Jesus is Lord!

I was standing waist-deep in water on the balcony of the church. The pastor asked me to speak. I laughed nervously and said, “Well, when I was a child, my parents had me baptized the old-fashioned way.”

“Well, another way,” murmured Pastor Haber uncomfortably, but he allowed me to continue.

“It’s just as well,” I said, “because when I was a boy, my parents made me take swimming lessons. Bad memory there! I think of it this way: When I was a boy would I have died for Jesus? I like to think so. But would I have put my head in the water for Jesus? Definitely not.” That got a lot of laughs from the congregation.

“Glad to hear you’re past that,” said Pastor Haber. “Are you ready?”

I was ready. I took a deep breath and cried out, “Jesus is Lord!”

Then I did it. I actually got my head wet for Jesus.

Of course, I’ve heard the sentence, “Jesus is Lord,” many other times, in many other contexts, but I will always associate it the most with that day. My parents had brought me up in a good church with good priests and great Sunday School teachers, but now I wanted to take a step further. I wanted to become more then a good Catholic. I wanted to become. . .well, I guess I wanted to become someone for whom “Jesus is Lord!”

(A brief time out here:I don’t want this to essay to be read as anti-Catholic. I love the Catholic Church and I still try to attend Catholic masses as often as possible.)

So what does it mean?

Well, one of my favorite stories from the gospels is the one from the Matthew 20, where the mother of James and John asked Jesus to promise that her sons would sit at his right and left hand. Jesus replied, “. . . to sit at my right and left is not mine to give.”

The story is even darker if we consider the context. Not long afterward, Jesus was crucified and on that day, two thieves were crucified at his right and left side. This is probably what Jesus was thinking of when he made that statement. So that poor woman didn’t get her wish for her sons, but she really ought to have been happy about it.

So what does this have to have to do with Jesus being Lord? Well, one possibly obvious answer is that when a "lord" gives a feast, sitting at his right and left side is a privilege reserved for his most loyal subjects, so I guess you could say that that woman wanted her sons to think of Jesus as "Lord". Good for her. She's a model for Christian mothers, but did she really understand what it would entail?

Being a Christian can be a source of great joy. It can even be fun. A good church service can be like a great banquet in the presence of Jesus. Indeed, when you live in a country like the United States where there are so many Christians, one can take the joy for granted. Unfortunately, there are still quite a few people hostile to Jesus in this world which means that it isn't always fun.

Right now, I live in the People's Republic of China, where religion is largely frowned upon, to the point that, "Oh my Lady Ga-Ga!" is spoken instead of, "Oh my God!" The Chinese are fascinated, and often delighted by American festivals and holidays, so one of my coworkers asked about the upcoming Easter. She even suggested that I teach a lesson on how it's celebrated at the school. Then, another Chinese teacher asked about the origins of Easter. I sighed, because we had been talking about bunny rabbits and candy eggs up to that point. I explained it to her in as few words as possible. It caused an awkward pause in the conversation.

The truth is there are times when I am afraid to call Jesus my Lord, and I'm not even in danger of being crucified for it. But Christianity is sometimes a burden.

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