For some time now social commentators and historians have been calling our time ‘Post Christian’. Ted Turner (founder of C.N.N.) wanted to change our dating to B.P. and A.P. (Before peace and After Peace). He regards Christianity as a religion for losers and at a meeting for News Proprietors about 30 years ago challenged all present to work really hard and achieve world peace by the year 2000. Time has well and truly run out. Excuse my cynicism at the idea that News proprietors could achieve world peace – how, pray tell? Turner must have changed his mind for he went to to promote the Goodwill Games to save the world!
Also, some are using B.P. (before the present), as it seems offensive to have a numbering system that recognizes the presence of Jesus who sojourned here 2000 years ago. Yet at this time when we have forces wanting to break with the past and push on to what they hope will be a brave new world, there are also voices of disquiet and concern. Today we have a strained optimism unlike that at the dawn of the twentieth century where Science and Technology were heralded as the great saviours. Well that century proved they weren’t: they have been good servants but poor masters and for every positive contribution there has been a corresponding negative one. On the one hand they have made our lives easier and more comfortable but they haven’t stopped our wars – rather they have made them more horrible and more destructive. The recent Covid outbreak was a totally unexpected event for most people, disquieting in the thought that an invisible virus can hold the world to ransom. What else will the new millenium bring?
Where can we find a Messiah for a new millenium? At the White House? Buckingham Palace? Canberra? The Vatican? Moscow? There the body of Lenin lies in a crystal casket in a mausoleum in Red Square (I believe its still there). There is a sign by his casket that reads “For he was the greatest leader of people, of all time. He was Lord of the new humanity. He was Saviour of the world” Hmmmmmmm. Is the world changing so fast that no Messiah can keep up and prove adequate now? I say to you that we don’t have to wait for one to come – He’s already come (Paul appropriates Deut 30:11-14 in Rom. 10:6-8 and I appropriate that thought now).
Governor John Bowring of Hong Kong visited an area devastated by earthquake. He looked over whole blocks of a city levelled to rubble with the exception of one object in the distance – the cross on the spire of a building. This prompted him to write the hymn that includes the line In the cross of Christ I glory…towering o’er the wrecks of time. Even unbelievers have recognized the pre-eminence of Christ. Arnold Toynbee, agnostic historian, wrote, As I stand and gaze with my eyes on that far away shore, a simple figure rises from the flood and straightway fills the whole horizon of history and it is Jesus.
But someone might say, Granted, Jesus has been a great influence on the world – but it is all past. The modern world has passed him by. What he has said and done belongs to the past and is dying. We must reach out for new forms, new ways of thinking. As Theilhard de Chardin asks; Is the Christ of the gospels, imagined and loved within the dimensions of a Mediterranean world, capable of embracing and still forming the centre of our prodigiously expanded universe?
Naturally man has the option of rejecting Christ – just as they did in Christ’s own time. In John 6:24-68 we have the account of the feeding of the 5000 and the subsequent fall out. Because they had been fed many began to follow Jesus and so He challenges their motive for doing so. According to v.66 many left. Why? According to v.60 it was hard sayings. We may well ask if those who remained found them easy. I doubt it – but a mark of maturing and prerequisite for genuine faith in Christ is to accept the idea that truth is not measured by our own likes and dislikes (cf. Isa. 55:8,9) .
In v.67 Jesus asks; Will you also go away? Was he seeking comfort? No, rather He held the door open for the twelve to reconsider their position in light of what the many had chosen to do. In v.68 Peter responds – ‘foot-in-mouth’ Peter – we do him a disservice sometimes. True, his mouth was in gear before his brain was out of neutral sometimes, but not everything he said was ill-considered or hasty. No, this was a great question; – To whom shall we go?
Peter knew that the answers to life were not innate in man – Peter didn’t have the answers – his friends didn’t – they were all part of the problem. They knew the prophet told the truth when he said it was not in man to direct his steps. What he did know was that the answer was in a Whom, not a What or a Where. Things can’t do it. Many have sought it in booze but you won’t find salvation at the bottom of an aluminium can or a hefty bottle. Money won’t do it either. A dying Queen of England cried out on her deathbed “A million for a moment” – but a million millions couldn’t do it. Places won’t do it either. Some go to the Gold Coast, or Cairns, or go west to California but its not there. Some went down to Guyana with Jim Jones and it became a killing field. Some go to Lourdes looking for a miracle and come home disappointed.
It’s not what or where its WHOM? Human problems demand spiritual answers! But to whom shall we go? Peter knew he couldn’t go to his family – they had his same inadequacies. If he went to John the baptist he would send him back to Jesus. If he went to the Pharisees he would find no acceptance there (these people who know not the law are cursed). If he went to Moses, Moses would send him to Christ (Deut. 18:15-18). Someone else? Ok, whom? If not Christ, who? Its not enough to be cynical, we have to put forth an alternative. What we need is a man for all seasons.
Sir Thomas More served as Lord Chancellor of England from 1529 to 1532. He has been known as a man for all seasons. He is remembered for his opposition to King Henry V111 when that king wanted to divorce and remarry and make himself head of the church of England. Sir Thomas was a family man, a religious man, a dedicated jurist, a witty man, and often, a sad man. It was Robert Whittington who said he was a man of angel’s wit and singular learning…a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometimes of sad gravity – a man for all seasons. That last expression has stuck.
Leonardo de Vinci was a man for all seasons too, but in a different way. He was a botanist, an astronomer, a geologist, an anatomist, an engineer, an inventor, an architect, a builder, a musician, a sculptor, and a painter. He was truly a many-sided man – genius. So was Thomas Jefferson. He knew Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian and English. He was a mathematician, a scientist, an agriculturist, an architect, an educator, a writer, a politician and a statesman. He also could be called a man for all seasons.
But would we look to them today as Saviours – as Messiahs? I think not because they weren’t regarded as such in their own day at the height of their powers and accomplishments. There was Someone who overshadowed them in their day – that Someone was Jesus of Nazareth.