The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

Ezra 1, John 7. 14-36
What kind of religious leader are we most likely to follow? Leadership is a huge issue in our modern world and in the church also. The political parties look to their leaders to make conference speeches which will increase their poll ratings and establish their leadership qualities. Angela Merkel seems to be able to win elections by not trying to win them. We have a new Pope who has thrown off the trappings of  papal office to live simply, and makes speeches which throw cats amongst a whole flocks of pigeons; we have a new archbishop who unlike any of his predecessors has spent a large part of his career in industry. There seems to be no recognised mode of leadership which our society looks to – anyone aspiring to leadership and at the same time to be themselves struggles with their identity – an identity which at any moment might be toppled by the media.
John’s gospel similarly struggles with the idea of leadership, holding up for inspection the different models current at the time and submitting them to the example of Jesus. If a man is to be a public teacher it is normally expected that he will have first submitted himself to schooling by a senior rabbi and he will quote the thoughts of other rabbis before giving his own opinion. Jesus seems not to have studied in any way like this. He seems to speak simply on his own authority. The Messiah who will lead his people to freedom and usher in the reign of God, is expected to be a mysterious figure, no-one will know where he comes from – that will be an essential part of his charisma, he will seem to come from nowhere. Everyone knows were Jesus comes from, an undistinguished small northern town out of which nothing good ever came. Because the people are frightened of having to make these judgments for themselves, they expect the existing religious authorities to tell them if the Christ has come. The authorities seem rather cagey about Jesus. Surely, the people say, the Messiah will do no more miraculous signs than Jesus. Perversely some of  the people also rather like those who challenge the authorities. And yet when Jesus suggests that the authorities will try to kill him for what he is saying, the same people think he must be exaggerating. They don’t like the idea of a leader who might divide the community and force them to choose. He also seems to want them to make up their minds for themselves about the law of Moses – to have a right judgement for themselves. But surely that’s what the authorities are for – to tell them what to think? And then finally they expect a leader to accommodate himself to their way of thinking; when he starts saying things they find hard to interpret they are unnerved. When they think he might be indicating a move to the Jews who live abroad they may feel secretly relieved – Jesus is just too confusing to be the kind of leader they really want.
Or rather perhaps John’s purpose is not to show Jesus as confusing but testing. Everything he says is intended to test his listeners, to expose the true position of their hearts and minds. ‘If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.’ How you respond to Jesus depends on what is already going on in your heart and mind. If your heart and mind are already engaged with, directed by the search for God then you will be open to understand what Jesus is saying and you will see the truth of what Jesus is saying. In other words the leadership and authority of Jesus depend on something outside him, they do not come from himself. And that is remarkable. As we saw earlier the popular idea of leadership depends on our being convinced by a person’s knowledge or charisma, or recognition by other authorities; we then look to that leader to do for us what we think we can’t do for ourselves, to make our minds up for us, to lead us. But Jesus is not like that.
One of the questions which has puzzled Christians since the gospels were written is the question why Jesus was not more widely accepted in his own life time; how could they have crucified the Son of God? But we ask that question perhaps primarily because we are stuck with the old unacceptable view of leadership. The recognition of Jesus authority in his own day did not depend on signs or miracles; it did not depend on the obvious originality or profundity of his teaching or the charisma of his personality. The recognition of Jesus, the desire to follow Jesus, the willingness to die for Jesus came from your having been prepared beforehand for your encounter with him. If grace was already working in you then Jesus spoke to you. And by grace we mean the desire for something that transcends your inherited outlook, something that puts you in touch with the best traditions of reflection on experience, the desire to find how to lead your life in the best way, the desire to serve, the desire that all should experience the best that you desire for yourself. If grace was then and is now working in the people who encounter Jesus then they will know whether his teaching comes from God. He can only lead you if you have escaped the snare of false expectations of leadership. He can only lead you if you have already begun to glimpse the way in which you want to be lead.