March 16, 2025
Have you ever been misidentified? Someone thought of you as something you weren’t? When I was younger, and a pastor, a few times a stranger stopped by church to drop something off, while talking with me said, “Oh, I didn’t know you were the pastor. I thought you were the office girl.” Or, when Kevin and I were co pastors, we were both pastors of a church, once a church member introduced a friend to me, and told her friend, “She’s the pastor’s wife.” Then she stopped and said, “Well, she’s our pastor too!” People were just getting used to female pastors. It was a challenge to identify who I was.
Maybe you experienced that a person doesn’t understand who you are, thinks of you as something else.
That definitely happens with Jesus. So often we think of Jesus as our savior. Which he is. But we stop there. We know he saves us from our sins, so we can go to heaven. Which is true. But he’s more than our Savior. In fact, as we are going through Lent, thinking of Jesus on his journey to the cross, we need to realize there’s another huge reason Jesus went to the cross. Yes, he went to cross to save us. But a big reason Jesus is crucified is because he is a king. When Jesus was crucified, they wrote on his cross, “King of the Jews,” to mock him. In the gospel of Mark, when the high priest asks Jesus if he is the Messiah, which means the Anointed one or King, Jesus says, “I am.” Although Jesus wasn’t like other kings–He didn’t have an army, didn’t fight battles or live in a palace, the authorities felt Jesus was a threat to the Roman Empire, and a threat to the Jewish religious leaders.
Jesus acted as one with authority, and he called people to follow him. He talked a lot about the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. Jesus was called Christ or Messiah, which means the anointed one, or King. The anointed one meant king, because to become king you get anointed with oil. More than 500 times in the New Testament, Jesus is called Christ or Messiah, meaning king. And 150 times in the New Testament Jesus is associated with a new kingdom. Jesus is called Savior in the New Testament only 35 times.
There’s more to Jesus than we might be led to think. There’s a danger if we just think of Jesus as the one who saves us. We should be glad he paid the price for our sins and gave us salvation. Maybe there was a difficult time in your life, when you felt lost, and experienced that Jesus saved you, and brought you out of it. Jesus is our Savior! But when life is fine, you might put Jesus Savior on a shelf. Jesus is great when you need to be saved from your sins, and when you need a hero. But most of the time you might feel, I can handle life on my own. I got this. I don’t need Jesus.
In the story today from the gospel of Luke, Jesus is sorrowful over people who claim to follow God but live in defiance of Him. Jesus is told that King Herod wants to kill him. Jesus calls Herod a fox, and says I won’t stop, I will continue doing what I’m doing, casting out demons, and finishing my course. Jesus says, a prophet only dies in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was a city of great religious power, and of the Jewish king. For centuries, there were prophets. A Prophet is a special person who would speak for God. A prophet would tell the people what God wants them to do. These prophets especially spoke to the King of Israel and Judah. The prophets would often get in trouble when they told the King what God wanted them to do, because earthly kings want power! Most of the time they do not want to listen to and follow God, they don’t want God’s prophet hanging around the palace, telling them God is angry at the evil they’re doing. So, some of the prophets end up thrown in a cistern, sawn in half, or killed by the sword. That’s why Jesus says a prophet only dies in Jerusalem.
What bothers Jesus about Jerusalem is not that the authorities there are going to kill him. Instead, Jesus laments, and is sad, that the powerful religious leaders of Jerusalem are defiant against God. Jesus says in Luke 13:34, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Jesus wishes he could be a mother hen and bring the religious leaders close to him. But they are not willing. They want to have power. They want to be in control. They don’t want to listen to Jesus.
Jesus is concerned about more than their salvation. He wants them to regard him as king, follow him, and let him guide them. Jesus teaches about God’s kingdom over and over. God’s kingdom is different from the kingdoms of the world. Instead of us trying to be king of the hill and get riches, Jesus says love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. If someone asks for your cloak, give them your cloak and your coat! People maybe had one spare set of clothes back then, so giving any of your clothes away was radically generous! That’s the kind of king Jesus was. He just wished the people plotting against him in Jerusalem were kingdom people, led by him, shaped by grace and moved by love.
People who claim they are followers of God but live in defiance of His authority isn’t a unique problem to 2000 years ago in Jerusalem. It’s true today. I know for myself, it is hard to make Jesus king, make him ruler of my finances, and ruler of how I treat others. I have trouble submitting to Jesus myself.
Jesus says, why worry about what you’ll eat and what you’ll wear? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and you’ll be taken care of, you’ll have enough to eat and clothes to wear. It is a challenge to give allegiance to King Jesus. But Jesus assures us it’s good for us! You’ll be blessed if you do.
Everybody has their thing they have to have a good supply of. Yours might be video games, or cars, or pairs of shoes. For me, it’s coats. We have a coat closet, which is full mostly of my coats. Ian has one winter coat, Kevin has two. The rest are mine. Kevin asks me, “Why do you have so many coats?” Well, I don’t want to be too cold, or too hot. I want the right coat for the occasion. Coats are important to me. Many years ago, I worked in a homeless shelter for single women and families. The shelter was collecting clothes so if a new resident came who didn’t have many clothes with them, they could pick out some things. I was thinking about that Bible verse where Jesus says if someone asks for your coat, give it to them. I had a white, fuzzy coat. It was not my favorite coat. I wore it sometimes but not a lot. I thought I should give it to the shelter. Although I hesitated, because I like my coats! But I gave the coat away. Then I happened to catch sight of a resident of the shelter trying it on, seeing how it fit. She took it! And it felt really good to give that coat away! There’s something in you and me that wants to tell Jesus: you’re not my boss. I want to keep all my stuff for me. I need to take care of me. But Jesus is our king. And he calls us to follow him, and seek first his kingdom, where we put others first and we put God first. It turns out, it’s a blessing and a great feeling when you do!
My homework for you this week is to think of a time when you helped someone else, and it felt great!
When we ask Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, it’s an important moment of salvation! But Jesus is more than your savior. He is Christ, the King, the Messiah. He wants you to be his follower, to be led by him, shaped by graced, and moved by Love. In a little while we will pray the prayer Jesus taught us to pray. We’ll say “God, your kingdom come, your will be done.” When we trust Jesus as our king and follow him, he blesses us with the best life! Amen.
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