Eternal Life: Becoming a Part of Christ's Life

When you fail or fear,
do not be alarmed that the foundations of your life are shaken.
Instead, trust in God
and also trust in who he sent - me.
Even when you fail,
especially when you fail,
remember God has a place for you.
His house is open wide to you.
I am not just saying that.
Actually, I am going to prepare your room for you.
So now you know when I go,
it is not in order to leave you,
but to go ahead of you
and make a place for you.
I am coming back for you so you can be where I am.
You know the place I am going to,
the one I'm always talking about.

You cry out, "Lord, I don't know where you are going
so how can I know the way?"

The way is in front of you, right before you.

Make my ways your ways,
Hold the same truth I hold,
Live as I have lived.
Do all this with me and you are on the way.
There is no other way to that place I am going to
- my Father's side.
When you really come to know me
you will find my Father near and know him too.
So, as you know me even now,
you know and see our Father God
and find your place with him.

You say, "Just show me the Father.  Show me my place.  I will get there."

What do you think I've been trying to do?
I want you to see the Father.
I want you to see the Father in me.
Now you want to get to him on your own.
Trust me.  I live and work in his presence
and he lives and works through my presence.
Look, these words I am speaking even now are not merely my own.
They also are his work, his very being expressed through me.
Trust me when I tell you that
you will find our Father God where I am living and working
and where he is at work you will find me.
If my word is not enough to inspire your trust,
then at least trust the miracles he does through me.
Here's the truth:
If anyone really believes what I am telling you,,
that person will start doing the miracles I have done.
Actually, that person will do even greater things,
because I will be with our Father,
leading and cheering him on to the very end,
a place I have prepared for him.
I will do anything that person asks
because of his complete confidence in me.
Such trust in me shows our Father's goodness and shining beauty.
So you may always ask me for anything
and such utter confidence in who I am and all I've done
will not disappoint you.
You'll get what you ask for.
This kind of request comes from loving me.
And such love always obeys me.
You will want what I want.

Now, I will be sending someone else to be with you from our Father God:
the Spirit who is always true.
The world caught up in doing its own thing in its own way find this One unacceptable,
because they can't see him or know him enough to manipulate him.
For you it's different.
You've already been introduced to the Spirit who is with you.
He lives with and even inside those who are with me.
Now, although I am leaving, I will not leave you alone
like a child who has no parents.
By this Spirit I will come to you.
Soon after I go, the world obsessed with what it wants will not be able to see me.
You, however, will still see me.
The life I live will continue.
You will be included in that life with me.
On the day, even though the self-centered world can't see me anymore,
you will find me where my Father is living and working.
I am in his life, a part of his life.
Then you will see you are a part of my life,
and finally you will discover how I am in your life.
Such a life as this comes to those who love me.
Those who love me hold my instructions as dear and follow them closely.
Yes, such love for me brings my Father's adoration
and my deep affection.  I will show myself to that person.

(Meditation on John 14:1-21)

Funny how failure and fear can bring me to trust in God or to cling even more tightly to my idols.  When I sense that abandonment, I can think Christ has left me or has gone on ahead to prepare for me.  The sense of being left can either make me look for him or make me distrust him.

The way is as it has always been: discipleship.  It is to take his life as my life, hoping that I will gain what he has and go where he goes.  Jesus leaves no room for worry.  By his grace, my efforts will indeed make his way my way, his truth my truth, and his life my life.

Unfortunately, after receiving instructions, I am prone to say, "Just let me see the map to God.  Let me see what it's like and I'll take from here, Jesus."  Then I end up in the same boat with his disciples that night - betraying and denying.  I am saying my efforts are enough.  They aren't.  However, they are necessary.  So Jesus goes on carefully explaining how he intends to get me to where he is going.  I am going to need to take his word on that.  I will need to be immersed in his helping, strengthening Spirit.  I will need to actually do what he did.  The effort is mine.  He will take care of the results and the completion of those efforts.

When I say, "I'll take it from here" to Jesus, I am saying my life is my own.  It isn't.  Jesus carefully describes how I become a part of his life instead of merely having him as part of my life.  How would I become part of my wife's or my kid's lives?  I hang around and do what they do.  Being a loving part of their lives is what makes my involvement a blessing rather than a curse.  With Jesus, only after I see how I am part of his life and learn to love him for including me, will I be able to deal with how he is in my life.  My life will truly become my own because I will receive it as a gift from him.

Perhaps this will be how I see Jesus most clearly.  My hope will not be disappointed as I see Jesus in my very own limbs and words and grow to understand his truth in love and sense his presence through his pleasure in the life we share.  Perhaps Jesus will show himself mostly by being in me.

Lord, teach me how to be a part of your life instead of trying to make you a part of my life.  Amen.

Faith in Jesus

Jesus's mealtime conversation during his last supper included some bitter news for his disciples.  "Where I am going, you cannot come."  (John 13:33)  The one they thought would set up shop on earth as a new Davidic king in Israel was breaking up camp and leaving.  He told them, "You know the way to the place where I am going." (14:4)

Thomas, the famous doubter, blurted out, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" (v. 5)

In answer Jesus gave his famous proclamation: "I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really knew me, you would know the Father as well.  From now on, you do know him and have seen him."  (vv. 6-7)

Philip said in his confusion what many cynical skeptics would say now, "Show us the Father and that will be enough for us."  (v. 8)

Now Jesus expands.  Philip does not take Jesus explanation in verse 7 at face value.  He wants more.  Fortunately Jesus doesn't just slap him and say, "Believe more!"  He explained to Philip and us how we can come to see the Father.

His questions to Philip were biting, however.  "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? . . .  How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?  Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?"  (vv. 9, 10)  He explained that Philip doesn't really know him.  Unfortunately, I think we don't do a lot better than Philip.

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Jesus uses three expressions to explain his relationship with the Father.  "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father."  (v. 9)  Jesus is the face of God.  "I am in the Father and the Father is in me."  (v. 10)  Jesus shares a life, an existence with God.  "The words I say to you are not just my own.  Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing the work."  (v. 10)  Jesus has the teaching of God.

This is the foundation of our faith.  "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me."  On this everything rests.  This is not merely part of an understanding about Trinitarian belief, it is about the very nature of God.  Jesus was God-in-the-flesh (God incarnate) or he wasn't.  What Jesus said, what he did, and how he was were all as God would (and did) do as a person.

So what's the big deal?  It's the difference between Jesus healing and helping as a nice guy or Jesus healing and helping as the expression of what God did, does, and always will do.  It's the difference between Jesus having some nice or helpful words and Jesus speaking words that are life, truth, and the very bread of human existence.  It's the difference between Jesus being a pitiful martyr or Jesus drawing the whole world to himself as a deliverer from death and evil, a savior from the corruption of sin, and the ultimate example of where each person must go to find God.

Disbelief and skepticism about this kind of trust and belief in Jesus are the water we swim in.  But, what if the face of Jesus is the face of God?  How might we feel toward him?  How might we relate to him?

What if Jesus shared a life with God when he was on earth?  Could we imagine working side-by-side with God, so that we might say, "It is [Jesus], living in me, doing the work"?  How might we walk through our days?  How might we understand our purpose?

What if Jesus had the teaching of God?  Perhaps he might have know just what we needed to hear to live the life God would love and that we would love as well?  Perhaps each of his words as present in the created order and in the Bible would bring life, love, peace, and joy?  Might he be the Master Teacher of all time?

Although lack of faith may be most noticeable through a lack of confidence, its source comes more from lack of knowledge.  Understanding and accepting God's nature will bring about confidence.  Jesus expanded his teaching to Philip because Philip lacked understanding.  Where Philip's (and our) understanding fail, he gives grace and power to grasp what we need to know.  Faith stretches out beyond knowledge, but also pulls knowledge along.  Greater faith yields greater knowledge and, to some degree, greater knowledge yields greater faith.

As I live in faith and trust of God, I learn more about him.  As I learn more about God and from God, I find faith easier to exercise.  Jesus explains to Philip on this principle, I believe.  In the end, it challenges me to think a bit harder about what I believe and what I don't believe and what Jesus taught me to believe most of all.  I find that from faith informed by knowledge, confidence comes.

Lord, let me see your face.  Let me see the life you want me to live.  Let me come to know your teaching more deeply.  Let me do this in your name, by faith in you informed by knowing you, and byu loving you.  Amen.