A friend of mine posted a question on Facebook that reaffirmed what I had been thinking about writing in this week's blog. The question he asked had to do with the kind of attention that Jesus' death and burial would have received if he had died in this era instead of 2000 years ago. I have an answer to that question. Jesus would have received about the same amount of attention today that he received 2000 years ago. One of the criticisms that people have about Jesus is that outside of the Bible there is very little reference to Jesus. What people fail to realize is that 2000 years ago Jerusalem was not the center of the Roman Empire. Some scholars have even called it a relative "backwater" and unimportant place for most Roman citizens. Think about things from this perspective. Let's say important events are happening in Cheyenne, Wyoming but for the most part people in the United States don't care because they live some other place. In fact, it could be argued that people in New York, Washington DC or Los Angeles don't care because what happens in Cheyenne couldn't be as important as what happens in their hometowns- After all, their home towns are the seats of money, power and fame and what is Cheyenne? It's a small capital city in one of the least populated states in the Union. Let me go one step further; do you care about the details of a political debate by a man from Torrington, Wyoming in Cheyenne Wyoming? Look, nobody died, nobody was hurt, and it was just a disagreement between the leaders of Wyoming and this uneducated rabble-rouser. It wasn't until Christianity spread and grew that people began to see the events in Jerusalem and the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus as something more than just a local issue.
Maybe a better question to ask is, because of whom he is and the impact he has had on the world, how should we treat Jesus today? The answer to that question leads me to the real point of this blog this week-Celebrity, hero worship, and idolatry.
John Piper does a great job distinguishing the difference between hero worship and holy emulation in his “Taste and See” newsletter-www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/2009/3974_Hero_Worship_and_Holy_Emulation. Ultimately, there is strong biblical encouragement to admire other people. John Piper says that holy emulation is to admire someone because we see the work of Christ in him or her and that we do so for Christ’s sake so that we might learn from him or her and grow in our relationship with Christ. The end result of our holy emulation is not the glory of the person we admire, nor is it some positive feeling we have in ourselves. The end result of our admiration of another should be the glory of Christ. Anything else is idolatry.
Ask yourself some hard questions about the people that you admire, your heroes: What is it about them that you admire or seek to idolize? (See even in English we recognize the root word here is idol.) Why do you admire that about them? How do they help you see Jesus or how do they help you grow in your faith in Christ? These questions expose our values. Don’t get me wrong; we can admire a person’s God given talent. But notice when I admire their God given talent I am acknowledging the role of the Creator in their talent and recognizing that without God there would be no talent. Take some time and look-up the following passages and see what they say about why we should emulate people and then ask if your “hero” meets that criterion: 1 Corinthians 11:1;Philippians 3:17; Philippians 4:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:6; Hebrews 6:12; 2 Timothy 3:10; 2 Timothy 3:14; Titus 2:7.
Now, back to Jesus. Would he attract large crowds of people who hung on his every word? Would there be paparazzi following his every move. Would bloggers be expanding upon his every word, thought or move? The answer to that question is no. Unfortunately the one who deserves the worship, the celebrity, wouldn’t get it. Look at the words of Isaiah 53:1-3, “ Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before Him as a tender plant and as root out of dry ground. He has no comeliness; and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him, He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. And we hid our faces from him; he was despised and we did not esteem Him.” It is only when we understand who Jesus is and what he has done for us through his life, death and resurrection does we truly understand that the only proper response to him is fall on our face and to worship.
The problem with our culture of celebrity is that we have crowded God out by exalting something less than him to a level of worship so as to diminish the role of the One who deserves worship by exalting the creation to the level of the Creator. This is not a new problem, Paul addresses this issue in Romans chapter 1. Let me challenge you to take a look at your "hero worship" or your views on celebrity and compare them to Jesus and ask yourself honestly, do they really compare to Jesus? I think the answer is obvious.
Gather and Go,
Pastor Dale