Afraid of Jesus and His Works

When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.  (Luke 8:35)

I get used to certain things.  Some things are familiar in Nature, like the rising sun, the waning moon, or the wind in the trees.  Some things are familiar with my family, like dinners together, people sitting in the living room to read or tap on laptops, or our little dogs laying down in someone’s lap.  Some things are typical around me, like people driving in a hurry on the road, voiced contempt of various people, or sickness always threatening people.

What happens when one of these things is obstructed, delayed, or removed?  It may be a great cataclysm, but often it is just unsettling.  Some of these changes “just happen.”  They are part of the way “life” works.  Sometimes my family doesn’t get to have dinner together.  Sometimes the air is unnaturally still around our house.  Sometimes instead of contempt, I find mercy in someone’s voice.  Some things just don’t change, though.

These people of the Gerasenes did not expect to see this demon-possessed man recover.  At least, not instantly.  It was like the sun had neglected to rise that morning.  It was not one of those things that “just happen.”  People sickened in this way do not recover like that!  It was so unsettling that they saw it as a threat instead of a blessing.

The closeness of God was a frightening thing.  Something made them deeply fearful.  A God who drives demons out of a crazy person wandering in the tombs might do anything.  So the phrase, “Nothing is impossible with God” becomes more than a promise that God can do anything.  It becomes a somewhat frightening idea that God might do anything.  If he cures that crazy guy, if he saves that sinner, if he changes the things I’ve come to expect and rely on, bad or good, he might do anything!

Also, I find that more frightening than crazy people, desperate people, or cruel people might be people in their right minds.  If Jesus is any indication of such a “right mind,” I see that he is remarkable unsettling, offensive, and fear-inducing on a number of occasions.  Sickness and wickedness are strangely comforting (especially in other people) compared to real health and righteousness.  Because of my pride and desire to control, what is unknown can be more fearful than what is evil.

I do not think that it is mere coincidence that the man in his right mind is sitting at Jesus’ feet.  Like Mary when Martha criticized her, this man finds in Jesus – in his presence and teaching – what he needs.  So it is not only that his neighbors found him in his right mind, but that they found him at Jesus’ feet.  “ If all things are possible with this God, then we might all find ourselves at Jesus’ feet.”

Lord, calm my fears when I see your hand healing and delivering.  Let me not run from forgiveness or your help because I fear the unknown.  Please bring me into my right mind, sitting at your feet.  Amen.

More alarming than seeing such changes in people is the yearning of God to be with me.  He brings me to a right mind and brings me to sit at Jesus feet because I will not be near him any other way.  I want to embrace Jesus’ compassion and God’s yearning and remaining near him.  I want to learn to recognize this fear that drives me from Jesus rather than to him.

God's Will to Forgive and Heal

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.  “I am willing,” he said.  “Be clean!”  (Mark 1:41)

Somehow I have come to believe that it is God’s will that I remain in sickness.  Somehow I have come to see Jesus saying to me, “I am not willing.  Remain unclean.”  My prayers have been heavily affected by this belief.  They are filled with the phrase “Your will be done” which does not really seek God’s will, but instead embraces resignation that God really is unwilling.

It is not God that is unwilling.  The One who came with the good news, with the announcement of the year of the Lord’s favor, did not ever withhold healing and forgiveness.  He reached out his hand and touched and healed and forgave without measure and without hesitation.  No, it is not God who is unwilling.

I find that I am unwilling.  Somehow I hold onto my sicknesses of mind, body, and soul.  I refuse to give them up.  I do not see God with the trust that Jesus had, but instead I am full of hesitation and doubt.  His promises are laid out in the Bible: “Praise the Lord, O my soul, . . . who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.”  (Psalm 103:1,2)  His life is displayed in Jesus, the compassionate healer, the flagrant forgiver.  It is plain.  God is willing, but somehow I am not.

Faith provides the key and the answer.  Simply, I do not trust God.  I would rather wrestle with my sins and sickness than give them up into his hands.  My faith is weak.  I cannot picture what health and wholeness is like in my body, mind, and soul.  I cannot picture such love and brotherhood in my church.  I cannot picture peace and unity in the world.  Help my unbelief!

That is what Jesus does.  Not only does he live.  Not only does he heal.  Not only does he forgive.  He sends his Spirit into my heart so that I may also accept these gifts and live in them, live with them.  Faith becomes living with God and his will rather than living apart from him in doubt.  My Jesus is where my faith lives and grows.

Lord, I struggle hard to believe.  I want to let that go.  I try hard to be healed and forgiven.  I want to let that go, too.  Instead I want to embrace a faith in Jesus, which also contains the faith of Jesus.  Renew my mind, so that I my see and live in faith instead of doubt.  For your sake and for your glory.  Amen.

One practice of seeing in faith is letting go of my doubts.  With the Lord dwelling in me, for instance, pride does not dwell.  I have old thought-habits of pride, but with forgiveness, they are merely thoughts.  I want to learn to put them aside gently and say, “I know you are willing.  I know you live in me.  Where you live pride does not dwell.  These are just old habits that need to be cleaned up.

Paradox Helps Us to See

 Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:43-45)

These paradoxes of Jesus come from the disparity between the kingdoms of this world and the kingdom of heaven.  “Greatness” as the world sees it is not really greatness at all.  Such greatness has these characteristics: “lording it over “ other people, exercising authority over  others, and being first.  Greatness in the kingdom of God comes with service and giving up one’s life.

Instead of being served by many, Jesus showed that greatness is shown by serving many.  Capacity to serve demonstrates greatness with God.  Greatness with God is not just a matter of some future reward, but to have the kind of influence that God has.  Jesus served not merely out of duty, but because it is the most effective way to love and change human hearts, human society, and creation as a whole.

As I remember how I was raised as a child, I believe the things that have remained with me the longest and seated themselves in my heart the deepest have been the ways in which my parents served.  My father’s work at home and his careful planning of our vacations as well as my mother’s deliberate affection and sharing her love of music and art were ways in which they taught me without being highly conscious of teaching me.  What they did had more effect than what they taught.  The depth of greatness is plumbed by how many hearts I affect rather than how many lives I direct.

So the moments of service become the times I choose not to hold over other people what authority I have.  I serve when I move away from exercising my authority as expert, supervisor, or father, but instead come alongside the people in my life as a resource to be used or ignored, a steward of what has been given to me, and a helper and encourager.  I serve when I choose to be last out of love.  Serving is, most notably, death to my self-life.

The paradox comes from the utter difference between God’s ways and the world’s ways.  Jesus’ contradiction and exaggeration come from his contrast between what I accept as “the way things are” and the truth of how things really are.  The heart of his teaching is “You have heard it was said” followed by “But I tell you.”

Lord, as much as I agree with you that service makes greatness, I inwardly rebel at the thought of service so often.  I feel imposed upon and inconvenienced in so many ways and my heart is often unresponsive to the needs of other people, my mind indifferent to what they ask for.  Please let your truth not remain paradox but come to be truth that I believe.  Amen.

I see how paradox can open my eyes if I open my ears to it.  Jesus is not merely saying, “Serve.”  He shows the try nature and purpose to service and how the very struggle to faith in him is the struggle to serve instead of lording it over others, exercising my authority, and determining to be first.  Without faith service does not make sense.  Without truly hearing the paradox, I think I hear his words when I do not really.  “He who has ears let him hear.”

“But as we took longer [to look at the Byzantine paintings,] we are struck by the sudden realization that the angles and postures are all perfectly natural and correct – or, at least, they would be if we were all dwelling in the world of the icon.  We are outsiders, looking in on the kingdom of heaven: it is our viewpoint that is distorted. . . .  [The Bible] is a thin place through which the presence of God breaks into this world and bursts with unpredictable consequences into our lives.”  (Chris Webb, The Fire of the Word, 31)

Jesus Mediates Biblical Truth

“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21)

When I train students in my laboratory, I often have them read about things before they try them out.  I have them read through a procedure and tell them that they may not understand all of it, but just to read it to get an idea of what we will be doing together.  After they see and practice the procedure, reading it makes much more sense.  The “fulfillment” of a procedure is in its execution.

So it is with the Bible.  Many things were heard from God and some of it was understood.  But fulfillment did not occur before Jesus.  Perhaps there was an inkling of what “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” meant through Moses, the Law, Wisdom, and the Prophets.  When Jesus came, though, then the true execution of that phrase was made plain.  Not only did he illuminate the entire Bible, he refashioned history according to its true fulfillment and showed the future in his being and in his teaching.

Everyone in Jesus’ hometown hoped that he was talking about how Israel would come out on top and all the pagan nations would be punished and destroyed.  They hoped for a ruler to make a merely earthly kingdom.  While Jesus pointed to himself, he dashed their hopes of Messiah, even speaking blasphemy to their ears.  He explained that although he fulfilled the scriptures, the people of his hometown would be the first to reject this fulfillment: a kingdom beyond Israel embracing the pagan nations.

So when I come to the Bible and when I speak about it, the true understanding and execution of the scriptures can only be found in Jesus.  He is more than an example.  He is more than a sacrifice.  He is more than a victor.  Fulfillment comes “today.”  He is my ever-living, ever-present guide and friend.  It is Jesus opening my mind to the scriptures and their meaning through an encounter with him.

Lord, you have brought such joy and simplicity to obeying you!  Jesus is the mediator of all truth.  The Bible is now his book to teach me with so that I too might fulfill the scriptures even as I hear from him.  Let my ears hear the one who is the way, the truth, and the life.  Amen.

Like the people long ago, I am tempted to see Jesus’ fulfillment of the scriptures as the fulfillment of my personal earthly happiness.  I do not want him to fulfill all the scriptures, but just the ones that might make my life easier and more pleasurable.  I need to take seriously the parts of the Bible that I might not want to see fulfilled.  In these places I may discover places in my life that need healing and redeeming as Jesus shows leads me into all truth through his Spirit.

The Word: Consumed and Not Burned Up

Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight – why the bush does not burn up.”  (Exodus 3:3)

“Do not come any closer, “God said.  “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5)

Moses’ experience of God tells me two things: how God’s word will affect me and how I should approach God in order to hear him.  The bush that does not burn up stands as a picture of what God intended for Moses and what he intends for me.  The voice of God with warning and instruction shows me how Moses could come to God and not be burned up.

One of the things that captured my imagination when I was growing up was a scene in the movie Krull.  The hero,  Colwyn,  has been fighting the monstrous villain with a special weapon called the Glaive.  The Glaive gets stuck in the enemy’s side during the battle and Colwyn is left defenseless.  However, he and the princess he came to rescue realize that their love gives them a greater weapon, a magic flame.  Colwyn then lights his hand in the fire and does not burn, but rather burns up “The Beast” he has been fighting.

Maybe, it’s not a great movie, but the impression of a fire that does not burn and is wielded as a weapon stuck with me.  Fire shows power.  Fire brings light.  Fire dances and swirls in the air.  I still have a fascination with fire.  I build one at our house most mornings in the winter.  I never tire of watching its light show as I enjoy its warmth.

The bush that does not burn seems to me to be more than just a miracle to get Moses attention.  It is a picture of God’s purpose for him and for all people.  What is the Holy Spirit, but the true fire that consumes each person while not destroying them?  He is the baptism of fire spoken of by John the Baptist and Jesus.  He is the fire of Pentecost, settling on and in each believer.

The ignition for this fire is God’s word, his voice on the heart of each person.  God word is described as a fire (Jeremiah 23:29) as well as his very being (Hebrews 12:29).  When God’s word comes to me, I find I am like the disciples walking to Emmaus, who said after they recognized Jesus, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?"  (Luke 24:32)  The Lord speaks and within me, his Spirit burns.

Yet the fire of God can destroy those who do not approach him rightly.  When I enter the house of a family that asks me to remove my shoes before I enter, I feel some resistance.  I have a sense of vulnerability when I leave my shoes behind.  My ability to come and go as I please has been hampered.

Also, I have a sense of humiliation.  I have been judged to be a bringer of filth into this clean and pure place.  (I have only experienced this taking off of shoes for the sake of keeping a house clean of dirt.)  Again, there is resistance to being seen as dirty.  Isn’t it okay just to wipe my feet?

These two things accompany the worship system of that Moses received.  In order to approach God, each person had to deal with their “dirtiness” (uncleanliness) and shed what was common (everyday) for something special (holy).  The system was designed to bring about a heart that was clean, that is, contrite and humble, as well as a heart that was holy, that is, focused on what is eternal and spiritual as opposed to what is temporary and external.

For my own approach to God, I am to take off my old self and put on Christ.  Like Moses sandals, my old self is dirty with pride and lust.  Also like those sandals, my old self is preoccupied with self-life and self-love and cannot be vulnerable and receptive to God and his word and his Spirit.  Of course, I cannot, by my own determination take off that old self.  However, God will not remove those clothes  until I come and spread my arms in humility and let him unclothe me.  There is a nakedness, a vulnerability I must have to receive God’s fiery word and not be destroyed by it.

Lord, I light my soul with your word.  Let my heart burn with your Spirit.  Teach me how to approach your holy ground without pride, without lust, naked and vulnerable before you.  Let me be consumed but not burnt up.  Amen.

The warning “Do not come any closer” reminds me that approaching God is at his request and at his discretion.  I may long for his word, so that I can argue better or so I can experience the joy, peace, or power that accompanies such words.  I may long to come “Just As I Am,” not in humility, but with pride and a sense of entitlement.  Chris Web reminds me, “Here is the work of today – which is the work the whole life.  I’m called daily to open my heart afresh to the living Word of God. . . .  So it’s with caution that, in my prayers, I approach the reading of Scripture itself.”  (The Fire of the Word, p. 14)  Preparation ends up being the first and one of the most important parts of receiving God’s word.  I would like to practice such preparation better.