I’ve got some great news this morning! I pulled a few strings, and I have been able to arrange a little football game. Lord of Love will put together a team and we will play against…are you ready? The world-champion Kansas City Chiefs! Who wants in?
In order to understand and apply our text, we need to understand an ancient custom. Long ago, a person might show deep sorrow or anger by grabbing hold of their robe, or whatever garment they were wearing, and tearing it. We have many examples of this in the Bible. We mention only a couple. When Joseph’s brothers presented Joseph’s blood-stained coat of many colors to their father and told him the lie that Joseph must have been killed by a wild animal, Jacob grabbed his robe and tore it. He was devastated!
Most of you are likely familiar with this picture. This is a rather famous painting of Jesus. It was painted in 1940 by an American artist named Warner Sallman. For many Christians, if you told them to picture Jesus in their minds, they would immediately think of this painting. The truth of the matter is, we don’t know at all what Jesus looked like. The Bible contains no physical description of Jesus. He may not look anything like this painting!
What were Adam and Eve’s physical capabilities before the Fall into sin? It’s an intriguing question. What was the human body capable of before sin? Theories abound. There is one theory that holds that before the Fall into sin our world had a hyperbaric atmosphere. That means the air pressure would have been higher. This would mean that Adam would have had super-oxygenated blood. One result of this would be that Adam could have run great distances without getting tired. That is only speculation! But it is fun to think about. Wouldn’t it be fun to run and run and run and never get winded?
Have you ever left church stunned and amazed? Once when I was a kid a man had a massive heart attack right during the service. I left church sort of stunned and dazed that day. I suppose there are some here who might remember being in church when a beloved pastor announced that he was accepting a Call to serve another congregation, or that he is retiring. That can be sort of stunning. But have you ever left church stunned and amazed by Jesus?
Paul was nuts! That’s what some people thought. The miles he traveled around the northern Mediterranean countries, the zeal, the focus, the determination with which he proclaimed the kingdom of God, the sufferings he endured. Who does that? “He’s not right!” That was the conclusion of some. Paul addresses this in the verse before our text. He wrote, If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God. (2 Corinthians 5:13)
I want to call attention to a feature of our text this morning that we won’t want to miss. Maybe you detected it already. But there is a “thread” that runs through this section of Scripture. It is this idea of “seeing.” Philip says to Nathanael, Come and see (v. 46). Jesus sees Nathanael coming and says, Behold! (v. 47). “Behold” means “look at this!” Nathanael is coming to see Jesus but Jesus flips the script and tells Nathanael that he already saw him when he was sitting under the sycamore tree.
An interesting study could be made of this: unexpected places we find the Son of God. It might begin with what we just celebrated. Who would ever expect to find the Son of God in the womb of a Galiean virgin? Who would ever expect to find the Son of God wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger? But the study would not end there. It would expand to include the early life of Jesus. Who would ever expect the Son of God to be a villager in Nazareth?
Do you have a “bucket list”? You know what a “bucket list” is, right? A “bucket list” are those things a person wants to do before they “kick the bucket.” Maybe on a person’s list would be seeing a Packers’ game at Lambeau Field or going skydiving or seeing the Grand Canyon.
There is a hymn we sometimes sing at Christmas called “Of the Father’s Love Begotten.” It is one of the older Christmas hymns in existence. It dates from the 1200’s. Long before people were singing “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” they were singing this hymn. The tune of the hymn is called “Divinum mysterium.” That is Latin. It means “divine mystery.” That is the way the coming of Jesus was described.
