A couple of years ago Rev. Martin Copenhaver, of Wellesley Congregational Church, preached on this same passage. He had been to a pastor's seminar where Michael Greene from Britain, a scholar of the history of evangelism, had challenged a group of pastors with "When is the last time you told your congregation what Jesus means to YOU?" Later Pastor Copenhaver wrote in his study "As a pastor I talk a good deal about Jesus, but do I say what Jesus means to me?" He decided he would try to do just that.

In his sermon he said, "As a pastor in the UCC our forebears in the faith worried that they might be taken for heretics. Today we UCC people seem to be more worried about being taken for fundamentalists." So in personal, devotional terms Pastor Copenhaver tried to tell his people what Jesus Christ meant to him. Evidently the sermon was quite a personal testimony. After the service Pastor Copenhaver noticed a dear lady whom he respected. She came past to shake his hand, and could not speak. So she went around and came past again, to give herself time to compose herself. When she finally came the second time she simply said, "Why didn't you tell us this before?"

Copenhaver wrote: "I did not know how to respond. Now her question, along with Michael Greene's, continues to haunt me."