“No Ordinary Man”
A New Testament Narrative of Jesus
John 1:1-14
August 24, 2025
Body Prayer – I pray that I may be open to God’s Word (hands out),
that I may be receptive (hands up), that I may receive God’s Word (hands to heart),
that I may attend to God’s Word (hands extended). Amen.
The structure of this sermon is based upon “One Solitary Life” by Dr. James Allan Francis,
which was included in his 1926 book “The Real Jesus and Other Sermons.”
One Solitary Life
He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in still another village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was 30.
Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house.
He didn’t go to college. He never traveled more than 200 miles from the place He was born.
He did none of the things one usually associates with greatness.
He had no credentials but Himself.
He was only 33 when public opinion turned against Him.
His friends deserted Him.
He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. When He was dying,
His executioners gambled for His clothing, the only property He had on earth.
When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race,
the leader of humankind’s progress.
All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed,
all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together,
have not affected the life of humankind on earth as much as that One Solitary Life.
Read John 1:1-14
He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.
Young Mary travelled while she was pregnant nearly sixty miles to the village
where he was to be born. She travelled with her betrothed, Joseph, a manual laborer,
in order to fulfill a government requirement that Joseph be enrolled for taxation.
Bethlehem, or “the house of bread”, was the village where he was born.
Bethlehem sits on a hilltop just six miles from Jerusalem, the holy city,
the city of the Holy Temple.
Jerusalem was the locus of power and influence and hosted annual religious festivals;
Bethlehem was known as the hometown of King David.
Since the village of Bethlehem was crowded for the registration,
there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the local cave-dwelling
where travelers would often stay.
A gracious innkeeper made space for the couple where animals typically rested,
so that the young pregnant mother could find shelter and a place to rest.
When the child was born that night, probably sooner than the young mother had expected,
news spread through the village and across the local hills,
where shepherds still tend sheep to this day.
Several shepherds came to visit the newborn child, sure that this child was a sign of great joy.
Then, on the eighth day, as was the custom, the parents took the child to be circumcised.
The name given the child was Yeshua, Jesus, meaning “He saves”.
The child grew up in another village, Nazareth, among the hills of Galilee,
in the northern part of Israel, where his mother was raised.
As best we can tell, he was raised among the village children,
who would call out his common name while playing: “Yeshua, Yeshua.”
Yeshua, Jesus, worked in his father’s profession as a carpenter, or probably a “teknon”,
a skilled construction worker, until He was thirty years old.
Likely, Yeshua was involved in the construction of the nearby city Sepphoris,
built by Herod Antipas, a place of wealth and influence less than eight miles from his home.
Sepphoris was an important city of the region, with a mix of well-heeled Romans and Jews,
beautiful homes, government buildings, some 18 synagogues, a Roman theater,
and a Roman cardo, or main street, lined by large columns and market vendors
who sold goods from all over the known world. In Sepphoris, Jesus and his fellow laborers
would have worked hard building a variety of buildings,
been exposed to a variety of synagogues, to business people from many nations, and
to Romans and other gentile persons who held much different beliefs and practices from his own.
Many of us, on visits to Galilee, have walked that same cardo,
the main street that runs among the ruins of Sepphoris.
As a young adolescent and beyond, Yeshua participated in local synagogue worship.
He heard numerous rabbis and others read the Torah and interpret its meanings.
Like many boys of his age and religion,
he learned to read the Holy writings, memorized the laws,
and sang by heart the psalms with their familiar Hebrew melodies.
At least annually, he would walk sixty miles with other pilgrims to Jerusalem, the holy city,
for religious festivals at the Temple. There, he would worship, participate in the sacrifices,
and listen to the learned men of the day engage in theological and political debates. And,
as pilgrims still do today, he would wander wide-eyed through the busy streets of the old city.
When Yeshua discerned that his time had come, he joined others at the Jordan River
to be baptized by John, the prophet of the wilderness who was calling the people to repentance.
After his baptism, he removed himself from others for a time of prayer and discernment.
He journeyed into the wilderness where he faced powerful temptations to abandon his path,
to follow other gods. He was sorely tempted to take hold of economic power,
political power, and positional power. Each time he was tempted,
he responded by quoting scripture and remaining true to his calling.
Thereafter, Yeshua embarked upon a divine calling as a teacher, healer, and itinerant preacher.
He began his work in his hometown of Nazareth,
but when he read the scroll in his own synagogue, where many had known him for years,
and interpreted the Isaiah passage for them, the local people became so offended
that they almost threw him off of the cliff at the edge of town.
Yeshua left his hometown and family and walked to the villages near the sea of Galilee,
where for three years he taught in the synagogues and in the fields and at the lakeside.
He made his home, or at least base of operations, in Capernaum,
at the house of a local fisherman’s mother-in-law.
He gathered a group of close followers. They left their current responsibilities
and wandered with him throughout the region to many and various places,
often sleeping out of doors and depending upon the hospitality of strangers.
Yeshua spoke to thousands from the bow of a fishing boat, or on the slopes of hills,
and taught all those who would listen in the Temple courtyard of Jerusalem.
He healed many who were ill. He gave sight to some who were blind.
He opened deaf ears and gave hope to the poor, the outcast, and the oppressed.
He stepped across nearly every social boundary. He offended those who protected the status quo.
He was fearless in the face of those who sought to entrap him.
He never wrote a book. He never held an office.
As far as we know, He never had a family or owned a house.
He didn’t go to college, nor was he educated among the most learned people of the day.
Though he walked all over the land we now call Holy,
He never traveled more than 200 miles from the place He was born.
He did none of the things one usually associates with greatness.
He did not make any large sums of money.
He did not run a business or become the President of any institution.
Rather, during his itinerancy, he was supported by a generous group of women.
He had no formal organization, but a diverse group of followers from every walk of life,
some of whom were looked down upon because of their trade or their background.
He had no credentials but Himself.
But when he spoke, He did so with authority. When He taught, people listened.
His teachings were remembered by many who had ears to listen.
His miracles were emblazoned upon the hearts of those who had eyes to see.
He called Almighty God “Abba”, “Father”, and he called himself “Son of Man.”
He would remove himself from others for hours at a time or even all night long to pray,
to pray among the hills of Galilee, as he did the night before he designated twelve as disciples.
He was only 33 when public opinion turned against Him.
Though he had been wildly popular among the crowds for a while,
many drifted away when his teachings became difficult,
or when it began to be risky or dangerous to be seen with him and his disciples.
Despite the rising tensions and dangers, he made his way to the Holy City
to share in the Passover celebration. There, he sat at dinner with his closest followers
and gave them a new commandment. “Love one another”, he said, “as I have loved you.”
And when he broke the bread that night, he said, “this is my body, broken for you.”
And when he poured the cup, he said, “this represents my blood, poured out for you.
Every time you gather together and eat this bread and drink this cup, remember me.”
After the supper, he retreated to a quiet garden outside of the city walls.
There, among the olive trees, He spent the night with other pilgrims,
as he had done many times before. But this night was quite different.
There in the Garden of Gethsamane, the garden of the “oil press”,
he prayed for hours with great anquish and tears that the the cup would pass from him,
that he would not have to endure what was to come.
One of his closest followers, one of the twelve whom he had personally chosen as a disciple,
one of those with whom he had just dipped bread into a common cup,
betrayed him into the hands of the religious leaders,
who had been threatened by his presence and sought to have him silenced.
When a crowd of soldiers came to arrest him under the cover of darkness,
all His friends deserted Him. They ran away and hid from the soldiers.
That evening at the headquarters of the high priest, while one sole friend hid in the shadows,
the soldiers stripped him of his clothes, blindfolded him, beat him severely,
and mocked him as a common criminal.
They threw him down into a cold, barren pit to spend the night – alone.
The next morning he was jostled back and forth between the powerful head
of the Roman occupying forces and the local religious governing body.
Wearing a crown woven with sharp, two inch thorns and a borrowed purple cloak,
mocking the claims of his majesty, He endured a mockery of a trial,
never defending himself or asserting his innocence.
When the Roman prefect sought to release him to the people,
washing his hands before them to assert his own and the man’s innocence,
the local crowd, many of whom had sat at his feet and listened intently to his words,
rose up and called for his execution.
They shouted that a murderer be set free and that Yeshua be crucified.
Not long after, He was led by soldiers through the busy streets to just outside the high walls,
near the intersection of two main roads, and nailed to a cross between two thieves.
He hung there for hours at the garbage dump of the city, where all who passed by would see him.
The Romans soldiers posted a sarcastic but symbolic sign on his cross: King of the Jews.
While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His clothing,
the only property He had on earth.
His mother and friends watched helplessly as their beloved slowly and painfully expired.
When He had died, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
(Pause)
Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race,
the leader of humankind’s progress.
His life is the crux of the world’s calendar, delineating what was before from what came after.
All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed,
all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together,
have not affected the life of humankind on earth as much as that One Solitary Life.
The compilation of letters and gospels written about his life,
along with the ancient scriptures he knew so well,
have been the most printed book of all time and most printed book every single year
since the printing press was invented. Even with today’s technology,
we have been told that Bible apps are the most downloaded apps of all.
Kings and Queens, Presidents and Parliaments, Generals and lowly people of the street,
have bowed before his throne and reached out to him for guidance and forgiveness and healing.
The sign of his cross, and congregations of his people,
can be found in every far corner of the globe. In every place that his message took root
and formed a community in his name, the Church is still there.
He was no ordinary man; he was and is the Son of God.
Risen and present in our midst, we meet him at this Table.
We meet him when we read his story.
We meet him when we see his body, the Church, at work.
We meet him on the face of our brothers and sisters in faith.
We meet him in our prayers and receive anew his grace and forgiveness each new day.
And everywhere that desperate souls reach out for help and salvation, there he can be found.
And this poor soul, save but for the grace of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ,
would surely have wandered far astray, and been lost.
But He saved this soul, and continues to do so each new morning.
I have walked in his footsteps in Galilee, I have sought to preach his Word in his Churches,
I have received his bread and his cup at many a table, throughout the world, and I will remain,
for now and always, his servant, his follower, undeserving as I am.
I often listen to songs of faith on Sunday mornings.
This morning, I reaffirmed my faith as Lauren Daigle sang one of her heartfelt songs:
I don’t know who I’d be if I didn’t know You; I’d probably fall off the edge
I don’t know where I’d go if You ever let go; So keep me held in Your hands
You’re my safe place, my hide away, You’re my anchor, my saving grace
You’re my constant, my steadiness, You’re my shelter, my oxygen
I don’t know who I’d be if I didn’t know You
Thank God I do (Lauren Daigle, “Thank God I Do”)
He was no ordinary man; he is our Lord and our Savior,
our dearest friend, our constant companion:
Jesus of Nazareth – the Word of God made flesh, abiding among us this very hour.
To him be all glory, forever and ever. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Todd Speed
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, Georgia
