Jesus: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
Us: “OK, Lord, we don’t have to go there. But my mind? Get serious! Our minds are so complex that psychologists are still trying to figure out the basics.”
Jesus: “Be transformed by the renewing of your minds” (Rom. 12:2).
Us: “That’s not fair, Lord. Paul said that much later. Oh, never mind. Listen, Lord, our lives are very complicated. How can we possibly keep all of your commandments? I mean, isn’t that just a tad unreasonable? Can’t we be selective? You really are a little too radical for us sometimes.”
Jesus: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love” (John 15:10).
When we follow Jesus, the Christ-life becomes our life and, like my cousin Linda, the application by definition is systemic and never merely topical.
So where is the place that you end and God begins? It turns out that there is no such place for those who follow closely. Contemplate the implications of that truth in your life.
Prayer: Challenge us gently, Lord. Show us the way. And grant us courage. Amen.
Day Ten: Thursday
PROMISE TRANSLATED INTO LOVE
Read John 14:15-21.
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (vv. 16-20).
Eternity has been an emerging theme in my thinking about Lent, which is not surprising, considering that Jesus’ mission consisted in large part of erasing the lines of distinction between this world and the kingdom of God. But death remains a persistent fact of life. The reality of the death of loved ones is often difficult for us, but at the same time the experience can speak to the mystery of eternity with comforting clarity.
The story I recounted yesterday about my cousin reminded me of the summer I just missed saying good-bye to my grandfather Fred. We knew he was ailing, and all the Mauls (including our son, Andrew, just fourteen months at the time) were heading to England for a rare, four-generation photo. Instead, we made it just in time to attend the memorial service.
I remember sitting in Grandpa’s study with my Aunt Gladys. We were all missing him profoundly and trying to connect with his memory. She took a book from his desktop and opened it up. It was his Bible. I noticed that instead of replacing the worn scriptures, my grandfather had had his Bible rebound, perhaps several times over the years. Consequently, all of his carefully written notes and annotations were preserved, from the day in the early 1920s that he first opened its pages through over sixty years of faith, family, business, and struggle.
Inside the front cover my aunt found a series of important dates—birth, death, declarations of war, celebrations of peace—and my grandfather’s prayers and observations. And there, in my grandfather’s distinctive handwriting, she found the record of her own birth: “Born today, a beautiful baby girl; we shall call her Gladys. Dear Gladys, one day you will read this. . . .” Following were more words of hope, encouragement, consolation, and peace.
TIME BEYOND TIME
We caught my grandfather’s spirit that afternoon. Warm, tangible, timely. Through his words we all felt a significant measure of his love and intention; the effect was real.
Jesus promises us so much more than the run of the mill or the mundane. He promises the comfort of the Holy Spirit, God with us in every small detail of our lives. There is no magic to this concept, simply the promise of Jesus translated into love.
“God will abide in you,” Jesus assured his friends. “God will take up residence within the very essence of who you are. This is my gift; this is my power; this is my comfort. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, you will know completely that I am alive and that I am vitally involved in your every moment. I love you. Be comforted” (John 14:17-20, author paraphrase).
That promise is often translated into love through the people God brings into our lives. When and how have you felt the working of the Holy Spirit in your life?
Prayer: May the beauty of your holiness rest in each one of us; may the assurance of your love comfort us; may the active presence of your Spirit take up residence in our consciousness. Amen.
Day Eleven: Friday
LIVING AS IF WE MEAN IT—BECAUSE GOD MOST CERTAINLY DOES
Read John 14:18-24.
“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live” (vv. 18-19).
IRREPRESSIBLE LIFE
Apart from the agenda on my daily calendar—“write column, pack for tomorrow’s flight, complete prep for teaching at retreat, run off message for Sunday morning, line up interviews for next week”—I make no predictions about what will happen over the next twenty-four hours or so. There are too many variables interfacing everything I intend to do and any number of things can and most certainly will happen to confound my plans.
But Jesus knew exactly what was coming at him. He knew it as he talked with his friends around the table in the upper room, and I believe it contributed to the urgency of his words. The immediate future was alarmingly clear, and Jesus revealed tremendous strength and honest bravery as he understood the inevitability of betrayal, torture, and death.
In complete humanity, both at odds with and beautifully complementary to his uncompromised deity, Jesus moved toward all the horror that the ensuing day and a half had in store.
In today’s scripture selection from John’s account of the Last Supper, Jesus speaks plainly and eloquently about the mystery that defines God’s grace, as he draws logical conclusions regarding our relationship to God based on his relationship with us.
I remember the way I was received into my wife’s family. Rebekah’s mother loved me instantly and without reserve both because she loved Rebekah and Rebekah loves me and also because I make Rebekah happy. It’s a lot like that with God. We love Jesus; Jesus loved us enough to die for us; God loves the Son; and we are all adopted into this family by virtue of Jesus’ great love for us. God the Father accepts and cherishes me—Derek Maul—not on my merit, but because Jesus died for me, loves me, and presents me just as I am at God’s Communion Table, as his very own brother. (See Rom. 5:8.)
Not only that, but Jesus points out how I will come to receive this fullness of life. It’s the same principle that applies to each one of us. “It’s the life that I experience,” Jesus explained in many ways over the course of the evening, and that life will be ours in equal measure. Then, conclusively, “Because I live, you also will live” (v. 19).
FAMILY
Our status as the brothers and the sisters of Jesus means that we share in that same life: the Christ-vitality, the deep and larger-than-life aliveness. The world around us, broken and cynical, may not see Jesus. The world may believe that Christ is defeated and defunct; but we know that the Christ-life is alive and vibrant and real.
Then, and here’s the kicker, the world—this ambient culture where we hang out in the everyday grind—gets the opportunity to see firsthand the compelling evidence of the resurrection in us. Because we, the church, are advertised throughout the New Testament as “the body of Christ.” What changes can you make in your life that will make that clear to others?
Prayer: Please live in us and through us, Jesus. Let us live more completely in the truth of your message. Amen.
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