Stuntman

Published in the Omaha World Herald’s “From the Pulpit”

June 12, 2022
Reverend Eric L. Jay

“Stuntman”

Actor Kevin Bacon once shared a conversation he had with his 6-year-old son after he watched his father in the movie Footloose for the first time. “Hey, Dad, you know in the movie where you swing from the rafters of that building? How did you do that?”  Kevin replied, “I didn’t do that part. It was a stuntman.”  “What’s a stuntman?” his son asked.  “That’s a guy who dresses in my clothes and does things I can’t do.”  “Oh,” the son replied. “Was it the stuntman who spun around on the gym bar and then landed on his feet?”  “Yes,” Kevin said. There was a brief silence from his son before he asked Kevin with a concerned tone of voice, “Dad, what did you do?” “I got all the glory.”

You and I may not be movie stars like Kevin Bacon, but the truth is, we all have had someone do what we can’t do. Jesus Christ was our stuntman, except what Jesus did was not a stunt or special effect. God really did leave heaven and come here to put on our flesh, being conceived by the Holy Spirit of God and born of the virgin Mary. He was truly man. He breathed our air and ate our food. He worked a common job as a carpenter. He spoke our language and wore our clothes. He felt what we feel and experienced everything we do. He even was tempted to sin as we are. Unlike us, however, Jesus perfectly overcame temptation and lived a perfectly faithful life in obedience to God His Father.

Jesus was and is God in the flesh, the Godman, perfect and righteous in every way. Though it would have been exceptionally convenient for them, even temple authorities and the Roman government couldn’t find Him guilty of a single sin. Having no sin in Himself, Jesus dressed Himself in our sin.  Christ did all the good works we fail to do. He lived with the faith we could never have. He worshiped God with all His heart, mind, soul, and strength while we turned our back on God. Christ faithfully fulfilled the will of our Gracious God and did everything needed for our salvation. He submitted Himself to God’s wrath against our sin, He exchanged His glory for our cross, covered Himself in the darkness of our tomb, with our death, only to destroy it all and instead bring forgiveness and eternal life to all who receive Jesus by faith and believe in Him.

We have done and can do nothing to save ourselves. Christ did it all, and God graciously gives us “all the glory” as if we did do it. 

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).