If someone were to ask you why Jesus of  Nazareth left being a carpenter and began to preach, teach and heal in the villages and towns of Galilee and ultimately in the capital city of Jerusalem where he was betrayed, arrested and executed, what would you say?  He surely would have lived a longer and safer life as a builder than as an itinerant rabbi, a vocation for which he had no formal training.  When he began his ministry in his home town of Nazareth a crowd gathered to her him speak his own family was at first puzzled by his change of vocation and more than a little concerned because they heard people saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” (Mark 3:21)   His family tried to get word to him through a crowd (Mark 3:31-35) and he said that those who did the will of God were his family.  His home town resisted his new calling and even tried to throw him off a cliff, but he walked through them and went on to other towns that were more receptive to his message. (Luke 4:21-30) Talk about a rocky start to a new vocation!

            But Jesus did not lose heart.  He called to himself a dozen disciples and they went out with a message that people were to repent, to change their way of thinking and living to what God desired, because the kingdom or reign of God was in the midst of them.  Jesus came to announce and inaugurate that gracious rule, and that was why he chose a passage from the prophet, Isaiah, to read in his home town synagogue which speaks of God’s anointed one, which is what Messiah means, who is to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:16-19)  That is what he came to do.

            The Gospels accounts show him doing precisely that, and people are taken aback, wondering how he can teach with such authority, unlike the religious leaders.  What he said and did rang with authenticity that evoked trust from some unlikely sources like tax collectors, prostitutes, and even Roman soldiers.  Jesus went so far as to call a tax collector named Levi as one of his disciples, and when the scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders of their day, objected Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17) 

If you fancied yourself an upright and religious person I guess that would be hard to hear, and that seems to have been the case.  But if you felt like your spiritual life was in disarray and in sore need of a new beginning, Jesus and his message would be good news for you.  The sad thing is that the religious authorities were just as much in need of a fresh start with God because they had fallen into the trap of considering themselves spiritually superior to others.  Jesus came for them just as much as those who had no illusions about their need.  A few religious leaders did hear and heed his call: Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin, is but one example (John 3). Jairus, a leader of the synagogue, was another (Mark 5:21-24).

In today’s reading from John 10 Jesus likens himself to a faithful shepherd who is trusted by his flock.  He says that there have been those who preceded him and have misled his people to their detriment.  Most scholars believe he is referring to the messianic pretenders who came before him and led attempts to expel Rome by force only to be crushed with great loss of life and property.  In contrast, Jesus says, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10b)

If we read on in the chapter we find that he speaks of the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.  In Mark 10:43-45 we hear Jesus say that whoever wishes to be great must be your servant, and that he came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.  C.S. Lewis makes this point in his little classic, Mere Christianity, saying, “What did Jesus come to do? Well, to teach, of course; but soon as you look into the new Testament or any other Christian writing you will find they are constantly taking about something different—about His death and His coming to life again.  It is obvious that Christians think the chief point of the story lies here.  They think the main thing He came to earth to do was to suffer and be killed. (Mere Christianity pp. 56-57)

Last week Tim Fearer reminded us that this aspect of Jesus is what is repugnant to Muslims who consider Jesus a great prophet, healer, and worker of miracles, but reject the notion that he died in humiliation on a Roman cross.  That is beneath God’s honor, that is a shameful thing.

            Jesus came into an honor/shame world, and sad to say, much of the world still operates by that paradigm.  If you are shamed, if you lose face, the only option is to regain your good name by humiliating or killing the person or parties who shamed you, or to kill yourself.  The centuries old scores to settle that plague the Middle East are the fruits of an honor/shame world view.  If a wife or daughter so much as hints at an improper action or thought toward another male she may be killed by her husband or father, along with her supposed suitor, and the executioner holds his head high even if sentenced to prison.  The gang slayings in East Salinas are the fruit of an honor/shame world view.  You hit one of our gang and we take care of business and hit you back twice as hard in order to maintain the honor of our gang.  The Mafia wars are another case in point.  That way leads to death.

            Jesus, by voluntarily submitting to a shameful betrayal, illegal trial, and humiliating death, takes in himself all the hate, fear, and dishonor the world can dish out, and offers forgiveness and reconciliation in its stead.  God vindicates and honors Jesus by raising him from death never to die again.  And the risen Christ does not come back to his betrayers or executioners to get even with them, but to forgive and commission them to love and serve as he did, friend and foe alike. If our world is to have a chance to experience abundant life as God intends, it will have to begin to understand why Jesus came, and then to dare to follow his example of sacrifice and service.