Outline/transcript
May 7, 2023
“Keeping Our Eyes on Jesus”
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our reading today from the Acts of the Apostles is beautifully depicted in the stain-glass window in the back of the sanctuary.
Stephen, the first deacon of the Church, looks to heaven as his persecutors lift stones to stone him. His gaze is steady, his expression unafraid. He sees the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Usually, Jesus is spoken of us as sitting at the right hand of God, but now he stands, perhaps as a way of respecting Stephen’s courage.
And after commending his spirit to the Lord Jesus, and asking forgiveness for his killers, Stephen dies, becoming the Church’s first martyr.
This reading reminds us, now that we are deep into the Easter season, that the Resurrection of Christ was not only a message of surprising joy…
It was a message for which the followers of Jesus were willing to die.
Testimony before the authorities (Jesus is the Messiah…)
Detail in St. Luke’s account of the martyrdom of Stephen whose significance it is easy for us to miss:
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Allusion to Psalm 31
Into your hands I commend my spirit (trust—asleep, death)
Jesus’ dying words (gives up his spirit and dies on the Cross)
Jesus commended his spirit to God, and now Stephen is commending his spirit to Jesus.
To say, “Into your hands, I commend my spirit” or “receive my spirit” is something you would only say to God.
And here is Stephen, looking into heaven, his eyes fixed on Jesus, addressing Jesus in prayer and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!
This is truly revolutionary! Addressing Jesus in the same way one would address God. Of course, for us, this is not so surprising, but we have twenty centuries of Christian history in the rear view. This is just a few years after the Resurrection of Christ.
Addressing Jesus in prayer and commending one’s spirit to him like you would commend your spirit to God
These early disciples of Jesus are addressing him as if he was God.
We already see evidence of this in the life of Christ—forgives sins, accepts worship, he refers to himself using divine titles…
Gospel reading (Last Supper) …
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes… If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father…”
“Have I been with you so long, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
Jesus speaks of himself here as the Image of God, the one in whom the glory of God is perfectly reflected, so that, if you see Jesus, you have seen God in the flesh.
Rowan Williams, the former ABC, reflects on this stunning claim in his book Tokens of Trust. He writes, “Here is a human life so shot through with the purposes of God, so transparent to the action of God, that people speak of it as God’s life ‘translated’ into another medium. Here [in the life of Jesus] God is supremely and uniquely at work…
“[And so] Christians approach Jesus now as though he were completely with God, associated with God, able to do what God does, and so correctly addressed as if he were God.” (end quote)
Jesus is saying to his disciples, I am the perfect Image of who God is. What I am doing is what God is doing. What I am about is what God is about. If you want to know God, get to know me… for I am the way to Him, and the truth about Him, and the life that He gives to the fallen world.”
It is a stunning claim for a 1st century rabbi from a backwater town to make. But the Resurrection of Christ vindicates Jesus’ claims and life. God vindicates Jesus by raising him from the dead, triumphant over death, his enemies, and all those who would malign him.
What does this mean for us? If Jesus is indeed the one shows us the Father, if he is the way to God, the truth about God, the life of God made manifest to us, how does this affect how we live our daily lives?
I would suggest that if we know that Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life, then that means we would be appropriately discerning about what we encounter in this world. There are indeed many ways, many “truths”, and many ways of life to choose from. Many people are consumed by politics—whether conservative or liberal doesn’t matter—politics and “being right” is the way and truth and life for them. For others, it’s entertainment, or comfort, or ideology. There are so many different things calling out to us, saying “This is the way! This is the truth! This is what life is about!”
There are so many things in this multitudinous, jostling, busy world that call out to us, vying for our attention and energy. Some of them are worthwhile. There are some things that are worth thinking about, and worth talking about, and worth doing. And there are many things that are not. And the way we know the difference is by keeping our eyes on Jesus.
He is the way and the truth and the life. And if we keep our eyes on Jesus, like St. Stephen, and look at the world in light of Jesus, then we will know what is worthwhile and what is not. If we keep our eyes and minds and hearts on Jesus, then our lives will be balanced, healthful— everything in its proper place. And after a lifetime of keeping our eyes on Jesus, we will be prepared, in the hour of our death, to commend our spirits to him, as to the faithful God. Amen.
Dogmatic Joy 