"What Is Jesus Good For?"

 

Jeremiah 17:5-10    Luke 6:17-26

 

      This is one of those weeks that I wish I was Harry Houdini or David Copperfield, someone who could do a magic trick.  Our readings remind us that there is a lot about life that is an illusion.  What you see is not always what you get.  Appearances can be deceiving.

 

      You may see a shrub that is green and healthy.  What you cannot see is that the shrub has no roots.  It a strong wind comes it will be blown away.   What looks to be strong and in good shape is actually close to death.

 

       Or, you can look at the strongest, most muscle bound person in the world.  He appears to be in great shape.  He has a beautiful home, a beautiful wife and drives a BMW on Monday and a Corvette on Tuesday.  You may think that there is a guy who has it made.  But, it may be a house made with cards, ready to tumble at the slightest breeze.  Why?   Because the word of God is not at the center of his life. 

 

       According to the Scriptures we have read, the happy or blessed person is the one who has the Lord at the center.  If the Lord is not at the center, no matter how promising a situation looks, it will eventually crumble and fall.  If the Lord is at the center, we could be knocked down by the strongest storm but it will not undo us. 

 

      It is also clear that we have a choice.  We can be like the healthy tree with a strong root system and plenty of nourishment or we can be like chaff that will disappear at the slightest setback.  We can center our lives in God or we can center them in some illusion that will finally fail us.  But whatever choice we make, whether we stand or whether we fall, it will be on God's terms, not ours.  We can choose to center our lives in the word of God or we can choose to ignore anything that has to do with God.  But be clear about this, there only once choice that leads to life in all it fullness.  Other choices have the appearance of doing well, but any other choice except God is an illusion, temporary, short term.

 

      Jesus makes it clear in the sermon on the plain, that if we choose to center our lives in him, what we can expect.  When someone borrows something from someone, they sometimes say, "You know I am good for it."  Jesus lets his disciples know what he is good for and what they should not expect from him.  He is not good for winning the lottery.  He is not good for helping someone eat surf and turf every night.  He is not good for magically getting us all A's on our report card. 

 

      What Jesus is good for is giving people a different perspective from which to view life.  For the people on the top of the world, he invites them to come down from the mountain and experience life down in the valley.  There are hurting people down there, people God cares about.  The view may not be as good, you may see things that make you cry, but it is real, it is no illusion.  You have a choice.  Reach out and help or continue to make believe the problems do not exist. 

 

       For the people down in the valley, look up.  Dream of things that you never dreamed of before, a time when you will be full and satisfied and joyous.  I promise you more than you ever had any reason to expect. I know it is difficult to believe now, but trust me.  These things will be yours. 

 

      We might add a new beatitude, blessed are those people who trust Jesus enough to see things in a new way, God will lead you to abundant life.

 

       Isn't that where we all want to go, the place God is trying to lead us to?  We have no desire to be sucked in by the ways of the world that lead nowhere.

 

       I have to be honest, I fell prey to the advertisers last week.  For a full week they kept running commercials on ESPN talking about rivalry week, especially the North Carolina/Duke game.  On Wednesday night I was all ready to watch and what happened, it was blacked out in our area.  That is what the world does, it builds you up falsely and then breaks your heart because it can never satisfy you.  It promises us the moon but has no way to deliver.  It offers us an illusion while God offers us the truth.

 

      And the truth is, if you want to be happy, center your life in my word, and that word is spoken in the person of Jesus.  When every illusion of the world has been unmasked for what it is, just an illusion, God's word will continue to bring new life. 

 

      When we center our lives in the truth of God, we realize that there is no one on earth more blessed than we are.