Who is this Jesus - Luke 1-2

As 2015 begins we are going to be encouraging people to ask Questions as we run the Question course for people prepared to question their faith.  We will be asking people to pass on the big questions that sometimes trouble them so that we can explore what faith means for us all as we seek to live our lives in today's world.

As we do that we are going to read through Luke's gospel and discover that Luke himself was drawn to ask questions about Jesus in order to put together a clear picture of all that Jesus was.

Go to the Ashmolean museum in Oxford, to the gallery that tells the story of the Romans and there is a glass case with a set of doctor’s instruments.  They look as if they might have come out of a Doctor’s case today.  There are things to mix pastes and potions with and things to probe with.

The physician was held in high esteem in the ancient Roman world … and in the world of the Jewish people too … Ecclesiasticus puts it well in chapter 38.

Honour physicians for their services,

For the Lord created them

For their gift of healing comes from the Most High

And they are rewarded by the King

The skill of physicians makes them distinguished

And in the presence of the great they are admired.

It was when Paul was in prison and writing to the church at Colossae that he found invaluable the company of the travelling companion he described as the beloved physician.

Tradition has it that the Luke Paul describes as the beloved physician is the Luke who joined Paul on his travels as he crossed over from what today we think of as Tuirkey and Asia Minor to Europe and Philippi: it was this Luke who wrote the story of the early church we have in the book of Acts.

It’s a while since we read through the Book of Acts on Sunday evenings.  As the neew year begins we are going to turn to the companion volume to Acts, the Gospel According to St Luke.

Open the gospel and you straightaway sense the methodical, systematic approach of someone honoured for their skill as a beloved physician.  Luke has not known Jesus personally, but he has heard people tell his story; more than that he has read some of the earliest accounts of Jesus’ life.

When I am away next weekend teaching on our course I will  be getting people to look quite closely at the evidence there is to show that Luke in all likelihood had read what has come down to us as the Gospel according to St Mark.  And quite possibly a collection of the sayings of Jesus.

A pretty strong case can be made.

It’s not that Luke is cheating, or simply plagiarising someone else’s work.  He is investigating, putting in order, so that he can give an account that is reliable.

And at the start he tells us as much:

Dear Theophilus: Many people have done their best to write a report of the things that have taken place among us.² They wrote what we have been told by those who saw these things from the beginning and who proclaimed the message.³ And so, your Excellency, because I have carefully studied all these matters from their beginning, I thought it would be good to write an orderly account for you.⁴ I do this so that you will know the full truth about everything which you have been taught.

One question matters to Luke.

And it is a big question.

It is an important question that is as important today as it was then.

Who is this Jesus?

On the first Sunday of a new year I always feel that we are emerging from the Christmas stories and at the start of a new year we put at the centre of things once again the one who came at Christmas but grew to be Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ.  The one who is at the heart of our faith.

But who exactly is this Jesus?

What is he like?

What is it that he has brought into the world?

Luke is a skilful writer who writes some of the most polished Greek of the whole of the New Testatment.  He has that gift of being able to write in a style appropriate to the story he tells.

The first two chapters read almost like the last chapters of the Old Testament as they bring on to centre stage members of Jesus’s close family and his extended family, shepherds and angel voices, and an ageing prophet and an equally ageing prophetess.

In turn Mary, the mother of Jesus, Zachariah husband to Mary’s cousin and father to John the Baptist, the angel voices, the shepherds, the prophet and the prophetess point the finger, as it were, at this Jesus who is coming into the world and they leave you in no doubt as to who he is and what he is about.

Son of God and King in the line of David, (1:32) this Jesus will shape a new way of building society as a kingdom under the rule of God in which God’s mercy is paramount as he scatters the proud, brings down kings from their thrones, lifts up the lowly and fills the hungry with good things, while sending the rich away empty  (1:50-53)

It’s nothing less than the dawn of a new day as forgiveness becomes the order of the day and those who live in the dark shadow of death will sense the bright dawn of salvation arising and he will guide people’s steps into the path of peace (1:76ff)

The coming of this Jesus into the world, is nothing less than the one who is King of kings and Lord of lords, the Saviour who is God’s anointed, Christ the Lord.   (2:11)

The coming of this Jesus makes a difference as it brings glory to God in the highest heaven … and peace on earth. (2:14)

This is the one born into the town of David in the time of the first emperor of Rome, Augustus (2:1ff)

As chapter 2 draws to a close and the birth narrative is about to finish it is as if a series of prophetic voices has pointed towards the Jesus who is destined to make a massive difference in the lives of all who encounter him.

But two more voices are yet to be heard.

How moving that they should be among the oldest people to play a part in the whole of the New Testament story.

²⁵ At that time there was a man named Simeon living in Jerusalem. He was a good, God-fearing man and was waiting for Israel to be saved The Holy Spirit was with him²⁶ and had assured him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's promised Messiah.

Not only is the age of the last two people to speak in this wonderful account of the birth of Jesus great and greatly honoured there is a wonderful patience in the person of  Simeon.  He watched and he waited.  And he was content to wait.

There’s a theme for us to take into the New year there.

How important it is sometimes to wait.  To watch.  To have patience.

²⁷ Led by the Spirit, Simeon went into the Temple. When the parents brought the child Jesus into the Temple to do for him what the Law required,²⁸ Simeon took the child in his arms and gave thanks to God:

The words of Simeon’s song join Mary’s Magnificat, Zechariah’s Benedictus as the Nunc Dimittis.  They play such a part in the life and worship of the church.

For they are words for us to echo.

Come into the presence of this Jesus and the waiting is over, the peace comes.

²⁹ “Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace.

There is a peace to be found in the presence of Jesus that we may seek as the year unfolds.  You will see from Highbury News an invitation to share in prayer – we are going to share extracts from Angela Ashwin’s book  Woven into Prayer on the notice sheet – but if you would like a copy please have a word with me (or with Karen) and we can get you a copy.  It’s a pattern of prayer for each day – that seeks the peace of God’s presence in Christ.

You may let your servant go in peace.

Then comes a wonderful thing that Simeon says.

Again there is the invitation to echo these words.

 ³⁰ With my own eyes I have seen your salvation, ³¹ which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples:

With our own eyes we can see salvation in the coming of Christ.  In the presence he promises as we gather around the Table of our Lord.  It is not just a wise teacher we encounter but the one who brings salvation, who brings wholeness into our lives.

 ³² A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles and bring glory to your people Israel.”

It is nothing less than light in a world of darkness and the glory of God’s very own presence.

Who is this Jesus?

Not just a softness and a gentleness.  What he says, what he does, what he stands for calls for decision.  And where decision is called for there will be difference of view.

There is a call to follow this Jesus and put his way into practice in the living of our lives.

Like the child’s mother and father we too can be amazed at the words of this wise, wise man, Simeon

This child is chosen by God for the destruction and the salvation of many in Israel. He will be a sign from God which many people will speak against³⁵ and so reveal their secret thoughts. And sorrow, like a sharp sword, will break your own heart.”

Follow him and you will discover the way through a world of pain … but you will not be offered an escape from pain.

Sorrow, like a sharp sword, did indeed break Mary’s heart as she stood at the foot of the cross. And sorrow can break our hearts too.

But this Jesus is with us through the valley, drawing us towards the dawn of God’s glory.

Simeon almost has the last word.

But not quite.

For there is also a very old prophetess, a widow named Anna – married only for 7 years, and now 84 years old.

She remained in the temple, day and night, worshipping, fasting, praying.

Read through Luke, read on into Acts – and people take seriously worship, prayer – devotion to God.   A challenge to us all at the start of a New Year.

And who is it that is the first to declare this message of Christ as the one who would set his people free?  It is Anna – the prophetess.  The first to declare the Gospel.

This is the Jesus we are called to follow.  This is the Jesus to lead us through the year that lies ahead – the Jesus who is full of wisdom and greatly blessed by God.

And maybe we can take a leaf out of Jesus’s book – we next glimpse him as the boy becomes a man on a visit to Jerusalem at of all things the Passover Festival – going missing, he is found in the Temple with the Jewish teachers – listening to them and asking questions.

That’s the key to unlock faith and the way that lies ahead – the willingness not only to listen but also to ask questions.

If there are questions you have that bug you, questions you would like us to address in church – then jot them down, put them in the box at the front of the church – and as we read through Luke we will be on the look out for responses to the questions that we need to bring to Jesus.

Some of those questions we will be addressing in the Question course that begins a week on Tuesday, 13^th January too.