Road to God: Uniqueness of Jesus 2

St John 14 (1-14) among other things is Jesus' preparing of his disciples for his going away both at Calvary but also post-Calvary. With regard to the first, they have just heard the distressing news that Peter will betray the Lord three times before the cock crows. No wonder their hearts are troubled!

However, St John, by the Holy Spirit, is also telling his readers more about the uniqueness of Jesus, the 'road' to God. In a sense, this theme has dominated his work from chapter 1. "No one has seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known" (v 18).

Our Lord directs their faith, not to Peter's predicted failure but to God and himself, to the road He will travel in order to go and prepare a place for them. Beautifully the writer transitions from this going with the theme of Himself as the Road, the unique Road to God.

First, Jesus tells them to their consternation I suspect that they know this way he is about to take. Dear Thomas then asks the question on all of their hearts I suspect, "Lord, we don't know where you are going and how can we know the way?" Jesus answers, "I am the way, and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me" (v 6).

"I am the road" is the translation given by J B Phillips and I think it a singularly helpful one for it gives us a word-picture. Just as a pathway, a footpath, a road allows us to get somewhere, Jesus is the One who leads to the Father. This revelation is profound because it means that our whole lives need to be lived upon the roadway which is Jesus, who is truth and life.

Shepherd Sunday: Uniqueness of Jesus 1

I found it interesting that in Eastertide we have Shepherd Sunday (John 10. 1-18). One compelling reason is that the Shepherd discourse brings to the fore the qualities of our Saviour as the One who suffers for his sheep and lays down his life for his sheep.

This is the Easter message in the context of the middle-eastern shepherd who lies across the doorway of the sheepfold, who puts his body 'on the line'. By being the One who lies in the doorway, He is able to say, 'I am the door to the sheepfold' and 'I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture'.

But more than that, St John wants to impress upon us that Jesus is unique as the door in that this shepherd not only lays down his life for the sheep but then is able by the authority vested in Him by the Father to take that life up again. No one took his life away from him. He voluntarily laid it down so that he might take it up again for all his sheep. Was there ever a shepherd like this that even death was unable to hold him fast on the third day? Of course not! No holy man or woman has ever defeated death in that way Jesus Christ did! No wonder St John urgently sets him forward as the Good Shepherd.

The Ministering Unknown Christ

Hearing the Emmaus story read again today, I became aware of the graphic picture it presents of the Christ ministering to us in all our troubles, griefs, sicknesses and problems: the Christ we see but do not recognise!!

And the fact that we do not recognise Him does not make his ministry to us any less potent. The Lord seemed content to minister to Cleopas and his companion without their knowing who He was. So often in life, we only realise much later that it was the Lord serving us, upholding us, supporting us and teaching us at a particularly dark time.

Perhaps the Emmaus story, along with many other of its facets, reminds us that our Lord is always with us because He has purposes to perform in our lives that will be achieved despite our spiritual blindness and sometime lack of zeal.

Words on the Wall

Christian groups 'dress to impress' these days with their song words on walls. We usually don't stop to think about this development but go along with it as the latest thing. However, may I just point out some aspects of this development that should give us pause for thought? With every use of newer technologies our lives are being subtly and sometimes not so subtly changed leaving us forgetting that 'the medium is the message'.*

First, the medium of data projection means that words cannot be meditated on or scanned before viewing by a congregation. Nor can an arresting phrase in any already sung verse be looked at again because the congregation is now onto the next verse. The simple use of hymn books allows those activities to be done.

Second, the congregational worship is always controlled by the click of the controller of the data projector. One could say that congregational worship in song moves according to the rhythm of the person with the mouse! I wonder whether we should much rather having that rhythm being established by a musician sensitive to the leading of God's spirit. Projectionists may well have that sensitivity but then we would have the need for three offices to become aligned: projectionist, worship leader, and musician.

Third, despite the usual assumption that newer technologies aid the church in adding to the number of disciples of Christ, no evidence exists that supports any link between changing the content of services and increase in church numbers. On the contrary, in the UK, the two appear to be negatively associated (http://xrl.in/2bg) for the Church of England at least. Astronomical sums in the billions spent in the US on upgrading technologies and using new programs in one year (2006?) in fact resulted in negative growth in US church numbers!! (See also http://xrl.in/2bj)

Last, data projection is a post-modern technology because post-modernism highlights the ephemeral, which precisely fits with data projection. One could say, post-modernism makes an absolute of the passing away of 'reality'. The latter is ephemeral, transient, here this second but gone the next. I don't think the church would want this notion to become embedded in its worship forms but it could be accepting that definition without much awareness that it is happening.

*A helpful article by Mark Federman @ http://xrl.in/2bk helps to explain what Marshall McLuhan meant by his popular but misunderstood phrase, 'the medium is the message', a process that the church would do well to remember.

We who don't see yet

Thomas wanted to see as the fellow disciples of Jesus had seen. I don't think we can blame Thomas for his wish and in so wishing/acting he demonstrated the true bodiliness of the crucified, now risen Jesus. (An important theme for the Spirit speaking through St John.) However, Thomas missed out on something less tangible but most important for all who would come later.

Thomas missed out on being the one of the disciples who would believe without having seen and hence become -even if for the short time - one of the fathers (St John being the other) of all those that have not seen and yet have believed.

This not-seeing state of faith is the one we live within for this time as expressed by J. R. Peacey (1896-1971) in these words:
O Lord, we long to see your face,

to know you risen from the grave;
But we have missed the joy and grace
of seeing you, as others have.
Yet in your company we'll wait,
And we shall see you, soon or late.

This waiting without seeing is also captured in 1 Peter 1: 8

Whom having not seen, you love;
in whom, though now you see him not,
yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

In any case, seeing can only be true seeing when attended by believing. Seeing is not always believing! Jews watched Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead and immediately thereafter plotted how they might kill Jesus!! Their seeing did not mean believing. Unless our seeing is mixed with believing invariably our seeing is corrupted.

Emmaus

During this Easter week, among other stories of Jesus' post-resurrection appearances, we have heard the account of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Lk 24:13-27).

For me, this drama-narrative can be understood in two acts. Act 1, Sorrowfully Not Seeing and Act 11, Ardently Coming To See.

The two disciples are walking along conversing and debating about what had happened to Jesus animated by a spirit of defeat, crushed hopes and puzzlement. "We had thought that our Lord would be the redemption of Israel but he was crucified, dead and buried. Now some who visited his tomb say they found it empty and saw angels declaring that Jesus is alive. But, these women didn't actually see him."

Jesus joins these sorrowing disciples who are mourning the loss of their Lord but their eyes 'are holden [held or restrained] that they should not know him' (KJV). They cannot see what is before their eyes. Their eyes are prevented from seeing and knowing Jesus.

I'm sure this has happened many times in my life. Jesus has been with me walking alongside me but my eyes have been 'restrained' from seeing him. In my case, my sin has had a large part to play in that failure to see. What this restraint was is not altogether clear. Did their sorrow mean they were prevented from seeing the Lord or did God purposely prevent them from seeing for his own purposes?

Could be. God's purposes are often beyond us. "As high as the heaven are above the earth" (Isa 55:8-9) and all that. Just because things appear to us to be without purpose or meaning it does not mean that they are without meaning. Think of young children who have to have some painful procedure carried out. They have no understanding of its purpose and why father and mother allow this to take place. As adults we know why but the immature child can't fathom it. Sometimes this situation may also happen with God and us. The Cross event is perhaps a good example of that same thing.

But, it's exhilarating to hear them say that it is now the third day since the crucifixion because in this day is embedded the hope of Israel, the hope of all creation, Resurrection day. And Jesus has already mysteriously alluded to this day (13:33)!! (The expression is used numbers of times in the Scriptures.)

But, these disciples are not living the the reality of the third day yet. So Jesus expounds the Word 'concerning himself'. What a bible lesson that must have been with the written word being opened up by the Word Himself!! Their hearts begin to burn within them. They urge Him to stay with them and as he takes the bread, blesses and breaks it, their eyes are opened and they recognise him. The burning in their hearts has created such an ardency (derived from Latin meaning burn) that despite the time of the day/night they return to their brethren and tell them what has happened.

The same third day will always suggest the first day of shameful death but 'in the third day' lies the hope of all mankind.