When I was a kid, we watched a certain television game show every week. Hardly ever missed it. It was called “To Tell the Truth.” For you who never saw it, this is how the show went.
A panel of 4 celebrities was to identify a contestant from a choice of 3 people who were the challengers. All 3 claimed to be the same person. The game show host read a statement about the mystery person. Normally the mystery person held an unusual job or did something very different. The panel of celebrities would then “cross examine” the contestants to figure out which one was the true mystery person. Two contestants would try to mislead the panel with their answers while the real person was sworn “to tell the truth.” After the celebrities voted their choice, the show's host said to the contestants: "Will the real......please, stand up!" One or two or all of the contestants pretended like they were going to stand, but in the end, only one remained standing – the true one.
Today I can't remember one contestant from that show, even though we watched it frequently. But one thing I do remember, the sentence which became a popular catch phrase calling for someone's true identity: “Will the real…please, stand up!”
When studying the epistle and gospel lessons for today, the phrase came to mind: “Will the real Lord Jesus please stand up.” By no means do I say that in a blasphemous way. The phrase came to mind because there are two sides to the Lord Jesus that are shown and they seem contradictory. Which one is the Savior? We Want to See Him. we need to see Him as He truly is.
I. Troubled yet determined.
Let me begin to explain this by going to the Epistle Lesson so that you see what I mean. First it says, “During the days of Jesus' life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death” (Heb.5:7).
It's talking about the times when Jesus cried out in pain, with tears, perhaps even terror at the horror of the suffering that lay ahead of Him. He pleaded with the heavenly Father to help Him so that He wouldn't have to suffer and die.
As an example, think of what He said in Gethsemane the night. He was betrayed. He prayed, “Father, everything is possible for You. Take this cup from me!” (Mk.14:36) As He prayed He was in such anguish that His sweat fell like great drops of blood (Lk.22:44). Now, that's intensity driven by a deep desire to avoid something horrible that lies ahead. Our text portrays a similar thing when He cries out, “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say?” In that you see one side of the Lord Jesus – highly troubled.
But Jesus is seen in another way. The Epistle Lesson also says, “He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him” (Heb.5:9). And Jesus adds in our text, “What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour…Now is the time…and when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to me” (Jn.22:27, 31). He was determined to see this horrible thing through so that He could save people eternally by what He did. Nothing would stop Him.
So, in one situation Christ pleaded for help with tears. In the other, Christ gave help without any fears. In one He was highly troubled and sought to avoid ; in the other He was strongly determined to get it done. So, which is it? Who is He? Will the real Lord Jesus please, stand up! We Want to See Him.
Which is it? Troubled or determined ? It's both! If both are the real Lord Jesus, how do the two different views fit together? And what does it mean for us?
Let me begin to answer that with an illustration that might help. Suppose you had a friend with whom you collected things – antiques, rare coins, valuable statues, and the like. You need something to store them in. So you often go to Wal-Mart to get the right kind of boxes that you need for storage. They are neat, strong, and easily stackable. The problem is that when you go to get the boxes you find that the people who work there don't care about the boxes. Sometimes they tear an end off, mash a corner, or use a blade that rips them apart. When you go to get them you can't get what you need because some of the boxes are completely ruined.
Then one day your friend takes a job there. He's the one who opens the boxes, unloads them, and then takes the empty ones to the back. Now your friend is both the one who opens the boxes and the one who wants to use the boxes. You now know that they won't be torn or mashed because your friend understands the problem and can do something about it. He sees it from two ways.
Similarly, you see the Lord Jesus in two ways. The Bible presents Him as the One who asked for help, and it presents Him as the One who gives help. He was troubled by the cross that lay ahead. At the same time He was determined to die on that cross to do what was needed to help us by driving the devil and His damning influence from our lives (v.31).
That's what Jesus wants us to see in Him – a Savior troubled yet determined. Why is that important? What does it mean for us?
First you are assured that you have a Savior who did all that He could for you, and He did it out of His great love. It doesn't matter who you are, what you've done, or how you see yourself – the fact is Christ gladly and willingly was lifted up on the cross to die for sin that He might draw you to God. He completed it. There's your assurance and comfort.
Secondly, He identifies with you when you have problems and think nobody understands. Then remember that the Lord Jesus also asked for help when He was in need. He understands the pain. Like the Bible says (Heb.4:15f). “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
But an identifying Savior would do you no lasting good if He were not the all-sufficient Savior who could help you eternally. The greatness of Christ is that He is both. Who is the real Lord Jesus? We Want To See Him as the One who is able to suffer with us, and the One who is able to suffer for us to deliver us from all evil. See Him troubled yet determined to do it.
II. Fallen yet glorified.
Still, how do you know that what He did helps? Just because the Lord Jesus is troubled and determined to do something for you doesn't mean He can help you. Lots of people have been troubled and determined to do something, but it doesn't mean that what they did actually helped. There must be proof that a person can accomplish something. That's what you want to see with the Lord Jesus – proof that what He does helps you.
So it was that while He prayed to the Father to glorify His name through that which was going to happen, the Father thundered an answer back to earth. In a loud voice, heard by all but understood by few, He replied, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
Now there's a sure sign, right from heaven, proof that you can rely on. The voice of God the Father affirmed everything Jesus said and did. This voice wasn't for Jesus' sake; it was for everyone else's, including ours, to show that God governed all the upcoming events from above. He gave His verbal assent to it all.
However you might say, “Well, that was all well and good for them who were there, but I didn't hear it.” Oh yes you have, because you hear the Father's reassuring voice still calling to you today through this text and others. And it all works within you so that you glorify God and the Lord Jesus for what He did. Jesus brought that out in the little parable He told. He said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
A seed is only a single seed by itself. You can either eat it or plant it into the ground. If you eat it, that's the end of it. But if you let it fall back into the ground it will germinate and multiply into many of its own kinds - hundreds, thousands, even millions more. It's really a miracle. Such a single seed is, let's call it, “ honored ” by the multitude of seeds that spring from it.
So it would be with Christ, plant Him into the ground after His death, and that would not be the end of Him. Rather, He became the first fruits of all who believe that His death and resurrection counts for them. And not just for His disciples who saw Him, but also for the Greeks who wanted to see Him.
We're not told if they saw Him here, but just a few days later everyone in Jerusalem saw Him hanging on a cross. My, how that must have confused them at first! But they were in Jerusalem for the duration of the Passover festival and that was not complete until Jesus had risen from the grave on Easter. They got to see and hear that, too. And through it all God was glorified for sending His Son as the Savior, just like He thundered here. The Father was glorified; Jesus was glorified. It's what the Greeks got to see – more than they first thought. They got to see a Savior, fallen yet glorified by God above and that was proof, proof beyond any shadow of a doubt that it was all true.
Will the real Savior please, stand up! Here He is dear friends. You want to see Him? See Him like they did: troubled yet determined, fallen yet glorified. God grant it to us for Jesus' sake.