Lifted Up to Wholeness (Matthew 17:1-9)

I read an article this week by Disciples preacher extraordinaire Fred Craddock in which he points out three times in Matthew’s gospel that Jesus comes to his disciples, appearing to be something more than human.  There are many times when people come to Jesus, reach out to him, and receive healing or forgiveness or some other manifestation of divine power.  But there are exactly three times when Jesus himself is doing the reaching out, three times when the divine power within him is made especially apparent.

The first is when the disciples were sailing across the Sea of Galilee in the wee hours of the night. When they started out, the stars were shining and the water was calm.  In a day before electricity, all was black except for the stars that shone above them as well as the stars that shone below them, in the reflection of the sea.

But then the wind picked up and the waves grew large, and the little boat carrying the twelve disciples – way out in the middle of the sea – was tossed and battered.  The disciples tried going to shore, but the wind was against them, and all night long they battled against it.

While it was still dark, before the sun started to brighten the eastern sky, Jesus came walking toward the disciples on the sea.  No mere human could do that, and the disciples were terrified.  They thought maybe it was a ghost.  They hadn’t noticed this side of Jesus before, and they cried out in fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart.  It is I.  Do not be afraid.”

And then Peter said, “If it is you, command me to come walk on the water with you.”  And Peter got out of the boat and started walking on the waves.  But fear overcame him, and he began to sink, until Jesus reached out to him and took him by the hand.

The second appearance of Jesus’s divine glory comes in the scripture Ginger read for us.  Since we just heard it, I won’t repeat the story.  But I will point out that, after Jesus’s divine appearance on the mountaintop; after the disciples Peter, James, and John heard the voice booming from heaven, saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”;  after that, the disciples fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.

But Jesus came, reached out to them, and said, “Get up.  Do not be afraid.”

The third appearance of Jesus’s divine glory comes on the third day after he was killed.  The days following Jesus’s crucifixion were days of great fear for the disciples.  When Jesus appeared to them, they were overwhelmed, and they prostrated themselves in worship.  They had not done this before.  Yet even as they worshiped, some doubted.  Some  - perhaps all of them – were filled with fear.

There, Jesus gave them a commission.  He told them to carry on, to get up off the ground, they had work to do.  Death cannot stop a movement so powerful and so holy.  And Jesus assured them that he would be with them, to the end of the age.

In each of these three scenes, we see the divinity of Jesus.  Or, some would say, we see a Jesus that is more fully human, a fully awakened or enlightened being, a new type of human, a human that has reached the full potential of what humanity is capable of.

That’s what is meant by the phrase, “son of man.”  A new, fully developed, fully awakened human; a human that recognizes and understands the connection one has with the divine.  This one-ness with God is something that every human is capable of.  We were, after all, created in God’s very image.  That divine spark is in each of us. 

It is Jesus who realizes this.  It is Jesus who shows us this.  It is Jesus who, alone, fully lived out his identity as one-with-God. 

Buddhists recognize this in Buddha, who they believed also achieved oneness-with-God, although they would say oneness-with-all-that-is.  Buddha is the enlightened one, but every practitioner of Buddhism is also a “little Buddha.”  Every practitioner of Buddhism can also be enlightened, can also experience that oneness, that same level of awakening. 

For we who are followers of Christ, we see the oneness-with-God that Jesus exemplifies, and every day we learn that we, too, can strive to be one with God, that we can be “little-Christs,” which is, in fact, what the word “Christian” means.  To be a Christian is to be a “little Christ.”  It is to live in oneness – in unity – with God.

In each of these three stories, in which Jesus appears more fully human, manifesting a oneness with God, I notice something:  the reaction of those with Jesus.

Fear.

Jesus comes walking on the water, and those who saw it were terrified.

Jesus is transfigured on top of the mountain, and those who saw it were terrified.

Jesus appears, alive, three days after his crucifixion, and those who see him fall on the ground in awe, with confusion and – I’m sure – a great deal of fear.

For the disciples, it seems that seeing what is humanly possible for the one who gives himself completely to God is frightening.  It’s overwhelming.

Yet, each time, Jesus reaches out to them.

Each time, Jesus calms their fears.

“Do not fear.  I am with you.”

Didn’t that also happen at the announcement of his birth?  It wasn’t Jesus’s appearance, then, but the appearance of angels and the glory of God to shepherds in the field that caused great fear.  But the word of the angels to those shepherds in the field was:  “do not fear.”

It seems to me that this message – “do not fear” – is a vitally important part of the gospel.

There is something else about these three appearances of Jesus-as-one-with-God, this divine Jesus, this fully-human Jesus.  Each time, when Jesus offers words of comfort and assurance, he also reaches out and lifts up those who were cowering, bent over, in fear.  He lifts them up.  He helps them stand.

He lifted Peter up out of the water in which Peter was sinking.

He reached out and touched the disciples who had fallen to the ground in fear after seeing him transfigured on the mountaintop, and said not only “do not fear,” but also, “get up.”

Get up.

And to those who prostrated themselves in worship upon seeing his resurrection appearance, he called upon them to get up and go to all the nations. 

Each time, when Jesus saw his disciples on the ground cowering in fear, he lifted them up.  He helped them stand. 

I have probably disappointed some people over the years, who expect their preacher to throw a little fire and brimstone around every now and again. 

I just can’t do that.

Preaching about fire and brimstone is preaching that pushes people down to the ground in fear.

To me, that seems so contrary to everything I know about Jesus.

Jesus doesn’t push people down to the ground.  Jesus doesn’t instill fear in people.

Jesus removes the fear.  Jesus lifts people up.

He lifts people up to wholeness.

To wholeness.

The word “wholeness” is one that I’ve been using a lot lately.

It started almost six years ago, when I attended a conference in Chicago for pastors of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  There, our General Minister, Sharon Watkins, introduced to us a new identity statement for the denomination.

She was really excited to share it with us. She told us how, when she first heard it, it reminded her of a scene in the movie We Are Marshall, when everyone starts chanting:  “We are … Marshall!  We are… Marshall!”  The emotional punch of that scene is enough to give you chills.

Well, General Minister Watkins said she got chills when she first heard the identity statement that the committee came up with, and she thought of this movie scene when she heard, “We are… Disciples of Christ!”

Her enthusiasm was contagious, and I’ve been in love with the identity statement ever since.

Say it with me:

“We are Disciples of Christ, a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.  As part of the one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord’s Table, as God has welcomed us.”

We are a movement for wholeness.

A movement for wholeness doesn’t push people down to the ground.  It lifts people up.

A movement for wholeness doesn’t instill fear in people.  It calms their fears.

A movement for wholeness doesn’t make people feel like they are less than human.  God knows there’s enough of that in the world as it is.  By contrast, a movement for wholeness makes people feel fully human.  More than human.  One with God.

I’ve shared with you before that the word “wholeness” comes from the Greek word sozo.  Sozo is a word that is used a lot in the New Testament.

It is sometimes translated as saved or salvation.

It is sometimes translated as healed.

It is sometimes translated as well or wellness.

And sometimes, it is translated as whole, or wholeness.

Whenever Jesus says “You have been healed, you have been saved, your faith has saved you, you have been made well…”  that’s sozo.

That’s wholeness.

And sozo is something that is available to you right now.  Healing, wholeness, salvation… right now.

Fire-and-brimstone preaching says that healing, wholeness, and salvation are available to you after you die… if you live in fear and trembling now, and do what the preacher tells you to do.

Yet Jesus restored people to wholeness now.  In the present.  He freed people from fear.  He freed them from sin.  He freed them from illness, oppression, bigotry, discrimination – whatever kept them from living life fully.

You are created whole.  Sozo is available to you, right now.  You may have arthritis or diabetes or bad eyesight.  You may have a disability or a disorder or two.  You may think you are too young, or too old.  You may have been bullied or discriminated against.

But God has made you whole.

God has made you complete.

God has made you fully capable of being fully human, of living to your fullest potential, of witnessing to the Spirit of God that dwells within you.

You don’t need to wait to upgrade your faith to version 2.0.

You don’t need to wait until you get your life in order. 

You don’t need to wait until you finish one more class, or get that next promotion, or find that perfect lover.

You are whole and complete now, just as you are.

Because you are one with God.

Over the next five weeks, my sermons will focus on wholeness.  Each week will focus on a different aspect of wholeness.  We’ll discover how we can find wholeness in our lives.  So keep coming to worship, and invite friends.  Remember: it’s not about pushing people to the ground.  It’s about lifting people up.  Lifting them up to wholeness.