Message Description

Dr. Kurt Bjorklund begins a new series called Imagined Jesus teaching out of the final chapters of the Gospel of John and this week looks at some ways we treat Jesus like a dashboard trinket in our car.

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Message Transcript

Obviously, this week has been quite a week in terms of the coronavirus and you just saw some news that has emerged over the last couple of weeks. And so, you would expect that today I would be talking about the coronavirus. But here's the thing, here at Orchard Hill and that is it's normal for us to take a text and work our way through the text. It's technically called exposition meaning. What we like to do is let the text tells us what our topics are versus what's typically known as more topical teaching, which is where you take a topic and you say, what does the Bible teach about this topic? And although that has a place, I don't think that's a bad thing, I think it's a better thing to let the text tell us what to talk about over and over. And here's why. Because if I choose the topics all the time, I'm going to have blind spots, soft spots, just in my own way of thinking, my own understanding. But if we let the text choose it, then there will be times that we'll be pushed to talk about things we wouldn't choose to talk about.

Well, this weekend, we had planned to start a new series called Imagined Jesus, and it's John 18. And we're going to walk through the last few chapters of John and what's known as the passion of Jesus. And these are the events leading up to Easter. And here's what happened. I sat and looked at this week and thought, this isn't what's on anybody's mind, coronavirus is what’s on everyone's mind. I was amazed at how much of what I was planning to talk about actually applies to the situation that we're in today. And here's why. Because we're going to talk about some ways that we Imagined Jesus in our culture. And this can be helpful if you're a Christian or if you're a person who says, I'm not a person of faith. Because what happens a lot of times is we get a picture of Jesus that is somewhat misguided, inaccurate because of our culture, maybe even our Christian culture, some of our ideas, and it causes us to say, I don't really believe in this Jesus, or this Jesus isn't sufficient for where I'm at. But a lot of times it wasn't THE REAL JESUS. It's an Imagined Jesus that gets us to this point.

And here's why this applies this week as we talk about what we've been through as a nation about this coronavirus. And that is that we don't know what's ahead of us. In fact, I was listening to a podcast the other day, Malcolm Gladwell, who's written several bestselling books and is seen as kind of one of the intellectual elites of our country right now. Malcom Gladwell was citing some epidemiologists from the University of California, San Francisco, who said that they believe that there will be 40 to 70% of our population that will be infected with the coronavirus. And what they said is if the 1% death rate holds that that means well over a million Americans will die from this and that this will be a slow process over the next 8 to 12 months. Well, if that scenario is true, we're in for something that we haven't seen in this country. Since probably the early 19 hundred's, which means few of us if any of us have experienced that.

On the other hand, there are people who will say, well, if you look at China today and the curve that they're on, after about three, four months, they're on a steep downturn, and they didn't do a lot of the things that we're doing in America today. Therefore, it's not likely that we'll have that kind of scenario. I'm not smart enough to figure it out. But what I would generally say that there's usually a truth somewhere in between the people who say, here's the most likely worst-case scenario or the most likely best-case scenario.

Now you may say, okay, what does this have to do with Jesus's passion? Well, what we're going to talk about is this idea of an Imagined Jesus. And we've called this first week Dashboard Jesus and here's why I titled it this. I don't know if you've ever seen somebody who has a little Jesus on their dashboard. I saw one of these a while ago. It's kind of like the dice hanging from the rear-view mirror where somebody has the dice except, they have a little Jesus on their dashboard. It's like a Jesus bobble-head. You know, as they're driving down the road Jesus’s head is bobbling all over the place. And I'm not sure exactly why, but I saw somebody who had one of these a while ago, and it intrigued me. I thought, what do they think that Jesus on their dashboard really does for them? Is it that he somehow gives them a little trinket to say now you have good luck, you have good vibes in your life because Jesus is on board? Is it approval like Jesus is with me in the car, He's riding shotgun with me. I'm not sure what their thought process was with this little dashboard Jesus but it made me think about some of the ways that we tend to see Jesus and I started thinking about some experiences I've had over the years.

When I was first a pastor of a church in Michigan, I was just brand new to the church and I was 26 years old, kind of my first time as a lead pastor. And this man came up to me, he was probably in his 60’s and his wife had been in a coma in this hospital nearby. He said, I'd like you to come pray for my wife and maybe you can help her get well. And I said, well, I'd be happy to come pray for your wife. I don't know if I can help her get well. He said, well, I've had this pastor pray, and this pastor pray, and this pastor pray, and this pastor pray, and none of them have done any good. I figured you could take a whack at it. And I kind of thought, okay, I guess I'll come pray. And by the way, I did pray, and she did get better. So, from that day forward, he would come and be like, you're the man, you like have connection with God because my wife got better after you prayed. Which I would always say to him, you realize that anybody's prayers are all the same, like mine are no better. But here's part of what was his view of Jesus. Jesus can be transmitted from somebody who's closer to Jesus to me who's not as close. So, I have all these pastors come because their prayers might do more, and I might get some good vibes from Jesus.

Or there was a time when I was working at a church in Chicago and a young man would come to our house and I was a younger pastor, even then I was in my early 20s. And this guy would come to our house, and he would bring his pet Python. I'm not kidding. He would carry it in a bag, and he would be like, you want to see my Python. And I'm like a brand-new minister, I'm thinking I got to let everybody in. And so, you know, you come in with this Python and I'd be like, hey, what's going on? And after getting to know this guy, he started to tell me about his life. And he said, you know, I want to be a follower of Jesus. But then he would start to tell me about what he was doing in the area of his sexual practices. And what he came to kind of tell me was that his version of Jesus was a Jesus who would always basically be for him, but never tell him anything that he didn't want.

Now, here's, again, why this connects to where we are today. As we walk through uncharted territories and unknown future, if our version of Jesus is the Dashboard Jesus, the Jesus who gives us good vibes, who helps us kind of like a trinket, maybe navigate some things, it gives us approval, we will be sorely disappointed if this Jesus doesn't work. And this is exactly what we see in John 18. So, let me just take a few moments to kind of work through this passage and then talk about some of the characters here.

Here's what we read John 18 verse 1, it says, “When he had finished praying, Jesus left his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side was the garden, and he and his disciples went into it.” So, he was in Jerusalem, there was an amounting kind of wave against Jesus at this moment and he knew it. And the Kidron Valley was a valley that would have been in rainy season filled with water, but at this time would have been dry and they went up into what was known as the Garden of Gethsemane. It says, “Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees.” The detachment of officials was probably 600 or so guards coming to take Jesus, arrest him because they thought he was a threat in some way. It says this, “Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?” Jesus knowing all that was going on, and going to happen to him, went out and asked them, who is it that you want? “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, “Who is it you want?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they said. Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled. I have not lost one of those that you gave me. Referring to an Old Testament prophecy that his immediate disciples would not be part of his capture.

“Then Simon Peter, verse 10, who had a sword drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) This is the only place that Malchus’s name is mentioned in the Gospels. And this is probably like footnoting history. It's a way of saying in that day, you can check and see that this story is real. “Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”

Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.” This was Caiaphas saying just let Jesus die so the rest of the people don't have to suffer. An ironic statement because that's exactly what ends up happening, but in a much greater sense than he thinks.

Verse 15, “Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because the disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in. “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked Peter. He replied, “I am not.” It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.

Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. “I have spoken openly to you the word,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.”

So Jesus says, listen, none of what I've taught is a secret. It's been known. “When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded. “If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Then here's the Peter piece again. “Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?” He denied it, saying, “I am not.” One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.” 

Now often when we read this passage, or think about it, we think about Peter and the denial, and the three denials, and the rooster crowing and all of this. And this is all part of it, but I want to look at three characters, Judas, the priest, and Peter for a moment. Because I think in each of them, what we see is we see an attitude or a perspective, that might be a little bit of a Dashboard Jesus. And with Judas what we see is somebody who wanted a God to help him. And as soon as God didn't help him, he said, well, I'm going to get what I need my own way. In other words what he was doing, in essence, he was saying, I'll hitch my wagon to Jesus as long as it's good for me, but as soon as it ceases to be good for me, then I'm done.

And here's where we come to where we are today. Sometimes, we'll say, God, I'll follow you if. And as soon as one of our comforts or as soon as one of our hardships gets big in our lives, then we start to say, God, where are you? God, why aren't you working?

And today, the question is really, is God just a hedge against hardship for us? If our health is taken from us, if our financial well-being is taken from us, if we have worked disruptions, can we still believe that God is at work in our lives? And don't be deceived. Did you notice in verse 11, when Jesus said, should I not drink this cup? That he was acknowledging that he has to suffer.  

You see, there's a whole brand of theology today in the church that says if you think follow Jesus, you will be healthy, you will be wealthy, and you will have everything go your way as long as you have enough faith. And Jesus counters this time after time after time. And the reason he counters this is because he went to the cross. And if God's love for Jesus was perfect, it means that if you suffer, the reason that you suffer can't be because you aren't loved by God. And it isn't because you don't have enough faith. Because Jesus had perfect faith. Jesus was perfectly loved by God and Jesus suffered, meaning that his children today can still suffer.

Now, you may say, well, this isn't, you know, helpful right now because I want to believe that everything will be perfect. The message of Christianity is not everything will be perfect for you in this life. It's Jesus suffered for you so that this world is not your ultimate world, but you have a hope beyond this world. This is what the cross is all about, is what Jesus going to the cross is, it's Jesus saying, I go to the cross so that you know don't have to. And because of Jesus going to the cross and being raised to life, what it means is that those of us who acknowledge our sinfulness before God can say, whatever happens in this world, it is not the end of the story.

One of my friends sent me this. This is from CS Lewis. He wrote this in 1948 when people in England were afraid of the atomic bomb being dropped on them. And he said this, and I read this because this is somebody from another age with perspective writing to his people, but it might help us today.

It says, “In one way, we think a great too much about the atomic bomb. How are we to live in an atomic age? I am tempted to reply, why as you would have lived in the 16th century when the plague visited London almost every year, or was as you would have lived in a Viking Age when Raiders from Scandinavia land might have cut your throat any night, or indeed as you're already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, in the age of railway accidents and age of motor accidents. In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love, were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented, and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in an unpleasant way.

We had indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors, anesthetics, but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because scientists have added one more chance of a painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not chance at all but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made, and the first action to be taken, is to pull ourselves together if we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things, praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting with our friends over a pint, and a game of darts not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies, a microbe can do that, but they need not dominate our minds.”

And what C.S. Lewis wrote all those years ago was that you don't need to fear any certain death because death is ultimately certain but what Jesus has done as he said, even if you suffer, you don't have to fear death. And Judas missed this because in a sense, his Jesus was the Jesus that didn't account for hardship. And if you have a Jesus that doesn't account for hardship in your life, there's a chance that you have a Dashboard Jesus, Imagined Jesus, a trinket Jesus, rather than THE REAL JESUS.

There's a second group here, it's the priests, and the priests are the people who when they thought about Jesus, they wanted a Jesus they could control. And what this text does is it actually goes out of its way to point out the fact that God is in control, that Jesus is in control. It says this clearly in verse 6, when Jesus said, “I am he.” The first time it says, “They drew back and fell to the ground.” It was as if Jesus were saying, you can take me into custody, but if I wanted to, I could wipe you all out. It was as if Jesus were saying, because he knew that they were coming to get him. I know what you're up to. I know what you're going to do. And I'm going to give you the power to do it, but you only have it because I'm giving it to you.

You see, sometimes our version of Jesus is that we have a God that we can control and if you have a God that never contradicts you, never tells you something different than what you want, you probably don't HAVE THE REAL JESUS. But you have a Dashboard Jesus, a trinket Jesus in your life.

There's a movie that was out years and years ago. Now I don't remember the exact date. I didn't google it to find it so I may have some of these details wrong. But it's called The Stepford Wives and I forget if they were drugged or had something stuck in their necks or exactly what the deal was. But these wives were all like the perfectly compliant wives to these men who controlled their wives. And they liked the world the way that it was because these women would do exactly what they wanted, their wives, The Stepford Wives, until a veneer was pulled back and the women broke free. And then they discover that they actually liked their real women better than the women who were forced to be compliant.

And kind of what the story revealed was that a relationship with the real person will always cross our will. And here's what this means for Jesus. You have a Dashboard Jesus if the Jesus you have can never cross your will. See Jesus crossed the will of the priests. And even though they had the illusion that he didn't, Jesus crossed their will and he let it be known when they fell backwards. It was his way of saying, you think you're getting the upper hand but you're not.  

And today there are some of us who think we're getting the upper hand on God, on Jesus saying, I've lived my life my way I've done things the way I want to do them. I don't need any rules. I don't need any god. I don't need any religion. I don't need anything like that. I'm going to do what I want to do, when I want to do it, with whom I want to do it, the way I want to do it, no God, nothing for me. And maybe we've gone about our lives and feel like it's never been crossed or challenged. Maybe this week, has just reminded you that you can't control everything. And if you have a Jesus who never crosses your will, you probably have a Dashboard Jesus. And in verse 14 where Jesus has referred to as let this one man die, instead of all the people, that this ironic statement that this was made to just remind us that Jesus was in control going to his death.

You see, when we talk about who killed Jesus, see, it was people, but Jesus ultimately died for God, not just for people. Because God allowed Jesus to take the sin of all humanity on himself so that people who believe in Jesus would be seen by God through Jesus and have eternal life. That that's the beauty of what we see in what Jesus did and where Jesus was going.

And then we have this account here of Peter where Peter denies Jesus three times after being zealous for the Lord. It says that he took out his sword and was ready to fight. He was ready to die. Now we don't know, but my guess is Peter had so much faith that he said, you know what, Jesus and me and my sword are enough to defeat 600 plus soldiers. In other words, he had real faith. He probably really believed we are going to do this.

But here's what happened, Jesus, and we know this from the other gospels, healed the man right on the spot, healed the man's ear, and said put your sword away. Now why? Well, partly because Jesus knew that what he needed to do is be captured and go to his death. But there's also probably a chance here, that what Jesus was doing was showing Peter that sometimes the way that God works is not through victory, but through defeat. What he was doing in a sense was he was redirecting Peter to say, my way is not the way that you think that things will be.

You see, we tend to think that if God is with us that we’ll go from one victory to another victory to another victory. But sometimes what God does is he allows something that feels to us like defeat, so that he can bring about a greater victory. And that is exactly what he did here. And what happens is, if we think that something that is a negative, has to be a net negative, in other words, if we think too soon, that this negative only results in a net negative, we haven't accounted for God. And here's why this is important. Because if your Jesus can't redirect you, if he can't work through defeat, as well as through what is victory in our minds, then our version of God is too small. And we're not actually probably worshiping a real Jesus, but we have a Dashboard Jesus who is probably a trinket, in many ways, a God who's not able to redirect us.

I was thinking about this and thinking about my own trajectory in life. And one of the things that happened for me when I went to college, I was focused on not taking any debt and I ended up going to a school that was expensive because I thought I had a good scholarship. And after I got on campus, I ended up getting medically disqualified from the scholarship. And so, I ended up having to take on all this debt. And I say that because clearly, I'm a specimen so the medical disqualification was ridiculous. Yeah, there's no laughter in the room except for a few people. But online, please laugh at that. That was a joke. Now, here's why I tell that story, because for me, if I had said God let me down, that's the end, I plan to go without debt, I believed it, I trusted and now I am here. I would have missed so many things that God had for me through that experience, including meeting my wife, meeting some wonderful people, being molded, shaped, different things that happen in that environment.  

And my point isn't about me, it's about saying, if your Jesus can't redirect you without you getting disappointed and then saying, well since the garden assault didn't work out, I guess I can't trust Jesus to be with me the rest of the night. So, here's Peter taking out a sword one moment, and two minutes later, a servant girl comes up to him and says, you are with them. And he's like, no, no, not me. Absolutely not. But when we understand who Jesus is, then we can have confidence to face anything.

Now here's the thing. In this passage, Jesus says, I am he three different times. And what he does actually is he says I am and this is a reference back to the old testament to Exodus, to the God who was revealed to Moses who said I am, tell them I am, is the one who sent you. So, when Jesus says I am, he's not just saying, I'm Jesus of Nazareth, he's saying, I am God. I am the embodiment. I am the full being of God.

And this is really the key question for all of us anytime, but especially right now. And that is do you believe that there's a God who has shown his heart for you in going to the cross even when we live in an uncertain world, a world that's being turned upside down, a world in which it appears that things are lost? You see, this is the world of the disciples, in this moment, their world was full of uncertainty, it appeared that everything was lost, everything they wanted and hoped for was turned upside down. And Jesus says, I am, I am. As they heard that they had a choice to say, in the midst of everything being turned upside down, do I believe in this God or do I abandon it? Because my version was a God was that he was what was a Dashboard Jesus to help me have good vibes, to get a little approval, and to give me some good luck and since my luck is turned, I’m done. Or do you say now this is a God, who I can believe in and follow even in the worst of times. The original disciples, many of them missed it.

Today, you and I have a choice to say I can choose to follow and trust this God, whatever else is going on. I want to pray just that wherever you are, that you're able to do that today. And maybe for some of us, this is new. Maybe you just caught the service today and you've always thought, you know, if I'm good, then God gives me good things, and if I'm not, then I don't. But this week has reminded you, this world isn't everything that it may be today, it's just your day to say God, I realize that I need a savior, that I need Jesus Christ, one man dying for me. You can do that right now. Wherever you are, you can just say, God, I know that I've sinned, that I need a savior. And you can trust Jesus as your Lord.

And if you've already believed that you've believed it for a long time, will you say in the midst of this day, he is God, that I trust the I am, rather than my stock portfolio, my job, my savings plan, my wisdom, my ingenuity, but I'll trust him. Even in a time that seems so lost.

Father, I pray that as we walk through some hardship as a nation, that you would reveal yourself to more and more people as the Great I Am. God, I pray that for me, and for those who call Orchard Hill their church home, that we would believe this and that that confidence would help us to be the church in the middle of this world, the middle of this time, not just to hunker down and care for ourselves, but to say, we have been called to live as representatives of a holy and beautiful God in the midst of a turbulent time. I pray that be true for me, and for each person whose part of this church family and we pray in Jesus name. Amen.