There was a long silence, and then Matthew asked softly, "Daddy, are you talking to me?"
It's a challenge to communicate to a small child. If you can appreciate that kind of challenge, than you can appreciate the task of the first Christians as they tried to communicate to others the nature of Christ. Divinity had invaded our universe. In the words of the Gospel of John, "We beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten..." How do you make such truth understandable to a carnal world?
In his movie PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO filmmaker Woody Allen attempts something like that using a character on the movie screen. We first see this character through Mia Farrow's eyes as she watches him play a role in a movie. Then, incredibly, the character steps out--literally--from the two-dimensional movie screen and lands in the theater. The young woman played by Miss Farrow is flabbergasted, and so is the movie character. Suddenly he is in the "real" world.
This world holds many surprises. When someone hits the movie character with a fist, he dutifully falls down, as he was taught to do on-screen. This time, however, it hurts. He rubs his jaw with amazement. When he and Mia kiss, he pauses, waiting for the fadeout. And when someone tries to explain the concept of God--"He's the one in control of everything. He's what the whole world is about"--the actor nods, "Oh, you mean Mr. Mayer, the owner of the movie company." His perceptions are confined to the world of the movie.
Eventually, the movie character climbs back onto the two- dimensional movie screen and tries to explain the real world to the cast of the movie. They stare at him as if he belongs in a mental asylum. He's talking nonsense. There is no "other" world out there. Only the world of the movie is real for them.
Those first followers of Jesus must have felt something like that. They had entered a new dimension of reality. They had contact with the very Son of God. Here was a Man unlike any man who had ever lived. How do they communicate who Christ really is to people who never heard Him speak, never felt His touch, never saw His footsteps by the Sea of Galilee?
There are many images representing Christ in the Scripture. We see three in our lessons for the day.
EZEKIEL PORTRAYS HIM AS THE GENTLE SHEPHERD.
In his book, A SHEPHERD LOOKS AT PSALM 23, Philip Keller recounts his own experience raising sheep.
He tells how ewes, ready to bear offspring, when chased by dogs or other predators will lose their unborn lambs. A shepherd's loss from such forays can be appalling. One morning he found nine of his choicest ewes, all soon to lamb, lying dead where a cougar had harried the flock during the night.
It was a terrible shock to someone new to the business of raising sheep. From then on, he slept with a rifle and flashlight by his bed. At the least sound of the flock being disturbed, he would leap from bed and, calling his faithful collie, dash out into the night, rifle in hand, ready to protect his sheep.
In the course of time, he came to realize that nothing so quieted and reassured the sheep as to see him in the field. The presence of their master and owner and protector put them at ease as nothing else could do, and this applied day and night. The sheep look to the shepherd for protection. The good shepherd knows his sheep and is known by his sheep.
There is an amusing story about a guide for a party of tourists in Palestine some years ago who was describing some of the customs of the Middle East. "Now," said he, "you are accustomed to seeing the shepherd following his sheep through the English lanes and countryside. In the East, however, things are different, for the shepherd always leads the way, going on before the flock. And the sheep always follow him, for they know his voice."
The party reached Palestine. The tourists couldn't help but notice that almost the first sight to greet them was a flock of sheep being driven--not led--by a man. The guide was astonished. Immediately he accosted the shepherd. "How is it that you are driving these sheep?" he asked. "I have always been told that Eastern shepherds lead their sheep." "You are quite right, sir," replied the man. "The shepherd does lead his sheep. But you see I'm not the shepherd, I'm the butcher!" There is a difference between the interest of a shepherd and the interest of a butcher. Jesus is described as a gentle shepherd, a shepherd who knows his sheep and is known by them. A shepherd even willing to lay down his life for his sheep.
Can you imagine the greatest man who ever lived laying down his life for a dumb, smelly sheep? If you can, you know what it means to say the Lord of all the universe laid down his life for you and me. The gentle shepherd.
BUT THERE IS ANOTHER IMAGE OF CHRIST IN THE SCRIPTURE RADICALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE GENTLE SHEPHERD. OUR LESSON FROM MATTHEW PORTRAYS JESUS AS THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE.
A newspaper conducted a poll of its readers which revealed that only four percent of the people believed that they deserved to go to hell. 20%, however, knew other people whom they thought deserved to go.
We don't like to think of Christ as a judge. After all, we don't want to scare people into becoming Christians, do we? No, we don't. What do you do, though, with those passages in the Scripture in which Christ says that on the last day people will be divided into sheep and goats? The sheep will go to heavenly pastures. The goats will not be so fortunate. Why are the sheep going to heaven? "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat...I was sick and in prison and you came to visit me...." What do you do with such passages?
You see, we can't really appreciate grace, because we do not feel the reality of judgement upon the way each and every one of us live! We all have neglected the poor, the sick, the imprisoned. We all pass by when we see someone who is hurting. We are all sheep who have gone astray.
Norm Lawson tells about a CALVIN AND HOBBES cartoon series that illustrates this truth brilliantly. Calvin says to Hobbes, "Let's push the car out of the garage. I can't budge it by myself." Hobbes replies, "I still think you should ask your Mom to move it." Then Calvin says, "Then she'd probably say no, and we won't have the garage for our clubhouse!" Hobbes answers: "But if we don't ask her, we'll get in trouble!" Calvin replies: "We won't get in trouble!" Hobbes says: "Everytime you say that, we do." Calvin answers: "Mom wouldn't care about these things if she wouldn't keep finding out about them."
Well, you can guess what happens. The last frame goes something like this: Mom: "There you are, Come down so I can talk to you." Calvin is in the tree with Hobbes. Calvin: "No, you'll kill us. We're running away." "I'm not going to kill you. I just want to find out what happened. Are you O.K.? Was anyone hurt?" Calvin: "No one was hurt. We were pushing the car into the drive and it kept rolling." Mom: "The car didn't hit anything?" Calvin: "It just went across the road and into the ditch. That's when we took off." Mom: "Well, the tow truck pulled it out, and there's no damage, so you can come home now." Calvin: "First, let's hear you say you love me."
Those words, I love you, mean so much more when set against the background of a realization of our own unworthiness. Jesus is a gentle shepherd, but he is also a righteous judge.
FINALLY, HE IS THE COMING KING.
Walter Marshall Horton wrote of a man who had been a delegate to the International Missionary Council at Madras in 1938. The meeting made a deep impression on the delegate. When he returned home, he tried to persuade his friends to buy small globes. He wanted his friends to hold these globes in their hands once each day, as they slowly and reverently prayed, "Thy will be done on earth." What a shock it must have been to Mr. Horton when World War II began shortly thereafter. It is not easy to build the kingdom of God using the bricks of this world.
In talking about life under the sea, an oceanographer once commented that it was one thing to glimpse a new world and quite another to establish permanent outposts in it and work and live in it. So it is with Christ's kingdom. We may see it in our minds and hearts, but building it is another thing. That is why only God can accomplish it. But it will happen. His kingdom will come "on earth even as it is in heaven," even if He has to use the rubble of humanity's kingdoms on which to build it. How does the Bible try to sum up the nature of Christ? He is the gentle shepherd. He is the righteous judge. He is the coming King.
Henry Sloane Coffin once told of 3 young Englishmen who, in April 1848, found themselves in Paris in the midst of the revolution which overthrew King Louis Philippe. One of them kept a diary of their trip. There is one entry describing the sack of the Palace of the Tuilleries by a mob. Everything was being smashed, when suddenly the mob reached the chapel, broke in the doors, and found themselves confronting the huge painting of the crucified Christ behind the altar. Someone called out, "Hats off." Heads were bared, most of the crowd knelt down, and the picture was carried out to a neighboring church in "the most utter silence--`you might have heard a fly buzz.'"
Even the mob knew there is someone bigger than earthly revolutions. One day the gentle shepherd, the righteous judge of us all, will reign forever. King of Kings. Lord of Lords. Amen.
