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Who is Jesus?
The Son is the gleaming brightness of God's glory. He is the exact likeness of God's being. He uses his powerful word to hold all things together. He provided the way for people to be made pure from sin.
Then he sat down at the right hand of the King, the Majesty in heaven.                        Hebrews 1:3

When I planned this brief series of sermons on "What everybody ought to know", I naturally included one sermon on who Jesus is. In fact it comes from the camp song: "Everybody ought to know...who Jesus is".
So it was natural to include this in a brief series.

But as I began thinking about how exactly I would approach this topic, I started thinking it would be good if I could catch the flu for a week. Not because there is nothing I could think of to say, but it struck me: the arrogance of thinking I can tell who Jesus is in one sermon. But the Avalon Choir are here today and I would not miss their singing for anything.

So recognizing that thousands of books have been written to tell who Jesus is, I am going to add my little bit.
And I am going to reflect only on one verse of scripture: Hebrews 1:3
The Son is the gleaming brightness of God’s glory. He is the exact likeness of God’s being. He uses his powerful word to hold all things together. He provided the way for people to be made pure from sin.
Then he sat down at the right hand of the King, the Majesty in heaven. 

1. He is the gleaming brightness of God's glory.
If you have ever purchased or even shopped for a diamond, you know that jewelers always display gemstones and especially their best diamonds under an array of bright lights. You know why. When a well cut bright diamond is examined under bright lights, something amazing happens. The many facets of the gem catch the light and as you hold and turn it, lights flash out from the gem in a brilliant display of radiant purity. Jesus is the flashing-out-glory of God.
But an interesting kind of glory. If you or I were to design a life to reflect the glory of God, would we package it in the form of a humble carpenter?  Not likely.
This flashing forth glory of God is a carpenter-preacher telling an assembled group of people about a wayward son who comes to his senses and finally returns home to the outstretched arms of a waiting father, and says in effect, God is like that.
And this same carpenter healing a group of lepers, who no one else would give the time of day to.
Or raising a beloved brother from his tomb after four days when all hope was gone.
That is who Jesus is. The fullness of God's glory, in human form, living a life we can understand, pointing the way back home.
An interesting kind of glory. An interesting heavenly father who would send Jesus in the first place.

2. He is the exact likeness of God's being.
Now there is a thought!
I don't know how you conceive of God, our creator, but I bet not many think that Jesus, the Galilean carpenter is the exact likeness. But remember there is lot more to Jesus than meets the eye.
But just taking even what we do understand, that is an amazing thought.
Especially when you read how Jesus interacts with the people around him.
Jesus could be exasperated with his disciples when they did not get it, but he loved them and never gave up on them. I am so glad about that part.
He was amazingly tender with people who had fallen in life and needed a second chance. I think we are all glad about that.
He also showed his sterner side though, but it was usually reserved for the religious and political elite--people who could have helped the weaker and the more frail, but who often did not. He was a man of compassion, but He also was a man of fairness and justice. I like that too, though I am aware that it puts me, and people like me, under more scrutiny than most. That part is not so comfortable, but I have to agree it is good.
The exact likeness of God.
I think that idea makes me want to get to know him better.
I hope that is true for you as well.

3. He uses his powerful word to hold all things together.
This statement is one I cannot begin to really do justice to in such a short time, but will briefly comment.
In physics there is a force called centrifugal force. You know what that is because it spins off most of the water from a load of laundry before it goes into the drier. Everytime you drive around a corner, your car's weight would prefer to veer off the arc you are attempting to negotiate, and take out a telephone pole. Friction keeps that from happening.
Gravity keeps us from flying apart into space.
I remember a wonderful cartoon in the comic strip B.C., by Johnny Hart.
A young ant was talking to his dad, the older ant.
The young ant says to his dad, "Dad, what force is it that keeps me from being flung off into distant space?"
The dad says wryly, "My forgiving nature."
Jesus and through Him the Holy Spirit keeps existential centrifugal force and entropy from grinding everything to a halt or ripping us apart in chaos.
In simple words, it is Jesus, who the psalm says never slumbers or sleeps, who keeps our world from falling apart around us.
I don't begin to understand it, but it is something that one day when we do comprehend it, will bring us to a great sense of gratitude.
Maybe you have sometimes caught a fleeting sense that someone and something is looking out for you.
It is Jesus. He is the unseen, and often unacknowledged, center of gravity of our lives.

4. He provided the way for people to be made pure from sin.
I think we all understand what this means, though it may be hard to acknowledge--at least to others.
Jesus offered his life to pay the debt we owe but cannot pay.
His life is the only perfect life ever lived.
His forgiveness is also perfect, complete and eternal.
The table that is set before us this morning offers an opportunity to receive God's purification, silently transacted between you and God your creator.

5. Then He sat down at the right hand of  the King, the majesty in heaven.
Jesus is not just the humble carpenter of Galilee, though he is that.
He is also seated in the eternal glory and majesty of God eternal.
The book of Revelation gives us a bit of a glimpse of what that means.
In one passage, Jesus is visualized as the great king of glory whose name is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
In moments when it does seem as though centrifugal force has taken over and my world is falling apart, when life seems darker than any sunshine could possibly penetrate, then I am glad that Jesus my friend is also King Jesus, with all of heaven's glory and majesty and power at his disposal.
I am glad my friend and my teacher is also the high ruler of all creation.
I know my life and my eternity are in good hands.
But it also gives me a lot to think about.
I wonder what its going to be like to see the glory of God flash forth in all its majesty when we see him as He really is--the eternal King of Glory who took time to live as the carpenter of Nazareth and die for us, but also to see him in eternal cosmic glory.
Now that is going to be something.
I am in no rush, but it is worth looking forward to, don't you think?

But the most important reality about Jesus is He is alive
I heard an interview of Gloria Gaither, who along with her husband Bill, has written hundreds of contemporary hymns.
The interviewer was asking if she had a favorite.
She said maybe it was "Because He Lives"
She said she and her husband wrote it in the early 1960's at a time when they were caught up with concerns about war and political tensions and all the uncertainties of that time.
Then they discovered she was pregnant and had to think about the responsibility of bringing a child into this world.
I think about the future my grandchildren will have.
On many fronts there is a lot to worry about.
But Gloria Gaither said she and her husband Bill had to remember whose world it was.
And as long as Jesus is alive and in charge, then they could live with faith in tomorrow.

How sweet to hold a newborn baby
And feel the pride and joy he gives;
But greater still the calm assurance:
This child can face uncertain days because Christ lives.

Because He lives I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living just because He lives.

Amen

Preached  June 14, 2009
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian Church
Victoria, British Columbia

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