It Truly Happened
Luke 1:1-4
Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it… Old Marley was as dead as a doornail.
Let me repeat again: There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843
I’m sure most of you know this opening to Dickens' Christmas Carol. It was a 19th C fictionalized story that started with the point that if you don’t accept one basic assumption, the rest of the story will make no sense – and, in fact, the wonderful part of it will be missed altogether.
But, in the 19th C, Dickens was not trying to say that the Marley had lived or died in real history. He just wants us to know this story will not be meaningful without knowing Marley was dead. And, even though this kind of fictionalized history was never written until the 18th C, many like to think that the Bible is like that too, i.e., a story that makes a powerful point but is not an historical reality. This takes the edge off the Christmas story for a secularized world because the Jesus story with its nativity scene can take its place alongside Santa and the elves, Miracle on 34th Street, Frosty the Snowman, and It’s a Wonderful Life.
Many of these stories of the season are beautiful stories – and many of them filled with hope and wonderful moral lessons. But, that’s all they are – just stories. It doesn’t matter if any of them actually happened in history. In my view of the great stories of history, the lasting and beautiful parts of all of them are pointing to a longing for hope and peace and love that all people have. They point to something that is real. And, we believe that the longing points us to the God who made us and who came to this world to rescue us. Those stories resonate to us because they point to a real longing and to a real story.
For those of us who follow Jesus, we should celebrate the coming of Jesus to this world in a much more profound way than the rest of society does. We believe that all the great stories of history passed down from generation to generation point to a real story. And that’s what I long for us to consider this year. I want Christmas for LAC Jesus-followers to be different from those who do not know personally the Jesus of the Bible. I’ve been praying about how we get around all the “wrapping” around the season to get to the real story. How can we make sure that the true story of Jesus is at the heart of our celebration – in our families, in our individual lives and (yes) in our church? And we’re going to let the first to chapters of Luke guide us. Look how Luke starts:
Jesus was born: to begin with. There is no doubt about that whatsoever… Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. “This must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am about to relate.”
This Amazing, Insight-filled Beginning to the Story of Jesus
Right off the bat, Luke takes hold of perhaps the biggest issue that anyone, anywhere and anytime has confronted when beginning to consider the message of Jesus. Did this really happen and how can we have any confidence in the accuracy of the biblical accounts?
Notice that Luke says his book (almost certainly including both Luke and Acts) was written to a man named Theophilus. This man probably funded the travel and time for the research Luke had to do. He was probably an educated, successful and thoughtful man – a man who would never jump on a religious bandwagon or be swayed by emotion. Luke knew that this kind of man would want to know whether the story he was telling was true and the facts about it were precise. We often think that it’s only people in our own generation who ask hard questions about the trustworthiness of claims – but don’t believe it. Theophilus’ first question would have been: Where did you get your information?
I’m so glad Luke did this because I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that the accounts of Jesus’ life are not reliable. I’ve heard it all: they were legends; they were written hundreds of years later; they were written by well-meaning but primitive people who were deceived; they were created stories written to try to convince others to join their religion, etc. All make the same assertions: We cannot really know who Jesus is, what Jesus said or what he claimed. The same questions existed early on so Luke, writing 25-40 years after the death of Jesus takes the matter on. Basically, he says, “I’m going to tell you accurately the true story of Jesus. So, following countless preachers before me, I’m going to use that phrase for my message from Luke 1:1-4 to you: The true story of Jesus. My prayer is that “knowing the certainty of the things you have been taught” will change your Christmas.
First: The true story of JESUS
Translators have had a hard time with one phrase in 1:1 – “an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us” says my version. Most accounts of people’s lives talk about things “happening” but the Bible talks about someone accomplishing something that had to take place. And, throughout the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is the one who fulfills what all history was pointing toward. Jesus is the fulfiller of something God had been working on for centuries. The point is that all that God has always planned to accomplish comes to a climax in Jesus.
The point is that if we will understand the Christian faith, we must look first at a person. Other religions start first with a set of teachings (like Confucianism), or a philosophy (like Buddhism), or admonitions to be obeyed (like Islam). The Christian faith has all those things but they come in the second line of importance. What God has given us to make himself known – to draw us to himself – to offer us a new life is first and foremost the person of Jesus. In defending their religions, others will go first to intellectual arguments. We go first to the person of Jesus. We are to look at him and, we who follow him believe, when we see him as he is, we will know he is the way, the truth and the life – the way to God. This is why I do so much preaching from the life of Jesus. The Bible insists that no one has seen God the Father at any time except God the Son. He makes God known (John 1:18). Most of us who have come to faith in Jesus have looked at his life and found him to be inescapable.
So, when you read this account of Jesus that Luke says is accurate, what do you see? To summarize it, you see two complementary parts that look like contradictions at first. The first is that we see an unbelievably kind, open, gracious, powerful, loving person. He was a man who reached out to the poor, the lepers, the Samaritans, the Romans, and also loved a synagogue leader (Jairus) and a rich young ruler. Most people in the 21st C who see Jesus’ life say, “It’s beautiful. It’s the way life is supposed to be lived – the way people are supposed to be treated. He’s tough when he should be tough and meek when he should be meek.” He was that way when no one else was! It’s what Gandhi saw when he said that the life and ways of Jesus were compelling to him. But, he was turned off when he did not see the same in those of us who claim to follow Jesus. It’s what my little granddaughter Riley sees when we read the Bible stories to her. Over and over again, she wants to hear about Jesus. She loves the Jesus of the Bible.
On the other hand, this same Jesus makes claims about himself that put him in the category of lunatic or megalomaniac – if they are not true. What did he claim?
*He alone has the authority to forgive sins.
*He is the only one who can give us abundant and eternal life.
*He existed before Abraham – indeed, before the world was created.
*He is one with God the Father.
*He will be the one who judges the world on the last day.
You know, don’t you, that people who say such things are put into a mental health ward. Or, they deceive people and find ways to come to power like Hitler or Stalin or Pol Pot – and then they do harm that goes beyond the imagination. These were not beautiful people.
When you read the story of Jesus, you have to find a way to put these things together. It’s what Lewis was getting in a quote that I think I show you every Christmas: 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 - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.
Other religions will take you first to their philosophy or sayings or rules and norms for behavior. Take the founders out of both their disciplines and practices of worship and little would change. But, we Jesus-followers start right where I’m starting. We say, “First, look at Jesus.” It’s what Paul said in 2 Cor. 4:5: What we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord... People who look at Jesus teaching, working, and interacting with people know there is something different about him – something wholly right about him. That’s what Luke was counting on: It’s the true story of JESUS.
Second: The TRUE story of Jesus
Here I want to say just a few words about Luke taking on the pervasive and persistent belief that we can tell people to look at Jesus all we want but that we can’t trust the information we have about him in the accounts – that they are “legends, primitive beliefs, fabrications, or even good religious stories”. Notice that this was an issue in the first century too. This is what Theophilus needed to know, i.e., whether he had reliable reports. You’ll see that Luke makes three claims:
__MCE_ITEM__1) there were eyewitnesses still around when he wrote, 2) they “delivered” what they saw to us, and 3) he carefully investigated everything and put together an ordered account of it.
#1: The Eyewitnesses – Remember that Luke was writing just a generation after the death of Jesus. There were many, many eyewitnesses around to inform him – and to correct him if he got it wrong. This is so different from legends like those King Arthur. The first written accounts of a King Arthur with a round table of knights took place over four centuries after Arthur’s death. So, there were no eyewitness checks and balances to confirm or dispute the written accounts. But, not so with Jesus. Jesus’ ministry was incredibly public. Thousands saw him – both friends and enemies. What Luke is saying here is similar to what Paul said when he stood defending his message about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection before Governor Festus and Regional King Agrippa in Acts 26:26: “All this was not done in a corner…” There were many eyewitnesses still around. Luke is saying that he has gone and checked with all of them before writing this so that the reports would be accurate.
#2: The “Handing Down” – The word used in 1:2 for the material about Jesus delivered to him is paradosis. It’s a technical term for the passing on of essential material from one generation to another. There has been a lot of research done over the past several decades on the passing down orally of the stories and heritages of families and nations and movements. It was done carefully – even painstakingly. Luke is saying that this is how he and the eyewitnesses viewed the material he was putting into writing – they were careful to be accurate. They wanted to record and pass down precisely the acts and words of the Jesus who had transformed their lives.
Here, let me say a word about the consistent criticism of the Bible, i.e., that it was written by Christians who had an agenda -- they were trying to get other people to agree with them and join them. This implies that the writers were deceitful and were willing to make things up to draw other people to their religion. But, this kind of thinking, so prevalent in some circles, fails to see that almost every story they recorded would have been repugnant to the world they lived in. If they were trying to promote their religion, why did they make up stories so offensive to people? Like what? Like everything – it was so thoroughly counter-cultural:
*Born through an unwed mother,
*First witnesses were shepherds, the dregs of society,
*Stories of touching lepers, blessing Roman military men, welcoming Samaritans, visiting tax men!
*First witnesses to the resurrection were women – whose testimony wasn’t allowed in 1st C courts!
Why make up a story so fully repugnant to the people you want to convert - -or, at least, to respect you? No, the only reason these things were put in is that they happened. Luke says we have to pass down what really happened.
#3: The Careful Research -- Luke is saying others, like Mark probably, had written things down. Luke says that he has visited eyewitnesses; looked at everything people have written; and had done it all carefully so that there would be an ordered account of the true story of Jesus.
Luke is saying that these wonderful things about God coming to the world, God loving people, God finding a way to forgive and rescue and remake people all are true. He wanted Theophilus to know – and I want you to know – as Luke wrote, “the certainty of the things you have been taught.”
Third: The true STORY of Jesus
Here, I want to come back to the point that the Bible is not first and foremost a list of saying as with Chairman Mao or Confucius – or primarily a philosophy for living as with Buddha. And, it is different from almost all other religions in that it is not primarily a set of principles or rules for living. It is a true story of someone who came to the world and something that happened.
Why is this important? If our faith is a set of teachings, then the main thing is that we must obey them. The central point will be us -- what we do with those teachings. But our faith is first about what Jesus has done for us. We were dead in our sins. We needed to be made alive before we could begin to live. God first had to love us before we could respond in any way to him. Our faith is a story of grace – of God who came out of love to do for sinners what we could never do for ourselves. Yes, the Bible will give us wonderful instruction about how to live once we have been made alive to God. But, the main point is not teaching – but a story of God’s rescue effort for a lost and dying world. As Jesus would proclaim, “I have come to seek and save the lost. I have come to give my life as a ransom for people. As Rick Warren said it so clearly in his best seller, “It’s not about you!”
Well it eventually is about us – but only because God loves us. It always starts with him! The first thing we need in this world is not just a new set of principles or teachings or rules. We need forgiveness and life. And the message of Jesus is a story of God’s coming not to condemn us but to save us. As Jeff Mattesich put it wonderfully, “It is a love story in the midst of a true story.”
And, if you ask, “So what? What difference does it make that this story of Jesus is true?” I have two messages I as your pastor do not want you to miss.
First, our faith is not a “placebo religion.” A placebo (Latin: I shall please) is a sham or simulated medical intervention that can produce an (perceived or actual) improvement, called a placebo effect. There has been ongoing research done on the use of placebo medications or procedures seeming to produce healing. As one researcher said, however, “I have seen no evidence that a placebo has cured diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, or pancreatic cancer.” A placebo religion is one that doesn’t have to be based on something that is true or real. It would simply have to make us feel better – to feel more peace than usual. And, because I am convinced the Bible’s description of us is right – i.e., that we cannot heal our own souls and there fore we need real medicine; indeed, that we are dead in our sins and need a rescuer, then a placebo religion is not going to help us. We need a savior who will be merciful to us.
The Bible is a true story of Jesus who (as Tim Keller says so often) “lived the life we should have lived but could not and then died the death we should die but don’t have to.” Hallelujah.
Second, I want to invite you into a season of celebrating Christmas differently from the rest of the world. This is why I wanted Jeff and Jenny to give their “Living Letter” today. I wanted you to know that a pastor’s family is still learning to celebrate the true story of Jesus at Christmas after neither of them had grown up in a Christ-centered home – and what a difference it makes.
Our music team is in Thailand because people love the American Christmas they see – though few of them have any idea what it is about. We want them to know that God is – and that God loves them – and that God came to this world to rescue them and give them new life! And, I think we need to get anchored in that too. “Black Friday has already come and gone. Trees and tinsel and wrapping paper and Christmas movies and Christmas songs are everywhere. They’re everywhere. But they can cover the cosmos-changing event that we celebrate. I want you to use the Advent Scripture Readings I’ve put together beginning this week. They’ll be available in the foyer after the service – and look like a bookmark. If you can find an Advent Calendar with the story of Jesus to open at a mealtime each day – then do it.
Jesus came to invite us into the story of what God is doing in the world. We become a part of it. We find the forgiveness and life he came to give – and then pass it on as those changed by the grace of God. It’s wonderful. But it begins with this:
Jesus was born: to begin with. There can be no doubt about that whatsoever… Let me repeat -- the story we are told of Jesus truly happened. This must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful can come to our world. “Joy to the world. This Lord HAS come. Let her receive her king.”
Greg Waybright • Copyright 2010, Lake Avenue Church