The One Who Came

She was in the church parking lot. We knew she would be there. We had been told her name. We knew she would ask for money to sleep at the shelter. We knew she needed $7 and that she would ask everyone for money and that she would be better off with only the $7 for shelter. None of us wanted to say no. We didn’t want her to die on the steps of the church. We knew was sick; she had only a few nights left. We wanted her to have a bed and a pillow and a blanket. So, we each were ready with a dollar or two as we left the meeting that night. As I approached my car, she approached me. My hands were full. Her hands were shaking. She held a Styrofoam cup of water, shaking. As I reached out to her, our focus was on the exchange of the money. I had folded over, and over again, to hand to her. Her cough rattled deeply. Her eyes were yellowed. She carefully reached for the bills, making sure not to touch me. And in that moment, when she was being so sure not to connect, the cup of water in her other hand tilted back and forth, back and forth, until it sloshed out. Drops of water fell, on her and on me. And then I knew who she really was, my sister. Same water. Same Savior. Child of God. In that moment, love was exchanged. We were connected. Fifteen years later, I think of her often and wonder about her.

70 years after Jesus died, believers wondered. They knew him. But, they wondered about him. Some believed that Jesus was actually a divine spirit; he only appeared to be flesh and blood. Some believed that the Christ, the anointed One, was indwelling in Jesus from the time of his baptism until the time of his crucifixion. They believed that Jesus didn’t become the Christ until his baptism and that before that moment when he came up out of the water and the Holy Spirit descended upon him, he was just a regular carpenter. And they believed that when he was crucified, the Holy Spirit had left him, so he was no longer Christ but just a man named Jesus who died. (Archeaological Study Bible)

John is writing in response to a community that is divided. They don’t agree on who this Jesus is, really. Some have already left the church over it (Mays). Whose teachings are true? What teachings are heresy? Who was this One who came?

“I John was written to the remaining members of the community to encourage them to remain faithful and to warn them against the errors of the opponents who had left the community” (Culpepper). Dr. William Hendricks says of John, that he has a “hang-up,” something that he is obsessed with and he has a “thing,” a motivating passion. John’s hang-up, says Dr. Hendricks is “love;” and his this is “truth.”
Eusebius tells a funny story about John. Eusebius, in the 300’s AD, served a Bishop of Ceasarea and was a historian. He is known as Father of Church History. In his book Eccelsiastical History he tells a story about John. The Romans were known for their prowess with water. They had running water, flushing toilets, aquaducts that brought water to desert towns, and bath houses. These bath houses had community baths, the same sort of idea as a hot tub. Eusebius tells about John in a bath house. All of a sudden, John jumped up and ran screaming out into the street. Cerinthus, a Gnostic heretic, had come into the bathhouse, and John was afraid that the roof would fall in on him in judgement for his false teachings.

What we know about Cerinthus comes from Ireanaeus, one of the early church historians and a priest, wrote a book titled Against Heresies in 180 AD. In it, he described Cerinthus’s teaching, he “represented Jesus as having not been born of a virgin, but as being the son of Joseph and Mary according to the ordinary course of human generation….Moreover, after his baptism, Christ descended upon him in the form of a dove from the Supreme Ruler, and that then he proclaimed the unknown Father, and performed miracles. But at last Christ departed from Jesus, and that then Jesus suffered and rose again,… (Ramsay)

John’s “thing” is truth. So, he is writing to strengthen the resolve of the community against these false teachings. He writes that “Jesus came by water and blood.” Jesus became part of what was before creation – when “the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God [hovered] over the waters.” He joined the water world of pre-creation. And he came by blood. He became a living creature, a man made in God’s image, fully human.

From his first breath, he was fully human and the Christ, God’s anointed Savior, born of God. God didn’t adopt him at his baptism and abandon him at his crucifixion. This is fact. And there are witnesses, says John. The Old Testament burden of proof was two or three witnesses. John provides three: as testified by the water, the blood, and the Spirit. Jesus is Christ from his borning cry to his last words. And we know this by the water, for at his baptism, “the heavens were torn apart and the Spirit descended on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’ (Mark 1:10b-11)” We know this by the water and by the blood, for at his death, John tells us that “the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. (John 19:34)” And we know this by the Spirit. John was there on the day of Pentecost. They were all together, and a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house, and they saw tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:1-4a)

This is the One who commanded we love one another as he loved us. This is the One who commissioned us to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This is the One we come to the Table to remember. Amen.