The Beloved Disciple
Page 19
I will, however, point you to a last passage. John 20:1-18 tells how Mary Magdalene first saw the empty tomb on resurrection morning. She rushed to tell Peter and John, but after they had come and gone, she lingered there. Though she had seen two angels, the truth of the risen Christ had not penetrated her grief-stricken heart. As she turned from the tomb, she saw a man. "Thinking he was the gardener, she said, `Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him"' (v. 15).
Jesus responded to her tenderly, "Mary." When she recognized Him, He said: "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go, instead to my brothers and tell them, `I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God"' (v. 17).
Based on these segments, three things about Christ astound me and make me fall even more in love with Him:
1. Jesus was not ashamed to be seen with a woman. At first glance this point may not seem like a big deal, but how many of us have dated someone or even married someone who seemed ashamed at times to be seen with us? Beloved, Jesus Christ isn't ashamed to be seen with you. In fact, He wants nothing more! He's also not ashamed to talk to you. I meet so many women who are timid about sharing what they've gleaned in Bible study that week because they don't have much education and they're "probably wrong." Listen here, young lady, the One who spoke the worlds into being has chosen you for a bride! Study His Word like someone being spoken of and spoken to! He wants your life to radiate proof that He's been talking to you. He's proud of you!
Not long ago a woman approached me whose husband shoots sporting clays in the same group as my husband. She said, "I thought you'd be touched to know that my husband said, `Keith Moore sure loves his wife. You can hear it in the way he talks about her."' If only we could hear Jesus talking behind our backs! We'd know He loves us so.
2. Though very much a man, Jesus understood the needs of a woman. I despise that ridiculous feminist "theology" that tries to make a woman out of God or at least make Him feminine so we can feel like we have an advocate-"someone who understands." Beloved, Christ understands us better than we do! Of course, He has a decided advantage over every other man. He wove us together in our mother's womb. Still, I'm relieved to know that I am never too needy for Christ-particularly when I'm feeling a tad high maintenance. Did you notice how personal He got in almost every scenario? He was totally unafraid of intimacy then-and He still is.
In each of the encounters we reviewed, did you notice? Not once did Jesus leave a single one of those women without acting on behalf of her deep need?
In every case, He looked beyond the woman's actions and into her heart. He's looking into yours at this very moment and knows what you need even more than you do. Jesus even knows what motivates you to do the things that you do. All that He requires to meet our needs is that we allow Him to draw near to us; talk to us; change us.
3. Without exception, Jesus honored women and gave them dignity. Do you see a single hint of second-class treatment? In any stretch of the imagination, can you make a woman-hater out of Jesus? Not on your life. A woman-ignorer? No way. How about a womanizer? The mere thought is absurd. Jesus is stunningly personal, intensely intimate, and completely proper. He replaces each woman's shame with dignity. He brings resurrection life to her loss. And, dear one, He appoints and approves her good works. No, Mary of Bethany wasn't called to preach, but Christ said her story would be preached throughout the world. Mary Magdalene? She was the very first to spread the good news! The adulterous woman? Surely she got her life together. Maybe even married a fine man and had a family. After all, that's what happened to Rahab, who appears in the genealogy of Jesus. And Martha? Personally, I think she invented air freshener.
Chapter 30
MORE ABOUT HIS FATHER
Jesus said to them, 'My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." (John 5:17) 19
One of the first passionate words out of a toddler's mouth is, "Mine!" I'm not even sure this word has to be taught. I don't know many moms and dads who stomp their feet exclaiming, "Mine!" No one will argue where two-year-olds get "No!" but where in the world do they get "Mine"? I'd like to suggest that possessiveness is one of the most intrinsic elements embedded in the human psyche. No one has to learn a "my" orientation. It's intertwined in every stitch of our DNA.
In our culture a large part of what we call maturity is gaining some kind of respectable control over our "my" orientation, and rightly so. The inmost desire to have something we can call our own, however, does not make man bad or even selfish. In fact, I think it's fundamental to our personhood; but as usual our flesh natures etch their doctrines from basic human rights wigged out of control.
God created us with a need to know something belongs to us. From the time we are toddlers, we begin testing what is ours by process of elimination. Everything is "mine" until we learn from our parents what doesn't belong to us and what can be taken from us. "No, child, that's not yours, but here's this blanket. It is yours." In fact, perhaps we could say that maturity is not so much disregarding our "my" orientation as learning how to appropriately recognize and handle what is and isn't ours.
I don't know about you, but I need to know that a few things really do belong to me. I might tell you to drop by my house this afternoon, but even after eighteen years, that stack of bricks really belongs to the bank. For most of us, so do our cars. And speaking of banks, the bank account I call mine could disappear in some unforeseen financial disaster tomorrow and so could yours. When we really consider the facts, each of us can call very few things in life "mine." Like the toddler, we also often learn by the process of elimination. I have insisted a few things were mine that God has found very creative ways to show me otherwise.
I am convinced that a certain need to possess is so innate in all of us that if we could truly not call anything our own, our souls would deflate with hopelessness and meaninglessness. Please hear this: ours is not a God who refuses us the right to possess anything. He's simply protective enough of our hearts not to encourage a death grip on things we cannot keep. He's not holding out on us. He's not dangling carrots in front of our noses then popping us in the mouth when we lunge to bite the bait. Contrary to much public opinion, God is not playing some kind of sick "I-created-you-to-want-but-will-not-let-you-have" game with us. Quite the contrary, the Author of Life will only encourage us to call "mine" what is most excellent. Most exquisite. To those who receive, God gives Himself.
God called the psalmist David a man after His own heart. Here are a few ways he freely exercised his "my" orientation in Psalm 18:1-2:
I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold.
Life abounds with boundaries and No Trespassing signs. Part of the human condition means that to live in any semblance of order, we confront a never-ending influx of "no's." In the midst of so much we cannot have, God says to His children, "Forsake lesser things and have as much as you want of... Me." Remember, John 3:34 says God gives His Spirit without measure. While God is the owner and possessor of all things, He freely invites us to be as possessive over Him as we desire. He is my God. And your God. He's the only thing we can share lavishly without ever decreasing our own supply.
When Christ came to this planet, He forsook many of His intrinsic divine rights in order to accomplish His earthly goals. Philippians 2:7 says he "made himself nothing, / taking the very nature of a servant, / being made in human likeness." John 1:3-4 tells us "through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men." Yet Christ didn't walk around saying, "Hey, bud, do you see that dirt you're walking on? Who do you think made that?"
To our knowledge, Christ didn't sit with the disciples in the moonlight and tout His owners
hip over the heavens by giving them all the proper names of the stars. In alphabetical order. When we consider that Jesus Christ came to earth as the fullness of the Godhead bodily, He actually showed amazing restraint in exercising His divine rights. Matthew 26:53-54 offers one example. As the mob was arresting Him, He told Peter to put away his sword. "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?"
Did you notice the ultimate reason Jesus exercised restraint over His divine rights in this scene? He determined that the Scriptures must be fulfilled.
Christ exercised such restraint for another reason-because He had nothing to prove to Himself. John 13:3 says, "Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God." He knew.
Jesus made a point of fully exercising one right, however, to the constant chagrin of the Jews. That right became the apex of the argument recorded in John 5:18: "For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God."
John 10 contains another example of the same dynamic. In verse 30 Jesus said, "I and the Father are one." The next verse tells us, "Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him." Jesus freely claimed His Sonship to the Father. None of the comparative statistics between Gospels is more staggering than the number of references to God as Father. Approximately 110 times out of 248 references to God as Father in the New Testament occur in the Gospel of John. No other New Testament book comes close.
Never lose sight of the fact that relationship came to mean everything to the apostle John. From now on, when you think about John, immediately associate him with the one so wholly convinced of Jesus' love. In turn John had much to say not only about reciprocal love but love for one another. We will see the concept only swell over the remaining chapters of our study. I don't believe we're off base in assuming that the priority of relationship with Christ is exactly what fitted him to receive the great Revelation.
To John identity came from association. He very likely absorbed this philosophy from tagging along with Jesus.
Look at the following Scriptures from the Gospel of John. Notice how each underscores identification by association:
· "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me" (John 6:38).
· "Jesus answered: `Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, "Show us the Father"?"" (John 14:9).
· "You heard me say, `I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I" (John 14:28).
· "But the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me" (John 14:3 1).
· "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love" (John 15:9).
· "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me" (John 15:26).
· "All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you" (John 16:15).
· "But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me" (John 16:32).
Christ knew His constant references to God as His Father incited the Jews riotously, yet He was so insistent, He had to make a point. Through His actions and expressions, Christ seemed to say, I've set aside My crown, My position, My glory, and soon I'll set aside My life for all of you. Hear me well: I will not lay down my Sonship. God is My Father. Deal with it.
The Son of Man had no place to call His own. He had no wife. He had no children. He had no riches though the diamond and gold mines of the world belonged to Him. He laid claim to nothing. He laid aside everything to condescend to earth and wrap Himself in our injured flesh. Taking on our humanity, He also took on our most intrinsic need. In all the loss and sacrifice, He needed something He could call "Mine." "I and My Father are one" (John 10:30 KJV). Christ came to earth with nothing but His Father, and He was nonnegotiable.
The revolutionary message Christ told Mary Magdalene to extend to His disciples (past and present) can only be grasped in context with Jesus' magnificent obsession with His Father throughout the book. Let the words fall fresh on your heart. "Jesus said, `Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, "I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God""' (John 20:17). Do you feel the impact of those words?
Now behold how the following verses echo Christ's glorious announcement.
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." (Rom. 8:15)
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." (Gal. 4:4 6)
Dear child of God, if you and I were as unrelenting in exercising our rights of sonship (or daughtership), our lives would be transformed. Satan would never be able to dislodge us from God's plan and blessing. You see, Christ had to make the decision to lay aside many rights, but because He retained the most important one of all, His right of Sonship, Satan could not win. Christ led many sons to glory and got to once again pick up every right He laid aside.
As those who have received Christ's Spirit of Sonship, the same is true for us. Times may arrive when God asks us to lay down the right to be acknowledged in a situation. Or the right to give our opinion or take up for ourselves. The right to a promotion we think we deserve. The right to leave a spouse even though we might have biblical grounds. The right to withhold fellowship when the other person has earned our distance. The right to be shown as the one who was right in a situation. The right to our dignity in earthly matters. The right to our basic human rights.
But let this truth be engraved on your heart: You will never be required to lay aside your rights of sonship nor must you ever fall to Satan's temptation to weaken your position. As long as you exercise your rights of sonship, constantly reminding yourself (and your enemy) who God is and who you are, Satan will never be able to defeat you or thwart any part of God's plan for your life. Any loss or other right God permits or persuades you to lay aside is temporary. You will ultimately receive a hundredfold in return.
Hold your position, beloved! Never let anything or anyone talk you out of exercising your rights of sonship! The very reason Satan targets us is because we are the sons (or daughters) of God. He is defeated when we refuse to back off from our positional rights. The last thing he wants to hear from you is, "I am a born-again, justified child of God, and I exercise my right to rebuke you! You, devil, are defeated. You can't take me from my Father nor my Father from me." So, say it!
No matter what you may lose or lay aside, you can call the Father of life "Mine!" As His child, you have 24/7 direct access. God will never turn a deaf ear to you or look the other way when you are treated unjustly. You aren't left to "hope" He hears you, loves you, or realizes what's going on. Know it, Sister. Never view your situation in any other context than God as your Father and you as His child.
Are you trying to hold on to all sorts of rights that are completely secondary, yet not exercising the most important right you have?
Part 7
LETTERS FROM
THE HEART
Now we are ready to consider the epistles penned by John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We will gain insight into the fires that fueled his passion. We'll disco
ver a man who could express great depth in few words. (I could use a couple of lessons, don't you think?) I hope John's terms of endearment will bless you. Somehow he had a way of approaching his recipients as "little children" without talking down to them. Reap the wisdom of age as you consider the letters of the apostle John. You will undoubtedly recognize the ideas he prioritized most as he matured.
Chapter 31
KOINONIA
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:3)
Years passed. John's beard grayed. The skin once leathered by the sun's reflection off the Sea of Galilee bore the deeper creases of age. His voice rasped the telltale signs of a fiery evangelist. The calluses on his feet became thick with age and country miles. The wrinkles around his eyes folded and unfolded like an accordion as he laughed and mused. While some scholars believe that John's Gospel and his letters were written within just years of one another, few argue that the epistles slipped from the pen of anything other than an aging man. Most believe 1 John was written around A.D. 85-90.
John had celebrated many Passover meals since the time he leaned his head against the Savior's strong shoulder. So much had happened since that night. He'd never get the picture of Christ's torn frame out of his mind, but neither would he forget his double take of the resurrected Lord. The last time John saw those feet, they were dangling in midair off the tip of the Mount of Olives. Just as quickly, clouds covered them like a cotton blanket. The fire of the Holy Spirit fell ... then the blaze of persecution seared. One by one the other apostles met their martyrdom. People changed and landmarks vanished. Just as Christ had prophesied, Herod's Temple, one of the wonders of the ancient world, was destroyed in A.D. 70.