Revelation 22:13
We know Jesus through our experience. There is no other way to become acquainted with one who lived so long ago and who lives in ways we can barely understand through church, scripture, and good works and in the faces of our neighbors.
– Diana Butler Bass
Since we live in a sort-of-small town, it’s pretty common when a person’s name comes up in conversation for someone to ask, “Do you know them?” Then folks wrack their brains, muttering the name over and over, until someone replies, “Yes, I’ve heard of them. But I don’t really know them.” The only way we truly know someone is if we have experience with them, some kind of relationship, however superficial. We know the people we’ve spent time with, worked with, shared neighboring hockey seats with, or in some way interacted. The more experience we have with someone, the more we can affirm, ”Yes, I know them.”
So what happens when someone asks us, “Do you know Jesus?” Jesus lived 2000 years ago. None of us interacted with him during his lifetime. There’s a lot of distance between us; we live in very different parts of history and vastly different cultures. Yet people often say, “Yes, I know Jesus.” Knowing Jesus begins with hearing his story – in Sunday school or worship, by reading the Bible or picking up information from the public domain. But we’ve heard stories about George Washington and Amelia Earhardt and we wouldn’t say we know them. Beyond the story, Bass points out that we know Jesus when we have some experience of him. We’ve been reading her experiences with Jesus this fall, which led her to name Jesus as her friend, her Savior, the presence of God. I hope you’ve been asking yourselves over the past few weeks about how you know Jesus and how he shows up in your life.
We’ve come to the end of this book, Freeing Jesus. Now is a good time to summarize how 21st century people experience Jesus who lived in the first century. We certainly begin with his story, but only in the ways that story enters into the story we are telling about who we are and how we understand ourselves today. When the life Jesus lived begins to inform the lives we are living, we can say that we encounter him in a real way. When the values Jesus stood for and the lessons he taught match up with our values and his lessons answer questions we’re asking, then his life informs our living. We can say we meet Jesus in the thick of our everyday lives.
I want us to look this morning at two ways that happens. First, Jesus spent much of his time thinking about and critiquing the systems of his day – the way society around him, powerful and powerless people, worked. Much of his conversation about how we should live highlighted what wasn’t working in the villages and cities of Roman Empire. He had harsh words for rich and powerful men who enjoyed luxuries while neighbors went hungry, lacked shelter or clothing. He encouraged people to live in peace in spite of the violence around them. He used his abilities to heal people crippled by disease. Jesus often talked about the reign of God as a new way of living in society where everyone had what they needed to thrive. I’m confused these days when churches and governments denounce DEI, Diversity Equity and Inclusiveness, because Jesus was always paying attention to those who were different or outcast, those who were treated as lesser than the rich and powerful, and those who were outcast. His teaching lifted up a better way for people to form communities that truly cared for everyone. I find that I encounter Jesus when I’m applying those values to the way we live together in this moment in history. Jesus calls us to rethink how society works and to make life better for everyone, and when we do that work, we meet him in the middle of it.
The second way we experience Jesus is in his acceptance and love for everyone. Many folks talk about being born again or saved and finding their lives changed by Jesus. I suspect at the heart of those experiences is acceptance. Hearing that Jesus loves and values us, particularly if we’re not feeling cherished by anyone else, can be transforming. The stories of Jesus show him talking to those who lived on the margins, listening to women, the ill, foreigners, impoverished folks. Jesus saw people as whole and valuable, and they responded by seeing themselves that way, too.
We all benefit by hearing that God loves us, Jesus values us and believes in us. We hear that from Jesus through the voice of his community. We form a relationship with Jesus by forming relationships with each other, which his people. Everyone who comes to this place should hear words of welcome, inclusion, respect and joy. We hear Jesus naming us a friend when we name each other that way. We experience the presence of Jesus in the heart of the community here.
We also share the love and acceptance of Jesus with others when we treat them with respect and dignity. This week I had the privilege of sharing Jesus’ love through the community fund. Because you are generous, we bought antibiotics and pain meds for a young man with a toothache. His gratitude was even more generous than our funds. We also gave a young mom a check for back rent so she could stay in her apartment. We gave her $200 so that she has time to earn the $200 she needs to finish the payments next month. She too was profoundly grateful. We said to her: we trust you, we believe in you; we’re giving you this without strings attached or judgment. It’s the kind of thing Jesus would do, and when we do it, we keep him alive among us. When we hold Jesus’ vision for what life can be, and do the work he taught folks to do, he is alive and thriving here. We learn to know him by receiving his love and passing it along. Like the old song, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.” Jesus is the love, and he lives within it wherever love moves among us.