Everyone loves Jesus; it’s just the Church they can’t stand. Everyone loves the message of Jesus, if only the Church practised it. In this series so far I hope you can see how we have been gradually climbing the mountain towards greater enlightenment. We have examined the evidence gate, stepped up the science ladder, bounded along the Bible path, wrestled with the perceived Old Testament view of God, and waded through the quagmire of evil and suffering, until we have finally reached the summit of God’s self-revelation – his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the summit. This is the centre. From now on every path we take goes from Christ and returns to Christ. The teaching of Jesus, the message of Jesus, continues to fascinate. Consider this – Jesus Christ never wrote a book but thousand of books have been written about him. He never wrote a peer-reviewed research paper and yet he was wiser than any academic. He never blogged or tweeted and yet has more followers that Justin Bieber or Stephen Fry! People say, “I love the message of Jesus, but I don’t like the Bible,” – which then begs the question, how do they know what the message of Jesus is? How do we know Jesus’ teaching? Pope Benedict put it beautifully: “Jesus’ teaching is not the product of human learning, of whatever kind. It originates from immediate contact with the Father, from ‘face-to-face’ dialogue – from the vision of the one who rests close to the Father’s heart. It is the Son’s word.” The words that Jesus speaks come from the Father. He himself is the ultimate revelation and as such what he says, God says. Of course there are those who have real difficulty in accepting any concept of God being able to reveal himself, but that is an emotional difficulty rather than a logical one. It is deeply prejudiced. Does this mean that we should all be ‘red letter’ Christians? You know, the ones who have Bibles with the actual words of Jesus in red, with the implication that the rest, especially the Old Testament, can be sidelined? No, because to do so would be to go against the message of Christ. Jesus himself regarded the whole Bible as the Word of God, and as being about him. For example, after his resurrection Jesus met two of his disciples and rebuked them for their lack of faith. He said to them, “‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” (Luke 24:25-27) Jesus Taught. He not only explained the Old Testament (which we should always read through his eyes) but he brought new revelation and appointed apostles to record that revelation. In the first century, religious teachers were often boring, irrelevant and incomprehensible (not much has changed then?!), but he was different. “When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.” (Matthew 7:28-29) His authority was not the authority of the tyrant, the bully, or the show off. It was simply the authority of truth, the authority of God. It rang true to the people. And they were amazed. But does it apply today? How can we understand it? To answer that we need to do two things. First of all, get rid of our chronological snobbery – just because we are 21st century people does not necessarily mean that we are more intelligent, perceptive and wise than first century people, or that our essential needs are different. Secondly, we need to hear the message and to realise that there is no Bible code, no special mystical experience, no guru, and no theology degree needed. Of course, there are difficult parts and some things you will keep coming back to. But the great thing about the Bible is that reading it for the first time you can learn so much, just as you can if you’re reading it for the thousandth time. It is not simplistic. The amazing thing about the Bible is that there is incredible depth to it. I have been studying the Bible for more than 30 years and I am still amazed by it. Sometimes it is depressing for me to go to a church or watch a Christian TV programme and hear teaching that is shallow, superficial and as useful as a chocolate teapot. Somehow some of us in the modern Church have got it into our heads that the teaching of Jesus is not suitable for our age and that we need to make it more relevant. We don’t need to make the Bible relevant – it is relevant. It requires a special skill to make the Bible irrelevant and yet that is a skill that seems to be acquired quite easily! It is not easy and trite. The Bible is not full of Hallmark-style sound bites. The teachings of Christ are radical. FF Bruce has a wonderful book called The Hard Sayings of Jesus, one example of which is Jesus apparently telling people to hate their parents. “Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.’” (Luke 14:25-27) The key to understanding difficult passages is to interpret Scripture with Scripture, and always in context. Jesus taught that those who follow him should honour their parents. So what did he mean? He was talking to large crowds that were following him because of his miracles. He wanted to warn…
