Resurrrection

Jesus, and his disciples, are out in the country. A man comes with a message. One of Jesus’ friends was really sick. The man, and his family, know that Jesus loves, and can heal his friend. They know Jesus loves all people. So, Jesus camps out, right where he is, for the next four days. (Which does not seem to show concern.)

After the four days is over, Jesus announces that they need to return to this friend’s city, because he has died.

And when they arrive at the city, he meets separately with the man’s two sisters. They both lament the fact, that if Jesus had been there, their brother would still be alive.

He tells one sister that her brother will rise, and live again. She agrees, that at the end of time, when all rise, he will live again. And Jesus gives his message: “I am the Resurrection.”

And to prove his point, although the man has been dead four days, decomposition well under way, sinking to high, high heaven, Jesus has the stone, sealing the man’s tomb, rolled away. After briefly thanking Father, he calls the four-days dead, and rotting, man to come out of the tomb. And he does.

God has the power of life, and death. He has focused our experience of life to move through our relationship with a particular man. And through that man, our relationship with God himself.

Life is not about miracles, and power. It is about a love relationship with the Father of the universe. And all of these other things, are about fostering, and promoting, that relationship.

The Gatekeeper, and The Good Shepherd

Next, Jesus finds a man, who was born blind. Now, there was a common belief, that everything that happens to someone is from God. Bad stuff happens, God is mad at you. Good stuff happens, God is pleased with you. So, the disciples ask: Is God mad at this man for something he did? (Which is hard to understand, because whatever it was happened before he was born.) Or, is God mad at the man’s parents? (Which doesn’t seem fair, punishing the man for something the parents did.)

Jesus says: Neither. Rather it was so God’s glory could be seen.

So, Jesus heals the man’s eyes; and he again made the “mistake” of healing on the Sabbath. After a big fight between the Pharisees, and the former blind man, he gives his allegiance to Jesus.

And Jesus proclaims: I cam into the world to give sight to the (spiritually) blind. And to demonstrate to one’s who think they (spiritually) see, that they really don’t get it.

And, of course, some Pharisees, who know the system — and, therefore, “truly,” and “fully,” understand God’s heart, and God’s desire — were listening. And they asked Jesus: You mean us?

So, Jesus began comparing his family with a flock of sheep. Sheep were kept in a fenced area, of sheepfold. There is a gate. The gate is the correct, and proper way for the sheep, and the shepherd, to enter, and exit, the sheepfold.

Thieves don’t come through the gate. Shepherds come through the gate. The shepherd knows his sheep personally. The sheep know the shepherd personally.

The sheepfold becomes a metaphor of God’s family, and God’s kingdom. Sin means there is no legitimate way into God’s family, that we can provide for ourselves. We need someone to open the gate for us. We come to the gate. The gatekeeper knows us. He calls us. And he opens the gate for us.

But the sheep are not just in the sheepfold. They go out to pasture. God’s people are not just in god’s family. They go out into the world. But they don’t go alone. The shepherd goes with them. He goes into the sheepfold, calls his sheep, and brings them out. He finds the best grass for them. He finds abundant water. He protects them from predators, and thieves.

(NOTE: We all know people who have suffered. They have been beaten, and stolen from. This short paragraph can, by no means, respond to the question: Why does bad stuff happen? The factors are too numerous, The connections are too complex. Like all people, I would love a 10-word sentence, that would fully, and completely, explain evil. I don’t think that is possible though. I do think that God’s heart is for abundance, peace, and rest for his people. Peace, and rest, usually means no thieves, or predators.)

It is the presence, and the active involvement, of the shepherd, that leads to the abundance, and rest, of the sheep. And the sheep need to keep contact with, and connected to, the shepherd. They will have no rest, or provision, if they wander away.

Like the shepherd, who puts his life on the line to protect the sheep, Jesus gave his life, so the sheep are granted access to the sheepfold. So, mankind can be included in his family, as they give him allegiance. Without Jesus choosing to lay down his life, we have nothing.

Light of the World

It is time for the Feast of Booths, and Jesus goes to Jerusalem for the Feast. And while in Jerusalem, he gives a series of messages.

And, after outlining how each “I am” message is combined with a miracle, it seems like this message has no associated miracle. But, a closer look reveals that the connected miracle happened the last time Jesus was in Jerusalem, before he fed the 5000.

There was a pool in Jerusalem, around which sick people would gather. It was said that when the water was stirred up, or agitated, that it was caused by an angel. The first person to get into the pool, when the stirring began, would be healed.

So, when Jesus passed by the pool, he found a man, who was crippled, and wanted to get healed. But, because he was crippled, when the water was stirred, he could not move fast enough to be first. So, Jesus healed him, instead.

The problem, however, was that it was the Sabbath. People aren’t supposed to work on the Sabbath. And, apparently, performing miraculous healings is work.

We have discussed here, the system the Jews devised to ensure obedience to the Law. Keep the system, and one keeps the Law, they reasoned.

But only God can enable the blind to see, or the crippled to walk. How can someone not keep the system, but find favor with God? (Who should be angry with someone, because he’s not keeping the system.) So, the Jewish leaders stalked, and spied on Jesus. They looked for, and even tried to invent, things that would discredit him.

The message was a simple proclamation. If you are in the dark, you can’t know the way to go. But, if you follow Jesus, he will provide light – he is light – and we can see the way to life.

If we follow Jesus, we can see how to live, how to be restored to correct relationship to Father, and how to connect to people in god-honoring ways, which boil down to love.

And we don’t need to keep score on how well we keep the system. Because God doesn’t keep score. He knows we will automatically lose.

And the Jews, who worked hard at keeping the system, automatically lost. Because no system is complete, thorough, or good enough. And it blinded them to God’s #1 concern: love.

Bread of Life

In one of Jesus’ biographies, the writer organizes the story around seven miracles, and seven associated messages. In each of these particular messages, Jesus begins with “I am something.” He arranged the story this way, with the intention that the combination would amplify the individual parts.

The first message followed Jesus feeding the 5000. Jesus was speaking to a large crowd, for a long time. After several hours, it was time for a break. And everybody was hungry. Apparently, there were no restaurants or stores nearby. Only one boy’s lunch. So, Jesus borrowed the lunch, and multiplied it enough to feed 15000 people. (Estimate based on an equal number of women and children to the counted number of men.) And not only was there enough to feed everyone, but there were a lot of leftovers.

Of course, the people thought that was great. They said: “Let’s put Jesus in charge, and nobody will need to work.” It was not that Jesus was against providing what people needed. But, there was something that people were missing. Something they needed, at least as much as food. From God’s perspective, it was vital. And it was Jesus’ mission to provide that something. So, he left.

And when the people found him again, he flat out told them, they were more interested in their stomachs, than their hearts, and their relationship with God. So, they asked what seemed to be the next logical question: “What does God want us to do?” And Jesus answered: “Follow the one God sent.”

They knew he was referring to himself. So, they asked him to do a miracle to verify that he was from God. (Remember: they had just watched him feed thousands of people with food intended to feed one person.) And they referred to God’s provision of Manna, to feed Israel in the desert.

So, Jesus redirects their attention to God’s provision for the sin of the world, and a restored relationship between God and people. And, because they used God providing bread to meet physical needs, he says, “I am the bread of life.”

I am God’s provision to satisfy God’s justice. I am the way to restore relationship with God, to become part of his family, to begin restoration of God’s original design for people, to become the home of God’s Spirit, and to have the record of our sin — past, present, and future — be erased, and the penalty paid for. I am the way back to life as God created it to be.

The people were bothered by what he said, to say the least. They did not understand how to apply the metaphor. And they knew Jesus, his background, and where he was from physically. The knew about God’s Messiah, but they had a pre-conception of what that meant, and how it would work.

Jesus was completing his mission. He was ultimately going to die for mankind’s sin. But first, he would testify to, and demonstrate, God’s plan.

One lesson we could draw from this is: if the sinless Son of God could be misunderstood, rejected, and hated, we can be also. If the one who perfectly loved, and perfectly testified about God’s plan, was reject, and despised, what are the odds we will be too?