Bookending Jesus

Bookending Jesus

Matthew 2:2-7:29

            We love to think of Jesus as a baby.  In addition to the love we naturally have for children, the birth story is so miraculous that we glory in the whole Christmas experience.  I am concerned that we spend too much time on the gift-giving part of Christmas—Black Friday has almost become a holiday in itself—but that’s one of the cultural aspects that would be difficult to overcome.  It would be so countercultural not to make a big deal about gift giving that we would be labeled Scrooges if we didn’t participate. 

            But we love all the Christ things about Christmas as well:  the carols, the beautiful worship services, the manger scenes in homes and churches.  It’s the whole experience of this special baby, born in this special way that stirs our hearts with love and joy.

            We love the Jesus of Holy Week also—the entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the crucifixion, the resurrection.  Remembering Christ’s death on the cross and his rising again—which gives us hope for our own resurrection—is equally joyful for us.  Yes, the bookends of Jesus’ life are important, for we recognize the connection between the two events and understand their significance.

            All this is well and good, but not enough.  As momentous as the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus are, they are only part of the story.  I think Jesus himself, if he were here might say, “Wait!  You’ve missed a really important part!”

            One of my seminary professors said that if the only significant events in the Jesus story were his death and resurrection, God could have dropped Jesus from heaven onto the cross.  There must have been a reason for the 33 years between his birth and his death.  There had to be a purpose to those years—and there was.

            If you checked out the Scripture passage before you started reading this you noticed two things.  First, it’s very long—three whole chapters to be exact.  Do I expect you to read the whole three chapters?  Yes, I do!

            Second, the perceptive reader will recognize this passage as the Sermon on the Mount.  It’s Jesus’ message in a nutshell.  If you read it carefully, and digest it, you’ll understand its significance to Jesus’ ministry. 

            I remember reading a story about a young African man who became a Christian.  His pastor suggested he study the Sermon on the Mount.  Some time later the young man came back and told the pastor he’d memorized the whole passage.  When the pastor asked him how he had managed such an overwhelming task, the young man said, “It was easy.  I just went out and did what it said a little bit at a time and memorized it that way.”

            Easy, he said.  Memorized by doing, he said.  How many of us can say we’ve memorized three whole chapters of Scripture—any three?  I can’t, and surely not these three.  Yet this young man had not only committed them to memory, he had committed them to action—a much more significant accomplishment.

            If you read carefully through the Sermon on the Mount, and then read any (preferably all) of the gospels, you will find that not only is this a summation of Jesus’ teaching, but also the way he conducted his life.  Everything he said here he lived out in his ministry.  In the Sermon on the Mount he talked the talk.  In his life he walked the walk.  Jesus’ life was not just a matter of saying the right thing, but of doing the right thing.  He lived what he taught.

            Let’s not forget the bookends of Jesus’ life, but let’s not forget the middle either, for it is here that we learn how we must live.