“Who Is Jesus?” (Luke 4:14-21) - Family Worship: 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany –

Who Is Jesus?

As you were listening to Sabra’s Scripture reading and watching the video clip, you may have some questions like, “Why were the Jewish people impressed with Jesus and marveled at his gracious words at first, but later they were furious? Why?” All those questions can be merged into one big question: “Who is Jesus?” This is the big question of today.

Jesus Is…

If you asked me that question, my image of Jesus has changed over the years. When I was little, for me, Jesus was a Miracle Maker. Probably I shared this before, one day I got very curious whether Jesus is really alive. So I typed theses words with my dad’s typewriter: “Jesus, if you are alive, please let this paper disappear immediately.” Then, I waited, waited, waited. But nothing happened. I was so disappointed. As I grew up, Jesus was a Healer. By nature, I was born with a weak body. I suffered from serious middle-ear infection, asthma, bronchitis, chronic indigestion, arthritis, and so on in my teenage years. Most of the time I had to live with medication. But because of my grandparents and my parents’ prayers, I was healed miraculously several times. In particular, when I was in the army, I was sent to East Timor. I fell ill with an endemic disease, called “Daengi Fever.” I was going through the valley of death. I was dying. I fell prostrate and prayed. I confessed my sins and prayed, “God, if you save my life, I will dedicate my life to you.” I was healed. Yes, Jesus was a Healer. After being discharged, I got actively involved in different church ministries in my college years. In those times, for me, Jesus was a Santa Claus, who gives us gifts – spiritual gifts. As a church leader, I was expected to have some kind of charismatic and visible spiritual gifts. In Korean churches, many pastors and church leaders have those gifts – gift of healing, gift of miracle, gift of speaking in tongues and interpretation, prophecy, etc. I had none of them. I felt pushed. Even there was an occasion, small group members had me in the middle, put their hands on me, and prayed for me to speak in tongues, because this gift was one of the most common gifts among Korean Christians. But nothing happened. Actually, I had prayed Jesus for giving me this gift at least for 15 years. I prayed, “Lord, anoint me. Let me speak in tongues.” In December 2008, I attended intercessory prayer conference. During the prayer time, God answered, “My son, I already anointed you. You already have the gift of speaking in tongues.” I began to speak in tongues so naturally. But I was kind of disappointed. I expected that I would become a totally different person if I was anointed, if I spoke in tongues. But it was me – same me – weak, vulnerable me. One thing changed – my conception of Jesus. Yes, Jesus is a miracle worker, healer, in some sense, Santa Claus. But I began to be aware that Jesus is my personal God, who made me, loves me, speaks me and listens to me all the time. Jesus is God. That changed everything.

Why Is That?

In today’s passage, the people were disappointed. They were angry and furious because their conception and expectation about the Messiah, Savior, was different from reality. They were waiting for elite Messiah, a glorious king, who would destroy all their enemies and save them from persecution. But, they were not expecting a suffering Messiah who would be persecuted and killed. They were not ready to accept that the Messiah came to save them and set them free by dying on the cross for their sins. C.S. Lewis said, “People often say about Jesus: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.”

The Story of a Sculptor

So, who is Jesus to you? There was a sculptor who sculpted a statue of our Lord. And people came from great distances to see it – Christ in all his strength and tenderness. They would walk all round the statue, trying to grasp its splendour, looking at it now from this angle, now from that. But for some reason, still its grandeur eluded them. So the people consulted the sculptor, “What would be the best angle to appreciate this statue?” And he replied, “There’s only one angle from which this statue can be truly seen. You must kneel.” And now I would like to invite you to sing this song with me as our response to the Word: “Hail to the King.”

You came to us a man, in very nature God
Pierced for our iniquities as You hung upon the cross
But God exalted You to the highest place
And gave to You the right to bear
The Name above all names

That at the Name of Jesus we should bow
And every tongue confess that You are Lord
And when You come in glory for the world to see
We will sing...

Hail to the King, in all His splendour and majesty
Hail to the King of kings, Lord Jesus, our God.