Seed Bearing Fruit After Its Kind

 

 Well now, dear ones...

 

I have not read or watched or listened to the national and international news for a few weeks...and I pretty much only know enough locally to have fair warning should an expedition from Mars touch down...but I do get a glimpse now and then.

 

I am still following baseball...after all...if we do not have baseball what do we have? Even though it has also changed...I will pass on the All Star Game...haven't watched it in years...like everything else it is now insane with hype, marketing, etc.

 

Come on...it is a game, a game that adults play...

 

"The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind..." Genesis 1:12.

 

Why is it that many of us who insist on a certain reading of Genesis, and who brand others as outside the pale who do not agree with them, do not apply the same fervor and meticulousness to the national creation myth of the United States? That is, why don't they look at the facts...and if Christians, why don't they ask where faithful preaching and pastoring was during the Revolution - where the image of Jesus was during our First American Civil War?

 

As a rule, pastors who preached peace and obedience were driven from their churches and homes. Things haven't changed...yes?

 

Civil wars are brutal - how can we gloss over this?

 

Just asking.

 

If Genesis 1:12 is true, and I believe it is...then I cannot see how a nation birthed in violent rebellion can have a trajectory other than rebellion...and when it ends it will certainly end in a Biblical image...that of it imploding and consuming itself in rebellion...and the birds of the air and the beasts of the field will have quite the feast.

 

Yes, our Imperial Cult and our Nero(s) and Caligula(s) once again express the truth of Psalm 2 and Daniel 2 and Hebrews 12:12 - 29.

 

Did I mention Revelation 17 and 18? (Every generation has them I suppose).

 

Revelation and Daniel give us true images of the powers of this age, shattering the facades, shattering the national myths - the cry from the Throne is ever and always, "Come out of her (Babylon) My People that you do not partake of her sins!"

 

Genesis is not only the book of beginnings, it is also the book of endings. Nimrod, Shinar, Babel are all there...as are Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Joseph. We meet them in every generation, plants yielding seed after their kind...we meet them in Revelation, we meet them today.

 

Those who partake of the Tree of Life (Christ the Vine) are called, in Him, to give life to the world - the Grain of Wheat has fallen into the ground and died and come forth in Newness of Life...and the leaves of the Tree are for the healing of the peoples.

 

Those who partake of Nero's table?

 

Two women in Proverbs Chapter 9, two tables (1 Cor. 10:21)...two seeds...

 

Two women in Revelation, the Bride and the Whore.

 

Two kingdoms in Revelation, the Lamb's and that which makes the peoples drunk with the wine of fornication.

 

I suppose there aren't really words to describe all of this...but there sure are images...there sure are images.

 

I was thinking that like Samson we have had our eyes put out...but unlike Samson we don't know it. (John 9:35 - 41).

 

Much love...let us follow the Lamb wherever He goes!

 

Bob

Psalm 139...or My Nappy

 

A Psalm 139 Day, A Psalm 139 Life – or My Nappy

 

“O LORD, You have searched me and known me” (Psalm 139:1).

 

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139:24).

 

This is my Psalm 139 Day. I typically read Psalm 139 on March 19, June 26, September 19, and December 19. I read Psalm 139 to remind me that I am not an accident looking for a place to happen, I read it to remind me that my hope is ever and always in Jesus. I read Psalm 139 to remember how much my Father cares for me…even when “I make my bed in hell.”

 

I often point others to Psalm 139 because I want them to know that they also are not accidents looking for a place to happen, but rather that their lives are in God’s hands.

 

If you have ever made your bed in hell this is a pretty good psalm. If you have ever run from God this psalm can be helpful. If you have ever known darkness so dark that you can’t see your hand in front of your face, this psalm is for you.

 

If you have ever looked at your life and wondered just how you could have messed up so badly, this psalm can remind you that even if you don’t understand yourself (and I don’t think any of us have much capacity along this line) that God your Father and Creator knowns all about you.

 

In our moments of arrogance and pomposity this psalm can put us in our place; we really don’t know all that much, we need our God to search us, purify us, and to lead us in “the everlasting Way.” The Way, of course, is Jesus Christ (John 14:6).

 

The psalm begins with an acknowledgment and confession that God has searched us and known us. It concludes with a plea for God to continue searching us and knowing our hearts, for Him to test us and know our thoughts, to deal with hurtful and sinful and selfish ways within us, and to lead us in the everlasting Way (see Hebrews 4:12 – 13; Psalm 19:12 – 14).

 

In a sense the psalm ends where it begins, with God searching us…but not quite, there is a difference, a significant difference.

 

In verse 1 we acknowledge that God has been searching us. In verses 23 and 24 we cry out to God that He will continue to search us, purify us, save us from toxic ways, and lead us into the Way of Jesus. In other words, in verse 1 we have the realization that God has been searching us, in verses 23 and 24 we plea with God to continue His gracious work within us.

 

We may live a long time before we arrive at the realization of verse 1. We may go our own way for many years before, by God’s mercy, it dawns on us that God has been searching our lives, our souls, our hearts and our minds – that He knows not just our every action, but our thoughts and our motives. When the light of this awareness breaks upon us we can either run and hide, or we can say, “O my! Help me dear God.”

 

If we will accept His mercy, then we will come to know that His intimate searching of us is a deep expression of His tender love for us in Jesus Christ – then we will come to know that we need His searching and trying and purifying every moment of every day, we will know that we cannot live without Him and His Presence.

 

In the Garden, Adam and Eve hid from God and from each other. In the New Jerusalem there is no hiding from God or from one another, all is transparent in that City in which God alone is Light. As Psalm 139 demonstrates, we cannot really hide from God. We may be like toddlers playing “peek-a-boo”, thinking that if we cover our eyes so that we can’t see God that God can’t see us. Isn’t that foolish?

 

Yet isn’t that the way we so often live…within and without the professing church?

 

I have often said that on my best days my heavenly Father needs to change my nappy.  This may not be an elegant conclusion to this reflection, but it is most certainly the truth.

Lambs of the Lamb

 

 

“All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth” (Isaiah 53:6 – 7).

 

“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:36 – 37).

 

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

 

Are we lambs of the Lamb?

 

More precisely, are we sacrificial lambs of the Sacrificial Lamb?

 

Is it enough to read Isaiah 53 and say, “Here is evidence that Jesus is Messiah?” Is it enough to read Isaiah 53 and preach it as an evidentiary text?

 

Are we not called to believe into the Christ of the passage and surrender ourselves to Him, allowing Him to enter into us, living in us and through us to others?

 

If this is so, then what is this to look like? How is Christ Jesus to be manifested?

 

Are we not to lay down our lives for others, just as Jesus Christ laid down His life for us?

 

“This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12 – 13).

 

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

 

And here is the thing dear friends, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us! Jesus teaches us that we are to love our enemies, blessing those who are opposed to us (Matthew 5:43 – 48), so that we may be the sons and daughters of the Living God. As the sacrificial life and death of Jesus Christ redeemed us, reconciling us to God when we were enemies of God (Rom. 5:10), so we are called to lay down our lives so that others may be reconciled. After all, we are the organic Body of Christ, are we not?

 

Note the emphasis on “He did not open His mouth,” in Isaiah 53:6 – 7. Consider that “Our griefs He bore and our sorrows He carried” (53:4), ponder “the anguish of His soul” (53:11), “He poured out His soul to death” (53:12), and “He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors” (53:12).

 

And then let us ask ourselves, “Is this a description of my life? Is this a portrayal of my local congregation? Is this how the professing church in America looks today?”

 

Dear, dear friends, what matters to the world…and I think to our Lord Jesus Christ, is not so much the evidence we have in linking the events of Isaiah 53 to those of Good Friday and Easter, but rather the evidence the world sees in our lives as we embody the sacrificial Lamb of Isaiah 53 – for this is indeed our calling. To have the former without the latter is to have a body without a soul.

 

In Romans 8:36 Paul brings his readers to the glorious fruit of the Gospel in our lives, the result of justification and sanctification, the glory of all that he has taught leading up to his quotation of Psalm 44:22, and that glory is that we follow the Lamb wherever He goes…and He goes to the Cross. The glory we lost in Romans 3:23 is eclipsed (if we can use such a term) in 8:28 – 39, for we enter into the koinonia of His sufferings (Phil. 3:10).

 

“To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation” (1 Peter 4:13).

 

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Colossians 1:24).

"Death works in us, but life in you" (2 Cor. 4:12).

 

Is Isaiah 53 a portrait of our lives?

O Jesus, please make it so.

The Holy of Holies (5)

 

 

“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am” (John 17:24).

 

“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3).

 

“If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also” (John 12:26).

 

What does Jesus mean, that we should be with Him where He is?

 

Does He mean that we should all find ourselves with Him in the Upper Room? In Gethsemane?

 

What is it that we should be with Him where He is so that we may see the glory which the Father has given Him, a glory given in love before the foundation of the world (John 17:24)?

 

In John 12:26 we see that if we follow Jesus that we will be with Him where He is. Where is Jesus?

 

We may recall that in previous reflections we pondered the theme of Jesus going and coming, of Jesus hiding and revealing Himself; of us seeing Jesus, not seeing Jesus, and then seeing Jesus again.

 

What does it mean for us to be with Jesus where He is?

 

Certainly we are indeed to be with Jesus in the Upper Room, in Gethsemane, on the Cross, in the Resurrection, in the Ascension, sitting with Him in the heavenlies. Yes, we are to be with Jesus as He teaches, casts out unclean spirits, heals, feeds the hungry, touches the untouchable, loves the unlovable, and has compassion on humanity. We are to know a transcendence in this koinonia with Jesus, a fellowship with Him and in the communion of saints as we live in Jesus and He lives in us.

 

And this brings us to what it means that we be with Him where He is, for He is in koinonia with the Father, in unity with Him. We see His glory when we join that Divine fellowship and unity, when our biosphere is the Trinity, as we are being “perfected into one” (Jn. 17:23). As we live in the Holy of Holies, as we discover the ground of our being in God the Trinity, as we realize that Jesus Christ is truly our Author and Perfecter, that He is truly our Alpha and Omega, our Beginning and our End, our First and our Last – then we are with Him where He is, beholding the Father, beholding the incomparable glory of Jesus Christ, which the Father has bestowed upon Him, and which He (mystery indeed!) bestows upon us (Jn. 17:22).

 

And here, my friends, is the dance of the ages, the song of the ages; hidden from ages and generations but now revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that the Father should bring many sons to glory through the glorious Firstborn Son Jesus Christ, and that He should bestow His inheritance in the Father upon His brothers and sisters, and that we should all, in Him, give ourselves for the life of the world.

 

To be with Jesus where He is, is to live in intimacy with the Father, in loving communion with the Father, in sweet adoration of the Father. To be with Jesus where He is, is to keep our eyes on Jesus, fixing our minds and hearts and souls on Jesus, and in so doing to be transformed into His image as our way of life, as our source of life, and as our destiny in life.

 

To be with Jesus where He is, is to look upon one another as the saints of God, purchased and washed by the blood of the Lamb, perfected in Christ Jesus, made complete in Him. We no longer bring accusation against one another, we do not expose one another, but as Christ’s holy priesthood we cover one another in the confession of the Cross, the Atonement, the New Creation in Christ. The priesthood of Christ covers, we are mediators in Him, we sing the song of the redeemed and teach others to sing it. We baptize in water and the Spirit, not in sewage and the flesh.

 

To be with Jesus is not to wait for another day, though we do anticipate a glorious Day beyond comprehension, but it is to live with Him where He is today, right now. He comes to us every day, He brings us to Himself every day, He draws us deeper into the Trinity every day – we do not wait to participate in the Trinity – the Trinity is our very life today!

 

This is to live in the Holy of Holies; to know the love of God with one another, the unity of God with one another, the glory of God with one another, to experience the joy of God with one another. John Chapter 17, the Holy of Holies, is ineffable for the veil has been rent and we now have free and complete access to intimacy with God in Jesus Christ…always in Jesus Christ.

 

There are holy things and places in John Chapter 17 that cannot be spoken of in human language, but they can be experienced in Jesus Christ and with one another.

 

To “see” John 17 in some measure, to enter into the Holy of Holies, is not to arrive at the end of the Gospel, but rather at the purpose of the Beginning. The rending of the veil was not so that we should enter the Holy of Holies and arrive at the conclusion of our journey, but rather that we might finally get to the Beginning (or perhaps the End of the Beginning?) of our journey, of our glorious eternity in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit…with one another.

 

Right now, this very moment, are we with Jesus where He is?

 

 

 

Asking on Our Behalf

 

“I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours” (John 17:9).

 

Jesus desires that we receive His words as they are given to us, that we allow them to be implanted within our souls (James 1:21) and that through them we partake of the Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4). When we receive the Word of Jesus, when we receive Jesus Christ the Word, we partake of the Lord’s Table in sacred communion, we eat His flesh and drink His blood (John 6:53). We can live in the assurance that the Eucharist is indeed sacramental – of course it is – we need not fear to partake of Christ in all the ways He comes to us – O we need not fear!

 

There is a distinction between those whom the Father has given to Jesus and the world in the Upper Room. We saw this in John 15:18 – 16:4, and we see it again in the Holy of Holies of Chapter 17. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (17:16). See the echo of 15:18-16:4 in 17:14, "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”

 

However, we must not misread this distinction, to do so is to imperil our calling in Christ and our mission to the world. If we would learn to receive the Word as the Word is spoken and written, the possibility of misunderstanding would be lessened, but we have a proclivity to speculate rather than submit to the Word of Jesus in obedience. In other words, we would rather speculate than obey. Seldom does understanding dawn without obedience. Faith is less about understanding so that we may obey; it is not even obeying so that we may understand; it is obeying that we may please our Lord Jesus. If, in our obeying, we are given a measure of understanding, let us be thankful.

 

Jesus is praying for us in the Upper Room and we ought to be attentive and obedient to what He is praying – there are treasures beyond measure in John 17, this is a portal into eternity, it is where the ages meet, it is beyond time and space, and yet it invades time and space. The Son of Man ascends and descends in the Holy of Holies of John 17.

 

So that we do not misunderstand Jesus asking on our behalf, and not on behalf of the world, let us consider the following:

 

The very next day, in the midst of the agony of His sacrificial death offering, Jesus will pray for the world, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

 

The central verse of the Gospel is found in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

 

Paul writes, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19).

 

Why then does Jesus pray for us in John 17 and not for the world?

 

There is more than one reason, it seems to me, but the particular reason that I call our attention to now is this, Jesus prays for those whom the Father has given Him so that those whom the Father has given Him may give themselves to the world, for God so loves the world.

 

On the one hand Jesus distinguishes Himself and us from the world (17:13 – 16), but on the other hand Jesus sends us into the world just as the Father sent Him into the world. “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (17:18).

 

While we will, the Lord willing, reflect more deeply on our mission to the world and church in forthcoming meditations on 17:13 – 23, for now let us be clear that Jesus prays for us so that we may pray for others; that Jesus gives Himself for us so that we may give ourselves for others; that Jesus desires us to know our Father so that we may bring others to know our Father; that Jesus sanctifies Himself for us and desires our sanctification, so that we may invite others into the sanctification of the Trinity.

 

Jesus prays for us and not for the world, so that we may be His offerings to the world, not that we might view ourselves as a privileged people better than others. Yes, we are indeed privileged, but the privilege is that of a lamb selected from a flock to be an offering. We must always, always, always, remember and affirm that Jesus sends us as the Father sent Him. This is our birthright, our inheritance, our calling, and the only privilege that matters in eternity. How glorious are the words of Joseph:

 

“You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. So therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them” (Genesis 50:20 – 21).

 

John 17 encompasses a holy charge given to those whom the Father has given to Jesus, Jesus prays for those given this charge. The Father gives us to Jesus, and Jesus gives us to the world and to one another.

 

The glory of John 17 may be euphoric, but it is also weighty, it is the glory of the Cross, the Lamb…found in the vortex of eternity pressing into time and space. There is Divine thunder in the words, “I ask on their behalf.”

Given By The Father

  

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word” (John 17:6).

 

There are four major threads in the Upper Room in this verse. Can you see them? Read the chapter again, and again, and again, keep reading it and meditating upon it. The Light that is refracted never ends, and its combinations never cease.

 

We see the Name of the Father, Jesus disclosing the Name, the giving of those who belong to the Father to Jesus, and the enigmatic faithfulness and belief of these men whom the Father has given. I write “enigmatic” because it is a mystery, at least to me, how Jesus can make such statements about them. As you read John 17, can you see these four themes? How are they woven together? What other themes do you see?

 

In this meditation I want to explore, “the men whom You have Me out of the world.”

 

We first saw this in 17:2, “that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.”

 

How might we think about this? Let’s be careful and consider what we know, rather than what we don’t know. That is, let’s focus on what Jesus says rather than on our curiosity, or what others want us to think about. Perhaps we would do well to consider John 6:37 – 40:

 

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

 

What parallels do you see between John 6:37 – 40 and John Chapter 17?

 

Let’s also note 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”

 

The Father has given us to Jesus. The Father has taken us out of the world and has given us to Jesus. The Father has drawn us to Jesus. Jesus will lose nothing that the Father has given Him.

 

Above I cautioned us to focus on what we know, not on what we don’t know Let me attempt to explain what I mean.

 

What questions do people normally have when they read the above passages?

 

In my experience, they have two problems; one has to do with “free will,” and the other has to do with “what about those not included?” That is, what about those who have either never heard of Jesus or whom the Father has not given to Jesus?

 

Did Jesus address these questions in these passages? I don’t see that He did.

 

Can we draw logical conclusions to our questions? I don’t see that we can, for our logic is faulty and fallible and our knowledge and understanding are limited.

 

Jesus tells us what He tells us, both in John Chapter 6 and John Chapter 17, so that we might know what He tells us, not so that we may know what He doesn’t tell us. Our problem is not that our curiosity is not satisfied, it is that we don’t believe and live according to what Jesus tells us. Were we to live in the knowledge and reality of what Jesus tells us about our calling and assurance in Him, laying down our lives for one another, loving one another, we would not have the time nor the inclination to engage in perpetual speculation nor would we care to satisfy our curiosity. We would not desire to see every question answered, and we would most certainly realize our cognitive limitations in our current state in this world (the noetic effects of sin).

 

In some way, shape, and form, in some mysterious and Divine fashion, we belong to the Father, we are not of the world. The Father has given us to Jesus. The Father has drawn us to Jesus. Visualize this please. You have belonged to the Father, the Father has taken you and given you to Jesus. The Father has made a gift of you to Jesus.

 

Jesus has received you as a gift from the Father. Jesus has given you eternal life by showing Himself and the Father to you. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (17:3). “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life” (6:40).

 

Eternal life is relational. You have been called into a relationship with God. The Father took you out of the world, the Father gave you to Jesus. Will you live in this reality?

 

“What about free will?” you ask.

 

Jesus speaks of the will of God, Jesus does not speak of your free will. This is God’s Story, you are incorporated into the Father’s Story, into the Son’s Story, into the Spirit’s Story – your story is enveloped in the Trinity and in the Body of Christ within the Trinity.

 

Consider the total and complete assurance that Jesus gives you by telling you that you are where you are, in a relationship with Him, because the Father gave you to Jesus.

 

“O but I want this to be about me!” we cry. Ah, but this is not about us, this is about Jesus and the Father. To be sure we are in the Story, but we are not center stage, this is not the Good News about you and me, it is the Good News about Jesus Christ. O for sure, it is Good News for us, it is Good News for us all, and as we realize the glory of what Jesus is telling us about the Father giving us to Him, we have the assurance we need to lay our lives down for Him and others. As we realize that Jesus keeps what the Father has given Him, that He guards us, O the assurance and peace and security we have in Him!

 

This also means that, just as Jesus, we need to be about our Father’s business!

 

A fundamental truth and reality of our life in Christ is that we do not belong to ourselves, we have never belonged to ourselves. There are those Christians who live in this knowledge, and those who don’t. Those who do not live in this knowledge live independently of Christ, those who do live in this knowledge live as the possessions of Another, in other words, Jesus Christ is truly Lord of their lives.

 

One of the enigmatic realities of the Father giving us to Jesus is that Jesus the Lamb had to shed His blood and die for us to purchase us (Rev. 5:9 – 10). The Father gave us to Jesus, Jesus gave us the gift of eternal life.

 

What are we giving to others?

Glorify Together

 

 

“Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5).

 

Jesus’ communion with the Father begins, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You” (17:1).

 

The glory of the Father is the glory of the Son, and the glory of the Son is the glory of the Father. As we will see in verse 22, the glory of the Trinity is given to us in Christ. Sadly, much of the story of humanity is the story of us, “exchanging the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man” (Rom. 1:23). Do we not see this today in our society? Do we not worship the image of man, of ourselves? The conflicts we see within nations and among nations is a conflict about which idol we will worship.

 

Jesus seeks no glory apart from the Father, in fact, the Father is the glory of the Son. Jesus recalls the glory He had with the Father “before the world was.” This not only takes us back to the very beginning of the Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being,” but it also takes us through the Gospel of John.

 

“’My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.’ For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God” (5:17 – 18).

 

“I Am the Bread of life” (6:35).

 

“I Am the Light of the world” (8:12).

 

“I Am the Good Shepherd” (10:11).

 

“I Am the Resurrection and the Life” (11:25).

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham came into being, I Am,” (8:58).

 

One of the mysteries of the “I AM” statements is that, while the glory of the Father was pouring in and through Jesus in the Incarnation, the bestowal of the “glory which I had with You before the world was,” was yet to come.

 

This takes us to Philippians 2:5 – 11 in which we see that “He [Jesus] emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” Hebrews 2:9 – 18 also speaks to us of Jesus being “made like His brethren in all things.”

 

As Jesus Himself asked the disciples on the road to Emmaus, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:26).

 

Jesus is emptied, in a fashion we cannot understand, in the Incarnation, and He is restored to the glory which He had with the Father before the world was through suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. We behold elements of this in Scripture, we see refracted Light through this, we even participate in this mystery ourselves, but I think it beyond our comprehension – such is the greatness of the glory of God and of His Story, for this is truly the Story of the Lamb – He includes us in His Story, but He is the Story, the Message, the Gospel – the Lamb is the Light, not me, not you, not us.

 

We are called to enter into His glory as we participate with Him in His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. This is a Divine koinonia (Phil. 3:10), this is our inheritance (Rom. 8:16 – 18). Mystery of mysteries, in doing so, in touching the eternal glory, in receiving the glory which Christ bestows on us (John 17:22), we touch the I AM THAT I AM, and in touching Him we touch the “glory which I had with You before the world was.”

 

Well, as Paul writes, there are some things which are not lawful to talk about (2 Cor. 12:4). I think this is because of our propensity to profane and make merchandise of the holy, and also because some things are simply too beyond us for human words. But then, what do I really know?  

 

Let’s consider that we are changed into the image of Jesus Christ “from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18) and that this occurs in the liberty of the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:17). This resonates with the “freedom of the glory of the children of God” in Romans 8:21. Let us also consider the progression we see in Romans 8:30:

 

“These whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called,  He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”

 

The Father is indeed “bringing many sons to glory” (Heb. 2:10).

 

That which we had lost and fallen short of (Rom. 3:23), is now being restored in us, in Christ, always in Christ (Rom. 5:1 – 11).

 

As we look forward into eternity, we see that the Bride has the glory of God (Rev. 21:10) and that the glory of God illuminates that Holy City (Rev. 21:23).

 

If you ask me what the “glory” is, I cannot answer you. O for sure it is the Presence, the all – enveloping Presence of God. For sure, His holiness and purity and Otherness, His love and mercy and grace, His Essence. But who has words for the Ineffable? We must fall on our face speechless at times, at other times we can but raise our hands and hearts and cry, “Holy, holy, holy.”

 

I think this, that only fools merchandise and sell such things, and for sure there are fools aplenty within professing Christianity. Wise men and women are circumspect in touching and communicating the Holy, they fear to take liberties with holy things, with sacred things, for they are servants and not masters, they follow the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain.

 

I also think this, that one touch of the Shekinah is worth a lifetime of “worship and praise” songs, for when the Other touches you, you know you have been touched – and you know you had nothing to do with it – you were touched because it pleased Him to touch you.

 

You can no more speak of these things than you ought to speak of that which transpires between a husband and wife in their sacred chambers…but we have so profaned our religion and made merchandise of it that it challenges us to conceive of such things…well, the Song of Solomon may help us with this…perhaps.

 

O that we would return to our purity of devotion to Christ! (2 Cor. 11:1 – 3; Rev. 2:4).

 

John 17:1 – 5 is the first movement in the Holy of Holies of Chapter 17. As you mediate on these words of Jesus, allow the Holy Spirit to draw you into the heart of your High Priest, into the Presence of the Lamb, into the glory of the Father.

 

As you read this passage aloud, can you hear the Voice of Jesus?

 

Can you see Him speaking to the Father?

To Glorify and Be Glorified

 

“Glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You” (John 17:1).

 

As we enter into the Holy of Holies we encounter the glory of God, a glory that flows from the Father to the Son to the Spirit, from the Spirt to the Son to the Father; indeed it flows within the mysterious Godhead in Divine Oneness and Unity and Koinonia – beyond what we can understand, but not beyond what we can touch and in which we may participate. Indeed, this is our destiny in Jesus Christ. We will have occasion to touch on “glory” more than once in the Holy of Holies – see for example 17:22 – 24.

 

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (12:23).

 

“Father, glorify Your name” (12:28).

 

“I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again” (12:28).

 

The Name (Nature, Essence) of the Father is glorified in the Son, and the Name of the Son is glorified in the Father.

 

The Son’s glorification of the Father is found in the Son giving eternal life to those whom the Father has given Him:

 

“Even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life” (17:2).

 

Here is a thread of the tapestry of the Holy of Holies, that of the Father giving men and women and young people to the Son:

 

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave me out of the world” (17:6).

 

“Those whom You have given me” (17:9).

 

“They also, whom You have given me” (17:24).

 

The Holy of Holies, this intimate communion of the Son and the Father in John 17, includes you and it includes me, it includes us; it encompasses those whom the Father has given to Jesus, those to whom Jesus gives eternal life. This prayer is not only about the Father and the Son, it is about us in the Father and the Son and about the Son and the Father within us (17:21 – 23).

 

This is not about information my dear friends, nor is it about right doctrine (though make no mistake, what we believe is vital), it is about relationship, friendship. Sonship, intimacy, and eternal life in the Trinity and the Trinity in us. Right doctrine that does not lead to intimacy with God is amiss, it has gone awry, and we must ask whether it is truly “right” in a Biblical sense, in a holistic healthy sense. Let us not forget what Jesus says in John 5:39 and 6:63.

 

“Glorify Your Son, that the Son many glorify You,” is not only the destiny of the Firstborn Son, but it is the destiny of all the sons and daughters of God, indeed, it is the destiny of the corporate Son, the Body of Christ. We see in Hebrews 2:10 that the Father is “bringing many sons to glory” through Jesus Christ. In 2 Thessalonians 1:10 and 12 Paul writes of Jesus being “glorified in His saints” and that “the name (the Essence, the Nature) of our Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in you, and you in Him.”

 

In Romans Chapter 8 we read of being “glorified with Him,” of the “glory that is to be revealed in us,” of the “freedom of the glory of the children of God,” and of the Father having “glorified” us. To be sure, we can only experience glory, we can only be glorified, in Jesus Christ, only in Jesus Christ.

 

If Jesus glorifies the Father by giving eternal life to those whom the Father has given Him, then ought not we also to glorify the Father by sharing eternal life with others? In fact, does not Jesus give eternal life to others through His Body, through the unity of Word and deed through His Body?

 

If you know Jesus Christ, it is because someone has prayed for you, talked to you about Jesus in some fashion, demonstrated grace and love to you, translated Scripture for you – somehow and some way the Body of Christ has communicated Jesus and His eternal life to you – you did not encounter Jesus Christ in a vacuum. Shall you and I not continue to glorify the Father by giving (in the sense of sharing) eternal life with others?

 

It is also likely that, even beyond the glorious death and resurrection of Jesus, that somewhere along our spiritual genealogies others have suffered and possibly died that we might know Jesus. People have been paying a price that we might know Jesus in generation after generation, ought not we to be a people who also pay a price for others to know Jesus?

 

The Father glorifies the Son that the Son may glorify the Father. The Son which the Father glorifies is both the Firstborn, Jesus Christ, and also His Body.

 

Has the hour arrived in our lives in which we are glorifying the Father?

 

Are we living as the sons and daughters of the Living God?

 

Are we living in John Chapter 17?

 

NOTE: The Upper Room, and especially John 17, is so foreign to our thinking and religion and experience that it can be disorienting, after all, intimacy with God and with one another is not something we are accustomed to thinking about and living within. We are accustomed to being oriented to our great ongoing need, rather than God’s grand provision and call to live as His saints today, sharing the Life of the Trinity with others. The Gospel is truly “Good News,” if we will only believe it. I hope you will read and reread and reread the Upper Room (John chapters 13 – 17), and that you will especially meditate on John 17 and allow your Father to draw you into His Presence. As you learn to live within John 17, you will hopefully know the joy of inviting others to come along with you.

 

The Hour Has Come

 

“Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You” (John 17:1).

 

The Upper Room begins with, “Jesus, knowing that His hour had come” (13:1). The first section of the Upper Room begins with “hour,” and the concluding section also begins with “hour.” The heavenly clockworks have a movement that resides in the depths of God, we may sense it at times, we may respond to it (and let us pray that we do), but only God knows how the hours will unfold and knows their timing.

 

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (Matt. 24:36). (I consider “nor the Son” to be an Incarnational mystery and temporal in nature, in line with the kenosis of Philippians 2:6ff. However we understand this, Jesus and the Father are One and Jesus is fully God.)

 

The Scriptures give us patterns and trajectories, they are not written to satisfy our curiosity, they are written to reveal Jesus Christ and bring us into koinonia with the Trinity and with one another.

 

John introduces us to the theme of “hour” at the wedding in Cana, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4). This “hour” appears to be the hour in which Jesus is to begin working His signs of attestation and revelation which we see unfolding in John. Therefore John writes, “This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him” (2:11).

 

In 7:30 we read, “So they were seeking to seize Him; and no man laid his hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.” This “hour” appears to refer to His betrayal, trial, and crucifixion. I write “appears” because there may be other facets and I want to leave room for them.

 

Similarly, John writes in 8:20, “No one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.”

 

However, the hands of Divine time change when we arrive in Jerusalem for Holy Week, and in John 12 Jesus says:

 

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

 

“Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”

 

“Then a voice came out of heaven: ‘I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.’” (John 12:23 – 28).

 

John 12:20 – 50 is a prelude, of course, to the Upper Room. As we ponder the above section (12:23 - 28) of this extended passage, we see a penumbra of the Upper Room.

 

Jesus speaks of His hour having come, He speaks of His death and resurrection, He says that we must lose our lives and follow Him, He tells us that we will be where He is and that if we serve Him that the Father will honor us. We see all of these elements in depth in the Upper Room. Following Him encompasses self-denial, obedience, loving as He loves, laying down our lives for others, suffering persecution, living in Divine oneness with our brothers and sisters; being where Jesus is (as I hope we are seeing and will continue to see) means being with the Father in Divine koinonia, both now and forever.  

 

We have seen these things in chapters 13 – 16, and we will continue to see them in the Holy of Holies of Chapter 17.

 

Our purpose in coming into the world is to glorify God. We fulfill this purpose only in Jesus Christ, and in Jesus Christ we experience the Cross, suffering, rejection, and resurrection. As with Jesus, we must, in Him, learn what it is to fall into the ground and die, so that others may live (2 Cor. 4:12). Jesus extends the Father’s calling to Him to all of us. “As the Father sent me, I also send you” (John 20:21).

 

We may ponder the crucifixion hours upon hours, but we must move beyond pondering and into living it out in Christ – lip service must be translated into life, the Cross must be lived. We must live in the Cross and the Cross of Christ must live in us. As we have seen in the Upper Room, Jesus says that if we follow Him we will suffer – but we will also live, O my how we will live!

 

Jesus knew when the hour had come. He knew that He had come into the world for that hour. There was an hour for Jesus to begin showing His glory and teaching and doing His signs of attestation, then there was an hour for Him to fall into the earth and die, so that you and I might live in newness of life in Him.

 

In John’s Gospel, we have an hour that begins at 2:1, and another hour that begins at 12:23.

 

As we see in 12:28 and 17:1, the purpose of the “hour” is to glorify the Father and the Son. This, my friends, is the purpose of our lives, this is why we have come into the world, to glorify God and to enter into that glory with one another – the glory that Jesus bestows on us (John 17:22).

 

O that we would see who Christ is in us, and who we are in Christ!

 

What do the hours of God look like in your life?

 

Do you sense Divine clockwork in your life? Are you living in an awareness of Psalm 139?

 

Do we know the hours of our lives?

 

There is another dimension to “hour” in the Gospel of John, and we will return to that in the next reflection the Lord willing. Can you see what that dimension is? Can you locate it in John’s Gospel?

Lifting Up His Eyes

 

 

“Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, ‘Father, the hour has come, glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You’” (John 17:1).

 

There are cultures in which eye contact is frowned upon. There are societies in which the socially inferior avert their gaze from their superiors. Even within the United States, there are some regions in which eye contact is more freely given and received than others, if not because of social convention, then because of wanting to avoid social contact.

 

When I am shopping I often see cashiers and other retail employees avoid eye contact, they are usually much younger than I am, and I suppose that this is a result of more screen time than people time, in other words they are more comfortable with blue light than natural light, with Facetime than actual faces.

 

There are two types of people who walk for exercise in our community, those who acknowledge others and those who don’t, I guess they pretend not to see you, kind of like a toddler’s game of “peek-a-boo.” People of all ages make up these two groups, the young, middle aged, and the old. This reminds me of the office building in which I worked before retirement. I made it a point to greet everyone I saw in the halls and lobbies, and it amused me how many simply ignored me.

 

We have a neighbor who is about to go into the 4^th grade who doesn’t know a stranger. He is good at making eye contact. This is likely due to his parents and grandparents and aunts and others spending time with him, talking to him, doing a range of activities with him. If we are spending our days with the Father, ought we not to lift up our eyes to the heavens and speak with Him? Ought we not to look into the Face of Jesus, who is the Face of God, and engage in conversation, koinonia, and friendship?

 

Does not Jesus model relationship with the Father for us, so that we in turn may model relationship with Him and the Father to others?

 

Early in the earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus, He taught us to pray, and in doing so the very first words He taught us were, “Our Father” (Mt. 6:9). Throughout His time on earth Jesus spoke to us of our Father, and since His ascension He continues to do so through His apostles and other servants, through His Word, and through the Holy Spirit. Jesus has sent the Spirit of sonship to us, “By which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Rom. 8:15).

 

Do we see Jesus lifting His eyes to the heavens?

 

Perhaps it would do us well to walk outside and gaze into the sky, to lift our eyes, and to speak to our Father, the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Most of us are indoors people, we seldom look beyond the roofs of our homes and workplaces and the tops of our cars and trucks. We go from building to car to building to car to building in our society. Our spatial perspectives tend to be confined, and I think that contributes to our moral and spiritual perspectives being constrained; we live in aquariums and hamster and bird cages.

 

As an Easterner, I am awed when I visit the vast expanses and soaring vistas of the American West, and the older I get the longer it takes me to become acclimated to high roads and switchbacks, often without guardrails. Perhaps it also takes us awhile to accept the idea that God is truly our Father and that He wants to have an intimate relationship with us. Perhaps we struggle to believe that when Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father,” that He means what He teaches.

 

As we will see as we move into John 17, the love our Father has for us is without measure, we simply cannot measure it, it is beyond our comprehension, but it is not beyond our experience in Jesus Christ.

 

As we meditate on John 17:1, can we see Jesus lifting His eyes to heaven?

 

Since Jesus is always with us, He is with you right now, wherever you are. You may be in an office, a living room, a physician’s waiting room, on a train or plane, on a porch, or in a break room in a factory. Wherever you are, Jesus is with you.

 

Now then, since He is with you, can you see Him lifting His eyes to heaven to speak to His Father? Can you see Him doing this right where you are?

 

Can you see Him inviting you to know the Father as He knows the Father? (Yes, yes, this is admittedly beyond our understanding, but it is His invitation nonetheless).

 

Can we lift our eyes to the heavens and speak just one word, just one word and allow God to take the conversation from there?

 

Can we simply say, “Father”?

 

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?