Making a Difference
Hebrews 4:14-5:10[1]
I believe most of us want to make a difference
in this world. As we’re growing up, we try to figure out a way to do that with
our lives. We choose a career based on our interests. Whether our job takes us
in a direction that we feel like we’re actually making a difference in others’
lives, I would say that we do so just by the way we show up and treat people.
Even if our job isn’t one that seems to “make a real difference,” most of us
get involved in other activities like sports leagues or community clubs so that
we can give back to the people around us. I think one of the challenges we face
is that we have a hard time recognizing all the ways we contribute to the lives
of other people. It seems to be wired into who we are as human beings to want
to make a difference.
The most fulfilling experiences of my life
have come from the opportunities I’ve had to make a difference in someone’s
life. That’s why I started down the path of ministry at the ripe old age of 17.
That’s why I’ve worked all my life to learn all I can about the Bible,
Theology, History, Philosophy, and life in general. And that’s what still keeps
me going over 45 years later. What energizes me is making a difference in
someone’s life. It may sound strange, but that’s why I find it fulfilling to be
with those who are hurting. Especially at the end of a loved one’s life. Yes,
those times can be challenging and hard, but those are the times when I feel
like I’m truly making a difference.
Of course, not everyone is called to be a
pastor. We need all kinds of people doing all kinds of things for the world to
work. But I think we all want to make a difference. One problem with trying to
make a difference, however, is that when we put ourselves out there to help
others, we’re putting ourselves in a position to wind up getting hurt. We’re
opening ourselves to criticism, some of which may not be so fair or kind or
respectful. Those who have been in a position where you’ve put yourself out
there to help other people know what I’m talking about. Any time we try to make
a difference in the lives of people around us, we’re at risk of our motives or
our actions (or both!) being misinterpreted or perhaps even misrepresented. The
bottom line is that whenever we try to make a contribution to others, we are
likely going to have to endure some kind of unfair or hurtful treatment.
I think this aspect of our lives relates to
our scripture lesson from Hebrews for today. It talks about how Jesus made a
difference for all of us by what he did. In giving his life for us on the cross,
he shows us who God is: the one who’s willing to take all the suffering of the
world into himself. More than that, what Jesus did shows us what God is doing
in the world: God is in the process of restoring everyone and everything. By
dying on the cross, Jesus was fulfilling God’s desire for the whole human family
to be restored to him. And in so doing, our lesson says that he has become the
source of “eternal salvation” for all who turn to him in “trusting-obedience”
(Heb 5:8-9 MSG). All that sounds good to us. But the lesson also says
something that may sound strange to our ears. It says, “Even though Jesus was
God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered” (Heb 5:8, NLT)
That sounds more than strange. It’s shocking: why would Jesus need to “learn
obedience”? Wasn’t his whole life, in fact his whole existence, one of
obedience to God? So why did he have to “learn obedience”?
I think the answer has to do with what
happened when the Son of God became a human being. It’s not like he was
inherently willful and disobedient and had to be taught by the consequences of
his actions how to obey God. The very act of becoming a human being was an
expression of his obedience to God. But I think what Jesus learned was a
first-hand experience of what it means to live as a fully human person.[2] And part of what that means is that anyone who wants to make a difference in
the lives of others is probably going to suffer criticism, or undergo attack,
or perhaps even in his case give up his life. There have been many who sought
to make a difference in this world who have given up their lives because of it.
In his obedience to God, Jesus had to learn what human suffering is like. And
the ultimate expression of his trust in God as well as his obedience to God was
to give his life for us all on the cross.
While it’s not necessary to restrict what our
Scripture lesson says about Jesus to this one event, it’s natural to think of
Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane. I find it wonderfully reassuring
that, when faced with one of the cruelest methods of executing a person ever
devised, Jesus asked God to deliver him from it! It’s hard to imagine Jesus
being truly human and not facing the cross with feelings of anguish and praying
“with loud cries and tears” (Heb. 5:7). And yet, the end result of his prayer
struggle in that garden was that he decided to go through all of it in order to
fulfill God’s desire to make a real difference in all of our lives.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the lessons for
us to take away here is that the process of God becoming flesh in Jesus of
Nazareth is not just about showing us who God is, it’s also about showing us
that God is working to restore us all. Throughout the ages many have wondered why
God went to all that trouble. Why not just “say the word” and make everything
right again? I think one answer to that question is that the only way to truly
make a difference in human life is to take the risk of getting involved that
person’s life. The only way to truly help anyone is to enter fully into their
experience and pour into it the love that can change them. That’s what Jesus
was doing on the cross. As one of our confessions of faith puts it, he went
into the abyss of human suffering in order to redeem all of us who have been
trapped there.[3] There’s no depth of suffering in human experience that Jesus did not reach. And
the profound love he poured out for us all at the cross changes everything! By
entering fully into our experience, Jesus truly made the difference for us all.
I think it’s part of our identity as human
beings that we all want to make a difference. But making a difference will very
likely cost us something, just as it cost Jesus. When we doubt whether Jesus
makes a difference in our lives, I think we should remember the friends and loved
ones who have made such a difference in our lives. While we may not be able to
relate to Jesus as directly as we can to them, we can remember what he went
through, and that he did it precisely to make a difference for us. It’s a bit
like the way the friends and loved ones we’ve lost still make a difference in
our lives today. And when we doubt whether we’re making a difference in
anyone’s life, we should also remember the friends and loved ones we’ve lost
and how much we miss them. No less than they did when they were with us, we all
make a difference in the lives of others just by being who we are.
[1] © 2024 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 10/20/2024 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Cf. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics
1.2:158: “the New Testament has treated the vere
homo [truly human] so seriously that it has portrayed the obedience of
Jesus throughout as a genuine struggle to obey, as a seeking and finding.”
[3] The Study Catechism, 1998, q. 45.
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