What Are We To Make Of Jesus?

Dear St Andrew’s,

Last Sunday was an encouraging beginning to our guest series, The Beauty and the Sense of Christianity. We welcomed guests at each of our four services, and I am thankful to God for every person who came.

But the number who attended is not the only measure of encouragement. Just as important were the many invitations that were made. Some were accepted; probably many more were politely declined. Every invitation required prayer, courage and love, and every one was an expression of our desire that others might meet Jesus.

So please do not be discouraged if the person you invited did not come. God is sovereign, gracious and powerful, and his plans are not always the same as ours.

Over recent weeks, I have been praying for two friends – two people for two minutes each day. I invited them to come last Sunday, but neither accepted.

Then, on Tuesday morning, I found myself sitting in a coffee shop next to another former Englishman, now Australian. We struck up a conversation and discovered that we had several things in common. He works as a consultant in finance, has recently moved to Roseville and does not yet know anyone locally.

So what did I do? I invited him to church!

He told me that his family in the UK are churchgoers, but that he is the “black sheep” of the family. Nevertheless, he said that he would consider coming. Please pray that he does. After all, God delights in seeking lost sheep!

And please keep praying for your own family, friends, neighbours and colleagues. Keep loving them. And as opportunities arise, tell your story and invite them to come and see Jesus. He is the one we want people to meet. Jesus is at the heart of our faith, the beauty of Christianity, and the one who makes sense of it all.

Yet what a conundrum Jesus is.

Jesus claimed to be God – an astonishing claim which is almost impossible to take seriously. And yet he lived a life so extraordinary that a sizeable part of humanity has come to believe that he was. How are we to account for him?

We cannot simply dismiss Jesus as a great moral teacher, because his own claims do not allow it. Nor can we easily conclude that he was deluded or deceitful, given the wisdom, beauty and impact of his life. And then there is the historical evidence for his resurrection and the remarkable transformation of his first followers.

We are left with the possibility that Jesus really is who he said he is. That may seem hard to believe. But perhaps it is just as difficult not to believe. If God is all-powerful, could he not become human? And if God is all-loving, might we not expect him to?

This Sunday, as we consider The Sense of Christianity, let us pray that our guests – and all of us – will see more clearly who Jesus is. In an essay whose title I have borrowed for this note, C. S. Lewis put the question – and the challenge – like this:

‘Others said, “This is the truth about the universe. This is the way you ought to go.” He says, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.” He says, “No man can reach absolute reality except through me. Try to retain your own life, and you will be inevitably ruined. Give yourself away, and you will be saved… And finally, do not be afraid, I have overcome the whole universe.”’ (C. S. Lewis, “What Are We to Make of Jesus Christ?”, in God in the Dock)

Blessings,

James