Lent 1B, February 18, 2018

Many people have trouble with the divinity of Jesus. They doubt that he was God, divine. Non-Christians reject the idea while Christians believe it. But often even Christians have doubts sometimes and question the words of the Bible. That is okay when investigation leads to a deeper, stronger faith. That is why we Christens love to study the Bible, and why we love the story of Doubting Thomas, because his story is our story. We too have our doubts until we understand the reason for the wounds in the hands and feet and side of Jesus. Believing, we too make Thomas’s confession: “My Lord and my God!”

It is hard for people to understand and believe things like 1 the virgin birth, 2 miracles, 3 healings, 4 walking on water, 5 foreknowledge: knowing the future of his suffering and death, 6 his resurrection, 7 the ascension, or 8 the sending of the Holy Sprit.

But we know that it is necessary for our salvation that Jesus be god. A mere human cannot take upon himself the sin of the world, rise again to give forgiveness and eternal salvation

People seldom deny that Jesus was human. It is obvious because at times he was hungry, thirsty, in pain on the cross, sad when his friend Lazarus died, got angry at the merchants in the temple, and he died on the cross and was buried.

And it was necessary that Jesus be human so that he could die because god cannot die.

So the “two natures” of Christ are necessary for our salvation. It is necessary that Jesus be both God and Man.

At his trial, the crowd of the Jews said that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. So Pilate had Jesus whipped and dressed in a purple robe. He showed him to the crowd saying “Behold the Man.” “See, he is just a human, not god at all. So he is no threat. I will let him go.” But the crowd said “Crucify him” and eventually Pilate gave in to their wishes.

Recently when thinking about the temptation of Christ, I was wondering if perhaps the temptation by Satan was not only a test of his being the Son of God or not, but also for Jesus to give up being human. You see, if he did, he could not be our Savior.

Modern people have trouble thinking of the divinity of Jesus. But the Gospel writers did not. They assumed that Jesus was God. 1 The Christmas story tells of the incarnation and the virgin birth to show that the Father of Jesus is God the Father. 2 His name “Immanuel” says that “God Is With Us.” 3 The miracle stories and the resurrection proclaim the power of Jesus as the Son of God. What the Gospel story does is to tell us how God has become involved in the things of this world. This is the mystery and scandal of Christianity. God is in heaven, pure, holy, without sin, almighty, omniscient, eternal. It is unthinkable that God should become Man. But that is exactly the plan of God. John 3:16-17. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

So my recent reading and interpretation of the temptation story is that perhaps Satan does want Jesus to prove that he is only a god, and so wants Jesus to quit being human. “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Perhaps he is saying to Jesus, ‘Don’t be a silly human being that is hungry for bread: make these rocks become bread. Quit trying to be like ordinary humans with hunger and pains and misery and worry and regrets and quarreling and death. You are the Son of God, so be god.

‘Jump off the temple roof and fly! A god can fly. Be free, Jesus! Stop walking in the dirt. Stop touching lepers. Get away from those stinky sinners. Return to heaven with the angels

‘Jesus, as a human you will never succeed in controlling the world. And if you did, your freedom mission would be a dead failure. Be my disciple. I will let you control the world. Worship me!’

Later, Satan spoke tempting words again through the people at the foot of the cross who said, (Mt.27:40) "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!" Satan did not want Jesus to die on the cross. Satan did not want Jesus to die as a sacrifice, the Lamb of God to forgive the sin of the world. ‘Be only a god, don’t be a human that takes up the sin of humanity.’

The basic sin of the world, the basic sin of humanity is to become like God. The first sin recorded in the Bible is for people to reject their humanity and to want to become like God.

Genesis 3:4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Yes, their eyes were opened, and in their new-found wisdom, they saw that they were human. And they wanted to try to cover up their humanity with fig leaves.

The basic sin in the world is the basic sin of wanting to be god, or to be like God. God controls the world, and people want to control things. The want to control other people, events, the weather: everything. They fight to gain control, from little children to adults, and this leads to fights, arguments, mass shootings, and war.

When we Christians acknowledge our sin, we should fear the One who is actually in control. In trying to escape our responsibility and guilt, we try to hide our sin, not with fig leaves, but with excuses.

But Adam and Eve could not hide from God. God found them. “Adam, where are you?” ‘I am concerned about you. I love you. I want to protect you.’ He gave them clothing of animal skins.

That is the Christmas story. In Jesus Christ, God came and found us. He became as we are in order to save us. We are people. (Genesis 3:19) “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return” Remember also that Christ will raise you up from that dust and give you eternal life. This is the mystery of Christianity. It is our hope and our joy.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church

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