Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Part II – Reflections (12)

 

 

On page 201 Bonhoeffer turns our attention to Romans 12:5 and 1 Corinthians 12:12.

 

“For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (Rom. 12:4 – 5).

 

“For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12).

 

Each of us retains our own identity, place, and function in the Body, in fact, we find our identity as a hand, a foot, a mouth, a leg, only in the community of the Body.

 

Then Bonhoeffer looks at the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit “brings Christ to individuals (Eph. 3:17; 1 Cor. 12:3),” the Holy Spirit “builds up the church…even though in Christ the whole building is already complete (Eph. 2:22, 4:13; Col. 2:7),” He “creates community (2 Cor. 13:13) of the members of the body (Rom. 15:30, 5:5; Col. 1:8; Eph. 4:3).” The Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17).”

 

The whole of Scripture forms Bonhoeffer’s vision of the Body of Christ, as it should ours. He does not view Scripture in an isolated, piecemeal fashion, but rather as a whole, and as a whole Bonhoeffer sees Christ Jesus and His Body. We will not see what Bonhoeffer sees if we do not read and meditate on Scripture. While what Bonhoeffer writes is true, and I think true beyond what we can possibly fully imagine, only the Word of Christ can sustain such a vision, only the Word can cause such a vision to grow and to live within us as our Way of Life.

 

We must be able to say as the Samaritans, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). That is, we must see and believe and accept and enter into the Word of God for ourselves. Yes, we do so in community. Yes, others help us. Yes, it may take time. Yes, we cannot do so without the Holy Spirit.

 

We may come because others have spoken to us, but we all need our “Ah ha!” moments in Jesus – and once we “see” we can tell others, not just because Bonhoeffer wrote it and we believe him, but because what Bonhoeffer wrote brought us to a place in the Christ of Scripture, in His Word, where we irresistibly see for ourselves. It is not so much that we capture Bonhoeffer’s vision, or even St. John’s vision, but that the visions of St. John and Bonhoeffer and Paul capture us.

 

As we read the Bible passages that Bonhoeffer cites, and read them we must or we are wasting our time, truly we are, let us recall his counsel on page 199, “While we are used to thinking of the church as an institution, we ought instead to think of it as a person with a body, although of course a person in a unique sense.”

 

Then at the bottom of page 201 we read:

 

“The life of the body of Christ has thus become our life. In Christ we no longer live our own lives, but Christ lives in us. The life of believers in the church - community is truly the life of Jesus Christ in them (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5; 1 John 4:15).” What other passages could you add to these? I immediately think of John 15:1 – 5, 14:16 – 17, 14:23; 17:20 – 26.

 

Is this the way we think of the Church, of the Body of Christ? Do we live like this? Is this the way our congregations think? Our movements and denominations?

 

Read this quote from page 201 again, then read it again, read it out loud so as not to miss it. Is this the way I live my life? Is it the way you live your life?

 

Are we living in Divine organic unity in koinonia with the Body of Christ?

 

The Incarnation not only continues within us as individuals, but it most especially continues within us as His Body, His Temple. As Bonhoeffer writes on page 200, “Just as the fullness of the godhead became incarnate in him and dwelled in him, so are Christian believers filled with Christ (Col. 2:9; Eph. 3:19). Indeed, they themselves are that divine fullness by being his body, and yet it is Christ alone who fills all in all.”

 

While I cannot speak for Christians in other lands, in the United States professing Christians have no sense of this identity and calling. I cannot even write that we have abdicated our calling and identity, for to abdicate something means that you are aware of what you are leaving and rejecting. We are worse than Esau who sold his birthright for a stew. We are worse than the exiles who returned from Babylon with the express purpose of rebuilding the Temple, but who focused instead on building their own houses while the House of God lay waste (see the prophet Haggai), for we are rejecting Jesus Christ and our heavenly City.

 

We are selling ourselves to innumerable “lovers” while our Bridegroom waits for us, while He yearns for us, while He continues to love us, while He desires to shower us with His love and care and compassion, while He desires that we know Him intimately so that we, in turn, can bring others to Him. We make Gomer (Hosea 1:3) look like a faithful spouse.

 

In Bonhoeffer’s Germany the professing church sold itself to economics and nationalism. The poor, the widow, the orphan, the marginalized, the disabled, the defenseless, the alien, the racially “impure” were crushed – and Christians justified it, or turned their eyes elsewhere so they did not have to confront the evil; a few, such as Bonhoffer, called Christians to be faithful to Jesus Christ and to one another and to serve those in danger. They were marginalized, imprisoned, and some were executed.

 

An irony is that some in our own land have used Bonhoeffer to justify the very things he stood against, just as they use the Bible to justify their harlotries.

 

It is a tragedy that the beauty of the True Church has been desecrated by our foolishness, sectarianism, and failure to trust the Head of the Body to honor our faithfulness and obedience to Him.

 

Well, what to do?

 

All I know to do is to be faithful to Jesus and His Body as we are given grace, whether anyone sees His glorious Presence in His Temple (Ephesians 19 – 22), whether anyone is interested in Christ’s Church, which is beyond our churches. We are still called to lay down our lives for our brethren, for our brothers and sisters. We are still called to see them as Jesus Christ sees them. We are still called to declare the Name of our Father to them.

 

If Jesus came to His own and was rejected, it is no big thing if the same thing happens to us, indeed, we should reckon it an honor.

 

As I ponder Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship, popularly known as The Cost of Discipleship, I realize that most, if not all, of the quotes I have read from it over the years come from the first part, the part mainly focused on individual discipleship. Why is this?

 

Perhaps it is because we dare not take Part II seriously, the challenge is too great, the threat to our little fiefdoms too pronounced, the call onward and upward too demanding, to open the treasures of what Bonhoeffer has written.

 

Are we to live as the Presence of Christ, or not?

 

Are we to live as His Body?

 

There is but one authentic witness to the world, our love and unity in the Trinity as the Body of Christ.  (See John 13:34 – 35; 17:20 – 23).

 

Let us claim and proclaim our identity.

“Take Courage”

 

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

 

Jesus tells us the truth about tribulation and persecution and rejection so that we may have peace. He says these things in the context of our Father’s abiding love for us, of the Vine and the branches, of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and of His overcoming the world and the enemy.

 

“These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their time comes, you may remember that I told you of them” (John 16:3 - 4).

 

“Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe” (John 14:29).

 

Jesus speaks to us of our hearts not being troubled (14:1, 27), of giving us His peace and joy and love (14:27; 15:9, 11). He speaks of the Trinty living within us (John 14:17, 23) and of us living in the Trinity (John 17:21).

 

Yet, He also tells us of persecution and rejection and the hostility of the world.

 

When we fail to teach the truth of tribulation in the world we not only fail to teach the Gospel, we fail those we call to know Jesus Christ. If we do not experience conflict with the world it is not likely we are living as disciples of Jesus Christ, for God’s ways are not the world’s ways, and when we come into conflict with the world’s ways we must be obedient to the commands and Way of Jesus Christ.

 

We fail those we call to know Jesus because we fail to inform them that they will have tribulation. We fail to teach them that, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).

 

“You [spiritual] adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4; see also 1 John 2:15 – 17 and our earlier reflections on John 15:18 – 16:4).

 

If we would call people as Jesus calls people (Mark 8:34 – 38), people would know what to expect for they would come into the Kingdom with a right way of thinking about life, about Christ, themselves, and the world. How foolish we are to be seeker – sensitive when we are called to be God – sensitive and to call all the world to be Christ – sensitive.

 

False teachers call us to make ourselves the center of life, Christ calls us to give our lives to Him and to others, to live as His brothers and sisters, laying down our lives for others. Christ calls us to the Cross as our Way of Life, and this Way is necessarily the Way of crucifixion and rejection…and yes…of resurrection. Football players are not surprised when they are knocked on the ground, soldiers are not surprised when they face the challenge of battle, marathon and ultra marathon runners are not surprised by the pain they must endure to finish the race – O but American Christians are surprised by the least amount of rejection or resistance or displeasure they encounter for Jesus Christ.

 

If someone at work makes a disparaging remark toward a Christian, that Christian often reacts as if he or she has faced the lions in a Roman colosseum. Why, we won’t even share Jesus lest there be a backlash, making excuse after excuse so as to avoid true identification with the crucified Lamb. We have no shame, do we?

 

Jesus gives us the assurance that in Him we can have peace. In Him! In Him! In Him! Not in “mindfulness,” not in “positive thinking,” not in “name it and claim it,” not in possessions or position or power or fame or in the esteem of the world, but in Him, in Him, in Him!

 

Jesus tells us that we can take courage for He has overcome the world. Why should we take courage in this? Because if our identity is in Jesus, if our life is in Jesus, if our hearts have been captured by an all – enveloping and all – encompassing love for Jesus Christ, then we are one with Him, we are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh and spirit of His Spirit – and nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 8:28 – 39).

 

Soon the eleven disciples will be cowering in the Upper Room. They will have deserted their Master. He has been betrayed by one of their own, tortured, crucified, killed, and buried. These eleven will have the door locked “for fear of the Jews [the religious leaders]”.

 

Look at the whole wide world and then look at this little Upper Room in comparison to it. This little room is nothing, these eleven men are nothing. Why these supposed friends of Jesus abandoned Him – they didn’t even attempt to care for His dead body.

 

Look at the population of the world at the time these eleven were cowering, but also consider all the people who have ever been born from the beginning until our own time – what significance can these eleven fearful men possibly have? If we were to search all humanity for eleven men to lead us, is it likely we would choose these men? Fishermen, a tax collector, an insurrectionist? What qualifications do they have? Cowardice? Unbelief? Selfishness (“we want to be first, sitting on Your right hand and on Your left”)?

 

Yet Jesus says, “Take courage; I have overcome the world.”

 

The inside of the Upper Room is greater than the outside, for the inside is a portal into the Holy of Holies, into the Presence of God the Creator of all, the Father who knows me, who knows you, who knows us (Psalm 139). Those eleven men, and others, have been chosen to lead humanity to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ, and the names “of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” will be with us for eternity (Rev. 21:14) as foundational to that City.

 

In the midst of their fear, of the memory of their cowardice, these men can take courage; even when they have residual doubt after the resurrection, they can take courage, for Jesus is their Shepherd, and the sheep can trust the Shepherd to bring them back to Him, to call them, to love them, to protect them, and to equip them to join the Shepherd as the Lamb, to also be sacrificial lambs so that others may have life in Christ.

 

If you have never suffered for Christ, take courage. If you have never witnessed for Christ, take courage. If you have not responded to Jesus’ call of Mark 8:34 – 38 to take up your cross and follow Him, losing your life for Him and others, take courage. It is not too late for you to cry out to Jesus, asking Him to draw you to Himself, asking Him to live His life in you and through you, asking that you may be broken bread and poured out wine for others, so that they may live in Him.

 

O friends, whether we have labored in the vineyard a virtual lifetime or a matter of hours (Matthew 20:1 – 16), the Master calls us to Himself. I’ll tell you one difference between this parable and the way it is in the Kingdom, in the Kingdom those who have labored in the heat of the day rejoice when new men and women come to labor alongside them, no matter when they arrive, no matter when they arrive. A besieged army does not complain to reinforcements, instead it says, “We are thankful you are here!”

 

As you ponder the Upper Room, as you hear and see the words that Jesus speaks to us, of His love for you, His laying down His life for you, His desire for deep relationship with you – what will you do? There is yet more to come, there is the Holy of Holies of John 17, which we will enter, the Lord willing, in forthcoming reflections.

 

But let us make no mistake, there is the Cross, and the Cross must not be only external and seen in time and space; it must not only be seen as rooted in eternity – eternity past and eternity future, the Cross must be a living Presence and Reality within us, it must be our source of Light and Life, it must be the animating principle of our lives – in fact our very lives must be cruciform, shaped and molded and formed by the Cross of Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:20; 6:14).

 

Twice Peter wanted to spare Jesus from the Cross (Matthew 16:21 – 23; John 18:10 – 11). Peter would finally learn to embrace the Cross and to teach others the glory of this embrace (see the theme of 1 Peter). As we read the courageous words of Peter’s letters, let us recall that this was the same man cowering in the Upper Room.

 

Wherever you are, whether you are in your own Upper Room or on the Road to Emmaus or even on the Road to Damascus, Jesus Christ is calling you to come to Him, to be one with Him, to live in intimate friendship with Him…embracing the Cross, having courage, sharing in His ironic and irenic Resurrection Victory, and to experience the joy that can only be known in giving our lives for Him and others.

 

Wherever you are, Take Courage!

 

Unfinished Thoughts on the Soul - Part 2

 

What of our souls?

 

We know that when God formed man that He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man become a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). We also know that our souls were marred, disfigured, and warped when our fellowship with God was broken…however we may understand the particulars, the image of God within us was desecrated.

 

There was also a deep interior death that occurred when we partook of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil – hence on the day we ate it we did indeed die. It follows that we need a new birth in Jesus Christ, it follows that Jesus brings a New Creation into existence, it follows that we who were once dead in trespasses and sins have now been made alive, raised from the dead, in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:1 – 10).

 

But I want to focus on the soul. I want to know if what we believe, if what we say, if what we do matters. Because if it does not matter, I will stop writing and I will stop speaking and I will enjoy tea and crumpets from now on and not care for the church or the people of the world…and I should think I might have a very good and peaceful time. It may take me a while to get over the habits of a lifetime, but I will try.

 

There has been a lot written and said and taught about spiritual formation the past few decades, and while I have used the term and will probably use it again, I have never been comfortable with it – for it lacks an object. It is like a license plate on a car that I know of that says “beleeve.” Of course it means “believe,” but what does it really mean? Do we believe simply to believe? What do we believe? What do we believe in? In thin air? In ourselves? In Mickey Mouse? (Many people do believe in Mickey Mouse and regularly go on pilgrimage.)

 

Jesus does not call us to a self-improvement project; He calls us to be transformed into His image. In fact, our calling is to be “conformed to the image of His [the Father’s] Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). The thing is, transformation does not occur as we look at ourselves, but as we behold Jesus (2 Cor. 3:17-18; 1 John 3:1-3; Colossians 3:1-4), and herein is where I think much that passes for spiritual formation loses its focus, for it treats transformation as something that can be considered apart from intimacy with Jesus Christ and from the incarnational mission of Jesus Christ.

 

Now I am sure that good spiritual formation folks will say, “But of course we mean Jesus.” Then I will ask, “Well, why not explicitly say that we seek to be Biblically formed into the image of Jesus Christ, the Firstborn Son?”

 

Let us return to the soul. Do our souls matter? Does the shape of our soul matter when we pass into eternity?

 

I think the Bible passages we considered above demonstrate that we, our souls, will be judged when we move into eternity. That our words and deeds matter; they matter in terms of the effect they have had on others, they matter in how we have treated others, they matter in how they have affected the beliefs of others – they matter in whether we have been Christ to others.

 

We ought not to be so foolish as to think that what we believe is somehow a card that trumps what we do, that glosses over our actions toward others and toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Bonhoeffer wrote about “cheap grace.” Discipleship without cost, witness without cost, Christianity without cost.

 

I think while the above passages in 1 and 2 Corinthians speak of accountability, that they also, and perhaps more importantly, speak to us of intimacy, of knowing Jesus and being transformed into His image. After all, must not accountability have an object, a purpose? What is the point of being accountable just to be accountable? What is the goal of accountability? What is the point of obeying Jesus Christ?

 

Jesus says, in effect, “Be obedient to Me so that you will know Me.” Likewise, “As you know Me you will learn obedience to Me.”

 

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23).

 

Paul writes about presenting every person complete in Christ (Colossians 1:28), or as one translation puts it, “Unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” What of those who enter eternity immature? What of those who enter eternity having brought with them wood, hay, and stubble? What of those who have paid no real attention to discipleship, to living a cruciform life?

 

Do we really think the Bible teaches that we all will advance across the stage and graduate with honors?

 

Our Father and Lord Jesus desire relationship, they are not focused on moving us along from one grade to another whether or not we have learned from them, whether or not we have entered more deeply into koinonia with the Trinity.

 

It seems to me that if we took our souls seriously, that we would seriously want to grow into Christ and help one another grow up into Christ. It seems to me that if pastors took the souls of their people seriously that they would move beyond Sunday morning group therapy sessions, entertainment, and what Tozer termed “scribal Christianity,” a Christianity lacking a deepening encounter with God. We can emphasize correct doctrine but miss knowing Jesus Christ and miss being Christ to others.

 

These are my unfinished thoughts…how might you continue them?  

Unfinished Thoughts on the Soul - Part 1

 Good morning,

A few months ago, I began making notes on the soul. Do you think about the soul often?

When I was a child my mother taught me a prayer that many children learned in those days:

"Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."

I remember wondering what the "soul" was. I never asked my Mom, and I'm sorry I didn't. I neglected to ask her many questions that I wish I had. When she died at almost 43 years old there was no longer an opportunity to ask her anything.

To my young mind, the soul seemed like something mysterious, weighty, and important. To my old mind it still seems that way.

As I reflect back on pastoring, I wonder why I didn't preach on the soul, why I didn't explore it with my congregations. This is akin to what I've been experiencing with my health in this season of life, it demonstrates my ignorance. 

Like many older folks I have a cardiologist, a hematologist, I've seen a neurologist, I have a rheumatologist, and one or two other "ologists." I have wondered how I got to be so old and know so little about my own body, I've lived in this tent for over 75 years and have only just started to really learn about how it works (or not!) and how fearfully and wonderfully made I really am. How could I have been so ignorant for most of my life?

Below are some of my thoughts on the soul, some of my questions and ponderings.    

What thoughts do you have?

Much love,

Bob

 

The Soul – Does It Matter?

 

Have you wondered why it matters?

 

Why does what we believe matter? Why does what we do matter?

 

Is it a matter of reward and punishment beyond this life?

 

Is it a matter of ultimate salvation beyond this life?

 

Can we envision a God who says to one person, “Because you have believed this creed you are rewarded,” and to another person, “Because you have not believed this creed you are judged”?

 

Suppose the first person hated people as a way of life, and the second person loved and served people as a way of life?

 

For those who believe that salvation is a transactional matter that can be signed, sealed, and delivered in a moment of time without further experience, why does what we believe beyond that matter? Why does what we do beyond that matter?

 

Why contend for the faith within the faith community if, when we die and enter eternity, what we have believed has no eternal and ongoing significance?

 

A fair reading of Scripture indicates that, as Christians, what we believe and what we do matters, it matters to the point that Paul suffered much so that Christians would believe and do the “right” things; not “right” in the eyes of man, including religious man, but “right” in the eyes of God – “right” in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Most of the letters of the New Testament, including Revelation, deal to some degree with correcting false belief and false living.

 

Religious falsity was more of a threat in the New Testament than the sin of the world, the flesh, and the devil; after all, we often can’t see that which is the closest to us. How we forget that the Pharisees and Sadducees crucified Jesus. As Paul points out in Galatians, those who are born of the flesh are ever persecuting those born of the spirit and promise (Galatians 4:29).

 

At this point, before I move on to the matter of the soul, I want to suggest that there are mysteries beyond the grave that we ought to acknowledge. I’ll likely return to these, but I want to raise an awareness of two of them right now. The first is found in 1 Corinthians 3:10 – 15 and 2 Corinthians 5:10, and the second is in 1 Corinthians 15:35 – 49.

 

In the first two passages we see that there is an accountability beyond the grave, and in the second passage I believe we can infer that this accountability results in dimensions of participation in the glory of God, “one star differs from another in glory.” Now this raises its own questions, and I can think of no better exploration of them than Dante’s Paradise, so I will leave the questions alone for now. (A wonderful survey with thoughtful commentary is Hans Boersma’s, Seeing God - The Beatific Vision in Christian Tradition.)

 

But is “accountability” the best word to use? While it may be a word to use, is it the only word to use? I’ll return to this question.

 

Regarding the first two passages, contrary to the thinking of many American Christians, 2 Corinthians 5:10 tells us that we will be held accountable for the “deeds done in the body…whether good or bad.” Forgiveness for sins is one thing, accountability is another. Whether we understand the dynamics of this or not, we ought to acknowledge the Bible’s teaching. What we do matters, our actions matter.

 

In Revelation 19:8 we read, “It was given to her [the Bride] to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

 

I imagine many of us would like to gloss over this verse, for we want it to read, “The fine linen is the blood of Jesus,” or “The fine linen is the righteousness of Christ,” but the verse doesn’t say that, it says that the fine linen is our righteous acts.

 

Now for sure all righteous acting and living flows from the Vine, the One who was made sin on our behalf so that we would be made the very righteousness of God in Him (John 15:1ff; 1 Corinthians 5:21). But let us not dismiss Revelation 19:8, for it is in the context of eternity.

 

Our actions matter. We will all appear before Christ’s judgment seat – we cannot hide in the crowd.

 

When we come to 1 Corinthians 3:10 – 15, we come to a passage that many Protestants gloss over lest we begin asking uncomfortable questions, for this passage surely portrays a process, an experience that indicates more than a brief “moment,” however we might think about time within eternity. There is a revealing by fire to come, one which we will all experience, just as we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

 

Here again we see that our works matter very much. We may build with “gold, silver, and precious stones,” or with “wood, hay, and straw.” Building material matters. The quality of our lives matters. They matter to the point where Paul writes, “If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”

 

Does not our dear Lord Jesus command us to “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20)?

 

Just as I have pointed to Dante’s Paradise in considering 1 Corinthians 15, so I will point to Dante’s Purgatory in considering 1 Corinthians 3, as well as, once again, Boersma’s fine work. Dante’s Purgatory is a journey in spiritual formation, and I suspect it is better to experience it now rather than putting it off until after we die. Read what Dante says, not what your possible prejudices think he says. (I recommend the Sayers translation with its excellent notes).

The Fellowship of the Lamb

 

“Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me” (John 16:32).

 

Jesus looks beyond our doubts and fears, He looks beyond our cowardice, He looks beyond our abandonment of Him, and He affirms that we are His brothers and sisters, He affirms our belief (even the midst of our doubt!), and He affirms our Father’s destiny for us from the foundation of the world. However, not only does Jesus not deny our unbelief, He reveals our unbelief. “Do you now believe? You will leave Me alone.”

 

Earlier in the Upper Room when Peter proclaims his willingness to die for Jesus, Jesus replies, “Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times” (John 13:36).

 

After all, Jesus is the Light of the world, He is the Truth, we ought to expect Jesus to reveal the truth and not hide it. Jesus reveals our doubts and fears and exposes our grand pronouncements that are without foundation so that He may burn away the dross within us and bring us out of the furnace as pure gold in Him. Jesus is always seeing the end from the beginning, and if Jesus see us this way, ought we not learn to see one another this way in Him?

 

The ”hour” is upon Jesus and the disciples, it is an hour with many facets; an hour of betrayal, an hour of darkness, an hour of sacrifice, an hour of scattering; yet also an hour of glory, of completion, of resurrection, of a new Day dawning, of gathering – an hour that is still unfolding in eternal victory in the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Family of God.

 

The disciples will be scattered, but they will also be gathered, and while Jesus will speak of victory in the next verse, He will not deny the reality of verse 32. Let’s recall what Jesus says at the beginning of our chapter, “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them.” The hour has come for the disciples to enter into “the cost of witness” that Jesus spoke of in John 15:18 – 16:4.

 

As we read this passage, and the Gospel account of disciples abandoning Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, we may feel sorrow for times when have abandoned Jesus and we may hope that we shall never do so again. But let me ask a question, “Are we willing to be abandoned by other Christians as we are faithful to Jesus? Are we willing to stand alone for Him?”

 

You see, we may read the passages of Peter’s denial and of the collective desertion of Jesus in Gethsemane, and experience both conviction and a desire to faithful to Jesus amid persecution. This is as it ought to be. However, I want to take us a step further, I want to ask whether we will positively commit ourselves on the heavenly Altar of the Cross to a sacrificial witness for Christ in which we ourselves are abandoned.

 

Paul knew what it is to be such a witness.

 

“At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them” (2 Tim. 4:16).

 

Perhaps this was, in part, an answer to Paul’s desire that, “I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the koinonia of His sufferings” (Phil. 3:10)? To be alone, to be abandoned, is an exquisite form of suffering; to look for your friends and to see no friends, that pieces the heart and soul, that is agony.

 

Yet, as the Father was with Jesus so that He was not alone, so Jesus was with Paul so that Paul was not alone. “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me” (2 Tim. 4:17). You and I can be certain that Jesus Christ will always be with us. We can also be certain that if we are faithful to Jesus and to others that we will experience what it is to stand alone for Jesus Christ, that we will know what it is to be abandoned…if only for enough time to be accused, rejected, and crucified!

 

This is the entrance to John 17, the entrance to the Holy of Holies, the passageway into koinonia with the Trinity, the entering into the glory which Christ Jesus has given us (John 17:22; Rom. 8:17; 1 Pt. 4:12 – 14).  

 

This, my friends, is the fellowship of the Lamb.

 

Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Part II – Reflections (11)

 

 

“Through the Holy Spirit, the crucified and risen Christ exists as the church-community, as the “new human being.” For Christ truly is and eternally remains the incarnate one, and the new humanity truly is his body. Just as the fullness of the godhead became incarnate in him and dwelled in him, so are Christian believers filled with Christ (Col. 2:9; Eph. 3:19). Indeed, they themselves are that divine fulness by being his body, and yet it is Christ alone who fills all in all” (page 200).

 

I will add Ephesians 1:23 to Bonhoeffer’s passages, I’ll quote it along with Ephesians 1:22 which Bonhoeffer references in the following paragraph on page 200:

 

“And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

 

Then Bonhoeffer writes, “The unity between Christ and his body, the church, demands that we at the same time recognize Christ’s lordship over his body. This is why Paul, in developing further the concept of the body, calls Christ the head of the body (Eph. 1:22; Col. 1:18; 2:19). The distinction is clearly preserved; Christ is the Lord” (page 200).

 

Do we see what Bonhoeffer has been saying? Do we hear what Bonhoeffer is saying being taught in our churches? Are we and our congregations and movements and denominations and institutions living out the Biblical truth expressed by Dietrich Bonhoeffer?

 

Of course the answer is “No.” Hopefully there are exceptions, hopefully there are individuals who are attempting to be faithful to the Biblical picture of the Body of Christ, the Church, the Temple, the Bride; hopefully there are pastors who are trying to bring their flocks into a Biblical understanding and practice of the Body of Christ, organic unity with Jesus Christ and with His People.

 

The barrier to such vision and practice seems insurmountable. Does this mean we don’t try? Does this mean that we do not ask God for grace to be microcosms of the reality of Christ the Body? Does this mean that we do not strive to serve our brethren as best we can, by God’s grace, even if they reject us and think us a bit strange, or worse, even if they denounce us?

 

I think we have no alternative but to be faithful to the heavenly vision, to be faithful to Christ the Head and Christ the Body and Christ the Whole. I do not see how we can participate in discipleship and do any less – nor did Bonhoeffer, nor did Paul.

 

With Paul, even though so many had rejected him by the time he wrote 2 Timothy, he continued to “Endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen” (2 Tim. 2:10). With Bonhoeffer, even though much of the professing church in Germany rejected him, he continued to train others to be pastors, to strengthen pastors, to equip the Church for what she was experiencing (whether the professing church realized it or not), and to do what he could to help the church recover when darkness should lift from the German people by his writing and teaching.

 

When we read Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship, we do him and ourselves a terrible disservice if we only consider and teach the first half, which focuses on the individual. Individual discipleship must lead to Part II, The Church of Jesus Christ and Discipleship. In fact, we really can’t have one without the other. We learn discipleship within the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ grows as our discipleship grows, for our discipleship consists not only of communion with the Head, but with His Body (1 John 1:3; Eph. 4:15-16).

 

We see this pattern in Paul’s letter to the Romans; chapters 1 – 8 speak to us as individuals, chapters 9 – 16 as the Body of Christ. In Ephesians we see the individual in 1:1 – 2:10, beyond 2:10 we see the unfolding of the Body of Christ, the Living Temple of God.

 

As with so many things, perhaps our recovery of the truth of the Body of Christ and living as the Body of Christ begins with an acknowledgement that there is a wide and deep chasm between what the Bible teaches us and what we believe and practice. Is recovery even possible?

 

Is it possible that institutions and denominations and movements will acknowledge that they have not been faithful to Christ and His Word? Is it possible that pastors and congregational leaders will acknowledge that they have missed seeing the Body of Christ, missed seeing their people as the saints of God in Christ, missed viewing other Christians in their own towns and cities and regions as the Body of Christ?

 

Perhaps it begins with what Bonhoeffer wrote on page 199: “Since the ascension, Jesus Christ’s place on earth has been taken by his body, the church. The church is the present Christ himself. With this statement we are recovering an insight about the church which has been almost totally forgotten. While we are used to thinking of the church as an institution, we ought instead to think of it as a person with a body, although of course in a unique sense” (italics mine).

 

If we do not begin to think and speak differently, it is unlikely that we will live differently. Old habits are difficult to change, old ways of thinking hard to overcome, especially when the new ways go against the popular grain, when they are invisible to most people and make no sense to the masses and can even be perceived as a threat.

 

Are we able to teach our people to be more than who they are?

 

If we are Baptists, can we teach our people to be more than Baptists, can we teach them to be Christ’s Body? If we are Presbyterians or Pentecostals or Methodists, can we teach our people to be more than our denominations and traditions, can we teach them to be the Body of Christ and to serve the Body of Christ? If we identify as Reformed, Pentecostal, Wesleyan, Anglican, or Lutheran, can we learn to be more than what we are, can we learn to see the Body of Christ, to serve the Body of Christ, to live as the Body of Christ?

 

Is Jesus Christ truly our Head? Or is Jesus Christ actually a figurehead?

 

If Jesus is our Head, then what warrant do we have to propagate anything less than what the Bible teaches us is the Temple of the Living God, and to seek anything less than the fulfillment of Christ’s prayer that we be one as the Trinity is One? (see John 17).

 

Perhaps it must begin with, as Bonhoeffer writes, seeing and thinking and speaking of the church not as an institution, but as a person with a body, a very unique body.

 

How have you thought of the church?

 

How might you begin to think of the church in a Biblical way?  

Our Hearts – God’s Divine Instrument

 

 

In the previous reflection I asked, “What cord did Jesus strike in the hearts of the disciples to elicit, ‘Now You are speaking plainly…now we know’”?

 

I want to share with you my sense of the answer to that question. There are likely other perspectives, other facets, other thoughts; I can only pass along to you my own sense; that which I have touched, heard, seen, and that in which I live (1 John 1:1 – 4). I am told that I am now old, and being old in Christ I am looking forward to that City, and in looking forward to that City I will die either as a fool, or I will go Home to that for which I was redeemed. The response of the disciples is the essence of my life in Christ, it is indicative of my hope and trust in Him, it is a foretaste of eternal glory.

 

For when Jesus speaks of coming forth from the Father into the world, and then leaving the world and going to the Father, He strikes a cord in the heart of the disciples; a cord of identity, a cord of calling and purpose, a cord of destiny.

 

In the previous reflection I listed moments in the Gospel of John in which the disciples recognized the numinous in Jesus, the Divine, the Other, they identified with Him in those moments, those moments and glimpses of glory pulled them into Jesus.

 

We see these moments in the Gospels along the sea of Galilee when Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow Him. We cannot explain or understand their response other than there was something inside them that responded to the heart of Jesus Christ; as is written in the Psalms, “Deep calls unto deep.”

 

We see such a moment when Matthew leaves tax collecting, makes restitution where needed, and follows Jesus. We witness a deepening moment when Peter confesses, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

 

There is a sense in which our lives in Christ are an unfolding of the dawn and the rising of the morning star (2 Peter 1:19), our “paths shining brighter and brighter until the full day” (Pro. 4:18), in a continual transformation into His image as we become who we truly are in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18; 1 John 3:1 – 3).

 

Jesus came to bring us home to the Father. He came to declare the Father’s Name to His brothers and sisters (Hebrews 2:11 – 13).  O dear friends, when we hear the Father’s Name spoken to us, when our ears are opened, when our hearts, which have lain dormant, begin to come alive in response to the Voice of our Elder Brother, then our pilgrimage truly begins, then we head toward Home, Home in Jesus, Home in the Father, Home in the Holy Spirit, Home with one another.

 

Our hearts are God’s Divine instrument. Upon them God plays His song of love and compassion and tender mercies. Upon them God plays His song of sonship, of bringing His sons and daughters to glory (Hebrews 2:10 – 11).

 

As the Holy Spirit births the dawn within us, our hearts respond to the light which unveils, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Ro. 8:29 – 30).

 

The musical score is placed before us and we begin to hear the music, what was once simply notes on paper, comes to life as we take our place both as instruments and as musicians in our Father’s grand massed orchestra.

 

“Just as He chose us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him” (Eph. 1:4).

 

“To those who reside as aliens…according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood” (1 Peter 1:1 – 2).

 

There is only one way to encounter these passages, and that is to play the music, to enter into the music, to absorb the music, to allow the Holy Spirit to tune our hearts to the key of Jesus and for our hearts to play and sing to the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world…for whom? Why for you. Why for me. Why for us.

 

When Jesus says, “I came forth from the Father into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father,” the context of the Gospel of John and the immediate context of the Upper Room, informs Jesus’ words thusly:

 

“I came forth from the Father into the world for you; I am leaving the world again and bringing you back to the Father. I will go ahead of you, yet I will not leave you. I will go ahead of you, yet we will walk this road together. This is more than My return, this is our Return.”

 

This is what we see in John chapters 13 – 16, this is what we will see and experience in the Holy of Holies of John 17. This is what Jesus affirms on Easter with, “I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (20:17).

 

O dear, dear friends, passages such as Romans 8:28 – 39 are given to us to bring us Home, to transport us into the bosom and heart of the Lamb, into the arms of our Good Shepherd. How foolish we are when we insist on pulling down the glory of God to earth, when the Holy Spirit is saying over and over again, “Come up. Come up. Come up” (Rev. 4:1). Our blessings are in the heavenly places (Eph. 1:3) in Christ, in Christ, always in Christ.

 

My sense is that when the disciples heard Jesus say, “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father,” that their hearts identified with those words, that calling, that destiny. They may not have understood what Jesus was saying, and indeed they still had much to learn, much of which would soon come into focus; just as it is with us – or at least with me.

 

When they heard these words they said in their hearts, “Me too. Us too. Yes, yes – we are going back to our Father with You.” What had been an enigma is now being made clear, what was once perplexing language, is now plain.

 

We are not accidents looking for a place to happen. We are the sons and daughters of the Living God and heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:15 – 17; Gal. 4:1 – 7).

 

This is our identity, this is our destiny. I am told I am old, and for sure closer to Home than I was before. But I’ll tell you a little secret, when that glorious Day of transition comes and I pass through that portal into the Presence of the Lamb and my fellow pilgrims…I will say, “Why, I’m not old at all. Life is just Beginning.”

A Strange Recognition

 

 

In John 16:25 Jesus says, “An hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language.”

 

Then in 16:28 He says, “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.” As we ponder these words, let’s keep in mind how our journey in the Upper Room began:

 

“Jesus knowing that He would depart out of this world to the Father…knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God” (see John 13:1 – 4).

 

The theme of Jesus coming from the Father and going to the Father will continue into John Chapter 17 and beyond. It is a theme that begins in John Chapter One and continues throughout the Gospel, evoking perplexity and derision from many, and yet drawing His brothers and sisters to Him, into Him, and into that same glorious and loving journey to the Father. As you read the Gospel of John look for the statements and allusions to coming from the Father and returning to the Father. What do you see?

 

This was Jesus’ Way of Life in the Incarnation, it is to be our Way of Life as well as we abide in Him. We are to be ever and always leaving the world and going to the Father; as we follow the Lamb wherever He goes the Father’s Name is written in our hearts and minds (Rev. 14:1 – 5); our union with the Trinity (and with one another) is inexpressible.  

 

But back to our passage, when Jesus makes the statement, “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father,” what reaction might we expect from the disciples? What might our reaction have been? If we place ourselves in the Upper Room, if we imagine ourselves as having been with Jesus for 3 years, if we think about the events of Holy Week that have led to the Upper Room, if we review what Jesus has said in John chapters 13 – 16, if we consider all these things, what might our reaction have been?

 

Would these words of Jesus have been enigmatic to us? That is, would they have been a puzzle, yet another statement of Jesus’ for us to wrestle with in order to understand it?

 

Keep in mind that Thomas had said, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” (14:5).

 

Judas (not Iscariot) had asked, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” (14:22).

 

Recall that earlier in Chapter 16 the disciples were asking, “What is this thing He is telling us, ‘A little while and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’? What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is talking about” (16:17 – 18).

 

Throughout the Upper Room there has been perplexity among the disciples over what Jesus is saying about going to the Father, why should we not expect continued puzzlement over, “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father”?

 

However, instead of more questions, the disciples respond with, “Lo, now You are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech. Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God” (16:29 – 30).  

 

What has happened between 16:17 and 16:29? What was enigmatic a few moments ago has now become clear. What was once a figure of speech is no longer a figure of speech. The “hour” of 16:25 has arrived or at least is dawning. Jesus is saying the same things, but they are hearing Him in a new way.

 

May I gently say, that when we want God and others to dumb down His revelation of Himself, when we want His Word simplified for our microwave attention spans and our congregations that are accustomed to hearing messages centered on their needs and desires and whims, that we forego the invitation and opportunity to be captured by the glory of God in Jesus Christ. How often I have heard people say in small groups, “Why doesn’t God just say what He means?”

 

Our Father wants us to know Him, He wants relationship, He is not interested in us passing some kind of learning standards exam; Jesus loves us enough to work with us, to bring us along, to challenge us, to be patient with us…and we want nothing of it. We want some kind of AI assistant to give us the answers in lieu of relationship. Sometimes we can be fools.

 

For sure the disciples have had glimpses of recognition over the years.

 

Andrew followed Jesus, bringing his brother Peter with him (1:40 – 41).

 

Philip followed Jesus, bringing Nathanael with him (1:45).

 

Nathanael was given a promise of revelation to come (1:50 – 51).

 

The disciples received a glimpse of His glory at Cana (2:11).

 

The disciples were taken aback when they saw Him with the Samaritan woman, this was beyond their understanding, in one sense it was out of their world (4:27).

 

What were they thinking when He spoke of the Father in 5:18 – 47, even as the religious leaders sought to kill Him?

 

What were they thinking when He fed the multitudes, walked on the water, and spoke of Himself as the Bread of Life in John Chapter 6?

 

Even if the disciples did not understand all that was happening in John Chapter 6, they knew enough deep inside them to say, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (6:68).

 

What did the disciples think when Jesus says, “I am the light of the world” (8:12)?

 

There is a steady and often enigmatic progression of unveiling in the Gospel of John; on the night of His betrayal, in the Upper Room, Jesus draws His disciples deeper into the mystery of Divine koinonia, the mystery of the Trinity, the mystery of knowing Him, the mystery of becoming one in Him, of knowing a unity as His People in the Trinity.

 

If we will submit to Him, bow to Him, abide in Him, and trust Him…we will begin to hear Him and see Him; He will say the same things but we will actually hear what He is saying, we will see what He is saying, we will become what He is saying. We will say, “Wow, now You are speaking plainly.”

 

How we forget, if we have ever known, that the “natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them” (1 Cor. 2:14).

 

What cord did Jesus strike in the hearts of the disciples to elicit, “Now You are speaking plainly…now we know”?

 

What do you think?

 

Do these words of Jesus strike a cord in your own heart?

 

 

A New Way

 

 

Now we come to John Chapter 17. “But wait!” you say, “we haven’t moved all the way through John 16 yet.”

 

Yes, that is true, and we will indeed enter John 17 through John 16, but as we move into John 16:25 – 33 we will be in the vestibule of John 17, the prelude to the Holy of Holies with its new time, its new language, its new seeing, and its new thinking. This is the thinking and language and seeing and time of the Sons of the Kingdom, it flows from the Trinity, from eternity past to eternity present to eternity future.

 

For sure, new ways take time to learn, they take practice, they require exercise and use in order to grow and experience proficiency.

 

As you read John 16:25 – 33 what questions do you have? What things do not make sense? Our Father uses our questions to reveal Himself, to draw us deeper into His Presence – questions are good; God is God and we are not, as we bow before Him we can learn.

 

When Jesus says that “an hour is coming” in which He will no longer speak to the disciples in figurative language, we might think it will be a while before this happens. Yet, in verse 29 the disciples say, “Lo, now You are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech.” It seems as if that coming “hour” happened quickly.

 

In verse 27 Jesus says that the disciples “have believed that I came forth from the Father.” Yet, in verse 30 the disciples say, “Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God.” In other words, Jesus says that the disciples believe He came from the Father before the disciples confess this belief.

 

But then we have verses 31 – 32 in which Jesus challenges their confession by telling the disciples that they will all desert Him, leaving Him alone. Yet again, in verse 33 Jesus affirms their ultimate victory and peace in Him, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace.”

 

Jesus affirms their belief in Him, the disciples confess that belief, then Jesus challenges their belief, then Jesus affirms their belief and confirms their victory in Him. Throughout the Upper Room we have seen the enigmatic dance of the Holy Spirit, we have seen Jesus drawing His friends deeper and deeper into the Temple of God, into the Holy City.

 

O dear friends, it is only as the Wisdom of God reveals Himself and His Father that we will hear the language of God, see the ways of God, think the thoughts of God, and know intimacy with God (Pro. 8; 1 Cor. 2).

 

“I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well – pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Mt. 11:25 – 27; see also 1 Cor. 1:17 – 31).

 

“For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind” (Jn. 9:39).

 

God’s time is not our time, His language is not our language, His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts.

 

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9).

 

Let us allow the Holy Spirit to draw us upward into the time and words and ways of God, rather than foolishly attempt to pull His revelation downward into the gravity of earth, and let us not forget Jesus’ words to Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). Jesus also says to His disciples, ““It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63).

 

Throughout the Upper Room Jesus says things about the disciples which, in light of their impending desertion of Him, do not seem to be true. Jesus speaks of both their abandonment of Him and their fidelity to Him. He speaks of their faithlessness and also of their faithfulness. He talks of their momentary fear, and of their unfolding peace, joy, and overcoming. Jesus calls them to His very own life, love, joy, peace, obedience, fruit, and calling. This language, this way of seeing things, this thinking, and this sense of time plunges ever deeper in the Holy of Holies of John 17, and is gloriously affirmed on Easter when Jesus says, “Go to My brethren and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (John 20:17).

 

We do not see as Jesus sees, but in Him we can learn to see as He sees. This is an element of the invitation of the Upper Room into the koinonia of the Trinity.

 

Paul writes that, “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).

 

Then Paul moves us from the way we look at things to the way we see people. “From now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer” (2 Cor. 5:16). This is a lesson the disciples will begin to learn on Easter Sunday; Mary Magdelene will learn it, the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus will learn it, the disciples fishing will learn it.

 

He follows this statement with, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17). Can we hear the Father declaring this? “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5).

 

This, my friends, is why we are called to look at Jesus and not ourselves. This is why we are called to hear and believe Jesus and not listen to ourselves nor believe what we think about ourselves. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, has wrapped us up in His arms and carries us deep into Himself and we shall always be His and He shall always be ours.

 

Jesus says, “Don’t trust in what you think about yourself, trust in what I think about you. Don’t seek your identity in yourself, acknowledge your identity within Me. Abide in Me and allow Me to abide in you – rest in My arms, in My love, in My peace, in My joy – you and I have eternity ahead of us!”

 

Perhaps more than anything, the Upper Room is a glorious revelation of the love of God for us. In the Upper Room we hear a voice calling, “Come up here” (Rev. 4:1).

 

Let’s go!

 

 

Joseph’s Tears

Do we know that Jesus weeps for us? Do we know that our Lord Jesus desires to reveal Himself to us, just as Joseph desired to reveal himself to his brothers, the very brothers who sold him into slavery? Can we see our story in the story of Joseph…both as Joseph and as his brothers?

 

What a shame it would have been for Joseph’s brothers to have found food in Egypt without finding Joseph! Suppose Joseph had simply watched his brothers but never revealed himself to them? My dear friends, is it really enough that we give our congregations, and this world, food from our granaries to keep them satiated, but never unveil Jesus Christ to them? 

What is the point of having hungry people coming back and back on Sundays, and yet they have never seen the Glorious One who bids us eat His flesh and drink His blood, the One who calls us to live by His very Life? How many trips will the woman make to the well before she finds someone who calls her to leave her bucket and allow a fountain of Living Water to spout up within her…and then flow out from her to a thirsty church and world?

 

Can we see the progression of Jacob’s sons in our own lives? Are we moving from knowing Reuben, which means “See, a son,” to Benjamin, meaning “Son of the right hand”? Which son are we living as today?

 

When Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt a second time, this time with Benjamin, and Joseph has a meal with them, we read, “Joseph hurried out for he was deeply stirred over his brother, and he sought a place to weep, and he entered his chamber and wept there. Then he washed his face and came out; and he controlled himself and said, ‘Serve the meal.’” (Genesis 43:30 – 31).

 

Jesus intercedes for us, Jesus, weeps for us, that He might reveal Himself and the Father to us. “Therefore He is able also to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).

 

Just as Pharaoh gave Joseph all authority, can we hear Jesus saying, “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Luke 10:22)?

 

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him” (John 14:21).

 

“O righteous Father, although the world has not known You; yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:25 – 26).

 

O dear friends, it is not enough for us to be given food to simply help us along in this life, we need the Living Bread from heaven, from the Father: “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst…I am the bread that came down out of heaven…I am the bread of life…This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh’” (see John Chapter 6).

 

 Joseph shed tears for his brother Benjamin, indeed for all his brothers; he yearned to reveal himself to them – but had they changed? Had they repented of their betrayal? Had a greater hunger than temporal food grown in their souls? A hunger for forgiveness? A hunger for redemption? A hunger to be the men God had created them to be?

 

 What about us with our religious playthings? Is our heart’s desire to know Jesus Christ, to see Him unveiled? To make Him known to others? Or are we still seeking the transient, the temporal, the quick fix? Do we only come on Sunday mornings, do we only participate in small groups – to buy the grain of this earth, so that our problems will be smaller, so that our possessions will be larger, so that others will think better of us, so that our agendas will be fulfilled?

Are we propagating a Christless Christianity? A Christ without the Cross and a Cross that looks more like cotton candy than an instrument of death – not only the death of Jesus Christ but our own death to sin and self?

 

There were thousands of people buying grain in Egypt, but it was not given to the multitudes to actually “see” Joseph. Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt looking for one thing, but they found another. Even with us, we may engage with popular and cultural Christianity, looking for pragmatic fixes for our lives, but by God’s grace perhaps we will find Another, weeping for us, loving us, revealing Himself to us.

 

Can we hear Joseph say, “Serve the meal?”

 

Can we hear Jesus say, “Take, eat; this is My body…Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant…”

 

 Joseph wept for his brothers, Jesus weeps for us.

 

Are we weeping for others?