Chuck Larsen

Those of my generation remember Cassius Clay (Mohammed Ali) being frequently quoted as saying, “I am the greatest.” It makes me think of a joke about him. He boarded a plane on his way to the Philippines, where he would partake in the “thriller in Manila,” where he fought Smokin’ Joe Frazer for the third and last time. The stewardess came through the first class section and told all passengers to fasten their seat belts, to which Ali responded, “Superman don’t need no seat belt!” To which the stewardess answered, “Superman don’t need no airplane!” Ali fastened his seat belt.

The scriptures are absolutely clear about who is the greatest. In Matthew 12:41-42, Jesus referred to himself as being “a superior thing” to Jonah and Solomon.  Morey says, “One reason why the Jews became so enraged with Jesus is that He claimed to be greater than the most important people and places in Judaism. Jesus was greater than the Patriarchs, such as Abraham and Jacob (John 8:53; 4:12). He was greater than the prophets, such as Jonah (Matt. 12:41). He was greater than the Kings, such as Solomon (Matt. 12:42). He was greater than Moses (Matt. 5:22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44). He was even greater than the Sabbath (Mark 2:23–28).” The author of the book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was even greater than all the angels. But the greatest claim Jesus made might be the one recorded in Matthew 12:6. After being accused of violating the law of the Sabbath and desecrating the temple, Jesus said, “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.” The Jews clearly saw the logical implications of such claims—the only One who was “greater” than all these things was God Himself. Therefore, Jesus was claiming to be God. That is why they picked up stones to kill Him for blasphemy (John 8:52–59).

I love to be greeted by smiling people! People who don’t smile have a negative effect on everyone around them.  Decker says, “Your smile even affects you. It lifts your spirits. It generates more energy. You feel the smile throughout your whole body…You will find that good gestures and a smile will free you to share your thoughts fully. You will find a ready audience because when you smile, the world smiles with you. Your gestures show openness that people find inviting…A warm smile and kinetic gestures go a long way to demonstrating the bold assurance God has given you through his Word. Please smile and say, “Jesus is the Greatest.” It makes little sense to tell people that Jesus is the greatest man who ever lived, that he offers the greatest gift ever given, and that this is the best news they have ever heard and to do it without a smile.

Although God is one in essence, he is three in His persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each of the three persons has always existed and is often referred to as the “eternal Father, the eternal Son, and the eternal Holy Spirit.” When Jesus was about to be executed, He prayed in John 17:5, a great priestly prayer. In it, he said, “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” He came from the eternal state of permanent glory and returned to that state at his ascension. He is now there, sitting at the right hand of God the Father, waiting for the time of His return. Coming from this glorious state and taking on the likeness of man, He truly humbled Himself for our salvation.  Philippians 2:7-8 tells us that He … “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

You would think that if the Divine, eternal Son was to become man, He’d come with all the glory of God. But he left that behind for our sakes. In the flesh, he did not protect Himself from our infirmities, temptations, limitations, emotions, and the like. No, indeed, He completely fulfilled what Isaiah 53:4 said about the Messiah. “Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”  But it’s not only that Jesus experienced the imperfections of humanity. He took them off of us, put them on Himself, carried them to the Cross, and died with them to be resurrected again in His perfect body. Isaiah goes on to say, “By his stripes, we are healed.” Matthew tells us that Jesus’ healing of the sick was to fulfill the passage from Isaiah. We read, “That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: He took our illnesses and bore our diseases” (Matthew 8:16-17).  It says Jesus “took our illnesses.” We, too, will be resurrected in a perfected state because Jesus took them from us.

Eternally healthy! Can you imagine? It’s an exhilarating prospect! The older I get, the more that means to me. I can’t even roll over in bed without pain anymore. I look forward to the day I can run and jump again as I did when I was young. Mills says it “…is exhilarating in the extreme by its promise to the person who knows Christ as Savior, a promise of release from the restraints of an aging, material universe and entry into a new, eternal creation, and a close relationship with God and His Son. Then, too, there is the glorious prospect of a new, immortal resurrected body, a body eternally healthy, un-aging, and without any of the physical restraints imposed by our present bodies, a body just like Jesus’ resurrection body. And added to that, God will heap glory onto that body for all the things we have done for His Kingdom during our mortal lives in this present mortal body!  Ah, my fellow believer, we face an unimaginably glorious future; may we all hasten (promote) the day of God!!”

The first word of the prayer that Jesus taught us is “Our Father who art in Heaven…” James Montgomery Boice wrote, “If we are to understand the full importance of these words, we must realize clearly that no Old Testament Jew ever addressed God directly as ‘my Father’ and that, as a result, the invocation of the Lord’s Prayer would have been something new and startlingly original to Christ’s contemporaries.” Further along in his commentary, Boice adds, “Actually, in the time of Jesus, the distance between men and God seemed to be widening, and the names of God were increasingly withheld from public speech and prayers.” Jesus broke the momentum of a religious system that focused on man’s effort and returned us to a focus on a personal relationship with God, a relationship in which we can approach God as our father. The word for father might be translated for us as “Daddy” also.

Whenever Jesus prayed, he assumed the family relationship with God as His father. He assumed a relationship with God that was foreign and alien to all of his contemporaries, as well as those who are recorded as having a connection with God in the Old Testament. He brought something new to you and me! The contemporary religious leaders, the priests, and the scribes thought that His approach to God was highly irreverent and even blasphemous. But just as he came to God as His heavenly Father, He taught us also to come to God as our heavenly Father.  This is clearly seen in his post-resurrection appearance to Mary. He boldly instructs her, “Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’ ” (John 20:17). Today, it is as God’s children that believers in the Lord Jesus Christ come to him.

Jesus instructs us to go directly to God as our heavenly father. In earlier teachings, Jesus also made it clear what we would find when we approached Him thusly.  We will always receive a warm heart, a listening ear, and a compassionate response. In Matthew 7:7-12, Jesus tells us, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.  Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” I distinctly remember a time when my father responded that way. I was about six years old and fishing at Miller Park Lagoon in north Omaha. I was using a simple line and a hook because I didn’t have a rod or a reel like the big kids at the lagoon. My Dad drove by in his work truck, and he asked how we were doing. I explained I wasn’t doing very well because I didn’t have the right equipment. He took the rest of the day off of work and took me to the hardware store on 30^th and Ames, and he got me all I needed to catch fish at that Lagoon.  When that need was made known to him, he acted immediately.

I remember when my sister bought a t-shirt that said, “When God created man . . . She was only fooling.” Robert Morey rightly observed, “The modern radical feminist movement …attempts to liberate women from being ‘oppressed’ by white, European, heterosexual males.” He continues, “Many radical feminists feel they must liberate themselves from male dominance in any form. God the Father and the entire Trinity must be either recast in feminine images or rejected altogether. This is why the typical radical feminist today dismisses the Bible as so much ‘patriarchal claptrap.’” Mary Daly suggests that the only way to liberate women truly would be the killing off of God the Father.  Eliminating the idea and language that God as “father” would somehow, liberate women. She never says how. Some Feminist Theologians are arguing, “God is neither male nor female but encompasses all things. To speak of God as male only is to limit God and commit idolatry. Gender-free language is unoffensive but does not correct the traditional concepts of the church. The majority of references to God should be feminine to counteract past traditions.”^[1]

God spoke from heaven, declaring his fatherhood of Jesus. At Jesus’ Baptism, as recorded in Matthew 3:17, God spoke from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Jesus often acknowledged God the Father.  When He taught us to pray in Matthew 6:9,  it began with “Our Father, who art in heaven.” In Matthew 11:27, Jesus said, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father…” Actually, according to Arnold Fruchtenbaum (a Messianic Jew), there are six different aspects of God “The Father.” He says they are “the Father of the Messiah, the Father of Creation, and the Father of angels, the Father of all men, the Father of Israel, and the Father of believers.” Jesus taught us to pray to “Our Father who art in Heaven.”

Surely, some fathers have irreparably marred the meaning of the term in the lives of their children, but to eliminate the thought of the “Fatherhood of God” would destroy much for men and women alike.  The scriptures always use the idea of fatherhood as it relates to God as a perfect father. In him is no flaw like in earthly fathers. James 1:17-18 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” To kill the Father would kill the one who takes care of us in our times of need (see Job 29:16).  It would eliminate the one who feeds us and clothes us and looks after our every need (see Isaiah 22:21).  It would kill the voice of wisdom because most of the Proverbs are written like a father speaking to his child. They show how to live wisely, with dignity, respect, and self-control. In human terms, there should be nothing more loving, comforting, caring, and protecting than the idea of God as our Heavenly Father.

^[1] Sailer, William, J. Creighton Christman, David C. Greulich, Harold P. Scanlin, Stephen J. Lennox, and Phillip Guistwite. 2012. Religious and Theological Abstracts. Myerstown, PA: Religious and Theological Abstracts.