The Eye-Witnesses
Sermon
Parents are generally very protective of their children, and this has to be a good thing. But just occasionally, parents fail to strike quite the right balance and some become over-protective whilst others become under-protective. This slight imbalance can cause problems when the children are young, especially when they're just starting out in school and are beginning to show a little independence of their own.
A typical example of the type of problem that can occur happened one day at the gates of a primary school. Things had gone wrong between two children, who had both gone home upset. The two mothers were naturally worried about their child's distress, and the story came tumbling out from the children. Needless to say, each child blamed the other. Next day, the two mothers had a fight at the school gates, and according to eye witnesses, were shouting and screaming at each other.
When questioned about the incident, each mother had a totally different account and even the eye-witnesses had seen it differently, so it proved very difficult to reach the truth. But it was probably the case that everyone who spoke had given the truth as they saw it.
We human beings are such different people that we all see things differently, and we probably all see the truth from our own point of view.
The first letter of John is thought to have been written towards the end of the first century, so is unlikely to be a direct eye-witness account of the events of the life and death of Jesus, although it's clearly a reflection upon the life and death of Jesus. Early Christian tradition thought the letter was written by John the apostle, but this is thought to be unlikely by most scholars today. The letter is thought to have been written by a disciple in the Johannine school.
Nonetheless, in today's passage the writer claims not only to be an eye-witness, but to have actually touched Jesus in a way that sounds reminiscent of Thomas, needing to touch Jesus after the resurrection to make sure that Jesus was real. "We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life," says the writer, "this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it."
It sounds as though the writer was actually there, on the first Easter Day. It may be that the author has written down eye-witness accounts given by the first disciples, hence the use of the word "we". Or it may be that the author has had a spiritual experience of his own which has so utterly convinced him of the truth of the resurrection that he can't help but write it down.
Written some seventy of so years after the death of Jesus, the first letter of John was written at a time when some groups of people were doubting the humanity of Jesus. They argued that God can't suffer, so if Jesus was God, he couldn't have suffered on the cross. He might have appeared to suffer, but actually his divinity somehow took him above the crucifixion, so that he didn't suffer as an ordinary man would suffer. In fact, they refused to believe that Jesus was a man at all (1 John 4:2). Other groups regarded Jesus' life on this earth simply as a means of obtaining special secret knowledge of God which would then be passed down only to those in the know. These people refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ (1 John 2:2). So to counteract both these ideas, the author gives a strong eye-witness account of meeting with Jesus.
The cross was a scandal, a huge stumbling block to the spread of Christianity in the early days. Every good Jew would know that to "die on a tree" was God's curse (Deuteronomy 21:23), and that anyone who died on the cross therefore died under God's curse. The argument was that it was inconceivable that the Messiah could die in this way, therefore Jesus could not have been the Messiah. Many people also refused to believe in the resurrection, just as many people refuse to believe in the resurrection today. But it seems very clear that something amazing happened after the crucifixion, for lives were transformed.
It seems that the author of the first letter of John had some amazing experience, for he's completely convinced of the truth of the resurrection and says, "we declare to you what we have seen and heard." He's convinced of the truth of eternal life and repeats a message which he has from Jesus, "This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all."
He goes on then to discuss how human beings walk in darkness and identifies darkness with sin, which he says has been forgiven by Jesus on the cross and is relieved only by walking with God in the light. "If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true," says the writer, "but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another."
There's something very important in Christianity about having fellowship with each other. Christianity isn't a religion which can be followed in isolation, it requires fellowship with each other. When we have true fellowship with each other, we're walking in the light. When we pretend to have fellowship with each other, we're actually walking not in the light, but in darkness.
Church gives us all a wonderful opportunity to learn how to love, in a safe environment. Just as a family contains very different types of people, some of whom are irritating at times, some of whom are good at one thing, some of whom are good at something else, so a church contains very different types of people. It may be the only organisation which we join without any particular common interest. We come to church to worship God, not necessarily to find much common ground with anyone else, for we all worship differently. But what a wonderful place church is to practice forbearance and unconditional acceptance and to practice suspending any judgment of each other. And we can practice really getting to know each other, getting alongside each other and caring for each other and forgiving each other. And when we can do all that within the church, we may be ready to start loving people outside the church.
It's a tall order, and impossible without something special to kick start us. That something special is the risen Jesus. The risen Jesus, the God within, can be intimately known. And when he is intimately known, then amazing and wonderful things happen. Things like bearing witness to him and telling others about him. Things like actually finding you can begin to love other people. Things like discovering a new strength and a new purpose and a new support in your life.
The risen Jesus is real and alive for ever. When he dwells within your heart you too become alive with every fibre of your being. And then you know that you're walking in the light, and you too will find yourself an eye-witness to him.
A typical example of the type of problem that can occur happened one day at the gates of a primary school. Things had gone wrong between two children, who had both gone home upset. The two mothers were naturally worried about their child's distress, and the story came tumbling out from the children. Needless to say, each child blamed the other. Next day, the two mothers had a fight at the school gates, and according to eye witnesses, were shouting and screaming at each other.
When questioned about the incident, each mother had a totally different account and even the eye-witnesses had seen it differently, so it proved very difficult to reach the truth. But it was probably the case that everyone who spoke had given the truth as they saw it.
We human beings are such different people that we all see things differently, and we probably all see the truth from our own point of view.
The first letter of John is thought to have been written towards the end of the first century, so is unlikely to be a direct eye-witness account of the events of the life and death of Jesus, although it's clearly a reflection upon the life and death of Jesus. Early Christian tradition thought the letter was written by John the apostle, but this is thought to be unlikely by most scholars today. The letter is thought to have been written by a disciple in the Johannine school.
Nonetheless, in today's passage the writer claims not only to be an eye-witness, but to have actually touched Jesus in a way that sounds reminiscent of Thomas, needing to touch Jesus after the resurrection to make sure that Jesus was real. "We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life," says the writer, "this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it."
It sounds as though the writer was actually there, on the first Easter Day. It may be that the author has written down eye-witness accounts given by the first disciples, hence the use of the word "we". Or it may be that the author has had a spiritual experience of his own which has so utterly convinced him of the truth of the resurrection that he can't help but write it down.
Written some seventy of so years after the death of Jesus, the first letter of John was written at a time when some groups of people were doubting the humanity of Jesus. They argued that God can't suffer, so if Jesus was God, he couldn't have suffered on the cross. He might have appeared to suffer, but actually his divinity somehow took him above the crucifixion, so that he didn't suffer as an ordinary man would suffer. In fact, they refused to believe that Jesus was a man at all (1 John 4:2). Other groups regarded Jesus' life on this earth simply as a means of obtaining special secret knowledge of God which would then be passed down only to those in the know. These people refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ (1 John 2:2). So to counteract both these ideas, the author gives a strong eye-witness account of meeting with Jesus.
The cross was a scandal, a huge stumbling block to the spread of Christianity in the early days. Every good Jew would know that to "die on a tree" was God's curse (Deuteronomy 21:23), and that anyone who died on the cross therefore died under God's curse. The argument was that it was inconceivable that the Messiah could die in this way, therefore Jesus could not have been the Messiah. Many people also refused to believe in the resurrection, just as many people refuse to believe in the resurrection today. But it seems very clear that something amazing happened after the crucifixion, for lives were transformed.
It seems that the author of the first letter of John had some amazing experience, for he's completely convinced of the truth of the resurrection and says, "we declare to you what we have seen and heard." He's convinced of the truth of eternal life and repeats a message which he has from Jesus, "This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all."
He goes on then to discuss how human beings walk in darkness and identifies darkness with sin, which he says has been forgiven by Jesus on the cross and is relieved only by walking with God in the light. "If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true," says the writer, "but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another."
There's something very important in Christianity about having fellowship with each other. Christianity isn't a religion which can be followed in isolation, it requires fellowship with each other. When we have true fellowship with each other, we're walking in the light. When we pretend to have fellowship with each other, we're actually walking not in the light, but in darkness.
Church gives us all a wonderful opportunity to learn how to love, in a safe environment. Just as a family contains very different types of people, some of whom are irritating at times, some of whom are good at one thing, some of whom are good at something else, so a church contains very different types of people. It may be the only organisation which we join without any particular common interest. We come to church to worship God, not necessarily to find much common ground with anyone else, for we all worship differently. But what a wonderful place church is to practice forbearance and unconditional acceptance and to practice suspending any judgment of each other. And we can practice really getting to know each other, getting alongside each other and caring for each other and forgiving each other. And when we can do all that within the church, we may be ready to start loving people outside the church.
It's a tall order, and impossible without something special to kick start us. That something special is the risen Jesus. The risen Jesus, the God within, can be intimately known. And when he is intimately known, then amazing and wonderful things happen. Things like bearing witness to him and telling others about him. Things like actually finding you can begin to love other people. Things like discovering a new strength and a new purpose and a new support in your life.
The risen Jesus is real and alive for ever. When he dwells within your heart you too become alive with every fibre of your being. And then you know that you're walking in the light, and you too will find yourself an eye-witness to him.
