Wednesday, November 16, 2022 – The Reign of Christ (November 20)

“If anyone tries to flag you down, calling out, ‘Here’s the Messiah!’ or points, ‘There he is!’ don’t fall for it. Fake Messiahs and lying preachers are going to pop up everywhere. Their impressive credentials and bewitching performances will pull the wool over the eyes of even those who ought to know better. But I’ve given you fair warning.” (Matthew 24: 23 -25, The Message Bible)

                 I see where the good ol’ boy, Donald Trump, has announced that he is running for president in the U.S.A. again. Yikes!  No offence (?), but I just might list him in my personal top few as a candidate for a version of an anti-Christ. Along with Putin of Russia and Kim Jung-un of North Korea to name two more. Of course, lists of this nature are very subjective and individual, based on one’s own morality, politics and definitions of Christianity. One person’s anti-Christ may be seen by someone else as a version of a saviour. As I say, Yikes!

                But I am drawn to Jesus’ words in our text above. He reminds us of the lure and temptation of following false idols of leadership and authority.  There are those who make all sorts of promises which lead us to believe that they can deliver the kind of perfect  world we want to live in. Even if it excludes and rejects others. Maybe because it excludes and rejects others, those whom we don’t want in our world.  Promises of a world just for us, you and me, but not “them,” whomever them may be.

                But these wanna-be messiahs are just that – fakes.  They may sound right, look right, make fancy promises, and beguile us with messages of some pure utopia but they are not Jesus, by any stretch of the imagination.

                Not that we always get Jesus right as to his Messiahship either. There are a lot of false claims made in his name and under his authority, as well. “Jesus said, ‘Watch out for doomsday deceivers. Many leaders are going to show up with forged identities, claiming, ‘I am Christ, the Messiah.’ They will deceive a lot of people.’” (Matthew 24: 5, The Message Bible)

                Jesus once asked his disciples, “But who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15) Peter had the right answer, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (v.16). But no sooner were the words out of his mouth, Peter tripped over the whole idea of a crucified Messiah.  Jesus, by insisting that Satan get behind him, accused Peter of being sucked into the wrong expectations of a Messiah coming to win the day militarily and triumphantly. Jesus was not that kind of Messiah. His message, one of love, forgiveness, mercy, compassion, tolerance, acceptance, would fly in the faces of the world’s religious rulers and political authorities, both then and now.

                So, who do you say Jesus is? It is important to know who he is not. But it is also critically important to know who he is.  You may not be ready to buy all the labels and definitions which the Church has poured into the theology of Christ over the centuries. Jesus is a hard personality to pin down to just a few words. Once you think you might have him in a neat and tidy box, he bursts out and reveals something brand new about himself and the Kingdom he hopes to establish some day.

                But we are not there yet – in that hoped-for future when all will be made clear. We live today. We need a big-enough Christ in our day-to-day lives who can challenge and thwart the false promises and their messengers who seek only power and dominance and supremacy. The ones who insist they are right and if we don’t agree with them, then we are wrong and should be condemned; the ones who insist that they know best what is good for us; the ones who steal freedom and hope and security. and who twist the truth.    

                It is almost Advent, and there is another relevant question in this discussion. It comes from John the Baptist, the precursor representative to the fresh arrival of the Messiah. He too is somewhat confused by this Jesus and his Gospel of Love and Peace.  “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” (Luke 7:19)

                Jesus, and only Jesus, is our true Messiah, the One who saves the world, rather that condemns the world; the One who embodies God’s great Love; the One who died for the world so that we might live; the One who calls us into his New World to be his sisters and brothers; the One who liberates us from all that attempts to rule us and subjugate us to evil’s power.

                “The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” (Luke 2:11)

 

Dale