Specials / 01. Jesus, the Joker? | Easter Sunday 2018

Easter Sunday April 1st 2018. Visit www.weareemmanuel.com for more content. Speaker: Joel Virgo.

1 Corinthians 1: 18-34- God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.
1 Corinthians 15: 17- 20 – Christ is risen!

When we play cards, we have to choose what we are going to do with those left overs substitute cards – the ‘jokers’. We might use them but most games don’t need the joker. However, there are some games where the joker beats the other cards because of its unique role- it doesn’t belong to any other suit. This is linked with the idea of the personality of ‘the joker’ which was a job in the medieval court and even further back to ancient times, where this individual got away with saying what no-one else could. The joker was regarded as foolish and yet often had a unique opportunity to speak and be vindicated as the only honest one who spoke truth to the King. In the same moment, everybody knew this ‘fool’ was speaking right, turning everything on its head. The fool seems to read the situation right and be vindicated, whereas the king, who ought to know better, is often the one who is shown as becoming more foolish. This idea runs through history, but perhaps the greatest example is Jesus himself. As Easter lands on April Fools day this year, maybe we should consider the ‘foolishness’ of Jesus and Christianity. Jesus is the classic ‘fool’ in the sense that he didn’t belong to the existing factions on a political/economical level at that time and even to this current day no-one can coerce him into their group. He’s above and beyond us. We like to think we are very accomplished as the human race and then in comes ‘the fool’ turning everything on its head. Through his deeds and words, Jesus was constantly turning our prepositions upside down, raising to our attention things we would never on our own consider.

In Matthew 19:13-15, people brought their children to be blessed by Jesus and the disciples rebuked them, as they saw Jesus as too important and busy to stop for them. However, Jesus laid hands on the children and reproved his disciples, teaching them to be more like children. This is one example of the social hierarchies being overturned by Jesus’ priority. Sometimes Jesus’ teaching would seem offensively foolish in a way that caused large numbers to leave. Jesus loved the crowd and people but wouldn’t win them by making his message sound more ‘sensible’ in their given context. It was the things he said and did at the closing stages of his life, where he willingly submitted himself to be stripped naked and scourged, carrying a cross, nailed to it and ridiculed for hours until he died that makes people in history say he made catastrophic errors of judgement. They would see him as a fool. Yet the message of the Bible is that in fact God was showing His wisdom. This is vindicated by Jesus’ resurrection, which showed God was always in control and winning, despite looking foolish to men. This message should shock us. Christianity is not a ‘sensible’- religion its extraordinary; a ‘joker’. Jesus and what he did on Easter is quite separate from religion.

3 examples of how religion works, the weakness and Easter’s solution to each:

1. Do Good Religion- God has to accept me based on my good performance.
Weakness- Even the person who gets quite far with this, it will lead to self-righteousness and pride.
Easter’s Solution- You are so much worse than you think. Even your best deeds are like filthy rags. (Isiah 46: 6). We are so bad that it took the torturous death of the son of God to deal with the wickedness of our heart. We cannot achieve Gods standard by our efforts. Come to The Cross.

2. Insta Religion- Associating God with things in my life which are good and convenient. Keeping God or any sense of religion away from the dark part of your life because it doesn’t really work together.
Weakness- You end up living a life of denial when life isn’t what you perceive as good.
Easter’s Solution- Look at the Cross and the God who suffered for your sin. That teaches us what it means when we say God is good because you see a suffering God who shows His goodness through not sparing His own son but delivered him up for us. Come to The Cross.

3. Self Help Religion- Finding the god within and winning through personal achievement, whether there is a god out there or not.
Weakness – Stories of those who have achieved this, tell that they still feel emptiness and what they discovered in themselves was a tin idol and not what they longed for after all.
Easter’s Solution- You were born for God and no one beneath him will satisfy you. Come to the one who is a fountain of living water and stop trying to dig your own wells. You will only find dirty water. Come to The Cross.

If the whole world thinks you’re wise- then you’re in trouble. Rather be a ‘fool’ outside the city, knowing that you get to inherit a future kingdom characterised by God’s mercy and love eternally.