Why So Much Drama?
Nathan Adams · Tidal Church Moncton · September 11, 2022 · The Social Distance series
Nathan Adams looks at the crowds, leaders and rulers who turned against Jesus at His crucifixion, drawing on René Girard's insights. He shows how offense fuels drama in our relationships, and how Christ's forgiveness frees us from it, leading into communion.
More from Nathan Adams · The The Social Distance series
Topics: Forgiveness, Relationships, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:27] There was a man who lived at the base of a great mountain. He had been born in a cabin on his slopes, the same one that his grandmother had been born into. As a kid, he had run all the forest paths. As a teenager, he'd taken his chances ascending to the heights. And as a man, he had earned his living in the area around that mountain. He knew that mountain so deeply, it was almost like the years had etched it into his face with those squint lines around his eyes. And he loved that mountain. Things were changing, though, around the mountain. Too many people had watched Alaska survival shows and wanted to move to the middle of nowhere and start again.
[1:23] Adventure tourists were coming, and worst of all, a mine had set up on the opposite side of the mountain. And so this man of the mountain armed himself with indignation against all the outsiders. And he tried to rally others like him to fight for the soul of this mountain. One day in the winter, as he was traveling, a really incredible storm hit him, and he had to take refuge at a restaurant where he was stuck for two days, and wouldn't you know what, some of these outsiders, some adventure tourists, were there. But it's kind of funny what happens if you have enough time and you pour enough cups of coffee, the barrier started to come down.
[2:09] And before you know it, they were laughing. And he could see the soul, the beauty of the soul of these people, and they could see him. And then these outsiders said, why don't you come with us? We're going to the top of the mountain. Well, he'd been to the top of the mountain, but never in winter. But they said, we have the gear, we have the right clothes, we have extra. Come with us. And so he went to the top of the mountain in the winter, and the dazzling expanse of what he saw touched him like the first time he'd been to the top. As winter turned to spring, the man on the mountain turned into a social animal. He decided to connect with every outsider he possibly could. Before you know it, he was under the mountain with spelunkers, finding caverns and dark lakes and forests of stalactites and stalagmites, filling him with wonder. He was scaling sheer faces of rock with the right equipment, and one day he scared his wife to death because he had leaped off the top of the mountain on a hang glider and went right over their house.
[3:20] But he got her in a helicopter with him. Next thing you know, we and they got up as high as where the air starts to get thin and saw the mountain from a new perspective. One day an outsider came along, and he was a First Nations person, and he explained that there was a history to the mountain that he didn't even know about, and he explained that his people had lived on this mountain and what it meant, and he started sharing his way of looking at things. And even though it wasn't exactly the way the man on the mountain thought about things, he started to feel more connected to the mountain, more reverent almost. And then there was this guy that came along, skinny fella jumping around. He was a geologist. He was trying to explain how the forces of magma and tectonic plates had driven everything up to make this giant peak, and it was so interesting that the man of the mountain said, I wonder what was born by those forces. Maybe I should go check and see what they're pulling out of the mountain in the mine. And of course, he cursed that mine many times, but down the shafts he went on a tour.
[4:26] And there they even showed him some of the precious gems that they were pulling out of that mountain that had been formed by the incredible pressures that were there. And his eyes widened. You see, the man of the mountain had borrowed the eyes of outsiders. And now he had seen this mountain he loved in new ways, and he didn't think it was going to be possible, but he actually loved the mountain more than he ever had before. The mountain, obviously, is Jesus. And if you can be born on a Jesus mountain, I think I was, and some of you were. I was raised in it. I've spent half my adult life being a minister of this gospel, most recently from 2016 to 2020 as one of your staff pastors.
[5:21] But I had a couple years away. I had, guess how many postal codes I had in the last two years. Well, that's nice. No, six. Six postal codes. I should have just bought shares in U- Haul or something. Six postal codes, but you know, every time you change locations you get a new perspective, a new rhythm of life, and you see things a little bit differently. We went out to the dreaded Montreal. Don't get stuck there, is what we always say around here. Maybe you should get stuck there. It was fantastic, great food. They actually are very kind to English speakers. It was a wonderful experience, and I went to McGill to work on the first two years of five of my PhD in theology.
[6:07] And you know, I was told there was all kinds of secular, ideologically motivated people at McGill, and they certainly were, but I was shocked at how God was working in individuals' lives and professors' lives, and this wasn't a wasteland. God was at work, and He was showing me some things that I could not have seen had I not been pulled out of my environment. And so now, as my family has moved back here and I'm going to finish my education, I was surprised that Pastor Joel felt called to go somewhere else, and then I was really surprised when they asked me to come and help do some of the preaching for the fall here, and I thought, the labor shortage must be real if they're asking this guy.
[6:55] But I just prayed, okay, God, what would You want me to share? And I felt He wanted me to share some new perspectives. Met with Pastor Jim, your interim lead pastor. He had the same vision, and Jim and I didn't really know each other that well, hadn't talked much, had the staff pastors sit around and just say, what has God been putting on your heart? It all fit with this vision. So I'm hopeful that God has a plan and has something to tell us during this time. I want you to imagine that the Holy Spirit is this giant river that wants to be poured into your life.
[7:44] And when we say, well, we're going to be filled with the Holy Spirit, we often honestly think of ourselves like a container, maybe a nice swimming pool, and the Holy Spirit will fill us, and we can kind of float around and enjoy that. No, when He says He will fill us, He will fill us like an empty river bed. And the almighty, omnipotent, uncontainable God will flow through our lives. But let me ask you a question. The man on the mountain, when did he get his new vision? He got his new vision when he began to connect with outsiders, with people that were different than Him. And so what if the Holy Spirit wants to flow through us to connect to people, but we're so distant from them? We can't make the connection.
[8:36] This series that we're going to do on The Social Distance is not a critique of anything to do with COVID. It is an acknowledgment of the reality that we work from home more often than not now. We have different opinions on what to do with the situation or what should have been done, and we're kind of angry at each other. The fact that families have literally not been able to get together sometimes, and ruptures have occurred, relationships have broken down, and we feel this social distance. So we want to work on that together as a church over the next few weeks, so we can bridge that distance and maybe even God can flow through us and use us as witnesses.
[9:23] But I felt like God was telling me we need to start not with the people that are far from us, but the people that are close to us. How many of you would say that in your family and social relationships there's a lot of drama? Drama, that's a great current word right now, but it's quite descriptive. People can't get along. And so, as part of the answer to this drama, I'd like us to see if we can get a new perspective on Jesus. It comes from a book I read, of course, by a sociologist, of all things. Now, before you get too upset with me, remember the geologists jumping around and the man on the mountain saw something new. This French sociologist, René Girard, in his book I Saw Satan Fall Like Lightning, decided to look at the story of Jesus and His crucifixion from a sociological perspective, and I'm not even sure if this guy's a believer or not.
[10:27] He comes in as a social scientist to look at it. And what he noticed most of all was the statements that kept occurring in the Gospels regarding offense. So the first one, Jesus said, "Blessed is the person who doesn't take offense at this." He says, "Do you take offense at Me?" And of course, eventually, and so they took offense at Him. Offense. The older I get, the more I find a temptation to take offenses and keep piling them up. They're like, there's some kind of collectible that will get more valuable if I hold on to them longer. And younger people, some of you have been primed to be activists, empowered by the offense.
[11:19] So whatever your age, offense is waiting to grab a hold of you. For Jesus, He ministered for three years with the people, loving and healing them, but in the most strange way, one group after another slowly took offense at Jesus. The first group to take offense at Jesus were the Pharisees. They were highly committed religious conservatives. And if you were to look at them and their profile, you would actually find that Jesus was kind of closer to a Pharisee than anything else on the surface. But Jesus spoke to the Pharisees and said, "You guys really try hard to be good outwardly, but your hearts are still full of sin."
[12:08] They didn't like that. And He said, by the way, "I can help you. I can forgive sins like only God can," and they got offended because that didn't sound right. So instead of coming to the One that could have cured their heart and recognizing who He really was, they took offense at Jesus. The second group to take offense at Jesus were the ordinary crowds, a lot of them quite poor. At first the crowds flocked to Jesus. There's story after story in the Gospels, and by the way, in extrabiblical literature, that Jesus healed people. He would take a whole crowd of people and heal every sick person in the crowd, or heal many of them, and then when He spoke, He spoke to them in a way they had never heard before.
[12:59] "No one has ever spoken like this," they said. But then Jesus asked for too much. He said, "I need you to literally give me your life. Give me your life." We say it so glibly. He said it in a way that was revolutionary at the time. And so the people took offense at Him, and the poor, common people actually aligned themselves with the Pharisees, who kind of look down on them usually, and they said, "You know what? Let's put our differences aside, because this guy is really ticked us all off." And then there were the Sadducees. The Sadducees were centered in Jerusalem. Many of them were priests. They were used to being in positions of power and authority.
[13:47] One of the things, though, that was different about them and the Pharisees is they didn't believe in a physical resurrection. Perhaps they believed in a soul resurrection or something. And so they challenged Jesus, "How can you believe such fairy tale nonsense?" And Jesus said, obviously, "You neither know the Scriptures nor the power of God, if you would say such a thing." And guess what the Pharisees, what the Sadducees did. They took offense at Jesus. How dare He act like He has more authority than they do. And so these groups said we need to do away with Jesus, but they couldn't do it yet because there was another wide sector of the population, a lot of them centered in Jerusalem, that were religiously and politically excited about Jesus. They said, "This can be the new king. This could be the Messiah who could overthrow the Romans." And so when Jesus comes into Jerusalem just one week before His crucifixion, the crowd is saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," and they're waving things around and throwing down coats in front of Him, rolling out the red carpet from their own clothing, basically.
[15:01] But a week later they see that King has allowed Himself to be arrested and disrespected, and that crowd no longer sees the king they want in that Jesus. And at that moment all the groups come together, and they say, "Crucify this man." How do you get to a spot like that? By offense. And the only thing standing between Jesus and this crowd that had thoroughly turned against Him was the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, and so Pilate looked at the situation and did what all government officials do. They say, "That's not my department."
[15:47] No offense to our wonderful civil service. And he shuffled Him off to King Herod, because Pilate had the area around Jerusalem, Herod had the area in the north around Galilee, and Herod just happened to be in Jerusalem visiting. Send Him to Herod. You didn't like Herod. No one liked Herod. He was kind of a small-time ruler, half Jewish guy who'd compromise with the Romans. No one likes a person like that. But Pilate shuffled Him off to Herod, and Herod sees Jesus, and he's excited. He goes, "This is the miracle worker. Maybe He's gonna do something for me right now." But Jesus comes in and it's just silent before Herod. And in that silence, I can't imagine Herod's conscience wasn't reminding him that he had put to death John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin, for calling out Herod's own sins.
[16:44] And so Herod, with his soldiers, treated Jesus with contempt and mocked Him. They arrayed Him in splendid clothing, and He sent Jesus back to Pilate. And check this out. Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, because before they had been hating on each other, as what, how I would translate that, group. Do you see how it works? You get a group or person that doesn't like another group or a person, they have a fence between them. But the solution is, find something that you're both more offended at than you're offended at each other. And that's how we'll resolve our relationship.
[17:34] So Pilate now has Jesus back. And he says to the Jews, "Behold your king." And they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said then to them, "Shall I crucify your king?" The chief priests answered him, "We have no king but Caesar." Guys, that's the most ridiculous statement, sociologically and historically, that you will find in the entire Bible. Forty years after this, every Jew in the country to revolt against the Romans, they fought.
[18:26] Their hate was so strong at that moment, and it escalated to such a point that they would say, "We have no king but Caesar." And then Pilate. Is he any less guilty for passively letting them crucify Him? No. He's just a politician with offense. And we can do the same thing when we let innocent people be the target of offense. So Jesus is now crucified. The entire crowd is spewing out venom and hatred. That is disgusting. Unless you think it's because they were not as good as we are because they were Jewish or Roman. They were better than we are, the most developed people in the world, and the most law-abiding, lawmaking people in the world have come together to heap it all on Jesus.
[19:26] And Jesus, as He hangs on the cross dying for the sins of the whole world, prays, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing." The solution to the social sins in our lives is not to keep on taking offense. It is forgiveness. I am not saying that there are not relationships that are maybe unsafe for you in certain times. I'm not saying you can fix every broken relationship. It does take two. In fact, it takes three.
[20:15] And I'm not saying that there're not issues in this world that are right and wrong, we should just forget about it and get along. That all would be an oversimplification, and I cannot address all those complexities in a little sermon. But what I can tell us today, myself included, is the spirit of offense that drives it all has to be expelled. It should have no place here. These three slides that I'd like to share with you.
[21:03] I just want them to roll silently for a moment. If you are visually impaired, please, someone near to them, whisper what this says. In a quiet moment, let us listen.
[22:05] Right here, right now, Almighty God, we ask for the forgiveness of Jesus Christ to flow. We pray that like the blood of Christ dripping off that cross, that Your grace and comfort will come down now and wash away bitterness. We cast out Satan in Jesus' name, and we take out this barrier of offense, and we ask You to take it away now. Come, Holy Spirit, in this quiet and holy moment. I invite the ushers to come forward now so that we can distribute the elements for communion.
[22:50] This is what it looks like. Two cups within each other, the bottom one holds a little piece of unleavened bread, and the top has juice. Let us read together. On the night when He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then He broke it in pieces and said, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." The broken body. In the same way, He took the cup of wine after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant between God and His people, an agreement confirmed in my blood.
[23:38] Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it." And then the Scripture continues to a part we don't often read. "So anyone who eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That's why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup." As the ushers now distribute the elements, I encourage you not to use this time to look around, I guess other than at the offering, at the tray when it comes down your row. Not to talk. It's a time for self-examination.
[24:26] If you have received the forgiveness from Christ and you seek to follow Him, you can take these elements. If you've not done that, you shouldn't take them, unless at this moment God has been bringing you to a place where you're ready to receive Christ. And I don't think it's because of any one little sermon or anything like that, because God's been at work in your life. And maybe today it's time. So I want to give you that opportunity. Would you pray with me? Jesus, I thank You for dying and rising again for me, a sinner. Pray after me: Jesus, I thank You for dying and rising again for me, a sinner. I confess my sins to You and turn away from them.
[25:16] I receive forgiveness and eternal life, and I invite You to come fill me spiritually so that You can empower me to follow You for the rest of my life. Amen. And this will be your first communion. For everyone else here today, I have one question for you: Is there a spirit of offense in me? You see, guys, offense redirects us away from the real problem. Right here.
[26:03] What do you do when you're a dysfunctional person in a dysfunctional family? We don't deal with our dysfunction. We usually pick someone in the family that's slightly more dysfunctional, and we point at them. And what do you do? When you get all these people from dysfunctional families and you put them in a workplace or school environment and things are really difficult, what do you do? Yeah, pick something to complain about. The boss, the union, the management, the teacher, whatever. Target. And what do we do in a society full of dysfunctional people who have been pointing the finger? We form into parties. We get on Facebook and those social media and we just target each other. We call each other dumb, and we escalate to the point where there is no social connection.
[26:54] And that is Satan's great strategy. If you want to have dysfunctional relationships that limp along for the rest of your life, keep building offense. But if you want to be free, then offer forgiveness. Don't be like the ones around the cross. You know, if Jesus took all the sins of the world upon Himself, is that the things that we have said to others? Are probably, in some spiritual way that we can't quite understand, they were heaped upon Him that way. Do you realize that at our worst moments, if we had inserted ourselves in the story, we're yelling, "Crucify Him"?
[27:43] God, deal with our hearts. Take this dysfunctional, satanic way of living away from us. We've been living a life that's like Survivor. The only thing we can do is try to pick a target and vote them off. And if maybe we're not actively doing it, we're like that weak player on Survivor. You just tell me who's named. Write down anyone, but me. I'm happy. And you're like Pilate. Who lets the social sin keep on going in your circle? My friends, as we now go into a worship song and we prepare to take these things, let us examine our hearts and let this offense be expelled once and for all in our families and our church, in our souls.