I Am God's Son
John 10:31-39
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Harry G. Winsheimer
April 5, 2009 - Palm Sunday

Gettysburg is the town of parades!  How many do we have a year?  I have shivered across the street on the front steps of the library while watching re-enactors.  I have sat on the front steps of the church and watched – no, listened -- to the motorcycle parade.

America is a culture of messages.  When historians describe our age, they will say that it was the atomic age, the computer age, and most characteristic of all, the age of messages.  Zillions of ads, appeals, information, e-mails, FAXs, phone calls – verbal, printed, electronic – unending.  Everyone seems to want our attention.   I am trying to catch you now – no napping!

We combine parades with messages.  Dance studios march their students behind a banner.  School bands show off their musical and marching skills, proudly showing their school name.  Car dealers drive their finest with magnetic signs on the doors.  And, fire companies catch our attention with screaming sirens. 

Jesus catches our attention with the parade into Jerusalem.  The medium is a message.  He sent two disciples to get the colt on which he would ride.  Jesus planned the parade.  And the disciples responded spontaneously, enthusiastically, waving palms, throwing their robes on the ground for the donkey to walk on.  It was an intentional entrance, calculated to get our attention and communicate a message from God.

Palm Sunday is an exciting holy day.  Being in the spring when the air is warm and flowers signal eventual color – much craved after winter-induced dullness -- and putting us in touch with the thrill of a parade, Palm Sunday is a celebration.  I love Palm Sunday!  It was fun.  It is fun.

This is God’s media event!  God catches people’s attention and communicates the divine message through Jesus: through his life, actions and teachings – through Palm Sunday, through the Upper Room experiences, through the crucifixion, through the resurrection.  His words inform.  His life-drama imparts the message.

During Lent we have studied the aphorisms of Jesus recorded in the Gospel according to John which began, “I am”: I am the Bread of Life, I am the Way, I am the Vine, I am the Truth and I am the Good Shepherd.  Today the saying is: “I am the Son of God.”

This is a very significant title.

Let’s tick off a few times when it is used of Jesus.
Before he was born, the angel Gabriel told Mary, “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High.”
At the time of his baptism, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am pleased.”
Even the devil knew Jesus was the Son of God.  In two of the temptations of Jesus in the desert, the devil preceded the temptations with the challenge, “If you are the Son of God.”
Demoniacs asked, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God?”
Even the Roman centurion who presided at the crucifixion, at the close of the ghastly scene, was touched and exclaimed, “Truly this man was a Son of God!”
Mark began his Gospel: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”  John summarized his purpose by concluding his gospel by writing, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.  But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

I could go on and on.  You would need to stay till dark; it would take that long to review all the references to Jesus as the Son of God in the New Testament.  It is used of Jesus 54 times in the Gospels, 42 times in the Epistles, 3 times in Acts and once in Revelation.  That is 100 times in the New Testament!

Certainly God wants to say something to us through Jesus being called the Son of God!  What is it?

God and Jesus are as connected as a parent and child.  The child carries the genes of the parent, learns the heritage of the family, uses the parent’s family name, is given a personal name by the parent, forms identity in response to the parent, learns values from the parent, may even look like the parent.  The point is that the image of a son is used to communicate that Jesus and God are one.  Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.”  Jesus thinks as does God.  Jesus feels as does God.  Jesus acts as does God. 

More so than anyone else!  You and I may call ourselves children of God, correctly so, for we are.  But, there is a difference.  The difference is that God chose to be in Jesus more fully than in us.  He was uniquely intimate with God.  He was uniquely God.  Not exactly the same as God the parent.  But the bond is so solid that when we deal with Jesus it is the same as dealing with God.

This a mystery, which the church historically has attempted vainly to describe in what is called the Doctrine of the Trinity.  Even as we verbalize it, we don’t understand it.  Nevertheless, the church affirms the teachings of Scripture that Jesus is both God and human.  On Palm Sunday morning, Jesus had to eat breakfast, put on his clothes, and walk toward Jerusalem – just as you and I would have to do.  He was human, as human as you and I.  Yet, he was divine, the God-human.  That mysterious unique relationship with God is expressed in the familial title Son of God.

God knew what God was doing.  Our Pulpit Nominating Committee seeks a new senior pastor.  They receive written dossiers from ministers.  They read cover letters.  They talk with references.  They listen to sermons on the internet.  (You have applied for work, haven’t you?  The employer asked you to introduce yourself and say why you would benefit the company.)  But, we can only go so far with paper and electronic media.  Eventually what has to happen?  We have to have a face to face, an interview.

Prior to Jesus, God sent messages through the prophets and by their words and lives to the people, generation after generation.  In Jesus God changed the medium.  God came in Jesus!  In Jesus God became one of us, a human son of the Eternal Parent.  Jesus is God coming to be interviewed.  We learn about God by not only his words, but by his life, preeminently his crucifixion and resurrection.

What else does God communicate through the image of the Son?

This is a person in relationship.  Luke Skywalker learned in Starwars about the Force.  Is God the Force?  Yes, a force so awesome that hydrogen bombs are finger-snaps in comparison.  Is force an adequate understanding of God?  No!  Is God an impersonal cosmic computer, a massive mind that trivializes the efforts of our super-computers – basically a cosmic thing that thinks?  No!  Is intelligence an adequate understanding of God?  No!

Jean McGeorge was driving down Interstate 70 when she was pulled over by a highway patrolman for speeding.  “Tell me,” she said, “how did you know I was speeding?”  The patrolman did not even look up from his pad but simply pointed up to the sky to indicate that a traffic helicopter had caught her.  Misunder-standing this, Jean’s reply was, “You mean even God’s turned against me, too?”

No, Jean, no!  Is God the monster policeman sitting in heaven with the grade book on his lap, pen in hand to record our every sin?  Is God like that, causing us to feel guilty?  Is that an adequate understanding of God?  No!

Our language never is up to the task of describing God. Our minds cannot grasp the infinite.

Even so, we learn the most about God by looking at Jesus.  What do we learn from Palm Sunday?
On Palm Sunday he rides on the previously un-ridden colt of a donkey – the un-ridden donkey symbolizes purity, being the center of the parade highlights his authority, coming on a donkey instead of a war horse announces peaceful intention, coming on the pick-up truck of his day without expensive fan fare and elitist support communicates that he does not seek self-serving domination.
He converses and teaches.
And he disputes with enemies when they yell, “Teacher, command your disciples to be quiet.”  He responds, “I tell you that if they keep quiet, the stones would shout.”  As he spots the walled city, he cries because the residents of Jerusalem will reject him, rebel and be wiped out by the Romans.  He loved the Jerusalemites so much but the feeling was not mutual.

He is a person who loves and relates.  Therefore, we learn that God is not just a force, is not a thing or a threatening policeman, but a person who relates with people with love.  A son relates with mother and father, right?  A son relates with brothers, sisters, peers, teachers, society, right?  God is best contemplated as a person who initiates activity and relationship.

“For God so loved the world that God gave the only son that whoever would believe in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Conclusion:
What is God like?   What is God’s character?  Though the teachings, activities, life-style, values, through the exciting parade on Palm Sunday, the drama of the Upper Room, the trauma of the cross, and the joy of Easter, God attracts our attention and reveals the divine to us.

The disciples cheered, “Hosanna!  Praise God!”
 
In your mind, Jesus parades by.  What is your response?  Here is what I do!  (clap) “Praise God!”

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