Sermon Tone Analysis

The Towel of Jesus

/John 12:12-16/ 12The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.

13They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna!"

"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Blessed is the King of Israel!" 14Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, 15"Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt."

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*Images of Christ have been crafted for ages, icons and portraits that attempt to put us face to face with our Lord.

But what is Jesus really like?*

What did Jesus look like?

\\ \\ A laughing, short-bearded Jesus with dirty blond hair and blue eyes?

\\ \\ What about an African Jesus?

\\ \\ Or a clean-shaven Jesus, arms outstretched at the Last Supper?

\\ \\ Or an Asian Jesus with his Asian mother at his side?

\\ \\ Take your pick.

\\ \\ Picture the face of Jesus in your imagination.

What do you see?

Does he have an aquiline nose?

Hair the color of walnut wood, parted in the middle, hanging straight to the ears, maybe turning to waves down to his shoulders?

\\ \\ Does he have a dark beard, dark eyes, tanned olive skin, high cheekbones, a narrow, handsome face filled with passion and kindness, and in his dark eyes, fire and compassion?

\\ \\ Is this how you picture him?

Is this his true likeness?

\\ \\ Many centuries ago, an icon of Jesus was painted with these very familiar features.

It is called The Mandylion Icon, from the Greek, meaning The Towel.

Orthodox Christian tradition claims this icon as the first painting of Jesus.

It is believed to be an accurate representation of his true likeness.

\\ \\ In the writings of the Ante-Nicene Fathers there’s a story of how The Mandylion Icon came to be: The fame of Jesus, the wonder worker and healer, had spread far beyond the lands of Judea, where he taught and worked and walked.

Across the Euphrates River, in the city of Edessa — believed to be the modern southeastern Anatolian city of Sanliurfa in Turkey — lived a governor named Abgarus who suffered from an incurable disease that neither herbs nor doctors could heal.

Hearing of Jesus’ miracles, Abgarus wrote him a letter, as recorded by Eusebius: \\ \\ /To Jesus called Christ, Abgarus the governor of the country of the Edessenes, an unworthy slave.

The multitude of the wonders done by you has been heard of by me, that you heal the blind, the lame and the paralytic, and cure all the demoniacs; and on this account I entreat your goodness to come even to us, and escape from the plottings of the wicked authorities who hate you.

My city is small, but large enough for both of us./ \\ \\ Abgarus convinced Ananias to deliver the letter and, while in Judea, to take an accurate account of Jesus — his appearance, his stature, his hair and his words.

Ananias delivered the letter to Jesus, then stared at Jesus, trying to fix in his mind the face of Christ.

Try though he did, Ananias couldn’t memorize the countenance of Jesus.

Jesus, knowing Ananias’ heart, asked a disciple for a wash towel.

A wet cloth was handed to him.

He wiped his face on the towel, then gave it to Ananias.

On the towel was the very image of the face of Christ.

A miracle! \\ \\ “Take this towel to Abgarus,” said Jesus, “and tell him I cannot come, for I must fulfill my destiny here, but later I will send my disciple, Thaddaeus, to heal him.”

Ananias fell to the ground and worshiped Jesus, then returned to Abgarus in Edessa, who was healed by means of the miraculous towel long before Thaddaeus arrived.

\\ \\ Orthodox tradition claims that it was from this Towel of Edessa that the first ancient icon of Jesus, The Mandylion Icon, was later painted, which became a prototype for the faces of Jesus down through the centuries.

\\ \\ ~*~*~*Scripture teaches that we are made in God’s image, but often enough we remake Jesus as a reflection of our own image — projecting ourselves onto him.

It isn’t just his features we reimagine.

At times we reimagine and misunderstand his character, too.

\\ \\ We aren’t the only ones who do this.

His true likeness, his character, has always been difficult to capture — even for those who knew him personally.

When Jesus was with his friends, teaching, laughing, drinking wine and eating bread, visible, touchable and knowable, even then, he was rarely seen or understood for who he was.

\\ \\ On the day of the big festival when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, everyone present seemed to misunderstand who he was and where he was headed.

Thus began a week in which the world, finally gaining a true likeness of him, finally understanding him to a certain degree, decided they didn’t like what they saw, preferring to put him away, permanently.

\\ \\ The adoring crowd expected a conquering king who could restore Israel’s ancient greatness, throwing off the weight of Roman servitude.

What they got was a humble servant Savior.

\\ \\ The religious authorities thought he was a dangerous, riot-rousing rebel who’d lead the people astray.

Little did they know that by killing him, he would become far more powerful, leading generations to God. \\ \\ So what is the character and true likeness of Jesus?

\\ Throughout the week to come, \\ • We’ll see Jesus righteously indignant at the materialism of the temple.

\\ • We’ll witness him overturn tables while simultaneously turning the table-owning merchants against him.

\\ • We’ll watch Jesus challenge his disciples while he faces their betrayal.

\\ • We’ll see him prayerful in the garden, desiring not to fulfill his destiny, but knowing he must.

\\ • And finally we’ll see him demonstrating sacrificial love on Friday.

\\ \\ This and more is the true likeness of Jesus.

\\ \\ The danger is that we, like the disciples, like the crowds of Jerusalem and the religious leaders, might be among those who “did not understand these things, Who did not see them clearly at first” (John 12:16).

\\ \\ They “did not understand.”

They did not understand — what?

\\ \\ /[NOTE: Here’s the part where you can drop in your own ideas.

The following is what we suggest.]/

\\ \\ They didn’t understand humble service.

Jesus whipped out his towel and washed the feet of the disciples (see John 13).

It blew them away.

The disciples had continually bickered about their pride of place in the coming kingdom.

Even at the Last Supper, only days after his entry into Jerusalem, the disciples of Jesus were still arguing about who among them was the greatest.

It’s totally unreal: They have just eaten the bread and shared the cup, and a fight breaks out (Luke 22:24).

They didn’t get it.

\\ \\ They didn’t understand sacrificial love.

Jesus told them, “I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

At this, those in his hearing thought he was stark, raving mad (John 10:20 NIV).

He would later say to his disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 NIV).

\\ \\ They didn’t understand his redemptive mission.

He had come, he reminded his disciples, “not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32 KJV).

\\ \\ There’s more.

They didn’t understand his welcoming compassion.

While his heart broke for the multitudes, his disciples tried to send them away.

They didn’t understand intercessory prayer.

They had to ask Jesus how to pray.

They didn’t understand the cost of discipleship; Jesus had to teach them the meaning of self-denial.

\\ \\ On Palm Sunday they didn’t understand him.

They didn’t get it during the week, either.

On Maundy Thursday, they understood him even less.

On Good Friday — they gave it up, going home to return to their previous occupations.

They had yet to perceive the true likeness of Jesus.

They had seen the towel in action, but — unlike its effect on Abgarus — they had not seen a likeness of Jesus.

\\ It was just a towel.

True Disciples, are those who bear the True Likeness of Christ.

Are we up to the task?

How are we doing?

We are the sermons people hear.

We are God’s art, God’s way of showing Jesus to others.

\\ \\ *Participation pointers:* \\ • The Procession of Children.

Purchase palm branches (available through Christian bookstores or many secular flower shops), put one in the hand of each of the Sunday school children, and create a processional to open worship.

The branches can be placed on the altar or in some other designated place.

\\ \\ Source: \\ Ante-Nicene Fathers, Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College, ccel.org~/fathers2.

Retrieved October 18, 2002.

\\ “Icons through the centuries,” American Bible Society Web site, americanbible.org.

Retrieved October 18, 2002.

\\ Interview with Protopresbyter George Dion Dragas, Th.M., Ph.D., Tenured Professor of Church History and Dogmatics, Hellenic College, Brookline, Massachusetts, editor of Greek Orthodox Theological Review, gdragas@aol.com.