Study 24: December 11th - 17th 2006

Readings from the Gospel of John
Reading – John Chapter Ch 4:25.

“The woman said to Jesus, “I know that the Messiah will come, and when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus answered, I am he, I who am talking to you.” (John Chapter 4 verse 25 Today’s English Version)

I recall a conversation with a golf professional that was mates with Greg Norman when he was just starting out in his career. He said that well before he achieved it, Greg said he would become the number one player in the world. Greg went on to achieve this when the golf rankings were established in the 1970’s. Greg had natural ability, self-belief, hunger, perseverance, talent and confidence that made him a champion. He also was true to his word.

There are many people who claim to be special. Muhammad Ali said he was the greatest, other have claimed to be the re-incarnation of Christ or some God like Baha in the religion Baha’ism. If anyone claims to be God or his representative today, we would meet this with some degree of scepticism.

Yet this is just what Jesus claimed for himself 2000 years ago when he called himself the Messiah. The word Messiah or Christ means to be “anointed” one who comes with God’s authority and represents God. In the history of Israel, it came to mean one who would come to bring God’s rule and establish it forever. There were many other titles given to this special person called the Son of God, King, Prophet, God, Priest and Jesus came to suggest he fulfilled them all.

It is natural that we meet this with the same degree of scepticism as many do today. Someone has rightly suggested that Jesus is; either who he claims to be or a madman, a deceiver, someone we should avoid at all costs. I agree these are the only 2 options open to us when it comes to the witness of those experienced Jesus’ life and wrote about him.

For someone to claim to be God seems to us to be beyond credibility, but what we should do is to assess each case on its own merits. When we do, the case to dismiss all others is quite simple, but not with Jesus.

Jesus has history on his side; he is not just a passing fad. Millions of people from all the nations of the world have come to believe in him. We recall our time and years from his birth. Jesus has risen above the various cultures to find a place in people’s hearts among the rich and poor, all political persuasions, black and white and any other human division we set up. Jesus has credibility in terms of being mentioned in Roman and Jewish history as one who made an impression on those he was with, even though they did not believe him to be the Messiah.
The people who followed Jesus and believed in him were prepared to give their lives for him. In terms of the bible that records his life there is no other ancient document that has such an impressive history of credibility or numbers of copies of ancient manuscripts.

There are countless lives of people who have been helped by believing in him and who have gone on to serve the world with compassion and kindness. There is no other teaching on life more widely known and embraced in all religions than the kind of ethics and values that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount. What you find is that when you put Jesus under the microscope, he has credibility and can not easily be discarded as someone crazy.
When we are willing to open ourselves to the truth of Jesus, a light begins to dawn as we see life from another perspective, God’s perspective.

In our reading from John Chapter 4, Jesus says to the woman that he is the Messiah, God’s anointed one who has come to tell her of God’s new way of life. He will demonstrate this to her by telling her things about her personal life. Open your life to Jesus and he will show you he is the Messiah.