Superstar

Below is my topical sermon for my preaching course. I used the scenario of being at a college retreat where we just finished watching Jesus Christ Superstar and headed into a midnight worship setting.
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Who do we expect Jesus to be? We’ve seen an artistic rendition of what Judas’ could’ve been thinking as he walked with Jesus. The film portrays Jesus as a Savior who is extremely human. So human in fact that it is hard for some to see the Jesus depicted in Jesus Christ Superstar as fully God. I see that His relationships and interactions make Him one who is a divine and human being walking with other humans. His relationships with Mary and Judas as well as His pained interactions with them and the disciples make His humanity real. A real tension is lifted up concerning how Jesus’ fully humanity and full divinity coexist. Often I find myself seeing only the divine part of Jesus although he was fully human so that he could save the fully human us.

The great dose of Jesus’ humanity leads me to entertain different questions than if I had just read the gospels. My question to you tonight is what do you expect of Jesus? The gospels tell us Jesus defeated our death, but what else is there to Jesus? What does Jesus expect of us? Is Jesus one that set the example to be followed?

This question was certainly alive in the 1990’s with the WWJD or “what would Jesus do” craze. Every morning I would wake up and get ready for school, but before I walked out of my room, I would turn to my dresser and choose the WWJD bracelet color that best completed my outfit and I set off for school. I remember sitting in class looking down at my wrist and thinking about what I thought Jesus would do. A few times I even thought, what would Jesus answer on this US History test, Benjamin Franklin or George Washington?

I would eventually decide that Jesus wouldn’t be found in a classroom in the most powerful country in the world studying dead white guys. At this point, I thought that Jesus came so that we could follow his example, so did I need to be so radically Christian that I was a martyr? After all, actions were more powerful than words because they showed what I was really made of. Moreover, I was certainly going to heaven because I was a good person. The great thing about the WWJD craze was my daily focus on Jesus jumped dramatically, and I did pray more. But, Jesus didn’t have to die for me, he had to just set an example for me to follow and I could do the rest.

Now I have a somewhat broader understanding of Jesus, but I still struggle with the Jesus I want and the Jesus of the gospels. Jesus was and still is unpredictable. As I would expect, Jesus was concerned with the poor. However, he also didn’t object to Mary spending the equivalent to a years wages on a pound of pure nard to anoint his feet. What could $20,000 do for a family in sub-Saharan Africa, Mexico of Afghanistan?

In the predictable way, he cleanses the temple. Yet, he does it in a violent way, turning over tables and chairs. What do I, a want be pacifist, do with a violent Jesus? Prof. Fretheim would offer that God reacts to a violent world with violence to bring about peace. I human terms I see this as an absurd concept. As the old saying goes, “Fighting for peace is like having sex for virginity.”

Other than what is recorded about Jesus, how can anyone be so bold as to claim what Jesus would or wouldn’t do in any situation? We can only know what Jesus did not what he would do. Jesus was never predictable. Those who spent the most time with him still couldn’t predict his words or actions. The disciples got it wrong all the time. Not only did they get his teachings wrong, Peter denied Jesus and Judas betrayed Jesus.

The one film clip that I can’t forget is the portrayal of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. We see a Jesus who struggles with what has been required of Him. He fervently prays for God to take the cup away. Jesus’ will seems different from God’s. During Jesus’ prayer, He prays telling God that He did not start it and God’s will is hard and God holds every card. Jesus does say He will drink God’s cup of poison. He is willing, but now running with joy to His Godly calling.

The fully human, fully divine Jesus takes up his cross for Peter, the denier, and Judas, the betrayer and for you. Jesus came not to set an example but to save you. We are called not to do what Jesus did, but to take up our cross and follow.