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Shepherd of the Hills |
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What to Expect on Sunday |
Do you know what a yuk is? I don’t mean yuck—y-u-c-k—which is a laugh or chuckle, but rather yuk—y-u-k. Do you know what a yuk is? Of course, why would you? As far as I know, yuk is a word invented by my first college roommate and we used it to describe someone who didn’t have a clue, someone who said or did something silly. Not really a jerk...close, but not a jerk. We would’ve just used the word jerk for a jerk! And not a nerd…I really don’t remember ever using the word "nerd" to describe someone. Just a yuk. Someone who didn’t quite get it. For example, I remember Joe using the word "yuks" (the plural form!) specifically when we attended a Broncos game together—which serves as a good illustration to its meaning. During the game, Floyd Little, the great Bronco running back, made a great run and the fans around were on their feet cheering and screaming their affection for the great Floyd Little. Later in the game, Little fumbled the ball. Many of the same fans around us began screaming and cursing about what a bum Little was. It was at that point that Joe turned to me with a look of disgust, his nose crinkled up the way he did, and said, "The number of yuks at these games is very high." Actually, what I believe he literally said was, "The ratio of yuks at these games is very high." So, that is a yuk. I thought of Joe and his made up word, yuk, as I thought about Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem, the event we celebrate on Palm Sunday. Always in the back of my mind on Palm Sunday is the knowledge that many in the crowd cheering that day would later in the week be shouting "crucify him" as Jesus was brought by Pilate before the crowd. I think Joe, if he had been an eyewitness to those events, would have crinkled up his nose and said, "The number of yuks in this crowd is very high." We might say of such people they are fair weather fans, or they are jumping quickly and repeatedly on and off the bandwagon. My friend Joe would’ve called them yuks. Whatever their motivation, whatever their purpose, their praising Jesus quickly turns into cursing. They didn’t have a clue about what they had before them. They didn’t have a clue who this was. They’re yuks! The apostle Paul, in one of the classic passages in all of Scripture, wants us to be clear who this is. Dare I say it? The apostle Paul doesn’t want us to be yuks. Using language and images that most Biblical scholars believe come from an early hymn or praise liturgy of the church, Paul describes exactly who this is riding a donkey into Jerusalem. He is one who is "in very nature God." Yet, he is one who "did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage." Instead, he emptied himself, took on the very nature of a servant, humbled himself, and became obedient to death—even the excruciating and humiliating death by crucifixion on a cross. But that, of course, is not the end of the story, not the last description we get of the person riding that donkey into Jerusalem that day. Paul goes on to tell us that from this humiliation—death upon a cross—Jesus would be "exalted…to the highest place." More than that, with his exaltation the name of Jesus would become the name that is above all names. But Paul doesn’t stop there either. For he tell us that it is at that name, "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." This is language of the highest Christology. Paul couldn’t be clearer or stronger in what he says about this person riding a donkey into Jerusalem. His name is Jesus. And at that name, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Don’t be confused by this journey he is on—from triumphant entry as a king to the lowest humiliation of crucifixion. He is on a journey toward exaltation, an exaltation (or lifting up) that comes from God himself and places Jesus over all things, "in heaven and on earth and under the earth." As I wrote in the margin of my Bible at that verse, "Jesus is over all!" Recall our series from a few weeks ago on heaven. In that series we said, although it might be politically incorrect to do so, that the pathway to heaven goes through Jesus. He is the judge. He determines who enters into the eternal joy of heaven God has created for us. He didn’t take that role for himself. He didn’t claim it for himself. It was given to him by God himself. God exalted Jesus "to the highest place." There is none higher. And those who don’t acknowledge him as Lord today will recognize it someday. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. So the question for today is, what is your understanding of this Jesus who rides into Jerusalem on a donkey? Do you think he is a great teacher? That’s not enough. A loving, compassionate person? Not enough. A miracle worker? Not enough. A great prophet? Not enough. He is certainly all of that. But he is so much more. He is Lord. He is the name that is above all names. He is the one before whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord. Karl Barth, the great Swiss theologian of the 20th century, said this, "Tell me how it stands with your Christology and I’ll tell you who you are." What we say and believe about Jesus says everything about who we are. I read this past week about Christopher Hitchens who is a noted atheist and author of the book, God Is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything. Hitchens was touring around the country, publicizing his book in a series of interviews and, sometimes, debates with religious leaders. In Portland, Oregon he was being interviewed by Marilyn Sewell who is a Unitarian minister—a religion that is very soft in its understanding of who Jesus is. Early in the interview, the following exchange took place: Sewell: The religion you cite in your book (in other words, the religion Hitchens says "poisons everything") is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the Scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make any distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion? Hitchens: I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian. Interesting. An atheist understands the importance of what we say about Jesus. Perhaps more than we ourselves understand its importance, this atheist understands the importance behind what we claim about Jesus. "Tell me how it stands with your Christology and I’ll tell you who you are." Diminish the role of Jesus as One who atones for sin upon the cross, as the One at whose name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord—be a yuk in your understanding about who Jesus is and you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian. Let’s not be fickle about who Jesus is. Let’s not be, dare I say it, a yuk about that. Instead, let’s stand firm on what we proclaim about the one riding a donkey into Jerusalem. He is Jesus and he is on the road to exaltation. That road has its ups and downs, the lowest of lows and the highest of highs, including: equality with God, of which he is willing to empty himself in order to fulfill his purpose for humanity; a humbling of himself including taking the role of a servant and, even more so, going to the cross to pay the penalty of death for the sins of all humanity—the lowest of lows on the journey; but from there to be exalted, not in a self exaltation but exalted by God to a position of lordship over all things so that every knee would bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord—the highest of highs on the journey. "Tell me how it stands with your Christology and I’ll tell you who you are." Let’s take a moment for our own silent reflection as to what we say and believe about Jesus of Nazareth. |
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