In the Acts of the Apostles we read an amusing incident. When St. Paul was at Ephesus, certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth... And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded (Acts 19:13-16).
These “name droppers” were impostors, since they knew neither Paul nor Jesus. But they were right to identify the Lord as Jesus whom Paul preacheth. The Jesus we believe in is the one whom Paul, and Peter, and Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and all the apostles and the saints proclaim.
Many people today want Jesus without Paul, that is, without a relationship to the apostles and the Church. It fits our spirit of independence – I don’t need the saints, nor a bishop, a church, or a liturgy – just the Bible, which I can interpret for myself. (It means whatever I want it to mean.) Or some drop the Bible, too, thinking to find the “real Jesus” in some speculation from archaeology or some obscure ancient writings.
The truth is, the world took little notice of Jesus during and immediately after His earthly life. Almost no non-Christian writings of His time mention Him. So virtually everything we know about Him was preserved by those who believed in Him, that is, the Church. So if someone wants to believe in Jesus, necessarily he must trust to some degree the apostles who preached Him, those to whom He said, the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you (St. John 14:26). He must trust as well Sts. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who wrote the Gospels, and those Christians, guided by the Holy Spirit, who edited these books, and who came to a consensus that these alone were the definitive and trustworthy accounts, and who discerned the truth among conflicting opinions about who the scriptures say Jesus is. Otherwise he may believe in an imaginary Jesus he chooses to fit his own preconceptions. We hear this often: “My Lord doesn’t care if I do this; my Lord wants me to have this.” Is my Lord the same “Jesus whom Paul preacheth”? Or will the demons say: Who are you?
The temptation is to conform Our Lord to a preconceived opinion, doctrine, system, or ideology. He is not a doctrine; He is a person, the divine-human Person of the Word of God become flesh. He did not leave us a system or a book, but people – people humanly very inadequate. He says to Simon: thou art Peter [rock], and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Mt 16:18). He does not say He will build His Church on a doctrine, but on a man, whom He calls a rock. A strange rock -- this is a man who a few moments later reveals his misunderstanding of the Lord’s whole mission - Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But [Jesus] turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
Our Lord also chose St. Paul, and says he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel (Acts 9:15) – This is said of a man who says of himself: beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it (Gal. 1:13) and the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do (Rom. 7:19).
The Lord founds his Church – the life He gives us to live – not on a system or a law, but on men – Peter and Paul, and the other apostles and the rest of the church to this day – men who all individually were weak and imperfect, but whom the Holy Spirit would guide into all truth (John 16:13). These mens’ lives, not just their teachings, are the revelation of Jesus. Think of St. Peter’s denial and repentance, of his last conversation with the Lord: Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep (St. John 21:17). Think of St. Paul’s experience of glory and also weakness: How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter... lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:4-9). As we sing at the Vespers of Sts. Peter and Paul, They are the living tablets of the New Testament written by the hand of God.
So we really don’t know Jesus apart from His people. We aren’t given a doctrine, a system; we’re given people in whose lives we can experience Christ - the same Christ handed on from generation to generation but fresh and new in the lives of each of us.
So the Jesus we believe in is the one whom Paul preacheth -- and Peter, and Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and all the Apostles, and Ignatius of Antioch, and Ireneus, and Athanasius, and Basil, and Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom and Cyril of Alexandria and Leo of Rome, and Maximus the Confessor and John of Damascus, and Symeon the New Theologian, and Gregory Palamas, and Mark of Ephesus and Herman of Alaska, and Bishops Innocent, Tikhon, and Raphael, and Archbishop DMITRI and Father George Gladky, who founded this Church.
We didn’t make this up!
Adapted from a sermon preached by Fr. Paul on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29, 2008
© 2008 Fr. Paul Yerger