under review

“What are people saying about me?”

Have you ever wondered what the answers to that question might be? There are times when we might want to know the answers, and others when we would rather live in blissful ignorance. The answers may change at different times. Sometimes the answers may be positive, encouraging, exciting. On other occasions they may be difficult to hear, awkward, even unpleasant.

I thought of this just now when I saw that a friend of mine had had a musical that he had written reviewed in a national paper. It was an encouraging review, which is good. I am glad that I am not subjected to such reviews of sermons each week. Most people probably can’t remember them by the time they get home, and a few may comment about them over Sunday lunch. But they don’t get reviewed in print and in public. In Charles Spurgeon’s day (Victorian England) his sermons were published in national newspapers each week! Thankfully that practice is not continued even in the local papers!

Jesus asked his friends the question with which I began this bloggage. Well, he may not have used those exact words, but the implication is the same.

In response he found out that many people thought he was a prophet – someone who speaks God’s words. That is good. He was speaking God’s words. Some people even identified him with some spiritual superheroes (albeit dead ones). That’s good too. They considered him to be a person of spiritual stature.

But that’s as far as it went.

Jesus then asked his friends what they thought. Simon, who was never shy about speaking his mind even when there was nothing in it, said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

He’d got it spot on. Even though his later actions showed he had not understood the full implications of that.

Who we believe Jesus to be will make all the difference in the world. And working it out is best done backwards. Start with the breakfast on the beach at the end of John 21, work back through the resurrection appearances, through the riddle of the empty tomb, into the darkness of his death, consider all he said and did, and then understand what his birth was all about.

If you do that, you may find you agree with Simon at the end of the process.

And because we are secure in who Jesus is, if we are his followers we can be secure in  who we are: regardless of what other people think of us we are loved by God and he calls us his children!

Be blessed, be a blessing.

A classic joke:

A preacher had led a service at a church he’d never visited before and at the end of the service was greeting people at the door. A man came up and said, “Terrible sermon.”

He left the preacher and walked off.

Five minutes later he was back: “I never thought you’d end.”

He left and returned five minutes later again: “I didn’t understand a word you said.”

The preacher was upset and went to see the Church Secretary. He told him what had happened and described this critic.

“Oh, you don’t want to worry about him,” said the Secretary, “He doesn’t have a mind of his own. He just goes around repeating what other people are saying.”