Will The Real Messiah Please Stand Up?
Sermon
Defining Moments
First Lesson Sermons For Advent/Christmas/Epiphany
In the early days of television a popular game show, To Tell the Truth, held the attention of the American audience. A panel of interesting and colorful experts was in place, along with an engaging host. They were presented with three contestants, each claiming to be a famous person or a person who had accomplished an unusual feat. The identity of the real person was known only to the host. After a period of questioning by the panel when the panel and everyone else had been given a chance to vote for their choice of the real person, the host would call for the identity to be revealed -- "Will the real (Swiss mountain climber) please stand up?" After a few seconds of suspense, this person would stand. The audience would gasp and the contestants would be rewarded in accordance with their ability to fool the panel of experts.
Somehow I feel we are being called on to play the game today with the many false messiahs presenting themselves as we approach the twenty-first century. In fact, throughout history, we have always had our false messiahs, from David Koresh and Jim Jones to Nero and Philip of Macedon. Each one in his own style offers a safe civilization to humankind if we would but submit. The problem is that it is difficult to distinguish the false messiahs from the real Messiah. There is a hunger within each of us to say, "Will the real Messiah please stand up?"
I.
A closer look at some false messiahs.
The Germans have a saying that sums up the wreckage left to us by the false messiahs: "Whatever men do, it turns out lousy." They, of all people, should know. The Russians throw out the czars and end up with Stalin. The Americans free the slaves so they can move into the ghettos. The Jews have a bad record at this point also. The nation that God chooses to be the hope of the world becomes the stooge of the world. The nation of priests becomes a nation of international politicians so inept at playing one major power off against another that by the time they are through, Egypt, Syria, Babylonia, Persia, Rome, all have a chance of wiping their feet on them -- the cream of the population deported, the Temple destroyed, and Jerusalem razed. To top it off, the law of Moses becomes the legalism of the Pharisees, and "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" becomes "Is it kosher to wear my dentures on the Sabbath?" The high priests sell out to the army of occupation and the Holy City turns into Miami Beach. God gets fed up also and nobody knows all of this better than the Jews themselves. After all, they have a wailing wall. But they went on hoping anyway, and several centuries before the birth of Jesus, much of their hope took the form of an implausible dream that someday God in his fathomless mercy would send them Somebody to make everything right. This Somebody was referred to as the Messiah, the Anointed One, the one and only anointed by God as a king at his coronation is anointed, only for a bigger job. The Greek world for messiah is Christ.
How and when the messiah would come was debatable. Theories as to what he would be like multiplied and overlapped. A great warrior king like David, a great priest like Melchizedek, a great prophet like Elijah, who could possibly say? But whoever he was, his name would be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
However, any role call of the false messiahs of history will prove that the Germans were right: whatever men do, it turns out lousy.
Arnold Toynbee reminds us that these false messiahs come in all sizes and shapes, and they have not changed our world for the better. The messiahs, as statesman or soldier, teacher or pacifist, have all proven inadequate to change humankind. They have made some difference, but they have failed to make us different.
In America in recent years, we have invented our own false messiahs. We have been duped into thinking that technology will save us, only to find out that every technological breakthrough brings its own brand of evil. Americans also believe, whether they will admit it or not, that in a culture as unstable and as cumbersome and inefficient as democracy, something more solid must be adopted.
As a pastor, I have observed that another false messiah that seems to dominate the life of our people is corporate culture. This seems to have more control over the lives of our people than the gospel they profess. "How my company does it" seems to reign supreme. After all, corporate culture does provide for a good retirement. Corporate leaders talk about their companies being a family, but when it comes time to make a profit, people are treated as though they were disposable cartons to be thrown away, sacrificed to the great god, profit. Obviously, a corporation is not a family. Its goal is not to nurture people, but to make a profit. And if people must be sacrificed to make that profit, then so be it.
Another false messiah in America is big-time athletics. Every parent hopes that big-time athletics will rescue them from the difficulty of paying tuition bills for their young quarterback. Every little league father has a dream of owning his own major league team. Newnan, Georgia, recently had to put security officers at the little league park to keep the parents from fighting with one another. Big-time athletics and its control of our lives start from the first Saturday morning a child shows up to play soccer until the day his health breaks and he cannot buy a ticket to go to the ballpark to watch his favorite team. If you don't believe this, do a study on what happens to the worship habits in a city when major league athletics are introduced. Or try calling into judgment our obsession with the football team at any state university.
II.
Marks of the real messiah.
Out of the confusion over these false messiahs, we must ask the question, "Will the real messiah please stand up?" How will we know the real messiah, the genuine article, when he appears? After all, our record of running after the false ones is pretty dangerous. We know we are in a mess. We need someone to bail us out. We don't want to risk following the wrong one.
The divinely inspired prophet tells us what the messiah will be like. He tells us his distinguishing characteristics, for God wants us to identify him correctly. This savior seems to have three basic characteristics. One, he will have a defined audience, and that audience will have four types of people in it. The first will be the meek. The different translations bounce between poor and meek but the essence for the Hebrew is the same -- the afflicted, the oppressed, the helpless, the meek. It is interesting that the Messiah himself later says, "The meek shall inherit the earth." However you translate meek you must be certain of the fact that it does include all the young, the old, and the helpless, but it excludes the self-sufficient. After all, they think they don't need a savior.
The second will include the brokenhearted, and who among us doesn't fit that category? The graduates of the school of suffering clearly recall loss, betrayal, disappointment. They carry in their hearts the scars of the wrongs which they have suffered, and even more deeply the wrongs they have done. They are brokenhearted; they cannot receive and they cannot give restitution. The Hebrew here is simply to break in pieces. They are like ships broken by the storm or people torn asunder by wild beasts. But we must understand that even in the most disastrous human situations, when sorrow robs the heart of its last resources and strengths, the Bible discovers an opportunity for the coming God. The Lord hears those whose hearts are broken. "A broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Every kind of human helplessness is a recommendation to God.
The third category of people in this audience will be the captives. The world is full of captives. They are the victims of evil habits and ill-regulated deeds, settling down into an ill-regulated life. It is like Paul describes them in 2 Timothy 3:6: "...with sin, led captive with diverse lust." There are many people who have been enslaved by strange forces in strange situations.
The last are those that are bound. They are essentially those who are prisoners and live in the darkness of the prison house in endless gloom. The Bible has no problem classifying the prisoners and the blind as the same, because they both sit in darkness. This messiah will have in his audience those who are longing for the light and are bound in darkness.
The second characteristic of this messiah will be what he says to this strange audience. He speaks a word of encouragement. It is good tidings to each group or person. The task assigned is simply to bring good tidings to proclaim. The message of the Messiah is not advice or an explanation of current events; it is word of what God has done in the subsequent liberation of the human spirits. Grace is God's constant attitude toward men, and vengeance is an occasional judgment necessary to remove obstacles to the grace. There is always a critical juncture when the good tidings of God are heard. One is either the better or the worse, never the same, after hearing the message. The real messiah brings this message.
What is the third characteristic of the true messiah? The third characteristic of the true messiah is that the spirit of the Lord is upon him. It is hard to discern but it is clear. "He anointed me to preach." False messiahs have the spirit of avarice. False messiahs have the spirit of political power upon them. False messiahs depend upon the structures of this world. The true messiah is dependent upon God alone.
III. The real messiah does stand up.
One thousand years later in a ragged little village on the topside of an unimportant country, a young man armed only with the spirit of God declared himself the messiah. This is Mary's boy, the one we have seen in the village market. Why, this is the boy who helped Joseph build my house. How can he be the messiah? He is not the messiah. There is no pomp, no manifesto, no dazzling wealth nor connections in high government circles. Jesus was armed only with the spirit of God upon him and the word of God within him. It is clear that from his humble beginnings and his focus upon ministry, he met the criteria for the Isaiah prophecy. Their response, rushing him out of the synagogue and trying to destroy him at the edge of the city, was the response that all stuffed-shirts and self-sufficient people who do not need this kind of messiah, and who wish to make a messiah in their own image, give. Let's get rid of a messiah who doesn't look like the kind of messiah we expect. Let's destroy a messiah who does not fit our image.
When the real messiah stood up, kingdoms fell and despots shuddered. When the real messiah stood up, the poor received him gladly and the power brokers tried to destroy him. The real messiah has stood up and he calls for us. The messiah has stood up and it has made all the difference. Years later when John the Baptist was in prison and asked for reassurance that Jesus was the messiah, he was told simply to look at the evidence. That same word comes to us: "Look at the evidence."
In a few days we will celebrate the birth of the real messiah. We have waited and prepared for his coming. We can either destroy him, or we can honor and invite him into our hearts. The real messiah has stood up. The challenge is with us. "... a historian without any theological bias whatever cannot portray the pageant of human progress without giving a foremost place to a penniless preacher from Nazareth."1 The real Messiah has stood up.
____________
1. Hugh Martin, Parables of the Gospels (London: SCM, 1957), p. 91.
Somehow I feel we are being called on to play the game today with the many false messiahs presenting themselves as we approach the twenty-first century. In fact, throughout history, we have always had our false messiahs, from David Koresh and Jim Jones to Nero and Philip of Macedon. Each one in his own style offers a safe civilization to humankind if we would but submit. The problem is that it is difficult to distinguish the false messiahs from the real Messiah. There is a hunger within each of us to say, "Will the real Messiah please stand up?"
I.
A closer look at some false messiahs.
The Germans have a saying that sums up the wreckage left to us by the false messiahs: "Whatever men do, it turns out lousy." They, of all people, should know. The Russians throw out the czars and end up with Stalin. The Americans free the slaves so they can move into the ghettos. The Jews have a bad record at this point also. The nation that God chooses to be the hope of the world becomes the stooge of the world. The nation of priests becomes a nation of international politicians so inept at playing one major power off against another that by the time they are through, Egypt, Syria, Babylonia, Persia, Rome, all have a chance of wiping their feet on them -- the cream of the population deported, the Temple destroyed, and Jerusalem razed. To top it off, the law of Moses becomes the legalism of the Pharisees, and "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" becomes "Is it kosher to wear my dentures on the Sabbath?" The high priests sell out to the army of occupation and the Holy City turns into Miami Beach. God gets fed up also and nobody knows all of this better than the Jews themselves. After all, they have a wailing wall. But they went on hoping anyway, and several centuries before the birth of Jesus, much of their hope took the form of an implausible dream that someday God in his fathomless mercy would send them Somebody to make everything right. This Somebody was referred to as the Messiah, the Anointed One, the one and only anointed by God as a king at his coronation is anointed, only for a bigger job. The Greek world for messiah is Christ.
How and when the messiah would come was debatable. Theories as to what he would be like multiplied and overlapped. A great warrior king like David, a great priest like Melchizedek, a great prophet like Elijah, who could possibly say? But whoever he was, his name would be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
However, any role call of the false messiahs of history will prove that the Germans were right: whatever men do, it turns out lousy.
Arnold Toynbee reminds us that these false messiahs come in all sizes and shapes, and they have not changed our world for the better. The messiahs, as statesman or soldier, teacher or pacifist, have all proven inadequate to change humankind. They have made some difference, but they have failed to make us different.
In America in recent years, we have invented our own false messiahs. We have been duped into thinking that technology will save us, only to find out that every technological breakthrough brings its own brand of evil. Americans also believe, whether they will admit it or not, that in a culture as unstable and as cumbersome and inefficient as democracy, something more solid must be adopted.
As a pastor, I have observed that another false messiah that seems to dominate the life of our people is corporate culture. This seems to have more control over the lives of our people than the gospel they profess. "How my company does it" seems to reign supreme. After all, corporate culture does provide for a good retirement. Corporate leaders talk about their companies being a family, but when it comes time to make a profit, people are treated as though they were disposable cartons to be thrown away, sacrificed to the great god, profit. Obviously, a corporation is not a family. Its goal is not to nurture people, but to make a profit. And if people must be sacrificed to make that profit, then so be it.
Another false messiah in America is big-time athletics. Every parent hopes that big-time athletics will rescue them from the difficulty of paying tuition bills for their young quarterback. Every little league father has a dream of owning his own major league team. Newnan, Georgia, recently had to put security officers at the little league park to keep the parents from fighting with one another. Big-time athletics and its control of our lives start from the first Saturday morning a child shows up to play soccer until the day his health breaks and he cannot buy a ticket to go to the ballpark to watch his favorite team. If you don't believe this, do a study on what happens to the worship habits in a city when major league athletics are introduced. Or try calling into judgment our obsession with the football team at any state university.
II.
Marks of the real messiah.
Out of the confusion over these false messiahs, we must ask the question, "Will the real messiah please stand up?" How will we know the real messiah, the genuine article, when he appears? After all, our record of running after the false ones is pretty dangerous. We know we are in a mess. We need someone to bail us out. We don't want to risk following the wrong one.
The divinely inspired prophet tells us what the messiah will be like. He tells us his distinguishing characteristics, for God wants us to identify him correctly. This savior seems to have three basic characteristics. One, he will have a defined audience, and that audience will have four types of people in it. The first will be the meek. The different translations bounce between poor and meek but the essence for the Hebrew is the same -- the afflicted, the oppressed, the helpless, the meek. It is interesting that the Messiah himself later says, "The meek shall inherit the earth." However you translate meek you must be certain of the fact that it does include all the young, the old, and the helpless, but it excludes the self-sufficient. After all, they think they don't need a savior.
The second will include the brokenhearted, and who among us doesn't fit that category? The graduates of the school of suffering clearly recall loss, betrayal, disappointment. They carry in their hearts the scars of the wrongs which they have suffered, and even more deeply the wrongs they have done. They are brokenhearted; they cannot receive and they cannot give restitution. The Hebrew here is simply to break in pieces. They are like ships broken by the storm or people torn asunder by wild beasts. But we must understand that even in the most disastrous human situations, when sorrow robs the heart of its last resources and strengths, the Bible discovers an opportunity for the coming God. The Lord hears those whose hearts are broken. "A broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Every kind of human helplessness is a recommendation to God.
The third category of people in this audience will be the captives. The world is full of captives. They are the victims of evil habits and ill-regulated deeds, settling down into an ill-regulated life. It is like Paul describes them in 2 Timothy 3:6: "...with sin, led captive with diverse lust." There are many people who have been enslaved by strange forces in strange situations.
The last are those that are bound. They are essentially those who are prisoners and live in the darkness of the prison house in endless gloom. The Bible has no problem classifying the prisoners and the blind as the same, because they both sit in darkness. This messiah will have in his audience those who are longing for the light and are bound in darkness.
The second characteristic of this messiah will be what he says to this strange audience. He speaks a word of encouragement. It is good tidings to each group or person. The task assigned is simply to bring good tidings to proclaim. The message of the Messiah is not advice or an explanation of current events; it is word of what God has done in the subsequent liberation of the human spirits. Grace is God's constant attitude toward men, and vengeance is an occasional judgment necessary to remove obstacles to the grace. There is always a critical juncture when the good tidings of God are heard. One is either the better or the worse, never the same, after hearing the message. The real messiah brings this message.
What is the third characteristic of the true messiah? The third characteristic of the true messiah is that the spirit of the Lord is upon him. It is hard to discern but it is clear. "He anointed me to preach." False messiahs have the spirit of avarice. False messiahs have the spirit of political power upon them. False messiahs depend upon the structures of this world. The true messiah is dependent upon God alone.
III. The real messiah does stand up.
One thousand years later in a ragged little village on the topside of an unimportant country, a young man armed only with the spirit of God declared himself the messiah. This is Mary's boy, the one we have seen in the village market. Why, this is the boy who helped Joseph build my house. How can he be the messiah? He is not the messiah. There is no pomp, no manifesto, no dazzling wealth nor connections in high government circles. Jesus was armed only with the spirit of God upon him and the word of God within him. It is clear that from his humble beginnings and his focus upon ministry, he met the criteria for the Isaiah prophecy. Their response, rushing him out of the synagogue and trying to destroy him at the edge of the city, was the response that all stuffed-shirts and self-sufficient people who do not need this kind of messiah, and who wish to make a messiah in their own image, give. Let's get rid of a messiah who doesn't look like the kind of messiah we expect. Let's destroy a messiah who does not fit our image.
When the real messiah stood up, kingdoms fell and despots shuddered. When the real messiah stood up, the poor received him gladly and the power brokers tried to destroy him. The real messiah has stood up and he calls for us. The messiah has stood up and it has made all the difference. Years later when John the Baptist was in prison and asked for reassurance that Jesus was the messiah, he was told simply to look at the evidence. That same word comes to us: "Look at the evidence."
In a few days we will celebrate the birth of the real messiah. We have waited and prepared for his coming. We can either destroy him, or we can honor and invite him into our hearts. The real messiah has stood up. The challenge is with us. "... a historian without any theological bias whatever cannot portray the pageant of human progress without giving a foremost place to a penniless preacher from Nazareth."1 The real Messiah has stood up.
____________
1. Hugh Martin, Parables of the Gospels (London: SCM, 1957), p. 91.
