CHRISTMAS 1B - Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 147; Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John 1:1-18 -

28 December 2008 - A sermon preached by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

The Disguise Jesus Wore

THE HOLY, ANOINTED ONE - NOT KNOWN OR ACCEPTED

He was born more or less like you and I were. Okay, he wasn’t born in a hospital, and he was laid in a manger, but he was still born into this world. His conception was quite different from yours and mine, according to the Bible. But for the one who in the annunciation to Mary was to be the Son of God, for the one of whom it was said would reign over the house of Jacob forever, for the one who was to be named Jesus - meaning, “he saves”, for the one the angels told the shepherds was to be Savior, Messiah and Lord, for the one who was in the very beginning with God - as Word - he ended up having a rather odd life.

John captures this strangeness in the prologue to his gospel, which we just heard. Listen:

“He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet [and this is the odd part] the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.” (John 1:10-11)

It was kind of like Jesus had a disguise - at least for the first thirty years of his life. Think about it.

Born in Bethlehem, where he didn’t grow up. A refugee in his earliest years with his parents in Egypt, fleeing the wrath and insecurities of the first Herod - Herod the Great. Raised not in Jerusalem - the center of everything - but in a little unknown town in Galilee called Nazareth, of which one of the disciples-to-be even said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” A simple carpenter, following in the footsteps of his father’s trade. Not formally trained or educated - he questioned and argued with some rabbis as a young boy, we think. Misunderstood by his parents at times - parents who had been visited by angels in visions and dreams before he was born. Not highly thought of by people in his own town necessarily.

When he finally began his ministry and teaching, and spoke in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth, after he had healed some people, they were astounded by his teaching on the one hand, but also said, “Where did this man get all this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his sisters with us? Where did this man get all this?” And Matthew tells us that they took offense at him. (Matthew 13:54-57a)

In other words, “We knew you when you were growing up, Jesus. And you were nothing special, and neither was your family. And now you’re trying to be somebody?” No. They weren’t having it; at least most of them weren’t.

THE DISGUISE

You see, he had a disguise. If a prophecy in Isaiah is true, and many of them turned out to be so, he wasn’t handsome. “... he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (Isaiah 53:2b) In other words, he probably didn’t look anything like that blond-haired, blue-eyed, California surfer-boy Jesus picture that a lot of us saw in Sunday School rooms as children.

More than just his looks, though, he didn’t act like the Messiah, or have the pedigree of a Lord, or come from the places where a Savior should come from.

Most of them were looking for a man who had raised up an army of thousands, with thousands of horses, and lots of armor and weapons. Instead they found a man who had twelve men and a few women who were following him around. He should probably have a lot of money, and certainly not be dependent on a few wealthy women to fund his ministry. The Messiah should be sweet-talking, and not call the respected religious leaders of his day hypocrites and a brood of vipers. He should be popular, someone who was obviously the star of his class from elementary school, not someone who was rejected by his own hometown. And he should come from Jerusalem! Come on - Nazareth?

Yes, he had quite a disguise going for him, when you think about it. Perhaps that was part of God’s plan. People were going to have take a long hard look, a long hard listen, and hang out with him for a while, and keep asking, “Could this be the One whom the prophets of old said would come? Could this be the Messiah? Was John the Baptist right when he pointed us to Jesus? Could this really be him?”

Jesus was disguised to the world, because the world tends to look at the outer appearance. The world still tends to look at the outer appearance. The world looks for pizzazz and glitter and bravado and movie-star good looks and people who make good narcissists, but not necessarily people of substance.

WHAT IMPRESSES GOD?

What about God? What impresses God? Well, we got a hint when the prophet Samuel was looking to anoint a successor for King Saul from the sons of Jesse. Remember that story? Samuel saw the first of Jesse’s sons, Eliab, and thought to himself, “[What a specimen!] Surely the Lord’s anointed is now before the Lord.” If this is what the prophet thought, imagine how easy it is for the rest of us to get tripped up! But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:6-7)

We get another hint on what impresses God from today’s Psalm.

“He [the Lord] is not impressed by the might of a horse; he has no pleasure in the strength of a man. But the Lord has pleasure in those who fear him, in those who await his gracious favor.” (Psalm 147:11-12)

We get still another hint in what impresses God from the end of the prologue in John’s gospel.

“And the Word [the Word that was with God and that was God and that was in the beginning with God - that Word] became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory [not glory like the world defines glory], the glory of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth... From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:14, 16-17)

We have some really good hints of what impresses God, if the Bible is a good indicator, and I believe it is.

A heart set on God.... seeking out God and awaiting his gracious favor...

Those who fear God - those who have a healthy awe of God and God’s power and glory...

Those who seek to know the truth and speak the truth...

Those whose fullness comes out of a sense of deep humility, which has to do with understanding who you are in relation to God...

Those whose glory is mostly found in reflecting God the Father’s glory...

Those who have the faith and curiosity and honesty of a child...

Those who are mostly concerned about blessing others, “gracing” others - in other words, those with the compassion of God...

These are the ones who impress God.

Does this sound like anyone you’ve heard of? Yes, of course it does. It sounds like Jesus.

And yet, when he was living in the flesh among them - this one who had been in the very beginning with God as Word - when he was right there with them, many of them couldn’t see that he was Messiah, Savior, Lord, and the Son of God, because - to them - he had on a disguise.

He wasn’t obviously powerful or handsome or popular. He didn’t yearn for the spotlight just to be in the spotlight. He was almost hesitant about coming to the spotlight. It was only because his Father called him to speak the truth, and because of his deep love for the people of God, that he ended up in the spotlight at all. And at the end of his life, he felt abandoned by everyone - not only by all the people, who did abandon him, but even by God.

This very human, emotional, honest, selfless, vulnerable Jesus - wow, what a disguise!

CONCLUSION

“He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:10-13)

“Power to become children of God...” For years, I have believed that to be one of the most powerful and paradoxical phrases in all of scripture. Power to become children of God. You can chew on that for a very long time.

We could learn a lot - you and I - from paying close attention to this disguise that Jesus wore. But only if we are more interested in impressing God than we are with impressing people. Only if we are interesting in becoming the powerful children of God.