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We Know Who You Are
a sermon based on John 6:35, 41-51
anonymous
Have you ever noticed that it is very difficult to escape your reputation?
Once people have an image of you in their minds, it is very difficult to change
their perception.
Jesus encountered this attitude among those who thought they knew Him. He
lived in a small town, in a small country. The little village of Nazareth where
He grew up was tiny. In the time of Jesus, the village of Nazareth took up no
more space than a football field. Everybody knew everybody in Nazareth. People
knew Jesus' mother and father. They would have even known Him as He worked at
His trade in His father's carpenter shop. Perhaps He had built a piece of
furniture for them or replaced a handle on one of their favorite tools or made a
yoke for their oxen. After all, He did not begin His ministry until He was about
thirty years old. For most of His adult life He labored in as a carpenter or
builder.
You can imagine how these people responded when suddenly Jesus proclaimed
Himself to be the One prophesied by the prophets. We read in today's lesson that
His fellow countrymen began to grumble about Jesus because He said that He was
the bread that came down from heaven. They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of
Joseph, whose mother and father we know?"
We can appreciate their disbelief for we have done the same thing to people.
We put them in a box. We assign them to a category. We know where they came
from, we know who their parents are, we know where they went to school, we can
tell by their accent or by their appearance about their background and we make
certain assumptions. And because we make those assumptions, we treat them in a
certain way. Maybe, if we are a teacher, we subtly overlook them in class. If we
are a police officer, perhaps we are a little more aggressive when we pull them
over to the curb. If we are the president of the company, perhaps it slants the
way we regard them when it comes time for a raise or a promotion.
Oh, none of this is intentional of course. We may not even be conscious of
it. It simply saves our brains the time and energy of sorting out people
individually. So, we sort them out by category. That is what the folks in
today's text were doing: "We know who you are. You are Mary and Joseph's son.
You're from Nazareth. That's farming country, isn't it? People are a little slow
there. Well, maybe we can find a job for you that's not too taxing mentally." Do
you think such things do not happen? Then you are naive. That is the way the
human brain seems to operate.
Robert Schuller once asked one of his colleagues, "What's one of the most
vivid memories you have of going to school as a child?" Here's what his
colleague told him:
"In the third grade, we were asked to stand up in front of the class and say
what we wanted to be when we grew up. Now, I went to a fairly strict school, and
every time you were asked to stand before the class, it was a pretty serious
matter. I remember very distinctly one girl who stood up and said, 'I'm going to
be a movie star.' As I remember, there wasn't anything special about this girl.
She wasn't very pretty. Her grades were average, some of them were even below
average. She didn't come from a wealthy family. In fact, the only thing I really
remember about her was the class laughing at her. The whole class laughed at
her. And I remember she just stood there smiling, as if she knew something the
rest of us didn't. I don't remember ever seeing that girl again in school. Now I
see her all the time. She's one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Every time I
sit in the movie theater and watch her up there on the silver screen, I think,
'She was always so proud of who she was. She had a dream she always held onto.'
Back then," he concluded, "they laughed at her. Now they pay to see her. I'm
glad I didn't laugh."
They laughed at Jesus. "Bread from heaven? We know where you came from.
You're Mary and Joseph's son." Be careful when you judge anyone else's
potential.
It makes no difference where we come from...or how we look or talk...or who
our parents are. We are all children of God. We all have more potential than we
can ever exhaust. And there is One who can help us so orient our lives that we
can overcome every obstacle. Christ is bread for the world. When we feed on Him
we find we are able to accomplish more than we ever dreamed possible.
Tracey Bailey stood before the judge with his head held high, his jaw set
defiantly against the sentence the judge was about to pronounce. The words of
his high school wrestling coach echoed in his mind: "Don't you ever hang your
head. Don't admit defeat." And Tracey wouldn't hang his head, not before his
ashamed and heart-broken parents, not before his shocked community, not before
this judge, and certainly not before God. No one would see his pain.
The citizens of Goshen, Indiana had been stunned to learn that Tracey Bailey
- captain of the wrestling team, member of the student council, good student,
from the church-going Bailey family - had been one of the teens involved in the
devastating vandalism attack on the local high school. He had fallen in with an
unruly group who used alcohol to fuel their frequent petty vandalisms and
thefts. But one night, the boys, in a drunken frenzy, had broken into the high
school and torn apart whole classrooms. Now the judge wanted to hold them up as
an example to others with similar mayhem in their blood. Tracy was sentenced to
a five-year term in the juvenile offenders facility. Originally conceived as a
lesser form of penitentiary, this facility now held hardened criminals, even
murderers and rapists. It would not be a slap on the wrist.
In prison, Tracey was determined not to bend an inch. He would be tough. He
would never admit defeat, no matter how much he was hurting. But during a stint
in solitary confinement, Tracey happened to catch sight of himself in a mirror,
and the sight shocked him. He didn't just look hardened. Deadened was more like
it. And he knew that the deadness would keep reaching down past his countenance
into his very soul. All his toughness melted away, and tears began to flow as he
prayed to God and admitted his defeat. There was no one else to turn to, and he
couldn't rely on his own reserves anymore. Tracey doesn't know how long he
prayed, but he does know that God heard him. One of his guards approached him
and offered him prayer. Someone else gave him a Gideon Bible. And soon he joined
the prison Bible study.
When he was released early from the center, Tracey worked for a few months to
pay off his debts and make restitution to the school he had vandalized. Then he
entered college, studying for an education degree in science and math. He
decided that he would pay back society by becoming a good role model for other
confused young people. He would become a teacher. I guess you could say he
reached his goal. In April 1993, Tracey Bailey attended a special ceremony at
the White House where the President awarded him the National Teacher of the Year
honors.
What is your dream? Don't tell me the strikes you have against you. "I'm too
short. I'm too tall. I'm female. I'm Hispanic. I didn't go to a very good
school. My parents didn't have the money to give me all the advantages." Don't
tell me about the obstacles you have to overcome
Our God is able to overcome any obstacles. Don't tell me where you came from.
All that matters is where you are going - and Who is going with you. If the Man
from the tiny town of Nazareth is with you - the Man who spent most of His adult
life as a carpenter - the Man who was laughed at because they knew His father
and mother - the Man who now reigns with the Father in glory - if that Man is
going with you then hold on for a great adventure. But on the way, make certain
that you do not make the same mistake that others make - of judging people on
the basis of outward characteristics that have nothing to do with what's in
their heart. Amen.
