“Did Jesus Really Say That?”

Theme: Jesus - Myth, Messiah or Madman
Scripture: Mark 1:14-15; Luke 17:20-21

Things I’d like to remember from today’s sermon

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Meditation Moments for Monday, January 23 – Read Mark 4:1-9.This week we will study some of Jesus’ statements that seem hard to understand to many people. Sometimes Jesus did not mean to be understood easily. In Mark 4, he told a parable, one his followers asked him to explain (cf. verse 10). At its end, he used a common Hebrew expression: “Whoever has ears to listen should pay attention!” It was a way of saying the story’s meaning wasn’t obvious, that understanding its message took attention and thought.

• Jesus’ statement was not just about eardrums. “In the Bible the ear is synonymous with the heart and mind as an organ of cognition (Prov 2:2; Is 6:9–10), and true hearing involves listening and understanding (Job 34:16)” (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery). What has helped you tune your inner, spiritual “ears” to God’s voice? What helps you persist in seeking to understand God’s revelation, rather than just giving up?

• Jesus often used common objects or experiences to convey uncommon meanings. He described the usual outcome when a farmer sowed his seed by hand across a field. Yet he wasn’t talking about farming at all, but about spiritual growth, and the factors that keep us from growing (cf. Mark 4:13-20). What steps are you taking to make your heart and mind “good soil” in which God’s word can grow and bear a good crop?

Prayer: Lord God, you want me to know you. You reveal yourself in many ways, some of them subtle and quiet. Give me ears to listen, a spirit attentive to all you wish to convey to me. Amen.

Tuesday, January 24– Read Matthew 5:27-30. Jesus used various types of parables and imagery to communicate his message. One of them was “prophetic hyperbole”—dramatic exaggeration to show that a subject is serious. Adultery was (and is) a serious issue, and Jesus used hyperbole to stress that the call to follow him is not always easy. At times entering God’s Kingdom takes hard choices, “tearing out” or “chopping off” some things so that we can live the life God calls us to live.

• In Jesus’ day, the right hand and right eye were symbols of honor, power and status. Reformation leader John Calvin wrote, “Jesus means that however difficult, arduous, troublesome, or painful God’s rule may be, we must make no excuse for that, as the righteousness of God should be worth more to us, than all the other things which are chiefly dear and precious.” It seems obvious that eternal life with God is worth more than momentary pleasure—but it’s not always obvious in the moment! What is one way you’ve found greater satisfaction, even now, by choosing to live in God’s way?

• Central throughout Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was the message that the call to follow Jesus is open to all, but it’s not always easy! In a variety of ways, we must choose to obey either our Lord and his values or our world and its values (see Matthew 6:24). In what ways have you found following Jesus difficult? Is there anything in your life that God is calling you to “tear out” or “chop off”?

Prayer: Jesus, I want you to be the first priority in all areas of my life. Help me to make the hard choices when necessary so that I can follow your call on my life. Amen.

Wednesday, January 25 – Read Mark 10:17-27. First, Jesus told the man who asked about eternal life, “Sell what you own, and give the money to the poor.” The man went away—he didn’t want eternal life THAT much. Then Jesus said, “It’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom.” That shocked his disciples—no rich people in heaven? No, said Jesus, that’s not the point: “All things are possible for God.” His hyperbolic statements were a solemn warning about the spiritual danger of worshipping wealth.

• To help us understand the specific focus of Jesus’ words, it’s important to remember that God did NOT tell many affluent people in the Bible (e.g. Abraham in the Old Testament, Zacchaeus in Luke 19) to sell all they had. What was the heart issue Jesus wanted the young man to face up to? What made it so hard for him to respond to Jesus’ call?

• This story, including Jesus’ at first startling images, confronts us with the hard question, “Which of my possessions, if any, are so precious to me that I’d choose them over following Jesus?” We know how the young man answered the question, turning away from the “treasure in heaven” Jesus offered. It’s difficult—have you ever wrestled with the question? How would you answer Jesus?

Prayer: Lord God, all things are possible for you. So grow in me the wisdom to always value the eternal treasure in heaven you offer more highly than any of this earth’s temporary possessions. Amen.

Thursday, January 26 – Read Luke 14:25-33. In yesterday’s reading, Jesus challenged those who made their “stuff” more important than his kingdom. In today’s passage, he challenged anyone who made family ties more important than following him. He was not against family love—he cared about his mother even on the cross (cf. John 19:25-27). But in his day, and ours, following Jesus sometimes strained or even broke culturally valued patterns of family obedience and loyalty.

• Blogger Sarah Dylan Breuer ( wrote that “choosing to follow Jesus can involve stark and difficult choices, and with any set of choices that could change the world, following Jesus presents others with choices they may not find welcome.” Have you or someone you know well ever had to choose between pleasing family members and doing what God is calling you to do? How did you decide?

• In 1988, some of All-Star third baseman Gary Gaetti’s teammates said he had disrupted the team’s harmony. They were sad that Gaetti had become a Christian, and no longer wished to join them in certain off-the-field activities. How can you care about people as Jesus did, and yet be faithful to your convictions about what God is asking of you? In what ways have you found new “family relationships” in God’s family?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, following you is serious business. Guide me and give me your wisdom for the times when your purposes do not completely match those of people I love and care about. Amen.

Friday, January 27 – Read Mark 1:14-20. Some of Jesus’ sayings were hard to understand—a few may even have been misreported. But what Mark reported as Jesus’ central point came through clearly. “Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives,” he said. “Come, follow me!” Sometimes a focus on Jesus’ “hard sayings” is a cover for what Mark Twain reportedly said, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.”

• The Common English Bible renders the Greek word metanoia, often translated as “repent,” with the phrase “change your hearts and lives.” The Greek literally meant “to change directions, turn around.” “Change your hearts and lives” conveys that Jesus didn’t call us to a one-time emotional experience, but to an ongoing commitment to living in a new way. What are some of the most significant ways you have changed your heart and life in response to Jesus?

• One of the more striking parts of Mark’s report is verse 18: “RIGHT AWAY, they left their nets and followed him.” How easy or hard do you find it to respond “right away” when you sense God calling you to make some change in your life? Have you ever finally responded to God, and then thought, “I wish I’d done this long ago”?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, there must have been something so appealing about your invitation for these busy fishermen to drop everything to follow you! Make me ever more ready to be a person who responds to you “right away.” Amen.

Saturday, January 28- Read Matthew 9:9-13, 35-36.For many self-righteous religious leaders in Jesus’ day, the hardest thing to understand about Jesus was not some obscure statement, but his crystal clear message that God loves and has compassion for all people—including those they called “sinners.” Jesus lived that message out, and voiced it in stories like the Good Samaritan (cf. Luke 10:25-37) and in the greatest commandments (cf. Matthew 22:34-40). Some things about Jesus we may not fully understand—but the central “good news” of his kingdom is clear. And for all of us who are willing to recognize our standing as “sinners,” it’s incredibly good news.

• In Jesus’ day “tax collectors” (like Matthew) were Jews who got rich helping finance the Roman occupiers. Most Israelites hated them as traitors and cheats. Yet Jesus called them into his kingdom, and even invited them to join in his work. Matthew changed thousands, probably millions, of lives, particularly by writing the Gospel of Matthew. Have you ever been surprised by any of the things God has done in your life? Has any part of your spiritual journey seemed unexpected, even illogical to you or others?

Prayer: Lord God, you come to me when I’m busy at my daily tasks, as you came to Matthew. I pray that I may always be as ready to respond as he was when your eternal love and compassion break into my daily routine. Amen.

Family Activity: Last weekend we remembered that Martin Luther King, Jr. followed in Jesus’ footsteps by seeking to serve others. How does your family work together sharing God’s love with others? Select a way to serve others together. Ask an older child or youth to research some volunteer opportunities in your area. He or she could explore the church website ( for mission ministries in which your family can participate. Also brainstorm less-structured ways you can serve others with God’s love, such as helping a neighbor or a schoolmate. At a family gathering, ask the child or youth to present these ideas to the rest of the family. Pray, asking God’s guidance as you discuss the options. Choose one or two ways your family will share God’s love with others.

Theme: Jesus – Messiah, Myth or Madman

“The Humanity of Jesus”

Sermon preached by Jeff Huber

January 14-15,2017 at First United Methodist Church, Durango

Scripture: Mathew 9: 35-36

35Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

VIDEOSermon Intro

SLIDE“The Humanity of Jesus”

I invite you to take out of your bulletin your Message Notes and your Meditation Moments. There is a space there for you to write down and reflect upon things you want to remember from today. I hope you’ll use that space to write down things that you learn or questions that you have or moments where you feel like God is speaking directly to you. Continued there and on the backside you will find Scripture reading for each day and questions for you to go deeper as you read the Bible on your own. If you do not have a Bible we will be happy to give you one at our connection point in the atrium. If you’re watching at home or online, you can download this resource right off our website.

Last week we began a series of sermons in which we are asking some questions about Jesus. These are questions that both people of faith and those who are skeptics ask as they look at the Gospels and read the stories of Jesus. Some of the questions are deep and serious and some are more lighthearted. Our aim is to try and answer those questions that thoughtful people are asking about Jesus as best as we can, and to help each one of us answer the question that Jesus asks each of us about himself. We began by remembering that Jesus once asked his disciples this question.

GRAPHICWho Do You Say that I Am? (from last week)

He is asking us that same question today. At the end of this series my hope is that every one of the sermons will help you to be able to answer the question for yourself. I don’t want you to be able to answer who Pastor Jeff thinks Jesus is, but who do YOU believe he is for your life. Today we are going to look at the questions that spring forth about the humanity of Jesus and we’re going to begin with an idea that many have wrestled with over the centuries.

SLIDEThe Virgin Birth

The idea of the virgin birth is Mary conceiving a child without ever being with a man and having sexual relations with him. When people hear this story, it’s hard for them to believe. It was no doubt hard to believe in the first century and is hard today because we understand how the creation process works. We understand that an egg cell has only half of the genetic material needed to form human being. Where did the other half of the genetic material come from? Does this sound like the kind of legendary thing that people might have asked about Jesus after his death?

At the beginning of the 20th century, this question was at the heart of one of the crisis points between liberals and fundamentalists within the Christian faith. Those who were more fundamentalist believe that this was a fundamental of the Christian faith and that if you didn’t believe in the virgin birth then you couldn’t be a Christian or even call yourself a Christian. People who were more liberal denied this and said it was possible to be a Christian and not necessarily have to buy into the virgin birth.

I told you last week about a conversation I had with the young man at the rec center and this is one of the questions he asked me just before Christmas. “Do you really believe in the virgin birth? I find it inconceivable (pun intended)!” My first response to him was, “Welcome to the club! Joseph found it pretty hard to believe too!” Remember that Mary was engaged to Joseph and she went to him and said, “Guess what Joseph? An angel came to me and told me that the Holy Spirit had just impregnated me. How awesome is that? Isn’t that great news?”

Joseph didn’t take it that way however, did he? He didn’t believe her. Joseph did not believe Mary when she came to him and told him what she saw and what she heard and what she experienced and how she was pregnant. If Joseph didn’t believe the virgin Mary when she came to tell him, then it is understandable that we might struggle with believing these things that are being told 2000 years later to us. I want to be clear that it’s okay to wrestle with faith and these questions. It’s okay that we struggle and we ask, “That seems really hard to believe.”

I’m trying to give you permission during this series of sermons to not only wrestle with these questions but be okay with others who are wrestling with them as well. I don’t think God is offended when we are asking these questions and wrestle with our faith.

We learn from the story in the Gospels that Joseph eventually gets on board with the idea, but it’s not until he is visited by an angel in a dream. I have often wondered if he had nagging questions the rest of his life about that experience.

As we wrestle with this question today let me give you another perspective. Matthew and Luke each tell the story of the virgin birth from different traditions and with differing details. I don’t think their point in telling the story of the virginal conception was about genetics. It wasn’t meant to be a scientific explanation about what happens to an egg in the womb and how it’s fertilized. First century people didn’t really even understand all of that. The Jewish understanding of conception was that it actually took 3 to conceive and that was the man and the woman and the Spirit of God. They couldn’t see through microscopes to understand what was happening and they certainly didn’t know anything about genetic theory with DNA and what is needed to create a human being.

This was not a biology lesson in Matthew and Luke meant to focus on intricacies of conception, but rather was meant to tell us something about the child that was born. Matthew puts it this way.

BIBLE22All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: 23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”

The big idea for Matthew was that the virgin birth explained the unique relationship of Jesus to God and what made him unique among human beings. As Jesus was born into this world, he came to embody or put flesh and skin onto the love of God. He is meant to be God’s presence in our midst. God has come to walk among us. God has known us and loved us and given himself for us in the person of Jesus. The virginal conception was a way of speaking to that truth to help people see what was happening in Jesus and they might respond, “Wow, this is amazing.”