4th of Easter 2011
May 2011
For thirty years, Jesus of Nazareth, as child, boy, youth and grown man, lived at home.
At the age of thirty he travelled, like many others, to hear and see John the Baptist.
The message of John was a call to repentance, individually and as a nation, for the wrath of God was about to descend on the people of Israel because of their sinfulness.
He urged everyone to be Baptised as a sign of their repentance.
Jesus arrived and after listening to John was Baptised by him in the Jordan.
At this point Jesus of Nazareth had some very life changing experience of God, to the extent that he did nor return home but stayed on at the Jordan with John.
John the Baptist seems to have shared in this experience for he began to urge his followers to follow Jesus.
This was a time of great change for Jesus - what Matthew, Mark & Luke refer to as a forty days sojourn in the desert.
Soon after, when John was arrested and executed by Herod, Jesus fled with some followers to Galilee where he went about the villages and farms preaching and healing the sick. Jesus made a huge impression on those who heard him and met him. So great was this impression that many (including women) stayed and went with him wherever he went. They became his fulltime disciples.
His teaching was unlike anything ever heard before in Israel. It differed completely from that of John the Baptist, the Old Testament prophets and from the Old Testament Scriptures.
In fact Jesus never referred to the Bible as such in support of his teaching. He spoke with authority about God as one who had first hand experience and knowledge of God.
For example; “You have heard that it was said, ( that is in the Bible)‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.’
Jesus never proclaimed (as we read in the Bible) that God punished sinners and rewarded the just. Jesus message was that all people of all races, be they sinners or saints, were God’s beloved children.
‘And as he sat at dinner, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples - for there were many who followed him.’ He never required them to repent before eating with him at table or before joining his group of followers. They came to repentance and reconciliation after having met him.
Jesus maintained that he came to show us the Father (God).
Then Jesus cried aloud: “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me.’
And again; ‘Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.’
He showed the people of Galilee what God (the Father) was like and how God looked on and treated them, not only by what he said but all importantly by what he did.
Jesus healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, raised the dead to life, welcomed the poor and the sinners to his table as well as the rich and the powerful. All were welcome and all were God’s beloved children. God hated to see any of his children sick or in pain. He hated to see his beloved children suffer injustice or discrimination.
God hated to see his beloved children go hungry or in need. God hated to see his children die.
How do we know this? We know this because Jesus of Nazareth himself hated to see people sick or in pain, suffering injustice or dying.
Whenever he encountered these things he was filled with compassion and did what he could to alleviate them.
This is the core of Christianity. Everything else we encounter in the Christian churches is to help us to understand this and give us the strength and will to live in this way.
This was the Good News which Jesus brought to the people of Galilee and through them to us. Jesus freed them from their despair, from their fear of God, from the guilt they bore as sinners. He gave them pride in themselves and in their own worth and dignity in the sight of God.
How much have you and I understood and accepted this Good News?
How deeply have we drunk from this fountain of Life?