"WHO IS THIS GUY?"

 “WHO IS THIS GUY?”

In the second chapter of Matthew, the magi come to Jerusalem, having been led by a star to find the One born “king of the Jewish people.”  Their GPS system fails them, and they must stop by King Herod’s place to inquire about this young boy.  Herod is taken aback – who are these foreigners bringing news of a rival to the throne?  Matthew’s account tells us that Herod is troubled and frightened – and that all Jerusalem is troubled and frightened also.  Is this a new order of life coming into the world?  Who is this guy?

Who is this guy?  That is the question at the heart of the Advent and Christmas seasons.  We are asked as individuals to respond to the question and to provide our own answers.  We are asked as communities to respond to the birth of Jesus and to provide our answers.  Who is this guy?  The great humanitarian Albert Schweitzer proclaimed in 1906 that Jesus comes to us as “One unknown,” and in many ways, he was right.  Jesus is not a blank slate – there are many clues to his identity in the birth stories – but we are asked to take up the question for ourselves in this season:  Who is this guy?  Or, as Jesus himself puts it later on in his adult life: “Who do you say that I am?”

Herod gives us his answer – this guy is a threat to me and to the social order.  Herod lashes out as the violent and vengeful leader that he is – he has all the baby boys of Bethlehem slaughtered in an attempt to wipe out this threat.  It is a gruesome scene at the end of Matthew’s 2nd chapter – the mothers crying out for their babies, who are lost in a flurry of vengeance and violence.  Though it is hard to read, this account does remind us that the birth of Jesus stays in the real, violent world – no sugar-coating here.  This story also reminds us that Jesus is a threat to the political orders of the world – unless such orders are based on justice and equity, Jesus will always be a threat.

Some of us go the opposite way of Herod in our answer to the question:  “Who is this guy?”  We prefer an individualistic, spiritualized Jesus – sweet, little Jesus boy, who comes to save us from going to hell after death.  Jesus becomes an ahistorical, philosophical figure, dabbing his toes into human existence, just enough  to provide some salvific energy, making no demands on our lives – interested simply in what happens to us when we die – are we going up, or are we going down?  

This was the Jesus I grew up with – unconcerned with historical life, unconcerned about justice issues, concerned only with my salvation after death.  Because I grew up immersed in white supremacy, this Jesus was the one who allowed my forebears to hold human beings in slavery, who allowed me and other people classified as “white” to continue to receive the benefits of the neo-slavery in which we lived.  I could not hold Jesus back, however, even with the powerful white church world seeking to keep our feet on his neck.  He kept coming around, and he kept asking me and others:  “Who do you say that I am?”  I remember vividly praying to God early in my teenage years, as the hormones hit and as the Civil Rights Movement began to take hold:  “God, please let me keep believing in You as I do now – don’t make it too complicated.”  Of course, that prayer was not answered in the way that I wanted it to be answered.  It did become complicated, and I did change my view of myself, of others, and of Jesus and of God.  I knew it, but I didn’t  want to affirm it - the world was about to change.

As we move through this Advent and Christmas season, let us recall this fundamental question about the birth of Jesus.  Each of us and all of us are asked to find our answer to the question:  “Who Is This Guy?”  May Jesus move in our hearts to help us see a vision of justice and equity, and to be like the dreamer Joseph, who not only had dreams but acted on them.  As we think about these things, let us consider how Schweitzer put it in his 1906 book “The Quest for the Historical Jesus”

“He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside, He came to those {people} who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same words: "Follow thou me!" and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.”