Seeing the Invisible (7)

 

 

“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).

 

Now, after having considered the immediate context of 2 Corinthians 4:18, and then pondering 4:6 and 5:16, let’s please go to the beginning of Paul’s letter and view what he writes by seeing the invisible. It is important for you to read these passages in your Bible, due to space limitations I will not be quoting them in their entirety.

 

In 1:1 – 11 Paul writes of a time of intense suffering, so intense that he and his companions were “burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves.”

 

Many of us have had our own times of suffering, sorrow, and despair. Many of us have had moments or extended seasons when the pain of life seemed more than we could bear, when we thought that we would never know peace and comfort again, when the chasm between our suffering and comfort was so wide and so deep that we despaired of life.

 

What did we “see” during those times? What did Paul and his companions “see” during the time that he writes of in 2 Corinthians? Was Paul seeing through the visible into the invisible? Were we seeing through the visible into the invisible, or were our eyes fixed on our visible circumstances?

 

When we are suffering our tendency is to see our immediate circumstances and to evaluate life through them. Our natural tendency is to place ourselves and our suffering at the center of the universe and seek to alleviate our pain. Was this the perspective and response of Paul and his fellow workers?

 

In 1:3 Paul styles God as “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

 

He continues, “For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.”

 

Paul saw beyond the visible into the invisible, and seeing the invisible he saw that his sufferings were a means of comforting others with the comfort with which he was comforted by God. In other words, Paul saw that his sufferings were not about him, but about the grace of God being poured through him to others. Paul did not see himself as the center of the universe, he did not view his sufferings as being centered on himself, but rather he saw, in Christ, that others were to be the beneficiaries of his sufferings.

 

This is something that Paul could not have seen were he simply looking at visible circumstances. When we encounter suffering our natural inclination, and understandably so, is to escape the suffering, to alleviate it, to relieve the pressure. Our natural tendency is to focus on the visible which is causing us pain.

 

But Paul says, “Hold on here, there is more to our suffering than meets the natural eye. We are suffering so that we may comfort others with the comfort that we will receive from God. All that is happening is happening for the “comfort and salvation” of others.

 

Not only this, but Paul also writes that we are experiencing “the sufferings of Christ,” and that these are “ours in abundance.” In other words, Christ calls us into the “koinonia of His sufferings” (Philippians 3:10; Colossians 1:24). This is a mystical mystery in our union with Christ, a mystical mystery in the Body of Christ; this is an element of seeing the invisible, of looking beyond sufferings which are temporal to the suffering of the Lamb who is eternal and whose sufferings bear eternal fruit to the glory of the Father.

 

“We had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.”

 

Paul sees beyond the visible, beyond his feelings, beyond the sense that the sentence of death is upon him, that he was a man facing execution (the visible includes our feelings and our natural thoughts, which is to say that our feelings are unreliable as is our “natural” mind). Into the invisible he “sees” that they had the sentence of death “within themselves” so that they would not trust in themselves, but in God who raises the dead. All self-sufficiently was put to death so that total surrender to Christ and total reliance on Christ might become their way of life. “Not I but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

 

Perhaps we ought to stop and point out that Paul does not deny the reality of the visible, he does not deny affliction and suffering, he does not deny the experience of having the sentence of death; to do so would be to deny the sufferings of Christ. We do not deny the pain of suffering, the agony of despair, the seeming uncertainty of this life; rather in the midst of these things we look beyond the visible into the invisible and we see Jesus Christ, we see the Lamb, we see the higher purposes of God being worked out in our lives and the lives of others – we see the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ.

 

Make no mistake, this is not positive thinking, it is not positive confession, it is not blaming the devil for suffering (though we do not deny spiritual warfare), it is to enter into the sufferings of Christ on behalf of others.

 

Paul could write 2 Corinthians 1:1 – 11 because he was not looking at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen, he was not basing his life and thoughts and feelings and actions on the temporal, but on the eternal.

 

What about us?

Touching Jesus - Conclusion

 

        I was recollecting when you came in…this is my big day…and my aunt’s big day…I was recollecting on that dust filled road 31 years ago…on our walk from Chorazin back to Capernaum…with broken hearts…despair…hopelessness.

            We had spent all we had…every penny…and had precious little inventory with which to make more money…

It was a long walk that day…we stopped a few miles out of Chorazin to have lunch …we had taken a bit of bread and cheese from home…and after eating we resumed our journey with an unspoken sense of hopelessness…my aunt and me…walking side by side…not saying too much…but in our hearts wondering “what do we do  now?”

            As we approached Capernaum about four in the afternoon, we saw a great crowd moving along the crossroads at mile marker one north.  The crowd was moving southward and it seemed to have a center, a center of attention if you will.  There was quite a commotion, children, teenagers, older folks, younger folks, it seemed like the entire town was out on an unruly mob-like parade….that their attention was focused on something or someone that they were trying to keep up with or touch…we weren’t really sure what was going on.

            The mob was moving away from us, moving away from the town, and that was good…because that meant that we wouldn’t have to endure their stares and looks of disdain as we headed back to our home.  The words “unclean, unclean, don’t touch them” seemed to be perpetually in their hearts and minds.  So let them go, I thought, let them go, let them go away from us on whatever circus adventure they’re on today, let them go.

            Just as I was thinking these thoughts children ran past us…children who didn’t know enough to know that we were unclean…as they stopped to greet us my aunt Ruth asked, “Children, precious young ones, why all the commotion, what is everyone doing?”

            “Oh,” they replied, “don’t you know?  Jesus of Nazareth is passing this way.  Everyone is trying to get a look at Him and touch Him.”

            Aunt Ruth and I looked at each other.  Jesus.  We had heard of Him, conflicting accounts of Him.  Some praised Him while others condemned Him.  The religious leaders seemed to hate him…but others…well…it was said that He touched people…it was said that He touched certain types of people…it was said that He touched the unclean…that He touched lepers…that He touched the dead…it was said that He touched women…could it be that perhaps…could it be that perhaps?????

            Aunt Ruth took the lead…a quick lead…a determined lead…and we headed toward the moving mob…closer and closer we got…if they recognized us they would push us away…they might even stone us to keep us from coming close…for we were unclean and we’d make them unclean…closer and closer we got…fear and hope both welling-up in our hearts…hearts pounding like kettle drums…

            No one was noticing us…their attention was all focused inward…inside the crowd, inside the mob…moving along that hot, dusty road in Galilee 31 years ago, a cacophony of noise filling the air…people pushing and jostling each other…we reached the edge of the crowd…and my little aunt Ruth began to push inward…inward beneath the men, inward past women and children…I was a few feet behind her…losing her now and then…then finding her again…and finally, finally…we saw Him…people were pushing against Him…this way and that pushing against Him as He walked…

            Ruth later shared with me that she only had one thought in her mind, “If I can only touch the hem of His garment.  If I can only touch the hem of His garment.  If I can only touch the hem of His garment.”

            And before I knew it…there she was…aunt Ruth…almost to Him…almost to Jesus…people crowding around Jesus…and she reached out and thrust her hand between two large men…right between their legs…and she…she…touched the hem of His garment…

            “Nathan,” she told me later, “it was like the warmth of a thousand suns cascading through my body…and I knew…Nathan I knew…that I was healed…I was whole…I was clean.”

            Jesus stopped…the crowd stopped.  Jesus turned around…His eyes scanning the crowd…and He spoke…a question, “Who touched me?”

            Some, whom I later learned were His disciples answered, “Master, how can you ask such a question?  “Who touched me?”  Master, why would you ask such a question?  Why everyone is touching you.  What kind of a question is that?”

            “No,” Jesus said.  Someone has truly touched me, for I know that healing has passed from me to…to.”  His eyes fell upon Aunt Ruth…and she was drawn to Him…she fell upon her knees and – in a Niagara of tears - poured out the misery and helplessness of twelve long years.  The Master said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.  Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

            Oh the joy we knew that day, that day 31 years ago as we laughed and embraced and returned home that afternoon with hearts filled with hope, love, joy and a sense of destiny. 

            Did I mention that today is our big day?  Oh, but of course, you’re probably wondering about all those people, all those people who were around Jesus, all those synagogue church-going people who were bustling around Jesus, pushing Him this way and that, touching His hands, His hair, His arms, His side, His clothes…and then there was my little aunt Ruth…my unclean little aunt Ruth…who only touched the hem of His garment…what was the difference?

            How is it that people can go to synagogue all their lives and never really touch Him?  How is it that people can “say and do all the right religious things” and yet never really touch Him?  How is it that people can join this church or that church and yet never really touch Him?  How is it?  How can it be?  How is it that the scribes and Pharisees knew the Scriptures forwards and backwards and yet most of them never came to know Him?  How is it that people can learn Bible verses and yet never know the One whom these verses speak of?

            How can this be?  All those people touching Jesus…yet really only one person touching Jesus…my aunt Ruth.

            Did I mention this is my big day?  It’s also my aunt Ruth’s big day.  Did I mention this?

            It’s about time now.  I’ve got an appointment in a few minutes, an appointment much like the appointment on that grimy dusty road in Galilee 31 years ago.  You see my aunt and I continued to follow Jesus, to know Him and to love Him…and 4 years ago we moved here, to Rome, to help establish a fellowship of believers of both Jews and Gentiles.  And today is our big day…

            Aunt Ruth and I were arrested 3 weeks ago by Nero’s soldiers for being followers of Jesus Christ and we’ve been sentenced to die today…our big day…an even bigger day than that day 31 years ago…for today is our graduation day…today we’ll go to be with Him forever.

            O don’t be sorry for us, no please don’t.  After all, we are all going to die…and death is a part of life…the question of course is…when that day does come…will you have touched Him…and will He have touched you…?

           

           

                       

 

Touching Jesus - Part One

Background: Mark 5:21 - 34. 

THE SETTING – A PRISON CELL IN ROME, 64 A.D.

 

            Oh…hi…good morning.  Didn’t see you there…kinda daydreaming.  Not really daydreaming per se, more like recollecting…remembering. 

            What are you in here for?  Quite the group of you.  Have you already been to trial or are you awaiting an appearance before the Roman magistrate?

            Oh…sorry…I didn’t introduce myself, I’m Nathan ben Eleazar…a Jew from Capernaum in Galilee.  Today’s my big day…and I was just recollecting about another big day…that day 31 years ago…long before Nero was emperor…31 years ago…on that crowd-laden dusty road between Capernaum and Chorazin.

            I was with my Aunt Ruth that day, my poor aunt Ruth…at least I thought of her as my poor aunt Ruth before that day…but not after.

            Ruth is my mother’s sister…as a matter of fact she’s in a cell just down this corridor…but that’s another matter…of course this is her big day too…this is a big day for both of us…but back to that dust-filled choking road…

            My Mom died when I was three years old of something I think you call influenza.  Shortly after that my father was killed by robbers as he was transporting bundles of linen and wool from Jerusalem down to Jericho.  That left me an orphan at almost 4 years old.  I have vague memories of my parents, shadows if you will…aunt Ruth has done her best to keep the memories alive…and in fact to give me many more as she tells me about my parents and their young lives before their untimely deaths.

            Aunt Ruth took me into her home and raised me like her own son.  Did I mention that Ruth is a widow?  Her husband also died young in a shipping accident…leaving her a childless widow. So she was a widow without children and I was a child without parents…and she took me in…and loved me and raised me.

            Then, when I was 16 years old, Aunt Ruth got sick.  At first I didn’t notice much about the sickness.  Her skin began to pale, her energy decline…at the end of each workday – aunt Ruth made her living by dyeing linen and wool for weavers and tailors – she was exhausted.  She began going to bed earlier than usual…her smile wasn’t as quick to show as in the past…I knew something was wrong but didn’t know what…

            When I began to question her about her health she’d put me off by saying, “Oh, it’s nothing.  It will be better soon.”  But it didn’t…it didn’t get better.  In fact it got a good deal worse.  There were days when she couldn’t work all day…and an occasional day when she had to stay home.

            I kept after her to see a physician, but again she’d put me off by saying, “Oh, it will get better.”

            Now we weren’t rich by any stretch of the imagination, but we weren’t poor…at least in the beginning of her sickness.  In fact our life was somewhat comfortable.  The business of dyeing linen and wool isn’t a bad living as long as you meet your quotas with the tailors and weavers.  I had learned the trade from aunt Ruth and we were doing pretty well financially.

            One afternoon as I was sitting with the young men of the town sipping wine…it was our afternoon break from work…little Joseph ben Levi ran up to me yelling, “Ruth has fallen ill, Ruth has fallen ill, come quickly!!!”

            Aunt Ruth had fainted, passed out, in our little dye shop, hit her head on one of the dye soaking bins and was unconscious and bleeding from her head.  We got her home, put her to bed, and called a physician.

            After examining her, the physician left her sleeping area in our little home and came into the living room, he told me that Ruth was awake and that her head wound was only superficial…but then he told me that she was weak from loss of blood…loss of blood not from the head wound, but loss of blood due to something he called “a condition peculiar to the female sex,” and that he could do nothing to help her.

            Our lives changed that day…

            My heart was broken and filled with fear for my aunt Ruth.  I had lost my father and mother and now there was the threat of losing my precious aunt.  I embarked on a mission to find a physician who could cure her illness.

            The weeks, months and years that followed are somewhat of a blur…a collage of work, physicians, dwindling money, anxiety, fear, more work, more physicians, less and less money, hopelessness, despair.

            Ruth worked some days…seldom all day…struggling with me to keep our bills paid and our business running…but I insisted on spending whatever need be on a cure.  And so I contacted physician after physician in our area…and they…they virtually all came…and examined Ruth…and took our money…and said…they all said…that Aunt Ruth had, “a condition peculiar to the female sex,” and that there was nothing they could do.

            Year after year went by…and I saw my brave aunt’s health continue to deteriorate.  She was stubborn and determined, and loving and tender…but sheer willpower could only help her get from day-to-day, it could not heal her.

            Early in the twelfth year of her affliction I determined to make one last attempt to fine someone who could cure her.  Our business was struggling, for at this point Ruth could hardly work 3 or 4 hours a day, and while I was working and doing the best I could…our money was going to doctors and I couldn’t afford to pay someone to assist me in the business…I was falling behind in our contracts and was losing customers.

            At any rate…I had heard of the wonderful physicians there were in Egypt…and I heard that one of their esteemed physicians had come to Chorazin to set up practice.  I thought that surely this was our opportunity…perhaps our last opportunity…for a cure.  I knew it would be expensive, it might take all we had…but we had to try…we just had to try.

            Oh, I know what you’re thinking…you’re wondering how we, as Jews, could possibly go to an unclean Egyptian doctor.  Well, it’s not as if the doctor was the only one who was unclean…for please remember…that because my aunt Ruth had this perpetual bleeding due to “a condition peculiar to the female sex”…that my aunt Ruth was unclean as well…and that since I lived with my aunt, and touched her in my care for her…that I was also unclean.

            Yes, for twelve years she…that is we…even since that day when she fainted in our workshop and that first physician had diagnosed her…ever since then…we had been unclean…she because of her condition and me because of my association with her.

            We could not go into other peoples’ homes, they could not come into ours, we could not touch others…we could not even go to the synagogue on the Sabbath…we were unclean…my aunt Ruth and I, Nathan ben Eleazar…were unclean.  I could touch her and she could touch me…but no one else would touch us.  Twelve years without being touched by other people…twelve long isolated years.

            And so, in the twelfth year of her sickness, of her being in “a condition peculiar to the female sex”…in that year…we took the last money we had…down to our last penny…and went to Chorazin to see the Egyptian doctor. 

When I had made an initial trip to first consult with him he gave me hope, he indicated that he had cured many female conditions, that he had prescriptions for cures of all kinds and that surely he could help my aunt Ruth…and so we took our last bit of money, money that we had been hoarding…and we went.

            While Ruth was in the examining room I prayed to the God of my fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in my heart I called out to Him for mercy, mercy on my aunt Ruth…and I tried to believe, I tried to believe that He would finally heal my poor poor aunt.

            And then the door opened and my aunt Ruth and the Egyptian doctor came out…and I head these words from the doctor, “Your aunt has a condition peculiar to the female sex and I do not have a cure for it.”

            Putting my arm around my aunt I led her out of the office for the long walk home.  No money, a failing business, little food in the pantry, broken hearts…and no hope.

to be continued...

            

Seeing the Invisible (6)

Below is a note I sent a friend this morning, this is what "seeing the invisible" looks like in my life and marriage. I'm reminded of Hebrews 11:27, Mose endured as seeing Him who is invisible. 

In thinking about our conversation yesterday…

 

Paul writes that we are to endure hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:3). I suppose this is the way I was raised in Christ, raised to lose my life for Him and others (Mark 8:34 – 38). Not that I’ve always lived this way, but it is the way I was taught. In addition to Watchman Nee’s Normal Christian Life, I think I may have given you Andrew Murray’s Abide in Christ, and I think I gave you Discipleship on the Edge by Darrell W. Johnson. None of these books are focused on “me, myself, and I,” they are all centered on the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ.

 

While I don’t think of having a particular life verse, if I had to choose one it might be Galatians 2:20, and a life passage would be Mark 8:34 – 38. When I was in the Army (and I imagine it was the same for you in the Navy), we never began our days with a group hug and our sergeants asking us how our feelings were that day. We were there to serve, to obey, to function as a team – we were on mission.

 

So with us…we are here to worship God, build one another up in Christ, and go to the world with the Gospel – the stool has three legs.

 

Our greatest temptation, perhaps, is to avoid the Cross. Friends do not let friends avoid the Cross. Friends do not counsel friends to escape the Cross. Peter insisted that Jesus not go to the Cross and Jesus said, “Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting our mind on the things of God, but man” (Matthew 16:23).

 

I was never taught, nor have I thought, that God was interested in making me a better version of myself, He is interested in bringing me to the end of myself and transforming me into the image of Jesus Christ as a new creation in Him (Rom. 8:29; Gal. 2:20; 6:14; Col. 3:1 – 4).

 

While Vickie and I realize that there is emotional and psychological trauma and stress associated with what we have experienced – we do not deny that for a moment – we also realize that we must look to Jesus to walk with us through this. No doubt He uses others to walk with us – Paul and his friends “despaired even of life” (2 Cor. 1:8) but they also saw God working in them for the blessing of others (2 Cor. 1:4, 9).

 

In addition, we both know that we are closer to leaving this pilgrimage today than we were yesterday – and we are living in the light of that knowledge; we will be in the Holy Presence of Jesus sooner rather than later – we are in the portal that transitions us from this life into the glorious Life to Come in Christ and with the saints.

 

Around 1999 I was visiting a friend, Dan Smick, in the hospital in Boston. Dan was married with two young sons, both under 7 years old. Dan’s liver was failing as a result of cancer treatments and he was hoping for a liver transplant – in essence Dan was dying, he would go to be with Christ in a few months. Dan was the director of the Marketplace Network in Boston, a ministry similar to Needle’s Eye in Richmond.

 

As I entered the hospital room Dan was asleep, so I sat down in a chair next to his bed and was quiet. When he awoke and saw me he smiled and said, “O Bob, I’m glad you’re here. I was just thinking about some ways to share Jesus with others. Let me talk to you about them.”

 

I will never forget this. Dan was dying, sure there was still hope for healing, but it was slim. Dan had a wife and two young sons, and he loved them deeply. Dan could have been feeling sorry for himself on many levels, but instead he was thinking of how to share Jesus with others.

 

When we face hardships, when we face pressure and pain, the question should not be, “How can I get out of this?” It should be, “How does Jesus want to reveal Himself to me through this? How can I share Jesus with others through this? How is God using this to transform me into the image of His Son?”

 

I really can’t imagine living any other way.

 

Just some thoughts…

 

Bob

Seeing the Invisible (5)

 

 

“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).

 

“For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).

 

Returning to 2 Corinthians 4:6 (see second reflection in this series), when Paul sees creation, he sees through and beyond creation to God. Creation becomes a sacramental experience in that through creation God comes to Paul and Paul comes to God.

 

“That which is know about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understand by the things that are made, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19 – 20).

 

As we have considered, when Paul read Genesis Chapter One he saw through the account of physical creation into the invisible, and seeing the invisible he saw the New Creation in Christ Jesus, he saw God shining in the darkness of our hearts to bring the light of the knowledge of His glory in Jesus Christ.

 

In Romans, we read that if we knew how to “see” creation, a vision which has been robbed from us (at least in the West), we would see not only the power of God but also His Divine Nature, or as some translations have it – the Godhead. Paul writes that these things are clearly seen. We can hardly say that today, whether we are speaking of the world or the professing church.

 

It is not the norm for us in the West to deeply see and understand God when pondering creation. Many of us see creation as something to be dominated, used, and exploited, and many of us simply don’t care about creation unless it affects us financially. This is not the same as seeing a Creator in creation, this is about us gaining understanding about the very Nature of God as we ponder and experience Creation.

 

An irony of this is that while there is a segment of the professing church that insists on the world being created in six 24-hour days, that this segment does not typically teach us to see in and beyond Creation to the Divine Nature, it does not connect Creation with experiencing God, it does not connect Creation with having an deep internal knowledge of God. Paul writes, “That which is known about God is evident within them.”

 

To believe that God created everything in six 24-hour days, without also seeing the Nature of God in and through Creation, without also knowing the One who shines in our hearts, without becoming New Creations in Jesus Christ, means nothing. It may, in fact, be dangerous. It may be dangerous because it may lead us believe we are something when we are nothing, and it can certainly be dangerous for others to think that believing in a certain Creator is akin to knowing the Trinity, that it is the equivalent of a relationship with God.

 

This is much the same as when some folks place emphasis on the historicity of Noah’s Ark. Believing that the account of Noah’s Ark is historical, whatever you think the scope was, means little or nothing if we do not know Jesus as our Ark, if we are not bringing others into the Ark of Jesus Christ.

 

If we have not encountered Jesus Christ and have come to know Him, if we are not New Creations in Him, it doesn’t matter how often we’ve had an “ark encounter,” for we are still seeing things that are visible. The things that are seen are temporal, including Noah’s Ark, including the present form of creation, there is a deeper reality – beyond the veil – for us to see and in which we are called to live in Christ.

 

I may convince the world that there was a real Noah’s Ark and a real Flood, but if I have not convinced the world that Jesus is the only Ark that matters, and that they must seek refuge and life in Him, then I have convinced people of nothing of eternal consequence.

 

Psalm 19 portrays the complementary witness of Creation and the Word, Creation came through the Word and the Word is revealed through Creation. In verses 1 – 6 we see Creation speaking, in verses 7 – 11 we see the Word, in verses 12 – 14 we see our response.

 

“The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge” (vv. 1- 2). In other words, there is a continuous manifestation of the glory of God in creation. However, most of us are not oriented to Creation, we see the natural world as something to be consumed, not as something of which we are stewards. Hence, as we kill Creation we kill ourselves, our children, our grandchildren. What we have is never enough, we must always have more, we must always consume; and if we consume one another and consume the planet – so be it. We have gone mad.  

 

Last year as I read through Psalms, I noted every psalm that referred to Creation. This included the heavens, the sky, trees, animals, the oceans; it was comprehensive. While I may have missed something, I found that 115 psalms, out of 150, incorporated Creation in their prayers and songs to God. If we were to remove all references to Creation from Psalms, Psalms as we know it would cease to exist.  This is how central Creation was to our fathers and mothers who walked with God – this is how central Creation has been to the saints who have centered their worship in Psalms through the ages.

 

In and through Creation those who have come before us saw God. In and through Creation prior generations have come to God and have known God coming to them. While there is most certainly an experiential element to this, that is, we experience God, there are also elements of wisdom and the knowledge of God, hence Paul’s statement in Romans 1:20 that we can know the “invisible attributes” and “eternal power and divine nature” of God through Creation.

 

No doubt there are regions of the world where men and women and young people continue to see and know God through His Creation, but we in the West have sealed ourselves off from this precious communion and knowledge. We have erected an iron dome over our collective consciousness, we have hung (ironically) an iron curtain over our minds and raised multiple generations in this darkness – and this very much includes the professing church.

 

Paul looked at Creation and saw the invisible, he saw that which is eternal.

 

What do we see?

Seeing the Invisible (4)

 

 

“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).

 

“Therefore 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).

 

What does it mean to “know Christ according to the flesh”? What does it mean to no longer know Him that way?

 

Perhaps Christ’s appearances after the Resurrection can help us with this.

 

Mary heard His voice and saw Him, yet she didn’t hear His Voice or see Him, thinking Him to be the gardener. Only when Jesus spoke her name was He revealed to her (John 20:14 – 14).

 

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus enjoyed an extended walk and conversation with Jesus, one in which their “hearts were burning” while Jesus “was explaining the Scriptures,” yet they did not know who He was until they recognized Him “in the breaking of bread” (Luke 24:13 – 36).

 

The seven disciples fishing on the Sea of Tiberias did not recognize Jesus at first, and even when they did there was a strangeness about His appearance and their recognition of Him that the Biblical text does not explain. “None of the disciples ventured to question Him, ‘Who are You?’ knowing that it was the Lord” (John 21:1 – 14).

 

What can we learn from these passages about seeing Jesus?

 

Jesus did not appear to His disciples as they expected to see Him; or at least not all of the time. Even after they had seen Jesus, when He appeared again they were not sure what or who they were seeing (Luke 24:37; John 21:4).

 

Yet, throughout His life on earth, Jesus had been appearing in ways that people did not expect, in ways that most could not see, certainly in ways that the religious leaders rejected and which were an element of their motivation to kill Jesus.

 

Jesus healed on the Sabbath, He touched unclean lepers, He forgave sins, He associated with prostitutes, and tax collectors in the service of Roman oppressors. Jesus the Messiah did all of these things and some saw Him while most didn’t.

 

After Pentecost Jesus continued to appear to His followers in ways that they could not see at first. One of the most notable was in the vision He gave to Peter of unclean animals with the command, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” (Acts 10:9 – 16).

 

When Paul wrote, “We have known Christ according to the flesh,” he may have been thinking of his persecution of the Church, for in those days he could not conceive of the Messiah being associated with disciples of Jesus, after all, anyone who was hanged on a tree was cursed by God. Paul may have also been thinking of the confusion in Antioch over the Law and grace, a confusion that led to a public confrontation with dear Peter (Galatians 2:11 – 21). The vision that Peter had in Acts 10 was fading from him in Galatians 2. Sometimes we see Jesus and then we don’t, sometimes our wonderful vision of Jesus fades, as does our discipleship and love for Him.

 

This same dynamic is very much alive in our reading and experiencing the Bible. We see this in how Jesus and the New Testament writes engage the Old Testament.

 

Paul, prior to his conversion, would have never seen Galatians 4:21 – 31 in the Genesis account of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. Paul would have never seen Jerusalem and the covenant it represents as being in bondage, nor would he have seen that the true and eternal Jerusalem is above and is the mother of all of us who live in the faith of Abraham. No doubt, were Paul with us today, he would question our infatuation with geopolitical Jerusalem, our orientation toward the things of earth – things that are seen – as opposed to a Biblical orientation toward eternal things which cannot be seen.

 

Prior to his conversion, Paul would not have seen that in Christ there is only One People, and that this reality is God’s great mystery hidden from ages and generations. He would have considered such teaching worthy of death and would have insisted that the Messiah and Messiah’s Message would never appear this way (Ephesians 2:11 – 3:13). No doubt, were Paul with us today, he would be perplexed at our Jew – Gentile dispensationalism, our preoccupation with certain strains of “prophecy,” our failure to “see” that all of faith are children of Abraham – that there is a true “Israel of God” that transcends race, ethnicity, national origin, or anything that can be “seen” in the natural (Galatians 6:16).

 

In a sense, the New Testament is a picture of God in Christ appearing again and again in ways that we can only “see” by His grace and the Holy Spirit.

 

The Jews had preconceived notions as to how Messiah would look. The broader society of Jesus’ time had preconceived notions. The disciples had preconceived notions (for example, consider Matthew 16:21 – 23; John 6:59 – 69). The Church had preconceived notions after Pentecost. We always have preconceived notions. We expect Jesus to appear in certain ways, we expect Him to appear in the flesh in ways that meet our expectations, that fit our religious forms, that align with our national, political, economic, and social agendas.

 

To live seeing the invisible is to see Jesus Christ above and beyond the natural world around us, and this includes seeing Him beyond our philosophies, religious traditions, our doctrinal distinctives, our national, political, social, economic, racial, and ethnic identities.

 

“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:27 – 29).

 

If our identity is found anywhere other than in Christ, if our identification with other Christians is found anywhere other than in Christ and only in Christ, then we are living by looking at things that can be seen, and those things are temporal. Nationalism is temporal, denominations are temporal, political orientation is temporal, economics are temporal, our social norms are temporal, our comfort zones are temporal.

 

Not only does Jesus come to us in ways we do not expect, He comes to us in ways that we often instinctively reject. He comes to us as homeless, as a stranger and alien seeking refuge, as naked, as thirsty, as hungry, as a prisoner…and we reject Him at our peril, and it is very much to our peril when we teach others to reject Him! (Matthew 25:31 – 46).

 

Do we see the irony that many of us who make much of Matthew Chapter 24 ignore Matthew 25:31 – 46, which is the continuation of Chapter 24? Do we see the irony that many of us who profess a high view of Scripture, gloss over Matthew 25:31 – 46?

 

Do we not tremble that many congregations insist that their pastors only preach and teach in a way that they expect, a way that mirrors their view of Jesus, their image of Jesus – and that if pastors suggest an image of Jesus, a Biblical image, an image of touching the untouchable and loving the unlovable, that the congregations will, one way or another, do to the pastors what the religious leaders did to Jesus – they will cast them out, torture them, and crucify them.  

 

Faithful pastors in the United States have much less to fear from the world, than they do from the professing church (including other pastors).

 

Learning to know Christ “not according to the flesh,” not according to appearance, is a lifelong journey…we must always be looking for Him, for He often comes in ways we do not expect, even in ways that we may reject. He may come (and indeed He will come!) through people who do not look like us, talk like us, dress like us, eat like us, or see many things the way we do. He may come to us in images and people with whom we have nothing in common, nothing at all.

 

As we experience what it is to know Jesus in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:21 – 24), as we experience what it is to know Jesus beyond the visible, as we experience His coming to us beyond what is seen by the natural eye, then we will learn how to receive others into our lives, we will learn how to touch others in the Name of Christ – we will learn, we will finally learn, to live as the daughters and sons of God.