Seeking the Savior (Rev. Dr. Charley Reeb)
20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. -John 12:20-22
If you could spend an evening hanging out with a celebrity, who would it be?
There is an online auction site called CharityBuzz that allows people to bid on exclusive experiences with world-famous celebrities. All the money raised goes to support various charities. You can bid on attending a movie premier with a famous actor, a round of golf with a PGA golfer, or a behind-the scenes tour of Conan O’Brien’s show with Conan himself as your tour guide.
What would you do if you actually got to meet your favorite celebrity face-to-face? Would you be calm and composed or would you blurt out something embarrassing?
We all hope we could stay calm and composed when meeting our favorite celebrity.
I’ll never forget the day I met Arnold Palmer. I had just finished playing Bay Hill, his home course and club near Orlando, Florida. I had been invited to play by a friend of mine who was a member.
I was sitting near the pro shop when I saw a golf cart dart around a corner and park in front of the pro shop. The King of Golf himself climbed out the golf cart and my jaw dropped. He walked right up the pro shop steps and when he saw me he said, “Good afternoon! Have you played the course yet?” “Uh, uh, yes.” “How were the greens? Fast?” “Uh huh, yes.”
Then he reached out to shake my hand with his baseball glove for a hand and said, “Well, thanks for playing Bay Hill. I hope you had a good time.” I finally gained my composure and told him how much I enjoyed the course and respected him. But I am sure I looked silly when he first approached me. I was virtually speechless. Can you imagine, me speechless? I had encountered the King of Golf!
In this morning’s scripture lesson, some men from Greece were seeking to meet the King of Kings, Jesus. I’m sure they were nervous about their potential encounter with him. When they met him, I wonder if they blurted out something embarrassing. If there had been cell phones in Jesus’ day, would they have asked to take a selfie with him?
We don’t know for sure. But we do know that the Greek culture of that time idolized philosophers and philosophies about the meaning of life. Of course, the irony is that these Greek men came to a Jewish Passover festival looking for a humble Jewish rabbi named Jesus. What were they really searching for?
Jesus was not a philosopher. No one would compare him to Plato or Aristotle. We have nothing that he wrote, and not much of what he said. He often spoke in parables and often used language that even a child could understand.
So why is it that, 2,000 years later, we still hang on to his every word? Why is it that hundreds of thousands of brilliant scholars and theologians have studied every syllable that was recorded of his teachings? Why is it that whole libraries of books have been written concerning his impact on human history?
It was not what he said. It was who he was. There is something about Jesus that has fascinated people of every generation since he walked the earth 2,000 years ago.
That is why those words spoken by some Greeks to the Philip in verse 21 still resonate with so many of us today: “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”
We want to see Jesus. That is part of why we are in worship today. We haven’t come to learn the latest political philosophy or to attend a concert. The hymns are comforting, the atmosphere is friendly, the prayers are helpful, but none of it matters if we can’t see Jesus.
That is the most sincere desire of our hearts. We want to see Jesus. We want to experience him for ourselves. A second-hand report is not enough. We long to be in his presence. We want to assure ourselves that he is real—that he is relevant—that he is resurrected. We, like Thomas, want to put our hands into his hands and feet and side. We want to know him as our Savior and Friend. Why? Why is it so important for us to see Jesus? Well, for the same reason the Greeks would looking for him – Because we feel empty. Something is missing in our lives.
We would like to see Jesus because something is missing in our lives.
There may have been a time when we felt fulfilled, but time and grief have taken their toll. There is something missing, so we would like to see Jesus.
Life can get so tedious and monotonous. As someone said once said, “The problem with life is that it is so daily.” For many of us, life feels like we are on a continual treadmill.
Most of us think treadmills are standard exercise equipment. But did you know that treadmills were originally invented as a form of punishment? Some of you are thinking, “Yeah, I can believe that.”
In Victorian England, treadmills were placed in prisons. Prisoners were forced to walk for hours each day on a treadmill as a form of mindless, meaningless punishment.
Many people suffer from such a deep sense of meaninglessness that their life feels like a treadmill. Constantly moving but going nowhere. Always busy but producing nothing. Something is missing in our lives. And this lack of meaning and fulfillment has taken its toll on us.
Some of us are just “life-tired.” That’s a new word that our German friends have coined. The German language often combines two words to make one new concept. And that’s what German speakers have done to create a word that literally translates as “life-tired.”
We are life-tired because something is missing in our lives. And there is nothing we can do, nothing we can buy, no earthly substitute that can fill that sense of longing.
This is why God is in that very feeling of emptiness that we have. It is the very sign of his presence. How? It reminds us that when we try to live without God nothing anywhere goes right. When life loses its center, it also loses its sense. It becomes meaningless, and life gets filled with futility and anxiety. This is God’s eternal hold on the human heart. We can’t get away from him. God will not let us get away.
Deep inside we know this, which is why we would like to see Jesus. We know that nothing else will satisfy our hearts. We know that nothing else will give us meaning and purpose. That’s why Peter said to Jesus in John 6, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life, eternal life.”
Like Peter we know that the only way we can find meaning, joy and vitality is in Jesus. We would like to see Jesus because we want the life that Christ brings.
I want you to really hear something profound that I heard many years ago and have never forgotten it: “Christianity is not a philosophy Jesus came to teach. It is a life Jesus came to impart.”
We need something to give our lives not only meaning, but also joy and purpose. We are empty, and we are bored. And because we are empty and bored, we have no vitality, no zest, no drive. There is an energy crisis in our lives, and it has nothing to do with oil or nuclear power. It has to do with that inner emptiness. We are restless.
Several years ago, one of the most peculiar events in history occurred near Los Angeles. Larry Walters bought 45 weather balloons and strapped himself to a lawn chair. Some friends filled the balloons with helium and tied them to his chair. Larry took along a six pack of Beer and a sandwich. He also brought along a BB gun to shoot the balloons when he was ready to land.
He assumed the balloons would lift him about a hundred feet in the air. But when he soared to over 11,000 feet, he was too scared to shoot the balloons. He stayed airborne for more than two hours, forcing L.A. national airport to shut down for much of the afternoon.
He made it safely back to the ground and after the police were finished with him, reporters swarmed around him to ask him THE question everyone was asking: “Why? Why did you do it Larry?”
His reply: “Because you can’t just sit there.”
Paul Tillich said that “God is present in the force that makes us restless.”
It’s true. God created us for a purpose to live with a purpose. And when we lose sight of that, when we miss it, we get restless and will do anything to satisfy it. Larry the flying lawn chair Walters knew that! Our hearts are restless and aimless without God.
Did you know the very first Christian sermon ever preached on this planet had to do with this very thing? On the day of Pentecost Peter stood up and proclaimed that Christ is the center and Savior of life. He urged his listeners to put their trust in Jesus and save themselves from this “untoward” generation.
“Untoward is an unusual word. We don’t use it very often. It means “Not going toward anything.” Running around in circles. Not moving toward a purpose. Going nowhere. It is a very unhealthy place to be.
I learned this lesson when I donated blood earlier this week. If you have ever given blood you know they use very big needles. I always assumed they did it so the blood will flow out quicker and we don’t have to sit there for hours. That’s true but there is an even more important reason why they use big needles – so the blood we are giving doesn’t die. My nurse told me that the large needle allows our blood to move quickly and continuously. The blood has to keep moving or the life giving components of the blood will die.
This is not only true for our blood. It is also true for our very soul! Unless we are continually moving towards a purpose, we as humans die inside too!
This is what the salvation process is all about. Jesus saves us from scattered, restless, aimless living. “Salvation” literally means making whole that which is split. God takes our restless scattered energy and links it with his creative power in the world. It is then we find wholeness and peace.
We would like to see Jesus because we want the peace that Christ brings.
Preacher and author O.S. Hawkins tells the story of a rich merchant who searched the Mediterranean region for the apostle Paul. He ran into Paul’s colleague Timothy, who arranged for the merchant to visit the apostle while he was being held as a prisoner in Rome. Entering the jail cell, the merchant was surprised to find Paul looking old and physically spent. And yet, Paul had a sense of deep inner peace, and they talked for hours.
After the visit, the merchant asked Timothy, “What is the key to Paul’s power?” He had never seen anything like it. “Paul is in love,” said Timothy. “In love?” asked the merchant. “Yes,” Timothy answered, “Paul is in love with Jesus Christ.” The man looked even more confused. “Is that all?” he asked. With a smile, Timothy answered, “Ah, but that is everything.” It is everything. Loving and following Jesus will give us the peace and purpose we crave…
I have a minister friend who remembers being the guest preacher at a church when he witnessed a van filled with youth pull in to the church parking lot. He watched as they all filed out of the van. There were about a dozen of them between the ages of 13 and 18, and they looked terrible. They had on wrinkled clothes and were holding on to sleeping bags. They were exhausted. Completely worn out. They had just returned from a mission trip, helping to build a church for a small community.
They were sitting on their sleeping bags waiting for their parents to come pick them up when my friend asked one of them, “Are you tired?” The boy said, “Man, am I tired!” Then he said, “This is the best tired I have ever been.” This is what joy is. This is what true peace is.
When you follow Jesus and serve him, you experience the best tired there is. You have poured out your life and gifts for the King of Kings. I hope we all can experience the best tired there is. In your Bible, it is called joy. We would like to see Jesus to find that peace and joy.
So, how do we see Jesus exactly? If you are searching for Jesus today to find what is missing your life, to find purpose and experience peace, where can he be found? Oh, he’s already here. He has never left your side. But to encounter him you must offer your own faith and trust in him. You must see him with your own eyes, not the eyes of your mother or father, or your Sunday school teacher or pastor. You must see him.
William Gibson wrote the book Mass for the Dead to honor his parents and their devotion to their children. In the book, Gibson tells how he grieved his mother and wanted so badly to understand the secret of her faith, which strengthened her in life and gave her peace and courage to face her death.
So he took his mother’s gold-rimmed glasses and faded prayer book and sat in her favorite chair. He opened the prayer book because he wanted to hear what she had heard. He put on her glasses because he wanted to see what she had seen. He sat in her place of prayer and devotion because he wanted to feel what she had felt. He wanted to experience what had so deeply centered and empowered her. Nothing happened though. It did not work. Why? He needed a faith of his own—not his mother’s faith.
William Gibson needed to see Jesus. That’s what he was missing. It wasn’t the chair or the prayer book or the glasses that shaped his mother’s character or brought her such peace. It was her relationship with Jesus. Gibson’s mother saw Jesus, and that truth shone from her life in such a way that it caused her son to crave that same experience.
Find the time and go to a place of quiet and solitude and by faith encounter Jesus. He will be there. The only thing that prevents us from seeing him is the noise and distractions that crowd him out.
We mutter, we sputter; We fume and we spurt,
We mumble and grumble; Our feelings get hurt.
We can’t understand things — Our vision gets dim,
When all that we need is a moment with him.
—Corrie Ten Boom, Each New Day