It's Got to Be Jesus

The center, the goal, the example, the target, the everything.

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Many years back, when public debates arose about tearing down statues as more was revealed about the lives of those memorialized, I came to what felt like a rather unremarkable conclusion: maybe we don’t need statues of anyone.

That thought eventually led me to wrestle with the second commandment’s warning against fashioning anything in wood or stone to represent anyone, even God. (A longer conversation for another time, perhaps.)

Even before I’d formed my opinion about statues, many years earlier, I’d come to a similar conclusion about flags: I’d rather have none. Though flags can inspire pride and represent something good, be it a nation, an affinity group, or even a sports team, they also demand division, drawing lines between “us” and “them.”

Christ needs no statues or flags. He calls for fruit: words, actions, and a way of living that reflect the tree’s true nature.

What does this have to do with Luke 6:39-49?

In this portion of the sermon on the plain, Jesus presses his followers to look deeply at who they are and what’s forming them and then to live in such a way that the fruit matches the root. His concern isn’t about the symbols we wave or the monuments we build, but about whether our lives bear witness to the One we claim to follow.

I have many heroes in life. Heroes of the faith. Wesley, Bonhoeffer, Hauerwas, my dad, my mom, my grandparents. And so many more. But I can easily point out in each one of their lives the things that were not Christlike. This doesn’t mean I want them canceled. I just will hold them in their proper place. Alongside Christ, but not on par.

And then frankly and personally, we understand this to be true for ourselves as well. We strive to follow Jesus, to be Christlike, to know him in ways that lead us to choose to act as best we know according to his character. But we will find ourselves falling far short at times. In those moments, we repent, we correct, and we shift our step.

But it must be Jesus in the first and last place. In the end, that’s the foundation Jesus points us toward, the foundation being his teaching and his life. Statues crack, flags fade, even our heroes falter. But Christ endures, and building our lives on him is what will hold when the storms come.

Luke 6:39-49

Jesus also told them a riddle. “A blind person can’t lead another blind person, right? Won’t they both fall into a ditch? Disciples aren’t greater than their teacher, but whoever is fully prepared will be like their teacher. Why do you see the splinter in your brother’s or sister’s eye but don’t notice the log in your own eye? How can you say to your brother or sister, ‘Brother, Sister, let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ when you don’t see the log in your own eye? You deceive yourselves! First take the log out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s or sister’s eye.

“A good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit, nor does a bad tree produce good fruit. Each tree is known by its own fruit. People don’t gather figs from thorny plants, nor do they pick grapes from prickly bushes. A good person produces good from the good treasury of the inner self, while an evil person produces evil from the evil treasury of the inner self. The inner self overflows with words that are spoken.

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and don’t do what I say? I’ll show what it’s like when someone comes to me, hears my words, and puts them into practice. It’s like a person building a house by digging deep and laying the foundation on bedrock. When the flood came, the rising water smashed against that house, but the water couldn’t shake the house because it was well built. But those who don’t put into practice what they hear are like a person who built a house without a foundation. The floodwater smashed against it and it collapsed instantly. It was completely destroyed.”

Psalm 1:1-3

The truly happy person doesn’t follow wicked advice, doesn’t stand on the road of sinners, and doesn’t sit with the disrespectful. Instead of doing those things, these persons love the Lord’s Instruction, and they recite God’s Instruction day and night! They are like a tree replanted by streams of water, which bears fruit at just the right time and whose leaves don’t fade. Whatever they do succeeds.

Prayer

Holy Father of all creation, I see your loving justice in Jesus of Nazareth. By your Spirit, make me more like him. Amen.