New Thoughts (02/07/12-02/16/12)
What a timely passage to be reading in these days! That first verse is one of those that I really need to internalize. You believe in God, believe in Me! Of course, this requires a great deal more than simply believing in them. To take James’ point, “You believe God is one? Marvelous. So do the demons, though it causes them to shudder” (Jas 2:19). Even mental acceptance of the truths He declares falls short. I am reminded, as it comes up in one of the parallel verses, of that conversation Jesus had with Martha. There, He had spoken of the assurance of resurrection life, and Martha had responded, in effect, “Yes, I know all about that, Jesus. But, he’s still dead, isn’t he?” The key thought from that encounter has always been that question Jesus appended to His truth, “Do you believe this?” Indeed, I always tend to hear it with this stressed. It’s well and good that you believe in general, but do you believe this?
You believe in God, but do you believe this? Do you believe to the point that you trust Him inherently whatever the situation? Can you, with the same confidence as David held, say, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me” (Ps 23:4)? Do you possess that mindset that doesn’t just say, but actually knows that though a thousand may be falling on your right, and ten thousand to your left, it shall not approach you because the Lord is your refuge and your dwelling place (Ps 91:7-9)? Indeed, the question would seem to be is He your dwelling place, or just a passing thought?
Listen, I am doing nothing more or less than interrogating myself in all of this. Quite simply, if this is my reality, and not just a happy philosophical moment, then that issue of a troubled heart should not, and would not be an issue. “Perfect love casts out fear,” John wrote later (1Jn 4:18). “One who fears is not perfected in love.” This is Truth. And, I hold that if there is a perfect love, it is assuredly that of the One Who IS Love. His love is perfect, and it forces fear and anxiousness to flee before it. His love is poured out into me, into you. Yet, we tend to hold it more like a sieve than like a cistern. Oh, that love is not for us to grasp possessively, that’s not the point. But, it needs to be retained all the same. We need to be filled to the brim and beyond with His love, that we can possess the strength of faith, the trust of Truth, to defeat these fearful anxieties before ever they gain hold on us!
Love is the antidote to fear, but it is the antidote because love is inseparable from the faith, the belief that Jesus is speaking of here. If we’re all about faith as some muscle we have to exercise, or some power we must wield, then our faith is unlikely to hold up against the trials of life. This is, I believe, part of the problem faced by the whole faith movement. It makes faith an act of the man rather than an act of God, and once the action is back in my hands, I dare say I have my doubts as to the outcome. I am entirely fallible. I am weak and vacillating in my resolve. It is God Who is my rock, and not I His.
There’s a song from Circleslide, which I shall doubtless misquote horribly at this hour, but it speaks along the lines of, “What if I told you I’m pummeled by doubts, saturated by weakness?” Oh! This is how I feel so often, of late! Every Saturday morning, when it’s time to pretend I can still balance the books, there it is! Why, just look at that lovely red number on the bottom line this week. Isn’t that comforting?
But, I’ll tell you this (OK, I’ll tell me this). The troubler of my soul made a misstep! That lovely red number was almost exactly the value of the tithe check I was to write out. Ah, but we’ve been here before! Indeed, it was a parallel situation that set my heart to tithe in the first place. Who you gonna trust? The Government, or God? Who’s got your back? Oh, yeah.
My, but I’d love to tell you my heart was no longer troubled, but that’s not the reality. That little battle was won, but oh! I am indeed tossed by doubts constantly of late. There’s just too much. Too much. Let not your hearts be troubled? Please! Tell you what, You deal with it. I’m too stirred up, too anxious, too distressed. Things are falling apart all around me, people are falling apart, and though I have the responsibility to deal with it, I’m in no position to do anything! But, I’m the man of the house! I have to do something. But, I haven’t anything useful I can do. But I have to. But I can’t. Sounds like faith, doesn’t it?
But, here, as absurd as it sounds on the face of it, is the answer: You believe in God. Nay, make that not a statement of dubious validity. Make it a command. There is, apparently debate amongst the scholars as to which way it was expected to be read, but right now, command seems more compelling to me. “Believe in God. Trust Him. Concur with His declarations and put your confidence in His Wisdom and Power.” That’s fundamental to the problem, isn’t it? Where’s my confidence? In me? I should know better! In my country? Not these days. (But, I shan’t be getting into that now, it’s a distraction). My confidence, if it is in me, where I tend to think it must be for lack of options, is wholly and utterly misplaced. “Apart from Me, you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). Yes, Lord, I know that. I just don’t really believe it.
Now, there’s a juxtaposition to think about. “Apart from Me, you can do nothing. Do you believe this?” Therein lies the problem. I’m still convinced I can fix it all. I can make it right. I have to, because nobody else is going to do it for me. It’s “The American Way!” ™ Yes, but it’s not the Truth. “Place your confidence in God, and in Me.” After all, I and My Father are One. You really cannot trust one of Us without the Other, for we are inseparable, perfect in Unity. Trust Us/Me. Ah! That there was a personal pronoun suited to that Triune reality of God’s Being!
There is this to bear in mind, as well, and to internalize as best I may: That command is not a one shot. It’s not a get yourself to that place of trust once and all this anxiousness can be done away with forever command. There is no ‘happily ever after’ attached to that trust, not this side of heaven, anyway. No: It’s a command to active and repetitive effort. It is as if Jesus, seeing the depth of fear and confusion already upon His followers, and knowing it would only get worse tomorrow, has given them this most marvelous of instructions: “Make it your habit to trust God and to trust Me.”
Make it your habit! Somehow, we’ve gotten in our minds that we can trust Him every now and again, when things are particularly dark, and that’s enough. Or, we may well be of that contingent that was pretty certain that one moment of trust when we came forward and recited the sinner’s prayer or whatever was it. Everything was a guaranteed cakewalk from that point. Certainly, there are those who try and sell us this bill of goods. But, it’s a false hope, a false panacea, and the only guarantee is our disappointment. Jesus, on the other hand, promotes a real solution, if we will but take it to heart: Make it your habit to trust Us/Me. After all, They/He have a habit of demonstrating their infallible trustworthiness!
It might be acceptable to hear that first half as stating an established habit, as the Living Bible provides, “You are trusting God, now trust in Me.” Maybe. It certainly gives some encouragement to hear it thus. It’s a recognition, for these guys, that they would never have managed the last three years if they hadn’t that first habit of trust. Well, then, this is just building on the foundation you already have!
But, it’s not enough to simply say you trust. It’s not enough to speak of the hope you have in Him with no more conviction than you speak of your hope for a nice, sunny day tomorrow. I have a whole list of things I hope I can accomplish today, and even more that I would prefer to accomplish, but have no reason to suppose I shall. The fact is, however, that in both cases, I have zero foundation for pretending certainty. But, that’s how we think about hope. I hope so and so will like the present I bought. I hope I get a raise some day. I hope I get to work with that group again. It’s nothing but wishful thinking, and well do we know it. But, the hope we have in Christ is something completely different: It’s absolute certainty because it is founded not upon our desires and preferences, but on His promises, which cannot fail.
And that is the fundamental cause we have to make it our habit to trust Him. How often must He prove Himself to us in order for us to get it through our heads that He will always prove Himself? We need go back no further than the previous lesson to recognize that this is the point Jesus is emphasizing throughout. You remember when I sent you out without any visible preparation, no thought even permitted as to your provision? How did that work out? You didn’t have the slightest problem, did you? No. So, now the rules are changing, but My instructions to you are every bit as trustworthy as they were before. I have not changed. No, nor ever shall! That message is continuing in the rest of the passage at hand. Having laid out the fundamental need they had – Trust Me! – He now proceeds to make a case for that continuing trust.
This is one thing I dearly love about my Lord: He never, NEVER asks for blind faith. When He asks for our confidence to be in Him, it is no false confidence He asks for, but an acceptance of the preponderance of evidence. Indeed, if we will but consider the truth of our own history, there is no evidence to the contrary. He is trustworthy, and the only reason we fail to make trusting Him our habit is because we are fallen creatures, and more inclined to listen to our own foolish counsel than to submit ourselves to Wisdom from on high. Blame it on the devil if you like, but in truth you have none but yourself to blame for accepting whatever influence he may have sought to exercise against you. Make trusting God your habit.
Here that, oh heart! Shut down that pipeline of doubts. Get over yourself and get back to the Lord, to your Provider. Remember what you have forgotten and strengthen what remains. Oh, my God! How I have needed this reminder. Thank You that You have allowed me to see and to recognize the problem. Now, Lord, I pray You so work and will within me that this habit You command will indeed become my habit. Work this stuff down from my thoughts to my being. I need You, Lord. I need this habitual trust, particularly in those moments when everything is falling apart. Keep me mindful, Holy One, that I am nothing in this exercise, and You are all. Please, Lord, grant me to value my own brilliance less highly, and to seek Yours more consistently.
Having established the call for confidence, Jesus proceeds to set forth yet another basis upon which confidence can be established. As He speaks of the rooms He is preparing in His Father’s house, He is painting an image of the young groom preparing for his wedding day. To be a groom, that young man must already be betrothed, and we should recognize that betrothal was a much more serious and binding proposition than our conception of the engagement. An engagement can be ended with little more than the optional returning of the ring. A betrothal required writ of divorce to terminate. The wedding day was, then, less significant in legal terms, although surely significant to the bride and groom, as well as their family.
Part of the legal (or cultural) requirements for the wedding day was that the groom must have demonstrable means of supporting his wife. This would include employment of some form, but it also included having provided a home for the couple. Most often, this new home would consist of an addition onto the paternal home, a new wing for the new family. That’s a tradition that many in the West were at one time familiar with. We look with wonder at the size of some of the older houses around New England and the Mid-Atlantic, thinking the family that built it must have been wealthy. But, in reality, those houses were often built generation upon generation, expanding as the family expanded. It is only our more mobile lifestyle that has made such concepts seem so foreign.
I have the boon of having lived in just such an arrangement, in a homestead that had been in the family for centuries. My grandparents lived on one floor, and we on another. In an earlier time, it might be expected that at least one of us from my generation would likewise have wed, and perhaps added onto the house to make a place for ourselves. Or, perhaps, we might have simply put up another house on the family property. But, we no longer live the sort of life that keeps us in the same town as our forebears. We have taken to seeing the continent, moving where the jobs are, or where the climate is more favorable, or simply getting away from our childhood ghosts as best we may.
But, the image Jesus is painting is very much from that setting. I go to prepare a place for you. And where does He go to do this thing? To His Father’s house. It’s a pronouncement, if we will hear it. It’s a pronouncement that the betrothed is soon to become the wedded. This echoes in the comment He makes in verse 3. “If I am going to make the house ready, you can be absolutely certain I’m coming back to get you!” It’s the final step, the only thing needful before we can be wed in full. I’ve waited long years for this moment, for we were betrothed in our youth! But, the time is come. The final preparations are being made. I’ve just got to get that last bit done, and we can be together forever, My beloved. Let not your heart be troubled! I’ll be back for you, you can count on it.
That’s the message Jesus is delivering. The NET makes the comment that this passage in some ways indicates ‘the present reality of eternal life’. Sadly, they choose not to expound upon the point, merely note it’s potential. On the one hand, we can very clearly see that this present life has little enough of heaven in it. Whatever, then, that experience of eternal life as present reality may be, it is not a removal from the trials and tribulations of earthly life. Nor ought we really to expect any such thing, for the One Who goes to prepare is Himself that very eternal Life, and yet, He did not live among us as one removed from the trials and tribulations common to man, but rather faced every one of them. He not only faced them, He overcame them.
Yet, there is a sense of this eternal life that permeates our thinking in its better moments. Indeed, that very sense of trust and confidence that I have been pondering the last few days is founded upon the present reality of eternal life, if not the present experience of it. It is that present reality that fuels the martyrs. If death is but a promotion into that heavenly place Jesus has prepared, what’s to fear? Indeed, it has lost its sting (1Co 15:55). Indeed, this is the power behind Paul’s bold question, “If God is for us, who can oppose us?” (Ro 8:31). They can try, to be sure, and they do. But, can they succeed, if God has said they will not? The answer ought to be patently obvious.
This line of thinking, along with some cross-pollination from Table Talk, has me wondering just what sort of preparation it is that Jesus is talking about. It’s not a construction issue. “My Father’s house has many rooms.” There’s no need to add on. Yet, there’s a need to prepare a place for you. Are we talking interior decoration? A trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond? Clearly not. If, however, we look at a more immediate event, as measured from the point of this conversation, perhaps there is a clue.
The event most impinging upon Jesus’ thoughts at this point is clearly the matter of the Cross. He knows it’s coming, and He knows it’s coming tomorrow. He also knows why, and what will be accomplished by His death. Without His death upon that cross, there can be no place in heaven for us, for our guilt would render such a thing impossible. God will not tolerate the presence of sin, and we are sinful from birth – from conception (Ps 51:5). That’s not just David’s story. It’s the story of all of us. So, it occurs to me that the act of Atonement that Jesus was about to undergo was very much an act that prepared a place for us in heaven. This act of Atonement was itself foreshadowed in the Mosaic code. It is there in the sacrificial system. The one making offering shall “lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf” (Lev 1:4).
Given that the whole of the Levitical code was largely a type of the heavenly order, and the plan of redemption, it should not challenge us to accept the parallels between this burnt offering for atonement, and the once-for-all offering of Jesus for atonement. This sense of foreshadowing was explained by the author of Hebrews. In particular, that text speaks of the sprinkling of blood by which the first tabernacle and its vessels were cleansed for use. He proceeds with this point, “According to that Law, you could go so far as to say that blood cleanses everything, and that without the shed blood, there can be no forgiveness” (Heb 9:21-24). He makes a connection from this point, that if the earthly tabernacle, which was but a copy of the real tabernacle in heaven, and its utensils, which were likewise but earthly representations of heaven’s reality, required cleansing, then the heavenly realities typified by these elements required cleansing as well, and with a better sort of sacrifice than mere bulls and lambs. Then, he closes it out with this point, “For Christ didn’t enter that earthly Holy Place made by the hand of man. He entered heaven itself, now He appears there in God’s own presence on our behalf” (Heb 9:24). I go to prepare a place… Is it acceptable to consider that these two points are one?
It seems reasonable to me. Here, He speaks of it in terms of preparing a permanent home for us. That home could not be made permanent apart from the penalty of our sins being met, that penalty which is death on the same eternal scale as our crimes. So, He goes to make everything ready, to pay off our debt to heaven in full. And thus, we arrive at the point John the Baptist made much nearer the beginning of this three year mission. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (Jn 3:36 – NASB). To trust Him; to be confident in the power of His atonement; to know that He has made the way for us, that He is the Way: If we are in this position, it is because He has made it so in us. He has brought faith, imparted His truth and opened our ears to hear it. Where He has done so, it is a thing most certain that He has established that eternal life in us, that we are numbered among those for whom He made preparations, and that He will be coming to get us. We are His bride. It’s not like He’s going to forget about us! No, no. He’s coming back.
With this imagery of the marriage of the Lamb before my mind’s eye, I am reminded that Jesus inaugurated His ministry in the midst of a wedding party. What was the scene of His first miracle? It was a wedding feast. This is not the betrothal, but the consummation. Bride and groom are newly minted as husband and wife, and the proud parents are rejoicing for all they’re worth. These wedding feasts, if I understand correctly, could go on for days. In the case of this wedding in Cana, it had gone long enough that the wine was running out, and Mary pressed her son – ever so gently – to do something about it (Jn 2:1-11). Now, an interesting thought hits me. Jesus’ comment when Mary notes the lack of wine, is, “My hour has not yet come” (Jn 2:4). I have generally understood this to be His way of saying that it wasn’t time to start His ministry yet, and I have heard it taught that this scene demonstrates Jesus’ obedience to parents in accord with the Law. It wasn’t time and yet, because His mother asked, He acted.
But, that’s not it at all! Indeed, to obey parents in such degree as would counter God’s command is as great a sin as to use our self-righteous efforts on God’s behalf as an excuse to dishonor our parents. No, it’s unthinkable that sinless Jesus would thus sin against God by pushing the schedule forward. If He wouldn’t do it with Satan egging Him on, I don’t think Mary’s little comment was going to break His will. No, I think that comment should perhaps be heard in light of His own marriage feast. Think upon that comment earlier in the course of this last dinner with His disciples: “I shall not drink wine again, until I drink it with you in heaven” (Mt 26:29). When shall that be? At the marriage of the Lamb! But, here Mary’s hinting that maybe Jesus could make some wine for these nice folks, or at least that’s the way we’re generally led to hear this exchange.
There’s a problem with that. Mary makes no request, only an observation. Further, apart from the nature of His birth, she has no reason to suppose there’s anything Jesus could do to change the situation. John tells us this was the beginning of His signs (Jn 2:11). It was the first miracle He had performed, so why would Mary be asking Him to do one? On what basis? If it had been God Himself standing beside her, do we really suppose she would be saying, Gee, God, they’re out of wine. Shouldn’t You fix that for them? I don’t think so. I think it more likely that she was merely commenting on the situation, with about as much spiritual significance as we might put into noting that the shrimp cocktail had run out. It happens that, unbeknownst to her, she has touched upon a matter dearer to her Son’s heart than she knew.
The Son of God, I begin to see, came into this earthly life in part to be betrothed to us. It can surely be argued that this betrothal took place long before He made His human appearance. But, here He was meeting His bride to be. He was beginning the real courtship, if you will. He was establishing the schedule for His own wedding day. “My hour has not yet come,” He tells His mother. This isn’t My wedding, and it’s not My responsibility. Nevertheless, compassion moves Him to act, and somehow, yes, Mary senses that this will be the case, as she tells the servants to heed her Son. Trust Him. Well, she had been treasuring those birth messages in her heart these last thirty years or so. She did know He was special.
My point remains, though, that Jesus purposefully inaugurates His ministry at a wedding, and it is His own wedding that shall be the scene at its consummation. When all has been said and done, when every preparation has been completed, not just by Jesus in heaven, but by His bride on the earth, when she has anointed herself with precious oils, cleansed away all the grime of the day, and adorned herself with the finest jewels of righteousness, then He will be coming to take her in final procession to the wedding feast His Father has prepared. Then, He shall be able to say, “My hour is good and truly come!”
Interesting though this possible connection is, its value for me lies in the implications of this preparation Jesus is doing. Of course, for its value to be appropriated, I must accept that these words apply not only to the disciples there in the moment, but to myself as well. That seems a safe enough assumption. It is of a piece with that Life He is, and which He imparts to those who believe. The pieces are inseparable, as we see in the claim He lays out in verse 6. But, just now, I want to remain in this wedding motif a bit longer. See, if He is going to make a place well, what does that make me? If He is the groom, and that place is prepared on my behalf, I must necessarily be the spouse. This thought ought to thoroughly overwhelm us, more so even than it may have overwhelmed the Apostles.
Just consider that for a moment. They were still looking forward, still discovering this Man, still grappling with the idea of just what it meant to be the Son of God. It had been established as a suitable phrase, but the evidence shows they were still working on understanding what it meant. If they had a real grasp on that, they would have responded differently as events unfolded, I should think. If they really comprehended that He was God in person, could they really suppose His death could be achieved? One must tread carefully with this thought, for He surely did die, and He died in full physical form as a human. Yet, His deity could no wise die, for had He died in that regard, He is no God at all. How, after all, could the very embodiment of Life eternal come to an end? It’s simply not possible for eternality to have an end. The one precludes the other.
I stress this matter of grasping Who He is because we have the exact same issue. At least, I do. If I really and truly understood all that He is, how incalculable His power and glory, how must I react to news that He has called me – me! – His friend, and more than that, His spouse. It is unimaginable. Honestly, start considering that concept in the frame of God revealed. God, the All-Powerful Creator and Permanent Lord of the Universe says, that I, this lowly, entirely fallible man, drenched even still in sin, am a friend of His! Who could imagine? Who could have predicted such a thing? Who would accept its truth if they heard it. They know me. They know Him. What possible reason would they have for suspecting this truth?
God? Your friend? Right. Just look at you. Oh, and you say He’s betrothed Himself to you? Please! I thought you’d given up those drugs, but that’s about as hallucinatory a position as one could ever hope to hear. More likely the bride of Frankenstein, than of God, buddy. A much better match, that. And, really, if we but put a bit of honest assessment to the situation, you know what? It sounds equally improbable from where we sit. You’re right. It’s unthinkable. I can’t imagine what would lead Him to say such things. It’s certainly nothing in me, is it? Heh. Oh, yes, I’m sure I make a most tantalizing prospect for One so far and beyond me.
I think of those things He has said to others amongst His friends. My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are on a much higher plane than yours. You can’t even imagine (Isa 55:8-9)! And yet, He calls us friend and beloved spouse. Well, they say opposites attract, but this seems like it’s a bit too opposite to last, doesn’t it? Indeed, it does, and I fear I know my wandering eye too well. I see my identification with Israel and Judah, forever straying from this Beloved, forever betraying the contracted marriage. Yet, He comes back. Like Hosea, He refuses to give up on us. He sees that we still don’t comprehend the nature of His love for us, and so He keeps demonstrating it over and over again, until we get it. Until I get it.
My own beloved wife speaks of a similar, though infinitely lesser experience of this in our own marriage. And for this, I must surely praise my God for granting me the character to demonstrate His character in this regard. Though my love remains strong and constant, it took her long years to accept that there were no strings attached, no conditions required to keep that love present. It truly was a love for better or for worse. Sickness was not going to chase me off. Odd and challenging necessities of life in her regard were not going to make me give up and pack it in. Oh, we have our stresses and our arguments. You can count on that. But, they have nothing to do with our love. They are just response to stimuli when life gets overwhelming, or when her ways are not mine, nor my ways hers. Clash of Titans. But, she’s seen me steadfast in this regard, and eventually, that steadfastness makes its point better than words ever can.
That’s precisely how God’s working with us, methinks. We have trouble grasping the reality, the solidity of His love for us. After all, it hardly makes sense that He should love us so. And yet, He does. And yet, however many times we as much as spit in His face with our lack of response to that love, He doesn’t give up. We get ugly, He just gets the more resolved to love us through it. We rebel, He patiently waits us out while we have our little fit, and then embraces us when we come back. Amazing, that love.
Having been reminded recently of that David Crowder song about how He loves us, the chorus continues to resonate as it did back when we used to play it. The verse is still cringe-worthy in spots, but the chorus somehow manages to capture the wonder of this relationship we’re in, He and I, even though the words are exceedingly simple. He loves me! Oh! How He loves me! That’s pretty much it, and as poetry and prose go, it ain’t much. But, as my spirit within me hears it, that reality seeps in, the marvel of it creeps up on me and really! It just whelms like a tide sweeping in on the beach of my situation.
Listen! Be reminded, O, my soul! He calls me His friend. He speaks of me as a best friend. And then, He’s just getting started. He calls me His beloved, He speaks with longing of the day when all these preparations are over and we are full and truly wed! God says this! It’s not (and pardon the imagery, but I’m a man, after all) as though some gorgeous and sensitive woman had expressed her willingness, nay, her desire to be wed to me, to bear my children. Truly, were I still of an age and situation to be thus pursued, I dare say such a prospect would put me near to fainting as well as stirring up a depth of hunger to see that prospect made real. And that’s just some other bit of flesh I’m talking about. But, I’ve got something so much greater than that as my prospect. God Himself has expressed His unending love for me, His yearning desire to see me into His own family, at His side forever. Wonder of wonders! Miracle of miracles! And, to add to the impossible dream of it all, it’s not just a prospect. It’s not just one of myriad possible outcomes. It’s sealed! It’s not a dream, it’s a certainty!
My God, my Jesus! My best friend, for so You have established it! If Your mother Mary was so thoroughly overwhelmed by the prospect of bearing You as to wonder, “How can this be?” Surely, I ought feel at least as overwhelmed. And yet, I surely feel the security of Your unfailing love, backing that proclamation. “I call you friend.” I am beyond honored, Lord. “You are My betrothed, and I have the house ready for us.” Much as I want to, Lord, much as I grasp the implications, it seems to remain beyond me to really feel the full impact of that Truth. Yet, I know You are True. As You told the disciples, if it were not Truth, You would not say it. So, it is True. I am not only Your friend, but Your bride, and that place stands prepared.
Oh, my Jesus, my Love! There are times, to be sure, when I’m longing for that day to come soon. Yet, I confess that as often as not, those times are due more to the stress and ugliness of the present than to the joy set before me. But, I want it so. I want, God, more than I can really sort out at the moment, to be dwelling upon that joy You have set before me, rather than the course I must take on my way to You. How hard it is, my Dear, to be mindful that this world is not my home. I know it. I feel it. And yet, I don’t. I love this world You made, even in its present, terrible state. I love this life You’ve granted me, these ones You have set as my family, and these others amongst whom You have set me in this season. Yes, the believers and the unbelievers alike, You have set me in a pleasant place, for all its challenges. Yet, it is not my home, and my flesh oft-times forgets that, oft-times forgets You, or tries to. But, I can’t forget You. You are my true Love, my only true Love.
How marvelous it is, then, to know that this promise You gave still stands. You will return. The end is certain. I shall be there, in Your house for all eternity. I shall have infinitely more time to be with You than I have spent apart. I shall know endless days of wedded bliss with You, more than enough to make the present toils and uncertainty a long forgotten dream. Oh, God! Though it sometimes seems a dream still, yet I know. My trust is in You. I just tend to forget it in the heat of the moment. You are my Rock, my strong Tower, my Safety, and my Love. I shall not spoil the point now, but presenting a laundry list of wants and needs. My Beloved, my Husband, I shall be pleased to have told You of my love for You, and leave off on that thought. Oh, to be carried away in that thought for the day or days ahead!
All my love, Lord.
Your anxious bride.
[02/11/12] This is a theme that just doesn’t want to let go of me. There’s dual aspects to the thoughts provoked by this promise. “I’m going to prepare for you, and having done so, I will come back to take you to Myself to be with Me.” Wow! There is, particularly in the power of that marriage imagery, so great a cause for wonder. He’s coming back for me! He cares that much! He wants to take me not just into His home, but as His partner. He wants me! If this fails to hit you as something inconceivable, then I dare say you think far too much of yourself. To be wanted by God, to be selected out for Him to be His spouse: It’s so infinitely beyond my station, so utterly unlikely and unthinkable that it floors me to really think about the fact that it’s true.
I wonder if this isn’t at least a part of what we should take away from Esther’s experience. Certainly, there is that fundamental point about being useful to God, obedient to His timing. But, there’s also that aspect of the unbelievable nature of her becoming queen. Who could have expected this? She, the humble foreign daughter of a generally distrusted race. He, the mightiest, most prestigious man in the local universe. What cause had he to take her for more than a concubine, if that? Yet, here she was, not his equal, but his well-loved spouse. Here she was in the courts of royalty, royalty herself. Even in childhood fantasy, such a thing had never been imagined.
Carry that last thought back to our situation. Never in our childhood fantasies did we conceive of such a notion as that God would be taking us into His own family. Maybe we dreamed of being kings and queens, of having castles and domains and minions and whatnot. But, to be on the board in heaven? No, I think not. To be the Lord’s consort? Wow! We never even had thought that there might be such a thing, certainly not with some mere mortal filling the role. And yet, this is more or less what is set before us. To be certain, the position is nothing so crass as a consort. No. It’s a promise of a most intimate and personal relationship with this Jesus Who is our Lord and our Savior and our King.
It is simultaneously a promise of eternal fidelity. This is Faithful and True Who has taken our hand in marriage, Whose Father has chosen us out as His bride. Think again on that! Recall to mind that these marriages were generally arranged affairs, the parents negotiating and selecting the partners long before they reached marriageable age. That’s us! We were yet as infants, if not physically so, when Father God came to negotiate our hand for His son. I think of Samson pestering his parents to go and seek Delilah’s hand on his behalf, and I can almost – almost – see Jesus in similar form, beseeching the Father for us. Please, Abba, that one over there. No, I know You don’t see what I see in him, but please! He’s one that I want. I pray You, see if You can’t get him for Me.
And of course, where the Father determines to set His claim, who can oppose? If He wills that I be gotten, is it really possible that I would not be? There would be, however, a price for His Son to pay for this, a stiff price. He would earn what His Father procured for Him. Then, He knew that full well when He asked, and it was a price that, though enough to stop most from acting, was not enough to stop Him from obtaining us for Himself.
I can’t seem to let go of this sense of wonder at that. I grant you I am allowing my imagination a bit of a free rein, yet the incredible improbability of it all when it proves my reality, is just overwhelming. As it should be! I sincerely doubt that the Apostles were sensing this whole flow of thought as they listened. Most unlikely, really. But, what we have from John is the result of decades of reflection. Consider how that had flavored John’s writing, John’s thinking. By the time he stopped to write out his account of where it had all started, it seems to me his thinking was utterly permeated with this reality that Jesus, the Christ, the Lord of all Creation, had thus acted on his behalf, had paid His own life as dowry to receive his hand in wedlock. John, even these sixty years after the fact, as some suppose the dating of his gospel, is still completely engulfed by his sense of wonder at that reality.
In the more immediate scene, though, we arrive at the second aspect of Jesus’ words, which is that He is establishing grounds for certainty in His men. Remember the opening: Do not be troubled. The first ground He lays for countering the rising anxiety is a reminder of Whom they have believed in, and why. You trust God, and He is assuredly trustworthy! You have every confidence in His promises. Why else would you have come to follow after His Messiah, except you believed His word? Well, in spite of what I’ve been telling you is coming on the morrow, His word still does not fail, as you surely know! Nor does His Messiah fail. Trust Me. Believe in Me. Even though I will be gone from you for a season, let it be no cause for fear, but only for faith.
Now, comes that second floor of assurance. I am leaving you, but only so that I can prepare for your reception. I’m going to clear out rooms for you in My Father’s house; in My house. You know, I told you way back when about how the foxes and birds had their homes in this land, but I had not so much as a place to rest My head. But, in My Father’s house? O ho! There, I am home. There, I am respected and honored as I am not here. And there, I am making place for you, beloved. When that place is ready, you can count on this: I’m coming back. I’m not about to lose you now, not with what I shall be doing to complete those preparations. The dowry I’m about to pay for you is far too great an expense to be thrown away and forgotten. No, no. I will be coming back for you, and when I do, I’m taking you home with Me once for all. Never again shall we be separated.
I think back across some of those novels I have read of life in the British navy in its so-called glory days. Often, the author is so kind as to take particular notice of the brides left behind to keep house while their men went out with every possibility of failing to return. I think, for all that, of those whose spouses are in the military even today, who must face the reality of their life partner being commanded into the field of danger, into the greatest risk. They go, and every prayer is for their safe return. But, the possibility of no return cannot be escaped. Think of the strength of yearning that mounts in the heart of such a one. Think how greatly they ache for the day they see their man returning, still in one piece, unharmed and back to the safety of home.
Think, as well, of the sorrow that accompanies news that once more, they must take arms in service of country. Once more, these two, so in love with one another, must suffer months of separation, and all the anxious thoughts that can creep in during those months. He’s been shot, and I’ll never see him again. She’s been too lonely with me over here, and has found somebody else to comfort her. It’s an agony, and it cannot be fully put to rest until that next reunion. And, all either of them longs for is the day when there will be no next assignment, when the country no longer has a right to call for his services. Oh! That they may be young enough to enjoy each other still when that time comes.
This might give us some small sense of the desire that Jesus has for us, the strength of assurance that He puts into that statement: “I WILL come again and take you to Myself. Then, you will be with Me where I am.” And, let it be clear to us: Then, you will be with Me forever! There shall be no more separations between us. There shall be no assignment that takes Me from you or you from Me. And yes, My beloved, there will be infinite days ahead of us to enjoy each other when that time comes.
[02/12/12] Now, I shall be turning to Thomas for a time. As I have thought about this Apostle while doing my preparations, I have been inclined to see him as we most often do, in that last recorded encounter with Jesus, seeking hard evidence in which to believe. I was also brought back to the first time we hear Thomas speaking, and this would seem to be an occasion that demands a rethink on my part. If ever I have allowed myself to slip into projecting my own views into the text, this may be it. I stress may. That first occasion, when Jesus announces that He intends to return to Jerusalem because Lazarus is dead, I have tended to hear with the ears of a cynical realist (Jn 11:16). Sure, Jesus. What a great idea, we can all go down together so we can die together. Wonderful plan. But, every commentary I looked at came to the same conclusion, and that conclusion was quite the opposite. They all arrive at the thought that Thomas was particularly devoted to Jesus, particularly zealous in his determination to remain with Jesus through thick and thin.
Here, it seems, I am rather reversing the order of my notes. But, let me simply offer up a few quotes from amongst the writers. The IVP, for example, exudes, “This is a rare expression of commitment in practice; in general, Jewish people emphasized only being prepared to die for God and His law.” Apart from being a particularly strong counter to my sense of his cynicism, this brings out an interesting cultural aspect to his response, as well as Peter’s outburst earlier. If the cultural norm was that only God and His law were worth dying for, what does this say about how Peter and Thomas viewed Jesus? Again, assuming that Thomas was being earnest in what he said on that occasion, it speaks volumes. It is as much a confession that this Jesus is the Son of God and equal with God as anything Peter said. However, we have to accept that Peter’s words were not subject to interpretation as is the case with Thomas.
Matthew Henry is also inclined to hold Thomas up as a fine model for the Christian, describing him as possessing ‘a strong and zealous desire’ not only to stand fast with Jesus no matter what, but also to encourage his compatriots to that same constancy of faith. Indeed, that author goes on to write, “Thus, in difficult times, Christians should animate one another.” Now, let me say this: The application Mr. Henry takes is absolutely valid as application goes. Just so! Any number of Scriptures could be educed to emphasize this point. And yes, to the degree that we are not so steadfast as Thomas is propounded as being, we have cause to seek forgiveness, and to seek out the way by which we might correct our failing God.
Indeed, hearing how we ought to be stirring one another up, ‘animating one another’, it’s hard to resist adding our ‘Amen’ to the point. Absolutely, we should! Truly, I could think of nothing I’d like more than to be stirred and animated so. What else is it we hunger for when we sing songs like, “Light the Fire Again”? We tend to look to the Lord as the only agent Who can achieve this reigniting, and we are correct in that, if we are looking for the primary Agent. But, God works through men and women like ourselves far more often than He does through miraculous interventions. If, then, Thomas is as the commentators suppose, we ought, indeed, to be modeling ourselves on his example: seeking by whatever means we may to speak not just encouragement, but bold confidence to those around us who are in the midst of it.
Let there be no doubt about it: The point is valid. My only question is whether it really fits what we see of Thomas. And if, indeed, I am projecting my own cynicism and skepticism onto Thomas, may I be forgiven and better still, truly corrected of my own poor habit. But, consider: We have three scenes in which we meet Thomas. This matter of his commenting on the return to Jerusalem is one. We then meet him in this current passage, pointing out what seems to him a distinctly problematic point in what Jesus has just said. “We don’t even know where You’re going, and you want us to accept that we know how to get there? It’s irrational, Jesus. C’mon!” Then, there is that third scene – I won’t say final, because he does show up again later, just not with a speaking part. Jesus has been dead and buried. He has risen again, and has been appearing to some folks here and there. He had even come to visit the Apostles, but for reasons left unstated, Thomas happened to be out that time. Now, He has come back to them, apparently with the express purpose of making sure Thomas has his opportunity to see Him (Jn 20:24-29).
This speaks volumes about Jesus! It says much about His care for His sheep, just as that later point when He came for the express purpose of restoring Peter to His good graces (Jn 21:1-14). And, by the way, Thomas was witness to that reconciliation. But, I shall file away that point for possible comment when I finally come to the study of that later passage. For now, I want to keep my eye on Thomas. What we see of him, when Jesus makes that special trip back for him, is that he was a man that needed real, hard evidence. Why had Jesus found that trip needful, after all? Because when the other men told Thomas what they had witnessed, he wasn’t buying it, even from ten witnesses such as themselves. “Unless I can touch the wounds for myself, sorry, it’s just ghost stories.” So, Jesus comes back and for all intents and purposes looks at Thomas and says, “Go for it. Here I am. Poke what you need to so that you can be certain.” Here, again, is a marvelous Truth about our Lord: Whatever it takes to make our faith certain, He’s prepared to do.
My! This is two points from Thomas’ story that are beautifully fit to the subject I have today for Sunday School. First there is that point from Matthew Henry, and how we ought to seek to encourage each other, then there’s this model Jesus provides of that ‘vital friendship’ we are to discuss. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for coordinating things in order that these points would be with me this morning! Thank You Father, the keeper of my schedule, that You have so ordained events that I should be considering Thomas this morning as we shall later consider the need for friendship that we all have in common.
Now, here is an interesting thing to notice: Jesus came, and gave Thomas the opportunity he thought he needed, the chance to touch, to poke and prod, and to confirm by his senses that this Jesus was truly the Jesus. But, nowhere are we told that he actually did any such thing when the opportunity arose. All that John records in reaction to Jesus making that offer is that Thomas says, “My Lord and my God!” There is no record of him bowing down, or prostrating himself. There is no mention of him doing any of those things Jesus suggests as ways to confirm to himself that this really is his Lord standing there. The sight of Him was enough.
So, somewhere back there, I began to look at the overall image we have of Thomas, a comment regarding the return to Jerusalem that is open to interpretation as to how it was meant, this point made to Jesus about how they lacked a fundamental piece of knowledge for His preceding words to be true, and then this later account of his treating of the disciples’ combined testimony about Jesus’ return as suspect. What is the picture that these three things paint for us? Is Thomas a skeptic, a cynic? Or, is he a man valorously determined to hold only to what is true? Were it not for all those commentaries trending towards the conclusion of valorous determination, I should have no doubt whatsoever that this man was indeed cynically skeptical, at least as concerns the events that unfolded beginning with that return to Jerusalem.
There cannot be any question of Thomas’s faith. That much is established, particularly as we understand such faith as being imparted and not worked up by the man. Whatever his doubts during these final few weeks, there have been two plus years of faithful accompaniment preceding that. If his doubts were always as they appear to be in these few glimpses, I dare say he would not have stuck around to complete those scenes. If his doubts had been so great as we suppose, it’s unlikely he would have been hanging out with the other ten Apostles after Jesus was dead and buried as they supposed. It’s pretty doubtful he would have been in Jerusalem at all after the arrest of Jesus, if he’d still been counted amongst His disciples at all.
So, there must be an lower bound on our opinion of his actions in these few vignettes we are offered. I don’t think we can read much into the fact that John doesn’t say anything to soften the image he presents. After all, his concern is not on Thomas or any of the others. He even seeks to take himself out of the picture as best he can. He wants the focus clearly and exclusively on Jesus, because Jesus is all. He is the good news. He is the point. He is all that He said He is, and John must do as best he can to relay that message. His love of Jesus compels him to do so.
Let me suppose, then, that Thomas really did harbor doubts such as he seems to have expressed in response to the news of returning to Jerusalem. Suppose he really did see no possible good coming from this, but only assured destruction. Here’s the thing: He went. Whatever he thought of the situation, however certain he was of the deadly nature of the dangers ahead, he went. That lower bound for our opinion just jumped quite a bit higher!
The ISBE concludes that Thomas comes across as a man inclined toward despondency, yet a man of great courage. That he had courage is clearly true. He sees assured destruction ahead and yet walks into it uncompelled. He presumably understands somewhat at least of just Who this Messiah is, and yet speaks his mind, points out what seems an obvious logical flaw to him. “You say we know the way, but we don’t even know the destination! You haven’t told us.” Desensitized as we can be as concerns the real nature of this God with Whom we have to do, the courage it would take to look the Incarnation square in the eyes and say, “You’re obviously wrong!” may elude us. If it’s not courage that moves one to think it necessary to correct God, it can only be pride. Perhaps that’s at play in Thomas as well, although I see little enough to support such a theory. At the very least, I could accuse him of no more pride than is common to most men. That is sinful enough, to be sure. But, it strikes me as being the sort of pride which does not, in the end, determine character so much as upbringing.
No. Thomas is courageous in this regard. He has faced death in accompanying Jesus this last mile. He has faced death just as certainly by calling God out in the person of Jesus. After a fashion, that final refusing to take the others’ word for it when it came to the reality of a resurrected Christ also took great courage, the more so if his faith was truly solid, which I think it must have been. Consider the all too typical case of a service in which the congregation is called to raise their hand if, or stand up if. It may seem a good idea to the speaker, and he may be wholly innocent of any ulterior motive. But, it remains a most thoroughly manipulative move (one I slipped into myself this last Sunday, but felt the need to correct and reverse fairly immediately).
Invariably such ‘invitations’ come attached to some clause whose goodness and rightness cannot possibly be denied, except it be by the most evil of men. You know, it’s not just in church that we see this game play out. It happens in the political realm with annoying regularity. Why do you suppose every bill finds some way to claim it’s for the children? Why do you suppose every opponent is cast in the light of doing something to destroy senior citizens? It’s all a game, trying to state a dubious proposition in light that allows of no opposition. Nobody would dare, for it would paint them in such an awful light!
Such things really have no place whatsoever in the house of God. Yet, they happen, and not always in innocence. The simple fact is that everybody understands the power of peer pressure, and that’s exactly what’s being applied. When everyone around you is rising to their feet, it takes great courage to remain seated. When everybody’s repeating some corporate prayer, but you simply cannot speak the words from an honest heart, and therefore remain mute, it takes courage. When everybody’s rushing to the altar for the latest of the weekly calls to repent of some great sin or another, and the pews are all but empty, it takes great courage to remain in place on the strength of your convictions.
Likewise, when Thomas faces ten of his closest companions, and to the man, they all speak of having spoken with the risen Lord, quite apart from the rather unbelievable nature of the news, there’s a great deal of peer pressure to simply take their word for it. I mean, it’s one thing when Mary comes back from the grave with some wild tale. It’s just one person’s word, or maybe two. Besides, it was early, they were distraught, who knows if they were even in the right place? Even when John and Peter came back from the tomb and found it open, what did that prove? More likely than not, the officials had relocated His body for reasons of their own. But when ten men, ten men whose trustworthiness has been proven over the last few years, all of them concur that this risen Jesus just walked through the door – not the doorway, the door itself – and came in to say hello: There’s a certain pressure there, to accept that however improbable it sounds, it must clearly be true. They would not lie about such a thing.
And, honestly, those thoughts must have come to Thomas. Yet, he would stand his ground. He required the Truth to be proven to his satisfaction. Mere hearsay evidence, even from so many and so reliable a set of witnesses, wouldn’t suffice in this case. The topic of whether Jesus was a dead Messiah or a living King was just too important, too critical a matter for anything but the most incontrovertible of proofs.
And I ask you, in all honesty, did you, in the end, accept any less incontrovertible a proof? Did Jesus fail to do for you as He did for Thomas, providing “whatever it takes” in order for you to believe? I know that I can say without the least shadow of doubt that He did so for me. Nor has He seen fit to allow me to accept any man’s words regarding His Truth at face value. I don’t believe He does so with any of us, but we are all of us called to pursue the Truth in His Word, to test what the preacher says against what the Scripture says. This is not, I should stress, a call to skepticism and distrust. The Bereans, that example constantly held up for us, did not turn to the Scriptures with the intent of pulling together a set of proof texts by which to refute Paul. Quite the opposite. They heard the hope that the Gospel contains, and they wanted nothing more than to see for themselves that this message of hope was real, that what Paul spoke of really was there to be seen in the Scriptures. And, how they rejoiced to discover that indeed, it was there! Just as we rejoice, however dubious and doubtful we may have been at the outset, when we discover that Jesus is not some myth or psychological ploy, but Reality Himself. How marvelously we thrill when the last of our doubts have been addressed and we, like Thomas before us, come to that moment of, “My God and my King!”
[02/14/12] Jesus answers Thomas’ doubts on this occasion with that most marvelous, and most exclusive proclamation, “I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life! There is no other way to the Father than through Me.” Interesting that Table Talk should be discussing that exclusivity this morning. There is no other way. Why should there be, really? With all that God did, with all that Jesus suffered, what possible reason can we adduce for supposing He should accept our cheap imitations? Really, it should embarrass us to even suggest such an alternate path to heaven!
For all the power that rings from this proclamation, it still seems that there is a bit of mystery to the message. I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life! What? Sounds great. Fine slogan. Would look good on a bumper sticker. But, what exactly do You mean by that Jesus? The BBE considers the nature of that message, and seeks to present it as a single, coherent point, the matter of Truth and Life becoming adjectives describing the principal object of the Way: “I am the true and living way.” The most obvious problem with that is that both Truth and Life are introduced with the definite article. It’s not just truth, it’s the Truth. It’s not just life, it’s the Life. One does not generally apply the definite article to an adjective. The green: Hearing that phrase with no further object, would leave us certain we were discussing a golf course. The sandy: It must be a cookie, because if we were discussing oceanfront scenery, there would be mention of the beach which was so sandy. Add to this that, at least according to my limited syntactical facilities, all three of these descriptives are in the same nominative (not adjectival) form. As much as the BBE translation may roll more comfortably off the tongue, it fails, in my opinion, to properly convey the message Jesus imparts.
Let us accept, then, that Jesus makes a trio of claims here. It may well be that we ought to take them as being parallel points, whether of a cumulative nature, or merely a restating of the same point in alternate terms. Either way, we have three things Jesus says He is. Let me consider briefly what each of these claims seeks to indicate.
I am the Way. (And you’ll forgive me, I trust, for a tendency to capitalize these terms as they apply to my Lord and Savior.) We could accept the sense of this word in its most basic application, indicating a path, a road, a route. This would certainly be in keeping with that second clause in which Jesus indicates that only through Him can any come to the Father. But, there is more to it, I think. There is an aspect to it that is particularly suited to the Teacher/disciple relationship that He has had with these men. They, as disciples, have committed themselves to modeling their character and action upon what they see in Him. In a particularly Hebraistic usage, this matter of a way can be indicative of just such a course of conduct and manner of thinking. Indeed, the two are inexorably linked. As a man thinks in his heart, so he is (Pr 23:7). That thinking encompasses feeling and also deciding. Thus, thought and feeling lead to decision which results in action, conduct. The whole is, in a healthy psyche, connected and consistent.
With that thought firmly in mind, consider the next claim: I am the Truth. There is much that could be made of that. Most plainly, Jesus is the Truth over against Satan who is the father lies. But, I don’t think that’s the fact that Jesus is trying to impart here. This matter of truth has a sense about it of reality set clearly before your eyes. Or, we might consider it as the outward appearance being in perfect accord with inner life. Go back to that bit from Proverbs. “As he thinks within himself, so he is. He encourages you to eat and drink, but his heart is not with you.” Do you see? This selfish man that the writer describes is not true. He puts on a face. He acts a proper role. He wants to appear hospitable, but he’s not really. He would just as soon you left pretty soon, and stop using up his provisions. He is, in a word, a hypocrite, although we might be inclined to overlook his failings as forgivable. Put more bluntly, he is a lie. It is, I believe, in this sense that Jesus contrasts Himself as the Truth.
Consider the many conflicts He has had with the Pharisees and other religious leaders. What has been at issue? They promote a pious lifestyle. They teach a careful and attentive adherence to the rules of piety. They promote all of this as being the way, indeed, the only way, of pleasing God. But, Jesus denounced them repeatedly as hypocrites and worse. “You are like whitewashed tombs! Such tombs appear beautiful from without, but the interior is still full of nothing but dead men’s bones and all manner of uncleanness” (Mt 23:27). You are not true. You promote one thing and do another. And, even what you promote is not the Way. It is a false way. It is a path that can only result in damnation ,for there is only one Way. This is the Truth. This Jesus, standing before His disciples, is what that Way looks like in practice. His action is one with His thinking and His thinking is one with God’s Word.
Then there is that third claim. “I am the Life.” Obviously, this means more than to say simply, “I am alive.” That would be an utter waste of breath. We’ve already found that it is not some adjectival phrase that we can apply to either of the preceding terms. It stands on its own. The fact is if all He were discussing were the matter of being animate, there is another term one should expect Him to use, bios. That term, familiar to those of us in the computing sciences, was adopted to describe the most fundamental bits of code managing the hardware upon which we run our programs. It’s an apt usage, for that’s about the sense of life that bios describes applied to living creatures. But, Jesus speaks of zoe, and we ought to be sure that if Greek saw fit to provide two words to describe life, there’s a distinction to be drawn between the two. They are more than just synonymous terms.
So, life, as I have often quoted from Zhodiates, is “all that is highest in best”, and is defined in its fullest by that which is the essence and character of God Himself, and then more locally, as the essence and character of one whose being is devoted to God. In theological discussion at least, we have this contrast of life and death. And certainly, there is the physical aspect of both ideas, the body ceasing to possess that animating bios and slowly decaying back to its component elements. But, this must be fit with the reality that Jesus pointed out to Martha, a matter essential to faith. “He who believes in Me shall live even if he dies” (Jn 11:25). Obviously that had greater application than Lazarus laying in the grave for three days. Yes, he would be restored to physical life, but this goes beyond a one time application. The life of which Jesus speaks here must be of a sort that trumps the physical, bodily death. He is not, after all, promoting necromancy. It’s unthinkable that He should promote that against which He has issued the strongest of edicts. God would not be in the business of promoting amongst His people the very deeds He loathes.
No, this life, this zoe is a matter that reaches into the soul and the spirit of the man. That is eternal. The body may perish. Indeed, it must, as Paul tells us. It is unsuited to the eternity that lies before us. But, then, if the soul is eternal, and it is that life of eternity that Jesus is speaking of, what is the counterpart? What is death, in that regard? It is upon this point that the theologians come to speak of death as being equally as eternal as Life. It is, however, an eternity spent in separation from God. We have it depicted in the story of that rich man who died and went to Sheol (Lk 16:20-31). Particularly key to this present point is that statement Jesus assigns to the mouth of Abraham. “Besides, there is a great chasm set between us and you, set in place to ensure that none cross over from your side to ours, nor that the compassion of those on our side goad them into crossing over to aid you.” It is not permitted. The gulf betwixt the eternally alive and the eternally dead cannot be crossed. There is no River Styx for the brave adventurer to dare in hopes of retrieving a loved one. The fleshly bios having run its course, eternity awaits. The only question is on which side of the great divide.
Now, then: Piece these points back together, and it seems reasonable to find Jesus speaking in parallelisms. The fundamental point remains that He is the exclusive course of life that leads to the Father. But, it is amplified in that He has demonstrated it in the very real outward display of His very real inward character. You have seen it! You have been with Me. I have been living it before you day in and day out for these last three years. This is what that Way looks like. This is what you signed on for as disciples. I have been the perfect Model of all that is right and proper in life. And, only by pursuing the example you have in Me, only by living out your days after the same fashion, and with the same earnestness of heart, as you have seen in Me are you going to reach that goal of Life in heaven. You cannot follow the Pharisaic formula and reach Home. You cannot just try and live and let live, accepting every sort of belief that comes your way. You cannot accommodate yourself to the forms of Greek and Roman belief (if you can even call that belief which deifies most anything) and arrive at Life.
And here we come to the absolute core of the message, the hard pit of it, which cannot be broken up. “No one comes to the Father except they come through Me.” This is the message the world hates to hear. This is the point at which all manner of opposition comes up. I tend to think that it is particularly the case in our own age, but somehow I really doubt that’s true. Granted, we do live in an age where the prevailing winds of what passes for thought are determined to uphold the premise that all beliefs are equally valid. This, of course, requires making exception for us, for if we claim our Way is the only Way, then we must be proclaimed invalid. It’s just not tolerant of other belief systems.
But, really, how is this different from how the Romans viewed this upstart sect of Christianity? I mean, really! Who could take any of the gods so seriously that they would reject the efforts of Caesar to be counted amongst their ranks? Who cares? We’ve got a hundred or so already. What’s one more, really? You toss them a few coins every now and then, go through the motions, and what bearing do they really have on your day to day living? None. So why should you Christians be any different? What’s worth such a fight that your life is forfeit? And, of course, the only response these oh so tolerant men of wisdom could come up with to the exclusive nature of Christianity was to be utterly intolerant of it, to seek its destruction, its extermination, lest they be forced to confront their own deadly error.
The author of Hebrews provides some extra light on the nature of this Way with which Jesus has identified Himself. Interestingly, the guest preacher last Sunday spoke of this book and offered a purpose behind its writing that I don’t believe I’ve heard stated before. It was, he suggested, written to encourage and lovingly rebuke a tendency amongst those earliest Jewish converts. They were under immense cultural pressure to return to the ways of their forebears. This is still, by the way, entirely true of those Jews who come to Christ in our own time. Family and friends will utterly disown them, deem them as having died. All cultural connection, all the social fabric, the social supports, ripped away. The pressure to change one’s mind is great. So, then, come the book of Hebrews. It’s purpose is to serve as a counter to that pressure, a reminder of the stakes. An interesting observation, that. Perhaps at some future date I shall take opportunity to study that text in detail. For now, however, there are a few particular verses that I should like to consider as they apply to the claim Jesus has just made.
These verses both concern the way into the holy place. In Hebrews 9:8, the author writes that the Holy Spirit makes clear through the example of the old priesthood, that the way into the holy place remains hidden away, undisclosed, so long as the outer tabernacle remains, and continues by saying that this is a symbol for the present time. It would be tempting to read all manner of allegorical meaning into this, bringing in Paul’s perspective of the present body as a tabernacle or tent. It might even be reasonable. But, the larger issue of Hebrews is that of contrasting the old order with the perfection of Christ. It would therefore be more reasonable to take this message as applying to that issue. At the time of writing, the temple presumably still stood. The presence of the old order prevented many from receiving and pursuing the new. The way into the holy place remained hidden to them, hidden in plain sight.
Later, the author offers the contrasting imagery of the Christian belief. We have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, a new and living way which He opened for us through the veil, that Way being His flesh (Heb 10:19-20). This would seem to draw on that detail of His crucifixion, which speaks of the great curtain that closed off the holy place from common viewing was rent top to bottom (Mt 27:51). In that sense, the opening was indeed made through the veil, and this occurred because of the Son of God dying on the cross. So, we could do worse than to take the author in a most literal sense. But, there is clearly a greater spiritual reality in view here. If the whole of this were merely to gain us access to some room in the building Herod constructed, the value would be nil. The building is, for all intents, gone. In spite of certain corners where believers hope and pray for a restoration of that temple as a sign that He is coming back, that seems a giant step to take from the Scriptural evidence, and it seems to run counter to the progressive revelation of God. Indeed, it runs counter to the entire premise of the book of Hebrews, which is intent on showing us how the coming of the Real necessarily abolishes the types and shadows. Why, then, would we be hopefully seeking for a return of those types and shadows?
But, Jesus, in His blood, by that which He suffered bodily, inaugurated the age of the nation of priests. The intermediaries are no more. There is only one Mediator. We don’t have to go through a religious bureaucracy to pass word to God. We have the direct line. The Way has come, and He has made a way for us. By His blood, we are made righteous, and can be presented before the throne of God. By His Word He cleanses us, and defends us by His own punishment. What a marvel! What an unimaginable privilege is ours, that we should be accepted in heaven not because we are such great people, but because God, in His mercy, did what we could not.
In that sense, surely Jesus is the only Way by which we can enter into that holy place in which God dwells, in which Jesus says He is preparing our own abode. In the meantime, while this present life persists, Jesus is also the Perfect and Revealed model of life for us. In Him, we see not only the Father, but we are granted a view of our own potential. Here is what you were designed to be. Here is what you desire to be. Here is the perfect implementation of Man. Here is sinlessness. Here is the Truth about faith, the Truth about works, the Truth about God and what His being means for your daily living.
That Way, that definition of our character and our essence, that guider and shaper of our thoughts, and that motivator of our actions: That’s what we’re talking about. He has revealed the best possible model for all of these things, and it is as we seek to fashion ourselves after His model that we fit ourselves for the Life that matters. Make no mistake! It is not a task we can achieve alone, nor is it something we should expect to find completed in this life. The goal is ever ahead! The bar, as we near it, is not lowered to ease our finish, but raised to urge us to greater effort.
When I considered how the disciples might have reacted to this message from their Lord, I could imagine them continuing in that same vein of dubious acceptance that we hear from Thomas. OK, Lord, if it is as You say, then direct us, drop the riddles and explain. We, however, have a benefit which they did not. We’ve already seen how the story played out. The if has been removed from us. That being the case, I am strongly inclined to pray along the lines I had imagined they might be querying Jesus, but with the certainty and conviction that is our own inheritance.
Lord, You are the Way. Direct us, therefore, that we may walk in that way You teach. Help us to draw nearer each day to thinking as You think, speaking as You speak, doing as You do. You modeled this to us as You walked among us, reminding us often that You did nothing except what You saw the Father doing. And You seek for us to likewise do only as we see You doing. Let us be found seeking to live by that understanding. Jesus, You are the Truth: Grant us, therefore, to shed every lie from our thinking, to strip away every deception from our tongue. Grant us to know You more fully, to understand You more completely. As for Solomon, Lord, so for us: Let us partake of Your wisdom that we might more easily walk in Your ways. And, Life, Lord! You are Life. You have laid it down on our behalf, and You have taken it back up, also on our behalf. But, more! You have made that same Life our inheritance. You have secured our final home, and for this, what thanks could ever suffice? Yet, I will thank You. I will praise You, for You have indeed made me glad. Though so many trials and challenges surround in these days, yet You have blessed me to know that the day will come when all such trials are done away with, and what remains is to be with You, to be with You in a fashion that exceeds even what these disciples knew. For, You promise that when we come home to You, we shall have no further questions, for then we will know as we are known by You, in full. Thank You, Lord! Thank You that we are coming to know You better and that by Your own act, You have assured that we will indeed know You as we desire in our best moments, and that by Your own act, our best moments shall be all that continues into Life.
[02/16/12] Finally, I arrive at verse 7. It comes off as something of a rebuke, doesn’t it? C’mon, Thomas! We’ve been at this three years now. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father. That would seem to imply a particularly dense disciple. But, He follows immediately with, “From now on you know Him, you have seen Him.” What? If Thomas was confused before, now he’s utterly confounded, and looking ahead a verse, we see he’s not alone. OK. If we’ve seen Him from now on, then show Him to us! Nope. We don’t get it.
As is my wont when I come across the terminology of knowing, I am keen to find what sort of knowing is in view. Here, we have shifted from the more prevalent oida to various forms of ginosko. Ginosko is held by some lexical sources to indicate learning in progress where oida considers knowledge already held in full. Taken in that sense, we might arrive at a translation along the lines the Wuest provides. “If you had learned to know me through experience, in that case also my Father you would have come to know. From now on you are beginning to know Him, and have seen Him with discernment.”
We might. I would note, however, that ginosko also carries a meaning more specific to the Jewish usage, where it takes on connotations of cherishing, paying particular attention to. We could think of that as the distinction between head knowledge and that which has really become an integral part of our character and feeling. There is also, in the syntactical specifics of the perfect tense in which Jesus sets that first knowing of Himself, this impact: He is speaking of that knowledge as the existing result of prior observation, and we should look upon the second clause as the result that would have come based on that contingent precedent. If you had truly come to cherish what I have been teaching you, given the experiences we have shared, then you would likewise and simultaneously have formed a greater understanding of My Father, and would cherish Him as you do Me.
There is that about the passage that is clear to see: To know Jesus is to know the Father. It is clear, though, primarily because we already know the explanation Jesus gives to this point in the following verses. “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen Him. Don’t you know that by now? We are One! We are inseparable.” And, as we well know, that same indivisible unity of coexistence is what Jesus calls for amongst we who are His friends, His followers, His beloved. That was the crux of His prayer for us: That we might be one even as He and Father and Holy Spirit are one: United, and far more than merely united. Paul would describe the church in Philippi as an example of those who were firm in one spirit, working as with one mind for the faith of the Gospel (Php 1:27). But, it’s more than just working together without conflict. It’s more than just sharing a common set of tenets and beliefs. It’s more, even, than being part of the same small group, or serving in the same ministry. We are, if we are looking to Jesus and Father as our example and template, looking at a unity so strong that what occurs to one is felt by the other.
We have that idea about identical twins, whether truly proven by fact or not, that they have a depth of connection that goes beyond the usual sibling bonds. We can accept the possibility that somehow, they have a keener awareness of one another, even when apart, that the hurts which may afflict one are felt in echo by the other, that the joys encountered by one give rise to a sympathetic vibration of happiness in the other. It is not, in this case, something felt after a phone call relaying whatever news, but seems to travel the airwaves, however great the distance separating those two. It is that sense of oneness that Jesus is talking about. It is that sense of connectedness that is supposed to be our hallmark and, if you will, our birthright.
One hears from those in the mission field, on occasion, of those moments when the prayers of some distant saint are felt with force. We may also know of occasions in our own lives when we’ve just felt compelled to pray, perhaps for another known to us personally, perhaps for reasons less clear to us, just the need to pray for a particular situation somewhere. We may not know the details, nor do we need to. We just know we ought to pray for this situation, whomever it involves. We may never know what exactly that prayer was about. But, we can know this much: It was the impact of that oneness that Jesus not only commands us to, but empowers us to achieve. Whatever it was that led to His desire for us to pray, we are assured that the prayer was to His purpose, and being to His purpose, was surely honored. Being honored, it was answered. We may never know how or why, but we know it to be true. We’ve seen the evidence on the other side of that prayer line too often to doubt.
Returning, though, to the passage, note the progression that is in view. If past knowledge of Me had built up to a present cherishing: The past to the present. You would have known My Father as well. Similarly, we are looking at a progression from past to present, a parallel progression, knowledge of one walking hand in hand with knowledge of the other. Next, we move the clause, “From now on you know Him.” The progression is now moved forward, from the immediate present to the future. But, notice: It’s that same form of knowledge. Yet, the phrasing, at least as we have it in the NASB doesn’t give us that sense of learning in progress, particularly given the closing clause. It would be difficult to look at that and say, “from now on, you will be gaining knowledge of Him.”
Granted, Wuest has taken that view, that they are just beginning to know Him. But, that doesn’t fit particularly well with the assurance of that statement. It requires a specific coloring of meaning to all that preceded. If you had begun to know Me you would be beginning to know Him, and from now on you are beginning. What? Let’s look at that ‘from now on’, or henceforth, as the King James has it. Strong offers the meaning of ‘just now’ to this word, arti. Thayer comments that this comes as marking either the beginning or the ending of the progress in view. Kittel, at least, prefers the ‘just now’ sense to the idea of henceforth, as it applies to this particular verse. Now, I would note that ginosko is set in the Indicative Mood in this clause. It’s a statement of certainty.
Let me suggest, then, that the ‘just now’ ought to be taken as the ending of the progress. Just now, knowledge of Him has been made certain in you. It is no longer possible that you will miss it. Notice, then, the final clause: “and have seen Him.” Here, the variant of seeing that is used is not a form of eido, but of horao with the basic meaning of ‘to stare at’. Think of that! Just now, you have stared at Him! We’re back in the Perfect Tense. We’re back to discussing the present effect of past action. Just now, you’re beginning to get it. You have seen Him. You’ve been staring at Him! You’re staring at Him now!
Here, too, we have a word that potentially takes on specific connotations in the Hebrew usage, where it may speak of experiencing: You have experienced Him. I note this only because every verb we have in this verse is capable of a particularly Hebraistic interpretation, and we are observing a very personal moment between Hebrews. Would it be so odd to suppose they would be speaking (and hearing) with the filters of their culture? If you had cherished Me, you would cherish My Father as well, and just now, you really do cherish Him, and have experienced Him. We can add the explanatory, ‘in Me’, to that, knowing it is coming up.
We must, however, keep this connected with the preceding verse, at the very least. We have moved from the immediate, if mysterious, answer to Thomas’, “How can we possibly know how to get we know not where?” “I AM the way. You can’t reach the Father by any other.” Do you realize that in that, Jesus has identified both the where and the how? He has answered that earlier question, too. Who was it, Peter, who had asked, “where are You going that we can’t follow?” Jesus hadn’t really spoken directly to that before, but now, if they’re following the whole flow of conversation, they have the answer. Peter didn’t know where He was going. Thomas echoes the point with the added bewilderment of having been told he knew how to get there. Jesus answers both questions now: I am going to the Father – a place you can’t come yet, because it’s not your time; a place those others will never come, because they reject Me – for there is no other way to go to Him except through Me. You have seen Him in Me, though you haven’t quite realized that until just now. But, yes, you’ve seen Him in Me, stared at Him and shared with Him these last three years. And the truth is, you do cherish Him, even as you cherish Me. I/He know that. That’s at least a part of why I/He assure you that I/He am coming back for you.
What a marvelous picture! What an expression of the depth of that love the Father has shown toward us in Jesus. How patient our Teacher, that even in this moment of His greatest anguish and anxiousness, He sets aside any thought for Himself to comfort and uplift His friends. And this is but the precursor to that greatest of acts of Love which lay ahead. It’s clear from that later event with Thomas that he didn’t grasp the full import of this statement at the time. None of them did. And, lest we start feeling all superior, you can be sure we would have done no better had we been sitting there. We have a lifetime of post-event experience to help us, and centuries of contemplation upon all these events informing that experience. Of course it should be more obvious to us what He meant. We live on the other side of events. We live what He meant. We know how it all played out. But, these men, in this moment, are still a bunch of simple country folk caught up in events far and away beyond their level.
I find myself wondering if we, too, aren’t just as caught up in events beyond our level, so far beyond that we fail even to recognize them at all. Oh, we have our trials and tribulations, and our little victories, too. And these pretty well occupy our attention. We are primarily nearsighted in our perspective on life. We may be able to see a bit into the surrounding community, but not too much. We are aware, certainly, of global events, but not in any really visceral way. They don’t impinge upon our situation directly, so we can sympathize, and perhaps find the whole alien nature of things over there a bit mysterious and intriguing. But, it doesn’t really touch us beyond perhaps our wallet, should we feel inclined to contribute to some cause or another. We really don’t, for all our talk and bluster, sense the enormous import of the times in which we live. We may feel that sense of something building, of something that’s bound to give way. Maybe there’s even a bit of anticipation that maybe, just maybe, that last day is at the threshold.
But, we don’t dare to believe it. In many ways, we don’t really want it. We’re not ready, certainly not clean enough for that moment of arrival. I mean, how long have we had that national admonition to keep our underwear clean because you never know? If we fear to go to hospital with the embarrassment of undies that aren’t quite fresh, how great the fear of coming before Purity Himself with the filth of our sins still thick upon us? And yet, we hold that most precious of promises! He shall cleanse us. He shall present us holy and blameless, indeed finally (and most instantaneously) completed in that process of taking on His image, becoming like Him.
Believe that! He Who began the work will most assuredly complete it, and He is coming back for His bride. He’s prepared the Way. He’s not about to lose us now. Don’t give up. Don’t stop trying. But, don’t give up. It’s not our efforts, though they no doubt please our Lord, that will achieve the victory. It is Him. It’s all Him. Apart from Him, I can do nothing. Oh, for that time when I am never apart from Him! Yes, I know that He is with me every moment of every day, but knowing isn’t sensing. Sin still gets in the way. But, in that day, sin will be done and gone once for all. No more sorrows. No more temptations and testings. Just the presence, real and visceral and immediate, of my Lord, my God, my Love. Soon, Lord! Soon!
