Why Do We Seek Jesus (Assuming That We Do)?

Above:  Jesus, Too Crowded

(This is a screen capture from the 2000 video of Jesus Christ Superstar, with Glenn Carter as Jesus.  The film is the property of Universal Pictures.)

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Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), of The Episcopal Church, contains an adapted two-years weekday lectionary for the Epiphany and Ordinary Time seasons from the Anglican Church of Canada.  I invite you to follow it with me.

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Hebrews 7:23-8:7 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):

The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues for ever.  Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens.  He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; for he did this once for all when he offered up himself.  Indeed, the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been make perfect for ever.

Now the point in what we are saying is this:  we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent, which is set up not by man but by the Lord.  For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.  Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.  They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary; for when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying,

See that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is enacted on better promises.  For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second.

Psalm 40:8-12, 17-19 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

8 Burnt-offering and sin-offering you have not required,

and I said, “Behold, I come.

9 In the roll of the book it is written concerning me:

‘I love to do your will, O my God;

your law is deep within my heart.’”

10 I proclaimed righteousness in the great congregation;

behold, I did not restrain my lips;

and that, O LORD, you know.

11 Your righteousness have I not hidden in my heart;

I have spoken of your faithfulness and your deliverance;

I have not concealed your love and faithfulness from the great congregation.

12 You are the LORD;

do not withhold your compassion from me;

let your love and your faithfulness keep me safe for ever,

17 Let all who seek you rejoice in you and be glad;

let those who love your salvation continually say,

“Great is the LORD!”

18 Though I am poor and afflicted,

The LORD will have regard for me.

19 You are my helper and my deliverer;

do not tarry, O my God.

Mark 3:7-12 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed; also from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from about Tyre and Sidon a great multitude haring all that he did, came to him.  And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they should crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him.  And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out,

You are the Son of God.

And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

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The Collect:

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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(Another Screen Capture)

We all have needs.  Many of us take these to God, as our religious traditions and aspects thereof, including our sacred texts, tell us to do.  There is nothing wrong with this.  Do we stop there, however?  Is prayer little or nothing more than presenting God with a “honey do” list?

We–you and I–and have been following the Gospel According to Mark.  (The Canadian Anglican lectionary I am following for these devotions entails doing this for almost all of the Epiphany Season.)  Jesus has worked astounding miracles and begun to attract much attention to himself.  The desperately poor and sick of his region have flocked to him, and the stress has gotten to him.  The man needed some time away, too.  Even Jesus needed to be alone.   He needed to be where people did not seek anything from him.

Jesus is more than our perfect, celestial high priest, a role of which the author of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us eloquently.  Jesus is also our passover lamb, our Messiah, a great sage, and our Lord and Savior.  He is our role model.  And I propose that we ought to seek him for these reasons.  We should seek to please him, as best we can.  As the old quote says, “I don’t know how to please you, Lord, but I think the fact that I try to please you, pleases you.”

Speaking of Jesus as role model…..

If Jesus needed quiet time, we do, too.  If Jesus needed to escape the demands of others, even for a little while, so do we.  I write from a society replete with computers, pagers, email, cellular phones, blackberries, and many other electronic devices.  I have chosen to forgo these, except for computers, email, and cellular phones, which have become necessities in my life.  The rest, however, are purely optional, and I opt out.  One can be too accessible too much of the time, and sometimes I want to isolate myself from the rest of the world for a few hours at a time.  So I do.  That time is wonderful.

God speaks to us frequently, but how often to we listen?  We cannot pay God adequate attention if other stimuli distract us.  And we must be quiet in order to listen.   We cannot seek Jesus properly if we do not study his life and teachings.  All of these efforts require us to devote ourselves to reading and contemplating, among other tasks.  These, in turn, are possible only if we turn off the electric and electronic distractions at certain times.  And then we might hear God speaking, and we will know why we seek God?

Why do I seek God within the context of Christianity?  I do this because of the person who was Jesus on this planet.  One can never uncover the full reality of the historical Jesus, in the sense that one can understand who other people were.  The Gospels are not biographies, in the sense that we moderns think of biography.  They tell us how others understood him, and they omit many details.  Yet I can and do know that the historical Jesus was a remarkable and brave figure whom the Roman Empire executed as an insurrectionist.  He was a rebel, of sorts, but that is a high compliment.  The execution of Jesus was an act of state-sponsored terrorism, judicial murder, and scapegoating, but the death of Jesus was an act of love.  It signified, among other things, that God does not desire scapegoating.  And, by faith, I believe that Jesus was far more than this.  By faith I understand that the divine power to resurrect Jesus is unconquerable.  Christ is the victor. Although the Roman Empire executed Jesus, who was love incarnate, it could not kill love.

These are just some of the reasons I seek Jesus.

Glenn Carter as Jesus

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT LEOBA, ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN AND MISSIONARY

THE FEAST OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE CHURCH OF SOUTH INDIA, 1947

THE FEAST OF THOMAS TRAHERNE, POET

THE FEAST OF SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL, COFOUNDER OF THE DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY

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Adapted from this post:

http://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/week-of-2-epiphany-thursday-year-1/

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