The Cost of Witness (1)

 The Upper Room – The Cost of Witness (1)

Our next section, or movement, in the Upper Room is John 15:18 – 16:4 (remember that chapter and verse numberings were not in the Bible as it was first written). As we prepare to explore this passage, it will be helpful if we read it again, and again, and again. It may also be helpful to read it in multiple translations to allow the central thought of what Jesus is saying to soak into us. Don’t get hung up on individual word choices in the translations, rather pay attention to the theme. 

That is, look at the entire tree, at the shape of the tree. Only after we “see” the tree can we appreciate its branches. (I can’t count the number of Bible studies I’ve been in where folks get so absorbed in individual branches that they never see the passage they are reading, they never see the tree, they never get the point of the passage. If we don’t see the tree we really can’t see the role the branches play.)

How does this passage fit into the entire Upper Room (chapters 13–17)? 

What role does it play in its immediate context (15:1–17 and 16:5–22)?

Why might Jesus have included 15:26-27?

How might this passage have played out in the lives of the disciples who first heard it?

How has this passage been expressed in the Church through the ages?

What does this passage look like in our congregations?

What does this passage look like in my life?

In your life?

Our Last Battle (6)

 Six – Not A Tame Lion?

While Lewis titles chapter three, The Ape in Its Glory, I think the question for the reader is, “What do I see happening as a result of the Ape having such glory?” That is, what do we see happening on the inside of people as a result of the Ape’s words and actions?

Here is the second phase of Our Last Battle, while this phase was introduced in Chapter Two, it comes into focus in Chapter Three. It is a phase that is deeply ingrained in the professing church of our own day, whether it styles itself conservative, progressive, liberal, or with, I suppose, any other label – including the label of “no label.” 

In Chapter Two, as the King and Jewel are rejecting Roonwit’s warning not to believe that lie that Aslan has returned, Jewel argues that Aslan need not be consistent with the stars that Roonwit points to because Aslan is not a Tame Lion. At this Tirian cries, “Well said, well said, Jewel. Those are the very words: not a tame lion. It comes in many tales.”

Then in Chapter Three, as Tirian and Jewel deal with their shame over the murder of two Calormenes, who were unarmed, and struggle with how it is possible that Aslan would decree the enslavement of Narnians, the destruction of Narnian trees, and an alliance with the Calormenes, Tirian says again, “He is not a tame Lion.” 

Later, when Jewel and Tirian are brought before the Ape and witness the Ape’s interaction with the crowd, we see a Boar asking Shift why the people can’t actually see Aslan and talk to him. The Boar points out that in the old days, when Aslan appeared, people clearly saw him and spoke to Him face to face. 

The Ape responds by saying that times have changed and that Aslan will “teach you to think he’s a tame lion.” 

A Bear then says, “We want to hear Aslan speak for himself.”

A young lamb then asks how Aslan could be friends with Tash, a god who is worshipped with human sacrifice. Then the Ape gets things out in the open with the statement, “Tash is only another name for Aslan…Tash is Aslan: Aslan is Tash.” 

Finally Tirian comes to his senses, “Ape,” he cried with a great voice, “you lie. You lie damnably. You lie like a Calormene. You lie like an Ape.”

This phase of Our Last Battle can be thought of as knowing Aslan, or knowing Jesus – as opposed to believing and accepting a caricature of Him. This includes seeing the perfect harmony and correspondence between Aslan and the stars, or more perfectly, between Jesus and His Word. 

Let’s explore a few of the threads inherent in this phase of Our Last Battle. 

The first thread has to do with the idea that Aslan is not a Tame Lion, an image we find in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Mr. Beaver had warned the Kings and Queens concerning Aslan, “He’ll be coming and going. One day you’ll see him and another you won’t. He doesn’t like being tied down – and of course he has other countries to attend to. It’s quite all right. He’ll often drop in. Only you mustn’t press him. He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.” 

What does this mean? What doesn’t it mean? How did Tirian and others misunderstand this? 

There are six books that precede The Last Battle in the Narniad. Each of these stories reveal Aslan, and in revealing Aslan they reveal His character, His Nature. We see Aslan’s loving self-sacrifice, His kindness and gentleness, His righteousness and justice, and His forgiveness and mercy. We also see that while He is not a tame lion, that He is approachable and trustworthy and safe to be with. We might say that while we do not tame Aslan, that Aslan tames us by teaching us to trust Him and obey Him in love and truth and righteousness and courage. 

In The Last Battle, not only do the King and Jewel reject Roonwit’s appeal to the message of the heavens, but the King, Jewel, and many of the King’s subjects reject the testimony of previous generations concerning Aslan. They are duped into believing lies. They actually believe and accept the caricature of Aslan as portrayed by the Ape. Those few Narnians who take issue with the Ape’s message are quickly shouted down and are not supported by their fellow Narnians. 

This entails more than believing lies, it also attributes evil to Aslan, the Christ figure. This is what occurs when we do not really know Aslan, when we do not speak to Him face to face. This is how we can be led to attribute evil to God when we don’t know the Nature and Character of God. When we don’t know the Word of God, when we don’t know Christ as revealed in the Bible, then we can only rely on hearsay, on what others have told us as opposed to what we have experienced. 

In Scripture we are told that Jesus, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He become poor. Is it likely that this Jesus would send us a message that we ought to accumulate wealth? That we ought to seek bigger and bigger houses, jewels upon jewels, exotic automobiles, and hoard more money than we will ever need? Does it make sense that this Jesus would send messengers, pastors, priests, archbishops, prophets, evangelists who are not transparent about their (and their churches) finances, who make displays of wealth when people are starving and homeless? Who lay up treasures on earth when people need Jesus and food and shelter and medical care? 

Jesus says that we are to allow the little children to come to Him. Does it make sense that this Jesus would tolerate the abuse of children? That He would cover it up? That He would enable abusers to continue their evil practices? The Jesus of the Gospels provided a safe place for women. Do we not think it strange that institutions that purport to be from Him perpetuate the abuse of women, making excuse after excuse for the practice. 

Jesus said that we will know trees by their fruit. If a system, if an institution, is producing sinful and evil fruit – how can we think that the Ape is actually representing Aslan? 

Jesus teaches us that we are His brothers and sisters, that we are the daughters and sons of His Father. Jesus teaches us that we can know Him, speak to Him, hear Him, abide in Him and have Him abide in us. Yet, we are often taught that we cannot come near Him, but that we must have others speak to us on His behalf. In fact, we are often taught that He no longer speaks to us, in spite of what Jesus Himself tells us in His Word. 

Some teach us that nationalism should share the stage with Jesus. Others teach that this or that economic system has been sanctioned by Jesus and that we ought to propagate it. Others teach us that there is a certain way to look at the world, they call it a worldview, and they make it equivalent to the Gospel. 

But the Jesus of the Bible is transcendent, and He makes us citizens of heaven. Jesus calls us to be His Ekklesia, His Church, His Body, His Bride, His Temple – there are no national flags or national constitutions within the Temple of God – there is the Father and the Son.  

There are those who claim to be messengers of Jesus who keep people in slavery to guilt, they measure the effectiveness of their so-called ministries by how guilty their people feel from week to week. They pay lip service to the New Covenant, but they practice the guilt-ridden Old Covenant where there is a constant reminder of sin. (Actually, the men and women of faith under the Old Covenant knew the blessedness of forgiveness – see Romans Chapter 4). Yet, the Jesus of the Bible comes to forgive and cleanse us once and for all (see Hebrews Chapter 10; 2 Cor. 5:21). 

If we don’t know the Nature and Character of Jesus, as displayed in Scripture, we will be duped by the Ape and dead lion skins. 

People will say, “Well, He isn’t a tame lion,” and we will take that to mean that the Bible can be superseded by our whims and fancies and pragmatism. 

An element of Our Last Battle is whether we know Jesus or whether we have bought into a caricature of Him. Are we attributing evil – including religious evil - to the spotless and holy Lamb of God? Are we following dead lions’ skins? 

“I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). 

In our next reflection we'll consider what it means that Aslan is not a tame lion on the positive side. 

The Royal Inclusio – Love (12)

 This is our concluding reflection on John 15:12 - 17. Our next movement in the Upper Room is John 15:18 - 16:4. 

We have asked three questions regarding the love of John 15:12 – 17: What does this look like in the church? What does this look like in my own life? What does this look like in my family? Having pondered the second and third questions, we’ll now consider the first question (though we touched on it in our previous meditation). 

Are our congregations (and denominations and movements) laying down their lives for others? Is my local congregation laying down its life for its community, for the world, and for other congregations? 

The term “doctrinal distinctives” is often used to delineate one group from another, indicating what beliefs or practices set groups apart from one another. As I ponder this, I wonder where we get this mentality of defining ourselves by our differences, and I wonder how we justify such thinking. I wonder why we don’t emphasize our common faith in Jesus Christ and our call to unity in Him. How have we arrived at such fragmented thinking? 

Jesus tells us that we are to have two distinctives, one is that we love one another as He loves us, the other is that we are One as the Trinity is One. Both of these distinctives are contrary to our cherished doctrinal distinctives – our doctrinal distinctives separate the Body of Christ, the Divine distinctives of sacrificial love and unity “perfect us into one” Body (John 17:23; Ephesians 4:1–16).

Whatever our doctrinal distinctives may be – and I think we should acknowledge that whatever they are, they are likely imperfect and incomplete – the test of their validity is whether they are Christocentric, rooted in Christ. Since we cannot be rooted in Christ without also being rooted in His Body, any doctrinal distinctives that do not result in service and preference for the Body of Christ lack validation. 

Consider a wheel with many spokes. Are the spokes leading to the hub or away from the hub? When we seek to emphasize our unity, the spokes lead to the hub, Jesus Christ. When we emphasize and identify with our so-called distinctives, we move away from the hub. 

Nowhere do we see Jesus teaching us to move away from Him and our brethren, in fact, throughout the Bible we are taught to live for one another in Christ. How is it that we have come to celebrate division? How is it that pastors see no need to know one another and to lead their people by example into the glorious fellowship of the Body of Christ? 

On the congregational level, are we collectively living sacrificial lives for others? How are we spending our money, our time, our resources? I have often shared the story of a trustees’ meeting in which I said, “I would not want to appear before Jesus with this budget and financial statement. It is all about us.” 

I have known folks who thought that if they volunteered so many hours a month at church that they would not need to give money. I have known others who thought that if they gave money that would not have to give time or talent. Where does this thinking come from? We are either living for Jesus and others or we are not. We are either living in relationship with the Trinity and others or we are not. 

Years ago there was a church in Richmond, VA in the midst of a building program. They were ready to begin the next phase of the program and they had the money for the project. However, they had also promised a church in Haiti that they would provide funds for a building. They only had enough money for one project. The church gave their funds to their Haitian brethren. That, my friend, was the turning point for the Richmond church. The church became a center for outreach to the world, supporting churches throughout the world, sending missionaries, and (the last time I had contact with them) sending about 25 short-term mission groups every year. Because they put others first God was able to use them for His Kingdom. (Also, as I think about this particular church, even though it was a member of a denomination, it never had a denominational feel to it, it had the feel of the Body of Christ.)

Just to be clear, I am not talking about being “non-denominational,” whatever that means. I think whether or not a congregation is associated with a denomination is like circumcision, the Bible says it doesn’t matter whether you are or you aren’t, what matters is that we have “faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6; 6:15). We are all products of traditions and practices and ways of looking at things, and folks who make a big deal of being non-denominational are ignoring the obvious and often leading their people in ways that lack foundation, that have no continuity with the transcendent Body of Christ. Of course, this disconnect with our past is the norm across most congregations and institutions, even those who profess otherwise – we are so “in the moment” and reactionary that our congregations are ships without rudders and navigational charts. We are more like bumper cars than vessels on a carefully charted course. 

What does the Royal Inclusio look like in my life? In your life? In our marriages? Our families? Our congregations? Our denominations and movements?

Are we laying down our lives for others in love as Jesus laid down His life for us? 

Our Last Battle - (5)

 FIVE – THE KING’S ANGER GROWS

As Tirian and Jewel contend with Roonwit over the centaur’s warning of not to believe the lie that Aslan has returned, their ears are arrested by a Dryad’s wailing, crying for justice from the King. Her brothers and sisters, Narnian trees in Lantern Waste, are being cut down, murdered. Tirian’s reaction is to draw his sword. 

Note that the King has gone from putting his hand on his sword in anger toward Roonwit, to now drawing his sword in response to the Dryad’s news.

When the Dyad falls dead in great pain, indicating that her tree in Lantern Waste has also been cut down, Tirian’s grief and anger are so great that he can’t speak. Then, when the King calls on Roonwit and Jewel to come with him to Lantern Waste and confront the enemy perpetuating the murders, Roonwit counsels, “Sir, be wary even in your just wrath.”

Roonwit further counsels Tirian to wait until they gather reinforcements, for after all, there are only three of them and there are likely many villains to confront. Tirian, however, will not wait, but as he and Jewel make their way to Lantern Waste, he sends Roonwit to Cair Paravel for help. 

Lewis tells us that as the King hurries to help the Narnian trees that he is muttering to himself and clenching his fists, his anger is burning, he is driven by anger. When they ford the cold waters of a river Tirian is so angry that he hardly notices how cold the water is. Again, he is propelled by anger, fueled by anger. 

After an encounter with a Water Rat who tells them that their arch enemies, the Calormenes, are the ones felling the trees, Jewel and the King both become so angry that they can’t think clearly, which leads us to a key statement by Lewis in this chapter, and indeed in the entire book: “But much evil came of their rashness in the end.” 

The chapter concludes with Jewel and Tirian killing two Calormenes who have enslaved a Narnian horse. “The King’s sword went up, the Unicorn’s horn went down.” Jewel gored his opponent and Tirian beheaded his enemy. 

Note the progression of Tirian’s anger with his sword; first he lays his hand on the sword in his anger toward Roonwit, then he draws his sword in his anger at the news Dryads are being murdered, then he beheads an enemy with the sword to conclude the chapter. As noted previously, Tirian’s anger is mentioned at least ten times in this chapter, which is titled The Rashness of the King. 

Tirian rejected Roonwit’s counsel not to believe the lie about Aslan. Then the King rejected Roonwit’s counsel to be wary of his anger. Much evil would come of Tirian’s rashness, much sorrow, and much harm to his people. 

O dear friends, can we learn from Lewis’s warning about anger? Anger propels us on a trajectory of sorrow and hurt. When we become people of anger we hurt others in our self-righteousness, we ingest poison into our souls, we spread toxicity to those around us, we communicate spiritual and moral disease and death. 

The People of Christ are to be those who belong to the sacrificial Lamb, the Prince of Peace. We are called to be peacemakers. Our gentleness is to be known to all people. We are to "follow the Lamb wherever He goes” rather than take the lead in anger. We are not to call down fire on others, but we are to remember whose Spirit lives within us. 

The Scriptures teach us that Christ has made us a royal priesthood, we are kings and priests in Christ. If this is so, then we ought to be aware that godly kings do not rule and operate out of anger, but in peace and equity and wisdom. 

When we find ourselves drunk with anger we need to check ourselves into a detox center, and the detox center focuses on Christ Jesus the Lamb and our submission to His Word. The detox center reminds us of the character of our Father and Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit, it reminds us that we are not of this world. 

The cup of anger is the cup of Satan, the cup of deceit. The alcohol may be mixed in sweet fruit punch so that we won’t taste it, it may be easy for us to drink, we may justify a drink here and a drink there, but before we know it we have turned the jug upside down and we no longer control the drink, the drink controls us – we are fools. 

Our Last Battle includes our battle with anger. If anger wins, then we lose. If we learn to submit to the peace of Christ, allowing His peace to rule in our hearts (Colossians 3:15), then we have hope and the possibility that we can help others, that in Christ we can save others from the chaotic hell around us. 

Tirian’s anger blinded him to the character of Aslan, it blinded him to the wise counsel of Roonwit, it blinded him to the Word of Aslan as portrayed in the heavens, it blinded him to good judgment, it impeded his ability to save his people. We cannot see clearly when we are angry; we hurt ourselves and others and bring shame to Jesus Christ when we act like fools.

The people around us need the peace of Jesus Christ, they do not need our self-righteous anger, be it religious or political. 

Many of us are fond of quoting Isaiah in saying that a time will come when people will call good evil and evil good. Yet, we do the very same thing when we call anger good and peace evil. Why don’t we see this? It is because we are losing our Last Battle, it is because we are drinking the cup of the enemy and we are too drunk to know it. Isn’t it about time we sobered up and began living for Jesus and others? 

Godly courage is exemplified by the Cross, not by the sword. 

“And they overcame him [Satan] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony [of the Lamb], and they did not love their life even to death [just as the Lamb]” (Rev. 12:11). 

“The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 2:24 – 25). 

How are we doing with our Last Battle with anger? 

Do we really want to live and die as an angry people? 

The Royal Inclusio - Love (11)

We have asked three questions regarding the love of John 15:12 – 17: What does this look like in the church? What does this look like in my own life? What does this look like in my family?

We’ve pondered the second question, now let’s consider the third. There are two elements to the question of what loving one another as Jesus loves us looks like in our families. The first is obvious, the second may not be. 

Do we, within our families, love one another as Jesus loves us? Do we practice laying our lives down for one another? At the same time, we should ask whether our families, as family units, are laying their lives down for others outside their families. 

What I mean is that just as individuals are called to love others as Jesus sacrificially loves them, so families are called to love others as Jesus sacrificially loves them (and of course the same is true of congregations and denominations and other associations in Christ). Self-centeredness within families and congregations is idolatrous just as self-centeredness in individuals is idolatrous. The Nature of God is loving and self-giving, therefore if the Nature of God abides within us and in our relationships in Christ, then those relationships ought to display the self-giving and sacrificial love of God, the love that lays down its life for its friends. 

This can be a difficult thing to wrestle with in our self-centered culture, for we have been taught, within and without the professing church, to rationalize our selfishness. We have erected our own images of spiritual health and success in place of the Lamb of God. We have substituted our own images of righteousness for the righteousness of Jesus Christ. There have been many things God has given us for our good that we turned into bronze serpents.

Rather than on mission to share Jesus Christ with the world, our mission has become our own self-improvement, our own blessing, and perpetuating our own kingdoms. Our center of gravity is us as individuals, is us as families, and is us as congregations (and denominations and movements). 

This, my friends, is opposed to our text (John 15:12 – 17), it is opposed to the Upper Room, the Gospel of John, the life of Jesus Christ, and to the Message and Call of Scripture. 

The Good News is that because our heavenly Father knows each of us, and because He loves us so deeply, He will guide us out of our individual and collective self-centeredness if we will ask Him for help. And let’s remember, it must always begin by looking in the mirror – it must begin with me, always with me. I must never look at another person, whether it be my wife, other family members, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and think, “If only that person would change!” 

O my how we lie to ourselves! My love for Christ and others, and my obedience to Jesus Christ, is at the core of the Royal Inclusio. I am called to lay my life down for others, I am not called to manipulate others to lay their lives down for me. 

Let’s make no mistake that we are talking about the Cross of Jesus Christ working itself out in our lives – and the Cross means crucifixion. We must not spare ourselves, our families, or our congregations from the Cross – not if we truly love them. We must not be like Peter when he attempted to shield Jesus from the Cross (Matthew 16:21–23). Do we realize this? O pastors, you are doing your congregations no favors when you shield them from the Cross of Christ. We are called to participate with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion (Galatians 2:20; 6:14; 2 Corinthians 4:11–12; Romans Chapter 6). 

When the Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross ceases to be our center of gravity, and is displaced by self-centeredness, including familial, congregational, institutional, and political and nationalistic self-centeredness, we have made our own golden calves. 

Radical? Why of course it is radical. It is radical because the love of Jesus Christ is radical. This is the Love that is our calling into eternity…and if we are not living for eternity then we are a foolish people. Are we ashamed to live for eternity? Are we ashamed to live for Jesus?

Are we not a collective expression of the Rich Young Ruler? Unwilling to give what we cannot keep to gain what we cannot lose? 

If we are not teaching our families this love by the way we live, why not? If our families are not teaching others this love by the way they live, why not? If our churches and denominations and movements are not displaying the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ, why not?

Jesus will teach us His Way of Life, His Way of Love, His Way of giving. We can trust Him to teach us today, tomorrow, and into eternity. He calls us into the deep koinonia of the Trinity, a koinonia of sacrificial love and kindness and grace and joy. We cannot do this in and of ourselves, but as we abide in the Vine, O yes, as we abide in the Vine, He will teach us to lay down our lives for others as He laid down His life for us. 

There is no greater love than this!

The Royal Inclusio - Love (10)

 

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you …This I command you, that you love one another.” John 15:12, 17. 

Do we understand what Jesus is saying? Do we understand what this is? Do we understand, at least in some measure, what Jesus is offering us? 

There is no one as glorious and as beautiful as Jesus Christ. We have never seen or heard anything in creation, or anything produced by man, as beautiful as Jesus Christ. The sum of all beauty and all wonder and all glory and all joy falls short of Jesus Christ – He is truly beyond comparison and description. 

What is it like to be in the Presence of Him who is altogether Wonderful? What is it like to know friendship and koinonia with Him? To touch Him and be touched by Him? To know joy with Him, to laugh with Him, to enjoy singing and music with Him? What is it like to know Him as the Elder Brother and to enjoy a relationship with our Father with Him? 

When Jesus commands us to love as He loves, to lay down our lives as He laid down His life, He is inviting us to know Him in the depths of His Being (if we can use such language). He is calling us to have the image of God restored (actually beyond restored in the sense of beyond what Adam knew) within us. Jesus is inviting us to know the glory which He had with the Father before the foundation of the world (John 17:5, 22–24) and to which our Father is calling us (Hebrews 2:10–13; 2 Thess. 1:12). 

When Jesus calls us to love as He loves, He is calling us into the beauty of the love of God. “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him” (1 John 4:16). 

Let’s recall that the Upper Room begins with Jesus washing feet, including the feet of Judas the betrayer. Jesus calls us to live such a life as we live in Him. Jesus loves as no one else is capable of loving, and He calls us to live in that love and to love with that love as we abide in the Vine and as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit abide in us. 

When Jesus calls us to love one another as He loves us, He calls us to live in His beauty and wonder and glory and joy. True and enduring courage is found in His love, it is found in Him as we love. This is a love that is intercessory in nature, self-giving, that suffers gladly for others, that bears their burdens and sorrows and infirmities – spiritual and physical – and offers itself as a living sacrifice. 

To know Him in the koinonia of His sufferings (Phil. 3:10) is to know Him in His inexpressible beauty and love and glory. This is to be captured and held tight by the love of God, a love from which nothing can separate us (Rom. 8:35–39). 

Now friends, here is the thing, if we are only living as if this life is all there is, then who cares about any of this? It is a sweet story, or a story for fools – call it what you will, but it doesn’t matter, or at least it matters no more than baseball or Wall Street. 

But if we are indeed the sons and daughters of the Living God through Jesus Christ, then loving as Jesus loves forms our souls for eternity and draws us into the depths of the Trinity. Furthermore, God draws others to Himself through us. Also, God uses us to bear the burdens and sufferings of others, He invites us to share the sufferings of Jesus Christ, to serve alongside Jesus our High Priest (Col. 1:24). 

Jesus says, “Come be with Me where I am. Come and love as I love. Come and give as I give. Come and serve as I serve. Come and suffer as I suffer. Come and rise as I rise. Come and ascend as I ascend. Come and know our Father as I know our Father. Come and behold My beauty and know My joy and bask in the warmth and security and glory of My love.”

There is no greater command than, “Love one another as I have loved you.” There is no greater command in terms of importance, in terms of promise, in terms of invitation, and in terms of glory and destiny. There is no greater command because it calls us to unity with Jesus Christ. 

The Royal Inclusio – Love (9)

“This I command you, that you love one another.” John 15:17. 

Here is the completion of the Royal Inclusio that began in verse 12 with, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” 

Love forms the beginning and the end of the Upper Room (another inclusio), we saw it in 13:1, “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end,” and we will see it in John 17:26, “So that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” 

Also, let us ever keep 1 John 3:16 in our hearts, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 

Now I suppose there are at least three things we ought to ask ourselves: What does this look like in the church? What does this look like in my own life? What does this look like in my family? 

When I ask, “What does this look like in my family?” I am asking two questions. The first question is the one most people likely hear, the second question is one we likely do not hear. What are the two questions? We’ll come back to them.

Since it is always good to begin by looking in the mirror, let’s ask ourselves whether we are keeping this royal command of Jesus Christ. Am I loving others as Jesus Christ loves me? Am I laying down my life for others just as Jesus Christ laid down His life for me? I must not look at others, I must not look at the church, until I have first looked at myself in the light of God’s Word. 

Is my center of gravity Christ and others, or am I the center of my life? Is my life about self-preservation, is it about my wants and needs and agendas, or is it about Jesus Christ and others? 

Now I realize that this is a hard saying, but I wonder why it is hard. After all, the call of Jesus to follow Him clearly includes the call to lose our lives (Mark 8:34 – 38). Why then should we be surprised at the thought that we are live for Christ and others? 

If I am a student, I am in school for others. If I am at work, I am at work for others. If I am engaged in recreation, I am there for others. If I am involved in social or civic activities, I am involved for the benefit of others. In other words, there should be no sphere of life in which I am not living for Jesus Christ and loving others as Jesus loves me. This should also, naturally, include participation in church. Would it not be novel to see churches whose members love one another as Jesus loves them? (More on this later). 

Yes, this Way of Life is radical, but this is the Way of Jesus. Jesus is quite clear, we are to love one another as He loves us, and this means laying down our lives for one another. 

As we will see in the next section of the Upper Room (15:18 – 16:4), there is a price to be paid for living this Way, but it is an honor and glory to pay such a price.  This is the Way of the Cross, and it is also the Way of Resurrection (Romans 8:12 – 25). 

Do we tell ourselves lies to excuse ourselves from following Jesus? 

Do we say, “That was Paul, Jesus appeared to him.  Peter and John were with Jesus, so they could live like that. I am not a pastor (and for sure pastors have their own excuses!). Jesus understands that I must be practical in my life. My family and friends and coworkers will not understand if I am obedient to Jesus. Why should I love people who do not appreciate me? Once I achieve my goals, once I have financial security, I’ll do better about obeying Jesus and loving others." 

What other lies do we tell ourselves to justify not loving others and not laying our lives down for them? 

The glory we forfeit when we refuse Jesus’ command to love one another is the glory of Sonship in Him. Our Father has a grand and glorious eternity awaiting us, and it is His desire that we enter it knowing Jesus in the power of His resurrection and the koinonia of His suffering, being conformed to His death (Philippians 3:10). 

Are we members of the koinonia of the Lamb? Are we following the Lamb wherever He goes (Rev. 14:1–5)?

Can we say with Paul, “For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you” (2 Cor. 4:11–12)?

O dear friends, how foolish to think that our lives are to be measured by success or bank accounts or possessions, how foolish to use this world’s measurements in our lives, how short-sighted to compromise with the surrounding culture of self-centered evil – including elements of the “church culture.” We are called to live as a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:4–10; Rev. 1:6), belonging to and serving with our High Priest Jesus Christ.

The core of our lives is to be the love of Jesus Christ, it is to be loving one another as Jesus loves us, it is to be the Greater Love that lays down its life for its friends. Jesus gave His life for us, for our brethren, and for the world; we are to give our lives for Him, for our brethren, and for the world. 

Is this the pattern of our lives? 

Is my way of life His Way of Life? Am I living a life of love for others?

What about you? 

Our Last Battle (4)

 Four – Anger at Roonwit

As Jewel parries Tirian’s anger at Jewel’s suggestion that the reports of Aslan may not be true, the centaur Roonwit thunders onto the scene, sweating profusely, having galloped long and hard to reach the King. 

Note that Roonwit drinks to “Aslan and truth” first, and then to the King secondly. 

Roonwit has come to warn the King that the stars, which he reads with wisdom and understanding, say nothing about the appearance of Aslan. Quite the contrary, the stars indicate disaster. Roonwit warns the king not to believe the news that Aslan is in Narnia, for the stars proclaim not good news, but rather warn of terrible events. Roonwit says concerning accounts that Aslan is in the land, “It is all a lie.”

On hearing those words, Tirian lays his hand on the hilt of his sword. 

When Roonwit says that the stars don’t lie, Jewel interjects that Aslan does not serve the stars but the stars serve Aslan and that Aslan can do what He wants to do. Tirian laches onto that argument, for Tirian’s mind is made up, he will believe the account of Aslan being in the land. 

First Tirian is angry at his dear friend Jewel, then he is angry at the majestic Roonwit to the point where he reaches for his sword. In the six pages of Chapter Two, Tirian is angry at least ten times, hence the chapter’s title, The Rashness of the King. Tirian’s anger blinds his judgment and leads to sorrow and confusion. His refusal to heed the stars, and his insistence on placing his own feelings above the message of the stars, hinders his ability to save his people and point them to the true Aslan. 

While the central warning of Chapter Two concerns anger, we are also warned about the danger of failing to heed God’s Word, in this case, the stars. Our feelings ought to be subject to God’s Word, God’s Word is not to be subject to our feelings or thinking or agendas. Nor should we make the terrible mistake of believing that God will contradict His Word; in the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. God and His Word are One. 

Our own Last Battle includes both our own anger, as opposed to submitting to the peace of God, and whether we will submit to God’s Word or insist that God’s Word submit to us. In both instances our submission to Jesus Christ is at the heart of the matter and battle. 

We are commanded to allow the peace of Christ to rule in our hearts (Colossians 3:15).  We are supposed to be subjects of the Prince of Peace. Peacemaking is to be a characteristic of the sons and daughters of God.

Anger is a third rail that will kill us, even though we deny it in the midst of our own electrocution. Anger makes us crazy and induces spatial disorientation, it makes us forget who Jesus Christ is and who we are in Him. Anger made Tirian forget that he was a Narnian King and also subject to Aslan. Anger is no substitute for wisdom, understanding, peace, or self-sacrifice. 

I don’t think we care much about the Bible, not really. We are good at lip service to the Scriptures, but we aren’t good at obeying the Word. Just ask the world, ask the people around us. Francis Schaffer pointed out that Jesus gives the world the right to judge us based on what it observes about our love and our unity (John 13:34–35; 17:21–23). 

We’ve one group of professing Christians who have repudiated the Bible’s teaching about the image of God, and we have another group who are repudiating what the Bible teaches about caring for the stranger and the widow and the orphan and the poor. In the same communities we have churches who are affluent and churches whose members lack necessities, such as health care, decent housing, affordable groceries, and safe schools (see 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 and then explain to me why we ignore this passage). 

We have one group of churches that criticizes what it terms the “social gospel,” while that very same group goes all in on a political agenda that endorses violence and makes excuses for the violation of the rule of law, basic morality, and ethics.

Whether we look to the right or the left, we are hardly people who take the Bible seriously unless it is as a smoke screen. C. S. Lewis did not so much take issue with theologians or pastors who did not believe the Bible – except to say that they ought to be honest and find another line of work. In other words, believe what you want to believe, but have the honesty not to make your living from the church if you don’t believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The problem isn’t so much that discrepancies exist between what the Bible teaches and how we actually live, the problem is that we either fail to recognize the gaps or that we justify our thinking and behavior. 

Since the anger of man is contrary to the righteousness of God (James 1:20) and has its roots in the demonic (James 3:9 – 18), the fact that so many professing Christians engage in anger and vitriol in the public square is shameful and troubling. 

Professing Christians do not want to hear what the Bible teaches. They do not want Roonwit showing up to bother them with the truth of Jesus Christ. They would much rather follow a dead lion’s skin – for health and wealth, for self-righteousness, for economic gain, for political and social advantage, for nationalistic agendas, for entertainment, for personal therapy…what can we add to the list? And we certainly don’t want our anger to be placed under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. 

When it is convenient we want to attack authority, and when it suits our purposes we insist that others bow to our authority. We are drinking from a cup other than that at the Lord’s Table. 

There are dead lion skins all around us.

The Royal Inclusio – Love (8)

 

“…that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give you.” John 15:16.

We see the relationship between fruit and answered prayer in both John 15:7–8 and John 15:16. Our Father is glorified when we bear much fruit (v. 8) and thereby demonstrate that we are disciples of Jesus. If we consider that prayer is communion with God, and that it is only as we abide in Christ the Vine that we can bear fruit (15:4–5), then we see that fruit flows from communion with the Divine, indeed, it is a natural result of us abiding in the Trinity and the Trinity abiding within us. If the Trinity is fruitful then where the Trinity abides is fruitful (consider also Revelation 22:1–2). 

Jesus, the Firstborn Son, displays the image and pattern of abiding in the Father and of asking in prayer. In Matthew and Luke Jesus teaches a pattern of prayer in a broad sense, for He teaches in public. In the Upper Room, Jesus teaches the sons and daughters of His Father to pray in intimacy, an intimacy in which they offer up themselves as they pray for their brethren. The offering up is to God and for their brethren (John 17:9, 19).

Just as we have learned to pray what we term the Lord’s Prayer of Matthew Chapter 6, we are to learn to pray the Prayer that Jesus Prayed of John Chapter 17. Just as we are called to be the incarnation of the prayer of Matthew Chapter 6, we are to become the Incarnation of John Chapter 17. This is our high calling in Jesus Christ. 

The Prayer that Jesus Prayed is the Life that Jesus Lived; we are to Live this Life and Pray this Prayer as we abide in Him. 

The Lord willing, when we arrive at John Chapter 17, we will explore the glory of the Holy of Holies in Christ, the glory of participating in the Prayer that Jesus Prayed, flowing from the life that we have in Him. 

It is our Lord’s desire that we bear a particular kind of fruit; it is to be a fruit that remains. Are we interested in such fruit? 

My sense is that we are more concerned with fast food than food promoting sustained growth. Fast food is eaten quickly and is often eaten “on-the-go.” Since we are an on-the-go people in an on-the-go society we fashion our teaching and preaching accordingly – and then we wonder why we lack character and depth in Jesus Christ, then we wonder (perhaps) why we are consumers and not producers. 

Our attention spans are dwindling to nothing, and we are catering to the insanity, in so doing we are desecrating the image of God in Christ. The Scriptures teach us to meditate on the Word (Psalm 1), not to blithely gulp a verse or two down via a “verse of the day” or thought for the day or pithy saying for the day – we are called to holy communion with God, we are not called to “honk if you love Jesus.” 

The prayer teaching of the Upper Room is not about getting things from God to consume upon ourselves, it is about living in holy koinonia with the Trinity and our brethren and receiving from our Father so that we may bear fruit for His glory and for the sake of our brethren. The life of prayer portrayed in the Upper Room is a life born of “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

The prayer teaching of the Upper Room is about costly prayer, we enter it through the Cross of Christ, we maintain it in the Cross of Christ, we share it flowing from the Cross of Christ. 

Jesus deeply desires you to know Him intimately; He already knows your heartbeat, now He wants you to know His heartbeat. Our Lord has removed every barrier to you knowing Him, to your abiding in Him and experiencing His Life in you, He simply calls you to “abide in Me.” Jesus knows that you, in and of yourself, cannot possibly live the Christian life, He does not ask you to try, He does not ask you to attempt such a task; He does call you to abide in Him, the Vine, and to learn to allow Him and the Father  and the Holy Spirit to live within you in daily fellowship, in the very koinonia which you will experience in eternity. 

Why wait until the future to experience what your dear Lord Jesus desires you to experience now? He calls you to unbroken friendship and communion with Him as your Way of Life. He loves you so very very much, so deeply, and He loves you with overflowing eternal joy. 

How to begin? Just ask Him in your own words to draw you deeper into Himself. Speak to Him and then listen and watch for Him…throughout the day. He will come to you, again and again and again. Those who know to look for His coming see Him coming throughout their lives, and He is glorious. O yes, sometimes we may miss Him, but He is gracious and do not be surprised if He says, “Didn’t you see Me when you saw that person in need? Didn’t you see Me when that man needed a word of encouragement? Didn’t you see Me when that woman expressed a prayer need? I was there to touch them through you.”

Jesus is our patient Teacher. 

You might also consider meditating in John chapters 13 – 17 for a season of life. Reading and meditating on a small portion each morning, reading aloud, listening for Jesus, visualizing yourself in the Upper Room with Jesus, seeing Jesus with you…for of course He is with you. Allow Jesus to draw you into the holy fellowship of the Trinity, allow Him to take the lead, as Reepicheep in Narnia says, “Let’s take the adventure that Aslan gives us.”

You are not an accident looking for a place to happen, you are a son or daughter of the Living God and He loves you so deeply, He cares for you so passionately. 

Why not live today in the incredible love and life of Jesus Christ? 

Questions, comments? robertlwithers@gmail.com