bank accounts!
Jesus gave himself completely to God's purposes, and he WILL come again in glory!
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