Introduction

I want to guide our reflections today under this title: "Remembering Jesus with a Broad Brush." Sometimes during communion I spend time on a particular passage with exclusive attention there. Other times I try to review an entire Gospel or all the Gospels in general. Today, we are on the general side of things. I believe that there is a great deal of value in considering the big picture. So let's go spend some time remembering our Savior as He is presented in the four Gospels. Let me use the idea of a "welcome home" as a focal point for our remembering. As we go along, I will repeat the question, "do you remember?" in a deliberate way giving you time to reflect and even respond if you like.

Do you remember his kindness? If I mention the kindness of Christ, where do you go in thought? I tend to think of how welcoming Christ was to the disciples; how He put them at ease in His presence. Consider the incident when the disciples of John followed after Jesus wondering who this man might be. Jesus turned and watched them approach and said, "What do you seek?" (Jn. 1:38). They were stymied and did not know what to say. So they fumbled out the words, "Where do you live?" What was his answer to these timid strangers? "Come and see." Come, there is a welcome sign on his door, the word of welcome is on his lips. He welcomes us at his home! He wants us to feel at home with him. When we think of how often we fumble, He puts us at ease assuring us by saying, "you are welcome in my presence, in my family, as family and as my family." He is not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters even though there are many things we do that could rightly make Him ashamed of us (Heb. 2:11, For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers). As a matter of fact, He so fully identifies Himself with us that "he had to be made like his brothers in every way in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest" (Heb. 2:17). Thus, He served God and suffered when He was tempted to help us in our trials and temptations (Heb. 2:18, For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted).

Do you remember that Jesus was baptized? That is easy, but what do you recall that is striking about the baptism of Jesus by John? The story is multifold and there are many equally good answers. Surely an important point is the fact that John balked at baptizing Him (Matt. 3:14). Why? It is because John's baptism was repentance-baptism (Matt. 3:11a, "I baptize with water for baptism," but another, someone greater, is coming, Matt. 3:11b). Thus, he says, "you should baptize me, it is necessary." This is truly remarkable: Jesus must be baptized and by which he says, "I must repent of my sins." How can the sinless lamb do something about His sins? It is not that He ever sinned. Rather, He owns the sins of His people and He commits Himself early on to a baptism of repentance and a baptism of fire in which He will bear the sins of His people as His very own! To what end? The end is a welcome. It is to welcome us (you and me) in the Father's kingdom.

What drives Him, why this imperative, why is this something He must do? This is an imperative of love between Christ and the Father in heaven; it is a love of mission and salvation for those given to Christ to be His brothers and sisters in a redeemed human family. It is love for you and me who trust in the risen Lord Jesus. He thus began His public ministry of proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom in word and deed (by preaching, teaching, and healing), by parable and miracle (by word/deed as a unit). When you ponder the life of Christ in this way, what teaching of our Lord stands out to you most? Is it the Sermon on Mount, the Olivet Discourse, perhaps His parables? Which parable comes first to your mind? Is it the Good Samaritan, the Sower sowing seeds, or the Prodigal Son? We should be aware in remembering the parables that the Good Samaritan is Jesus! The Sower is Jesus; He is the Fisherman casting His net into the sea of nations! What miracle opens your eyes to the gospel in a special way? As a pastor I may go to a particular miracle because of my theology. But as a church member, as a Christian as a man or as a woman, what particular miracle comes to mind when you remember the Lord Jesus as your Savior, brother, and friend?

Do you remember His reply to John the Baptist (Matt. 11, with John wondering in prison, "are you the one or should we look for another?")? In His answer to John, Jesus tells us that His miracles are enacted parables of restoration.

And Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them (4-5).

They show us that His gospel involves the saving of the whole person, body and soul, both now and forever! Thus for emphasis we have to say that Jesus did not come to save souls! Instead, He came to save whole persons, body and soul.

Do you recall the tenderness with Mary and Martha when their brother Lazarus had died while Jesus delayed His coming? "Lord, if you had been here, they sigh." But He says to Mary, "Do you believe that I am the resurrection and the life?" "Yes, Lord I believe," she replies. Then Jesus has them remove the stone from the grave. He is filled with inner rage at the effects of sin and the sorrows of death. Like a champion approaching His foe, Jesus shook the earth when He shouted His command, "Lazarus come forth!" Likewise He comes to us in our death in trespasses and sins and calls us to life by His quickening word. He diffused a quickening ray into that dark tomb and Lazarus awoke and followed. So it is with us. We can each say: "Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature’s night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose went forth and followed thee." The kingdom yet to come has already come manifesting itself with power.

How about the matter of prayer, do you remember Jesus at prayer?

1) In the shadow of the cross He exclaimed, "Now is my soul exceedingly troubled and what shall I say"? With every ounce of self-preservation in my being, I must say, "Father, save me from this hour! But with determined resolve and unshakable love for my sheep, I must say, Father thy will be done! Glorify Thy name."

2) In the high priestly prayer (Jn. 17:1-3, 24), we are allowed to eavesdrop. We think we should not be listening to this private conversation. But he welcomes us through John's record of the prayer. And note how he intercedes. Father, I desire, I delight in the fact that all that you owned as your very own and have given to me will be with me in glory. He is interceding by sacrifice. He is petitioning the application of the sacrifice. He is going to take our sins with him to the cross - owned as his very own - in order to see us through to glory. He goes to the cross to secure our entrance into the Fathers house, to the final welcome home!

What do you think about when you are asked to recall His passion displayed in what is called Passion Week? Remember the donkey of humiliation, what a king! He is gentle and humble, even to the scorn and shame of the cross. In the upper room He washed the disciples' feet, instituted the Lord's Supper, and watched Judas depart into the night. In the garden, no one took Him; He made himself an offering for sin. The soldiers fell down at His question, "whom do you seek?"

Remember Pilate's ironic words to this effect: "He is innocent therefore crucify Him." And they crucified Him. But there is no weakness. No weakness is here, not even in the "I thirst." It's not a weak whisper asking for relief to avoid the suffering. He thirsts for the Father! Thus He knew all had been accomplished and said, "I thirst" and then exclaimed once and for all, "It is finished!" Do you hear His voice of love from the cross?

Hark! The voice of love and mercy sounds aloud from Calvary

See, it rends the rocks asunder, shakes the earth and veils the sky

It is finished, it is finished, it is finished! Hear the dying Savior cry.

He settled our salvation once for all there on the cross. He bore our sins in his own body. It is because of our sins that the Father put him to grief (Isa. 53:10). He laid down His life for His sheep and thus secured our salvation there on the tree for each of us by name (John 10:3).

When you think of the resurrection accounts, what specifically do you think about? What comes to mind, the empty tomb and the grave clothes, the appearances on the unique first day of first days? Remember His words to Mary, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father." And Mary proclaimed, "I have seen the Lord, He has been raised from the dead, and he is ascending to the Father"--to our Father for he has confirmed his ownership of us as his brothers and sisters to welcome us into the household of God. Now in heaven He intercedes for us. He is our nourishment, our life in His humiliation and exaltation.

ESV 1 Corinthians 15:51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." ⁵⁵ "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

ESV Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. ³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

We cannot separate the person of Jesus and His work. We remember Him in terms of His work. And we are to do so with the special tint of the glass that is given by the nourishing ritual of bread and wine. Again, the place from where we see determines what we see. In a word, we are to see all the events in the light of the personal, sacrificial, and saving love of Christ as presented and symbolized in the elements and actions of the Lord’s Table. So here is the marvelous gospel cluster that is called to mind when we remember our Lord. His entire life is filled with love for you, to give you forgiveness of your sins, and thus to give you the glories of heaven forever. These thoughts overwhelm the soul with a sublime sense of peace and safety under the care of our risen Savior because He extends to us a welcome beyond compare.