“Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.”; “stay me up with flowers, encompass me with apples, because I languish with love.”; “your lips are a dropping honey-comb, honey and milk are under your tongue, and the smell of your garments is as the smell of frankincense.”
Can you think of words more pleasing and sweeter? These words are delightful. Can they possible be spiritual as well as romantic?
Can we put these words together to describe the spiritual? This may be the reason we like these words. They speak to both parts of our nature. It’s a thing that fills us with wonder.
We heard words from Jesus that are difficult to process. When we read words from the Song of Solomon that are almost embarrassing to hear, do we turn the page or try to use them to find the spiritual meaning? The first is a hard saying. The second is too much to be polite. Try reading those passages from Song of Solomon out loud at your next meeting.
Yet, we are told that both speak of a spiritual relationship with God. So important is an intimate relationship with you that God will use any means to get you into that love relationship.
Why does the first commandment tell us to love the Lord your God with all…? Why does Jesus use himself to give a new commandment? Love each other as I have loved you. Because God knows no other relationship. It is love or nothing with him. He knows you and he loves you. He knows you have done wrong and he forgives you. He knows you have been far away and he wants you close to him.
This is the story of God and man: God made man like himself. Man chose to go away from God. God has always wanted to bring the man back to himself. He wants a deeper relationship with you than he had with Adam.
We think of Adam as perfect, and he was. But he was perfect in innocence. And he did not know God very well. How can I say that? If he trusted God, he would not have eaten the fruit of the Tree of Knowing Good and Evil. He would have remembered the words of God and withstood the wily creature. I mean the serpent not Eve. If he had loved God, he would have not chosen to eat from that tree and put his relationship with God in question.
Both Adam and Eve blame others. He blames her. She blames the serpent. Neither is sufficient for God. He gave his word to them not to any other creature. Nor will he accept that Eve is all at fault. You notice neither one accepts any blame.
What is true is that Adam and Eve were not in a final state. We are more knowledgeable of Jesus than they were. We know what he said and did. And we have been given a gift greater that innocence. We have been given his Spirit. Yes, the Spirit of God lives within us. Not so for them.
It reads, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2
He had life as a living soul. There was no reason for him to die. He had the Tree of Life available to him.
So, we have a way to connect with God that Adam did not. And we understand more of the nature of God. He wants to give us eternal life, better than Adam had. He wants to have a closer relationship with us than Adam had.
We don’t know how the path of Adam could have gone. We do know how to reconnect to God. Jesus explained it. God has removed all obstacles to getting close to him. We have, like Adam, no excuse.
How can we understand that which is spiritual? We may read in the Scriptures, light is where God lives, “Because He dwells in light unapproachable.” We want to understand that immaterial light is inhabited by the incorporeal and invisible God.
And just as the material light falls on the eyes of our body, so that divine light illuminates the eyes of our mind. So, by pointing to the nature of visible objects, we rise to think of the invisible. Therefore, we convert to its spiritual meaning certain things we read in the Scriptures.
Jesus said at one point, “You need to eat my flesh and drink my blood, if you want eternal life.”
Then Jesus said to them, “I am telling you the truth when I say to you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. “
Jesus said to his disciples, “Does this offend you? It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life. ” John 6
Eating the flesh of another human is a terrible thought. We call it cannibalism. Yet, Jesus uses such language to make his point. He was using bread to make his point but switches to this. Why?
There can be only one reason. It is of the highest importance. Some said, we cannot listen to this man any longer. They left. Jesus then spoke to his closest disciples. Of course, it is spiritual language. What good would eating any kind of flesh be in gaining eternal life? It is spiritual language, spiritually understood. These words are life-giving.
He, later, institutes eating bread and drinking wine as a way to remember him. He says, “This is my body, broken for you; this is my blood, poured out for you.”
The physical has spiritual meaning. We understand the invisible by the visible. Even more so, acting out the spiritual by doing something physical like eating bread and drinking wine, we understand something wonderful.
To even approach this subject takes some nerve. Many would say, “It’s too personal.” They would probably be right. If you know what worship is, read no further. Maybe you think no person should be worshipped.
But why do we worship? What do we worship? Let’s use the word ‘admire’. “I admire your self control. I get mad real easy.” You can admire a character trait of another. These used to be called virtues.
But it goes deeper. We have a need or at least, a desire to admire a person, a leader. If this was not true, how would we explain the influence of one person over many. “They would follow him anywhere.”
We have an internal image of a great person. If someone fills that with reality, we follow them. If you go to a museum, you will see a statue on a pedestal. People will admire it. Take the statue of Venus. This is a made-up person that represents something. The statue I’m thinking of does not even have arms. It’s still on a pedestal.
We will remember a hero. A great leader is represented by a statue. Even if people take down the statue, it is significant. Because they feel this person of the past is no longer to be admired. But the statue was there for years.
So, we have statues of real people. We have statues of unreal people. In the east, there are many statues of Budda. In China, there are many statues of Mao Tse Tung.
If you read about Jesus, you may admire him. Let’s take only what he says because some choke on the miracles. We may admire his wisdom. No matter what he was asked, he has an amazing answer. Some try and trick him. Should we pay tax to Caesar? If he answers ‘yes’, he will find resentment at doing this. The Jewish people found the overbearing Romans to be oppressive. To demand taxes was too much for some. Yet, if he answers ‘no’, he will be opposing the Roman government directly. What does he say? Does anyone have a coin? Whose picture is on it? They answer “Caesar”. Give it back to him. But give to God what is his.
We could go through many such events of Jesus being asked such questions. His popularity was resented by the Jewish leaders. We can admire his wisdom.
More than this, we see him reacting to something. Someone asks him a legitimate question. How can I be sure of eternal life? Jesus suggests he follow the commandments. He gives a list of ones about how to treat others. The young fellow says he has kept these closely since he was young. Jesus says, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” It is too much for the guy. He cannot bring himself to do it.
Is it unreasonable? I think some would say so. Why should this be a requirement? But the point is that Jesus is asked a serious question and gives a serious answer. Around him stand men who have done this. They are astonished at the conversation between this man and Jesus. Why does Jesus ask him to dispose of his riches? Didn’t God bless this man with wealth?
We are looking at the wisdom of Jesus that is amazing. Can we admire him? I think so. Now we will look at a reaction of Jesus. Suddenly a leper came and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Yes, it is a miracle, but look at what Jesus did. He reached out and touched him. No one did this. The leper was an untouchable. How did leprosy go from person to person? No use asking for trouble. Stay away from lepers. But this man appeared suddenly before Jesus and had faith that Jesus could cure him. Jesus reacts by reaching out a grabbing this man by the shoulder and saying, I want you to be cured. (I am not only willing to cure you but I will touch you before you are cured. He didn’t have to do this. He could have just said, Sure, be clean! )
We can look at how Jesus reacts to people. Once, a woman snuck up on him in a crowd and touched him. She was immediately cured. Jesus says, “Who touched me?” His disciples say, “Everyone is touching you. It’s a crowd around you.” But He kept looking around to see who had done this. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him trembling in fear, and she told Him the whole truth. “Daughter,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free of your affliction.” This woman was not allowed to go out in public according to Jewish law. This is why she did this covertly. But Jesus wants her to know that she is not resented by him. Rather, he wants her to have peace in her heart as well as healing.
Again, leaving the miracle aside, he reacts to an outcast from society. He wants her to know she is accepted by him. This man is to be admired not only for his power to heal but his attitude toward people.
There was a man born blind. His disciples ask Jesus how he could be punished by God before he was born. Jesus puts mud on his eyes made of dirt and his spit. He sends him to a place of water nearby to wash it off. He is taken to the authorities because no one can deal with this man who now can see. The leaders tell him to thank God for his sight and forget about this Jesus person. He won’t give it up. He keeps talking until they throw him out. Jesus finds him. He asks him an important question. ” Do you believe on the Son of God?” He answers, “Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?” Jesus answers back, “You have seen him, it is he who is talking with you.” The man answers, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshipped him.
What? He worships Jesus. Jesus does not correct him. He does not say, “Don’t worship me, worship God! I am just a man.”
Why does Jesus look for him until he finds him? He has been a forgotten beggar all his life. Now he is cast out by the authorities. This meant he was not allowed to go to synagogue. He was again an outsider. But this time for sticking up for Jesus.
This man was someone to whom Jesus revealed his true identity. We see that Jesus is admirable and also the only man in history to be worthy of worship. Others have demanded people worship them; the emperor of China demanded his subjects to worship him. The emperor of the Roman Empire expected worship. But Jesus demanded none of that from his followers. He just said, “Follow me.”
There was a man named Nicodemas who was bothered by a question. Who was this rabbi? More to the point: what was his message? The others in his group dismissed this rabbi as an outsider. First, John was an annoyance. He insulted them when they went to see him. This one did the same.
They could not believe that they, the ones who were saving their religion, could be the bad guys. When the temple was defiled, who started the local synagogues? Who were the examples of piety? Who instructed the people and kept all the traditions?
Nicodemas had an idea. He would find out about the man. But he would visit him at night. This way, if his teaching was nothing, he would not be associated with him.
Nicodemas was always referred to by this. He came at night. Jesus talked to him at length but we know Nicodemas did not give up his position and join Jesus.
But there is another man. He was born blind. Even the disciples saw him as cursed by God although it was puzzling to them.
Remember how Jesus said, Blessed are the poor? This man was who he was talking about. He couldn’t work and make a living. He was reduced to begging. And he was ignored by everyone. He had no future. He couldn’t help his parents. He was exactly who Jesus meant when he said, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Hopeless.
Jesus gives him sight! But in a different way. The man must go a distance and wash the mud off. When he returns, Jesus is gone.
The man born blind is no longer blind. Those familiar with him do not know how to treat him. They were warned about this man, Jesus. They decide he must go to the religious authorities. That will keep them out of trouble.
He does go. Think of this man, ignored, forgotten, an object of scorn, a pitiable sight. Yet, Jesus spoke of the glory of God. Now, what? The leaders must regard his sight as real. But they demand he forget about this Jesus. He can’t. What did these men ever do for him? Why should he listen to them when he was given sight?
He rightly points out that no one has ever recovered from this blindness. And I’m supposed to disregard him? They call in his parents. What about it? They are afraid and refuse to acknowledge Jesus as the healer of their son.
Now this man who refuses to bow to them is kicked out. Really, he just had a chance to rejoin society and he lost it.
Jesus hears about this and finds him. How many people does Jesus look for until he finds them? Not many. Jesus looked for Phillip. “The following day, Jesus went into Galilee, and found Philip, and said to him, Follow me.”
But this man, Jesus responds to his treatment by the authorities. He finds him.
He asks him an important question. ” Do you believe on the Son of God?”
He answers, “Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?”
Jesus answers back, “You have seen him, it is he who is talking with you.”
The man answers, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshipped him.
These two men could not be more different. One is rich. The other poor. a beggar. One comes to Jesus by night. The second is given sight during the day. One keeps it to himself and does not speak up for Jesus. The other stands up for the man who gave him sight.
Which one does Jesus look for until he finds him? Which on does Jesus reveal himself to? The one who will not change his story about Jesus. Which are we more like? Do we make our stand with Jesus or do we just kind of believe like Nicodemas? Which one is with Jesus in heaven? Sure, Nicodemas helped bury Jesus. He spent a lot of money on the burial. Does that mean we will see Nicodemas in the kingdom?
No, it does not guarantee Nicodemas a place in the kingdom of God. But what about the man that gave up his chance to get back into polite society. This is the man that Jesus searched for until he found him. This the man to whom Jesus revealed his true identity. This is the man who said to Jesus, “Lord, I believe.”
For some reason, these four words scare us. But should they? If we believe God created everything, then when we hear a bird singing or see a flower push up through the soil, this is the will of God.
Jesus said, about the birds, “Your heavenly Father feeds them.” Of the flowers, he says, “God makes their clothes.” These may be forgotten by us, but God does not forget them. If you find a place where no one goes, you see wildflowers growing there. The will of God is beauty. The will of God is singing. If you cut your finger, what happens? It soon begins to heal. You can clean the cut, but healing begins. The will of God is healing.
Another thing that is the will of God is love. When Moses got some commandments from the Lord, the first thing on his mind was love. In fact, Jesus said, “You only really need two commandments, Love God, love others.” John later writes, “God is Love.” Jesus said, “I’ve got a new commandment for you.” Wow, here it comes. Another commandment. I knew it. “Love each other like I have loved you.” Oh. He couldn’t give it until he demonstrated over and over how much he loved them. This is the will of God: love. And Jesus says, “Not just any love will do: Love like I love.
We focus on Jesus in the garden. Not my will but yours. But what about the rest of the time? When Jesus was healing, and teaching and demonstrating the love of God? Did he strain at this? No, he did the will of God with joy. He compared it to eating food. It was satisfying to him.
What is the alternative of doing the will of God? I say “doing” because the will of God can only be done. People say, “How can I know the will of God?” You can’t. If you want to know the will of God and then make a choice about doing it, you are asking for trouble. You already know some of the will of God. Are you doing that? If not, why ask for more knowing?
Let’s look at some real examples. “What college should I go to, God?” God doesn’t care. He cares what you do at whatever college you go to but what college? What college did Jesus go to? Go to that one. Jesus could have found a rabbi and learned stuff. Paul said he studied under the best one.
Second one. “God, who should I marry?” Well, let’s see. Do you want the perfect mate? Are you perfect? So, you want someone perfect who wants someone not perfect. Why do marriages fail? Neither person knows how imperfect they are. Their expectations are unreasonable. The will of God in marriage is how you treat your mate. I know a couple that broke up. They were both great people. She knew the will of God for her husband. He should cherish me. She was right, I suppose. But what was the will of God for her? She didn’t say.
Our mistake is that we have a method of evaluating based on the knowledge of good and evil. How did we get this knowledge? We stole it. We took something that wasn’t for us. It was never intended for humans. And what good has it done us? We could listen to our conscience. It would help keep us from splitting ourselves in two. If you go against your conscience, you become two people that get further apart. There is the you that knows it’s wrong and there’s the you that does the wrong. The psychiatrist is waiting for you.
To live under the knowledge of good and evil is to progress towards death. Dying, you will die. When is conscience celebration day? I don’t think there is one. What did Adam say? “Yea, I got a conscience now! Eve chimed in, “Me, too!” It didn’t happen. Adam says, “I am naked.” He means, all I have is me. Everything else is “Other”. God, wife, animals, plants, everything is not me. I am alone and I am naked.
Does God want you to live like this, alone. He never did and he doesn’t now. He wants you to live in relationships of love. He has done everything to allow you and me to return to a good relationship with him. Sin, guilt? He dealt with it. Conscience? Always evaluating which is better? Throw it away. It will never lead you to goodness. Eternal life is live, in the moment, in contact with the Spirit of God, proving the will of God is good by doing it.
They would bring either/or questions to Jesus. He never chose A or B. Do we pay taxes to Caesar? Yes or no, Jesus? Let’s look at a coin. It came from Ceasar. His name is on it. Give it back to him. But what did God give you? Give that back to him.
Or: Who is my neighbor? Ooh, it sounds so wise. It was more like, how big is my neighborhood? Jesus tells a nearly ridiculous story of kindness to one in need. The hero is a Samaritan! The question Jesus answers is a different one. How does a really good neighbor behave?
Why doesn’t Jesus answer like they want? He goes by life and death not good and evil. He was The Life. He lived in the moment with God. He never went by conscience. He never talked of bad, worse, better, best. He never said, go by your conscience, choose good over evil. No, he said, “Follow me.” Do what I do. He loved to do the will of the Father. The will of God is only one thing at any moment. The world of possible actions is swept away. I came to do the will of God. Did he look sorry or solemn? No, I think he looked joyful.
He created excitement around him. He attracted people. He was a magnet. Sometimes people lost track of the time. His disciples said, “It’s getting late, send the people on their way to find their dinner.” Jesus is caught up in the moment and says, “No, you feed them!” His faith is exuberant. They try to show him practicality. He won’t have it. It’s like water from a rock. Food from heaven time. Tell them to sit down. I ask you this: where is the ‘work by the sweat of your brow’? No, it’s manna time to Jesus. The next thing you know, food is being passed around. Plenty of it. This is Jesus doing the will of God.
The will of God is live in the moment. It is not a thing apart from God. That’s why you can’t separate the will of God from God. You can’t know the will of God as a possibility among possibilities. The will of God is connected to God at all times. It does not live somewhere that we can contain it as knowledge. It is quite different.
Rather than process possibilities, we live by inspiration. Why is Jesus always running afoul of ‘the rules’? Because they were added on later. Do you think God wanted to write some rules on a stone and give it to his people? That was what they wanted. Give us some rules and back off, God. We’ll take it from here.
When Jesus comes, they throw the rules in his face. The Sabbath was made for man not the other way round. Do good to others on the Sabbath. “Your disciples are harvesting, that’s working on the Sabbath.” Here was a day of rest used as a bludgeon. The will of God is not a means to condemn others and justify yourself. Jesus makes the astounding statement, “I judge no man.” Or woman. “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
The will of God comes forth from him for you in real time. You have the Spirit of God. If you don’t, you can. He will not have his will as a possibility among other possibilities for you to evaluate. You can be moved by his Spirit to act. Or you can decide for yourself what to do. Those are our choices.
It seems the longer you know God, the less able you are to explain him. John wants us to be sure of three things about Jesus: That he existed since the beginning. He is co-equal with God. That he was a real flesh and blood human being. That’s clear enough. Much later, he says “God is Light”. This is not that helpful since we hardly know what light is.
When John writes about our behavior, he is much clearer. But just as we are beginning to understand that our faith in God must result in better behavior, he hits us with “God is Love.” John proves that the more we know God, the less able we are to explain him. The reason is that God is unknowable. But that does mean we can’t know him. Huh? Imagine yourself standing knee deep in the Pacific Ocean. You are in the ocean. You are off the shore. But what do you know of the ocean? You know something. Can you know more?
But God being unknowable is no reason not to pursue him. Paul says, we know in part. Wouldn’t Paul know God pretty well? Yet, he writes of a strange limitation. We see in a mirror, darkly. A mirror? What do we see in a mirror? Ourselves. Is he saying that we are limited by ourselves as humans in knowing God? Darkly? And we do not even see ourselves clearly.
Does anyone explain heaven? Why not? Jesus says he came from there and that he was going back. I’m not sure why we would want to go there when we have no idea what it is like. It’s good. I’m sure it is good. God’s will is done there unlike here on earth. But can we pray “thy will be done” and not do it?
How can we do the will of God? Do we even want to? Why would we? There is only one motivation according to Jesus. “If you love me, do as I have told you”. This is an echo of the first commandment to love God with all. But it is now personalized by Jesus. “If you love me…”
What did Jesus make a particular point of? “A new commandment, I give you…” A new one? Love God. Love our neighbor. Doesn’t that cover it? “Love one another as I have loved you.” Once again, it is personalized. “…as I have loved you.”
How much does Jesus love you? People tell us that Jesus loves us. There are signs with it written. I’m not going to answer it for you because it’s too personal. I have to answer it for me. Then I have to love him that first loved us. Have to? If I don’t, I can’t begin. Unless I am reacting to his love for me, I can’t begin.
How does all this relate to our title” “Explain God”? Jesus said his life explained God. “If you have seen me, you have seen The Father.” Jesus explained God for three years, by living. He said, “You believe in God. Believe, also, in me.” Such a simple statement. Yet, it also says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be rescued.” Believing becomes loving. Loving leads us to do what he said. Doing what Jesus said changes us. Not just a little. A lot.
What is your final destiny? Have you thought of this? Let’s start slow. What if you lived a thousand years? Leave out aging. What would you be like in 900 years.
Would you be disillusioned? Would you be bored? Let’s say money was available to you to do as you pleased. Really think about it, not just, “Oh, I would happy.”
A friend told me he wanted to be rich. I asked why. “So I could do so much good.” He was serious.
You know people were meant to keep living. Why don’t they? Let’s take the worst example: a evil dictator continues to live. He gains more power as he goes along. He does not die of ‘natural causes’. He eludes those who want him dead. His control grows and he wants more. He takes over another country. Then another. Yes, it’s been done before but what if he just keeps living? All those who have done this have eventually died.
Take another example: a person has ‘done it all’. He has made money. He has invented things. He has travelled the world. He has hob-knobbed with the rich and famous. He has lived in obscurity, off the grid for 100 years. He has built things. He owns an island with access to everything now.
In his power, he has lost track of good and evil. Why? He tried to do good and found it surprisingly difficult. His good intentions went wrong somehow. He tried over and over. Giving money went to greedy people not those he intended to help. He started a charity but found he had to watch everything closely so that people were really helped in material ways. But he concluded that treating people good does not make them good. He had to be satisfied with ungratefulness. He began another agency that helped people without them knowing it. He lived hundreds of years, remember. He thought that if they were ungrateful, at least they didn’t know who they were ungrateful to.
He was completely disillusioned with people finally. He became disillusioned with himself. Why aren’t I wise? I’ve lived hundreds of years! I’ve done good but have not become good. I don’t care about anything anymore. He despaired of life. He contemplated suicide.
Is this fiction? Yes, but the end of life can easily be despair.
Why? Because although we can do good, we cannot become good. Someone knew this from the beginning. The creator has limited life to about 120 years these days. It used to be longer. That was thousands of years ago.
You and I get so many years to discover the meaning of life. You know, when Jesus was here, some guys said, ‘Why don’t you do something unmistakable that would prove your claim to be the one sent from God?’ I don’t know, put a message on the moon that would appear in the language of the reader, or something. But he refused to give an unmistakable sign.
Why not? Why would he heal people one at a time. Why didn’t he travel around the world? Why remain in a small country? If we were his press agents, we would have such ideas.
He made a constant point of what was required of people, faith. Not general faith, but specific faith in God. You know, the very thing that keeps us from God is what leads us to despair in the end. Our focus on ourself. And if we dig deep into our self, we find no answer to the meaning of life.
It is because the answer is external to us. Our disconnect with God will guarentee us becoming a completely distorted version of human in the end. I could try and scare you with possible outcomes but I won’t.
Human life. Consciousness. Self-awareness. They hold opportunity but not answers. Certainly not the answer.
I’m reading a book where a robot/human hybrid looks for her creator to fix her up. She eventually finds him and he does fix her broken parts and adjusts her cyborg/human mind to her desired state. That state is without any human feeling. She kills her creator and burns down his lab used to create others like her. Her human feelings were holding her back in the story.
She wants no humanity and no siblings. She wants to kill with no remorse. It was messing up her plans. How terrible, we might say. But we will arrive at a similar state but worse. We will become unable to do evil.
This outcome is planned for the devil. The devil and all evil doers of the angelic sort will be incapacitated in the end. They cannot be reformed and will be stopped from any activity.
If we are not rescued, willingly, by God, this is our fate, as well. Really? What choice is there? God desires a world full of good and he will have it.
Well, send all the evildoers to another planet! Not good enough. God will end the ability of evil creatures to do evil to any other evil creature.
God will not coerce you or I into joining in with his wonderful plan for earth, a new and improved earth, by the way. Full of glorified humans. This was and is his goal for humans.
God’s will shall prevail. Why? Because he is God and it is his will. He is good and his will for us is good.
Can we trust him to fix us? You’re not broken? God knows you are. But the process to fix us begins when you and I agree that we are broken and can’t fix ourselves.
Is it possible that you are living a lie. Now, I don’t mean you are deceiving people around you. I mean that you are not living a true life. What do I mean by that?
I mean that your life is lived in relation to a lie. That lie begins with a question about how people began on earth. If it was some sort of accident then any life is okay. This is a common belief.
Now, is it true? No. Did you know that the idea that life began spontaneously has been given up? The theory has been tested as much as possible in the lab. And they have given up.
Let’s try truth. The truth is that God created people. Not only that but he had great purpose in mind. He used himself as the image and likeness. It says that the Word became flesh. The man Jesus was the same person as before but now became a flesh and blood human. He had been seen in the past in a similar body but not with blood flowing in his veins. He was the prototype for Adam. He was the model for mankind.
What about the great purpose? Glory. It says, All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The glory of God. You and I were made to reflect the glory of God. Angels do not have this mission. We do.
How can this be possible? Jesus, again, is our model. He lived a life in real time with all the temptations. He was the first human to succeed in showing the glory of God on earth.
He said these two simple words, “Follow me.”
But he is not here now. No, but he was and there is a record. In fact, there are four records. Two written by his immediate disciples who responded well to “Follow me.” And two others by ones who recorded secondhand from the original people who knew him well.
What’s different now? The Spirit of God was poured out on people to enable them to better follow Jesus. That is still as true as the day it took place on Pentacost. This is like having Jesus right with you at all times. Jesus said, I am the truth. To follow him is to stop living a lie and begin to be a true human being.
When I was little, I was told a bible story. The Tower of Babel was built to reach heaven. The people thought they could reach heaven by building a tower very high.
I read this story as an adult and found that their real reason had nothing to do with heaven. Nothing at all. The people were not even interested in heaven.
The enormous tower was a celebration of themselves. They built this tower to focus the people on their goal to have a central point. A city would surround the tower. A great city. This tower would show that this group was going to do great things.
They said, “We will make a name for ourselves!” Look there. We built that tower. It shows our power. We are the greatest people on this planet. Stay with us and feel our greatness.
God wants to stop the project. Because he doesn’t want any towers coming up to heaven? No. He doesn’t want the people to stay together but rather to spread out on the earth.
God does something only God could do. He changes their one language into many unlike languages. He rewires their brains to a new vocabulary, new grammar, new structure of thought. This forces them to divide into groups by language for convenience. It would be too hard to overcome these language differences.
The people leave off the tower. Construction stops. They disassociate from each other and eventually move apart to various areas of the world. They become the beginning of nations.
Now the story has meaning. And many people want to be part of a big thing even now. They join groups to increase their power. Countries train armies. They make weapons and conquer others. They form alliances. They make big groups of people who speak different languages. They still want to make a world governed by a small group with great power.
The story has meaning for today. The language thing worked. It prevented people from organizing into a one world order. But look! They are doing just that right now. They are overcoming the language problem with translators that work in real time.
Not long ago, it was hard to translate a book and really get all the meaning to come through. Now you can translate something written two minutes ago in a country many miles away into your language with a push of a button. You read it and can respond in your language, and they can translate it to theirs.
Do you want to be part of something big? Something that will endure. There is an organization that will last forever. It’s called The Kingdom of God. The king is known. He is Jesus. Right now, he is filling up the list of those who will be in that kingdom forever. But we have to be changed to fit into this kingdom. He can do that. If you are happy the way you are, forget it. If you want to become better, ask him to open your eyes to his kingdom.
Matthew writes, “Don’t save up treasures on earth for yourselves. Why not? Well, moths will eat your expensive sweater and rust will get your metal stuff and some people steal. But if your valuables are in heaven, there are no moths or rust or thieves there. This is like having a secret treasure at the North Pole. And your heart can rest that no one can get at your real treasure.”
Luke writes, “Do not be afraid because your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide wallets for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Okay, Matthew did not mention the North Pole, but he could have.
Treasure! What does that bring to your mind?
I think of The Count of Monte Christo who finds a great treasure with the instructions his cellmate gives him with his dying breath.
People are always giving advice about how to guard wealth. Once you have something of value, you think about how to preserve it. I had a cashmere sweater. Moths found it delicious. “Get a case for that new phone.” “Do you want insurance on that?”
Now we have Jesus giving advice on preserving wealth. He says there is a theft-proof, moth-proof, age-proof wealth. What is it? Luke gives us a start. Give to those who need it. Somehow this will accumulate treasure in heaven.
We can expand on that. What you do, unselfishly, for those in need has heavenly consequences. In another place, Jesus says giving to needs of others is the same as giving to him. He will repay you when the receivers can’t.
Jesus made a very clear statement, “Love one another as I have loved you.” How did he love? He gave people what they wanted, sure. But he was always trying to give them what they really needed.
A woman was condemned by a crowd of men. Jesus said to her that she was not condemned to a sinful life. She should begin again that moment. To another he said, “Your sins are forgiven.” His problem was that he couldn’t walk. Jesus thought his sins were holding him down. He did heal his body as well. In both situations, the person was at a point where they could listen to Jesus.
Jesus was always stretching the minds of his disciples. Is that our experience? Are we growing in faith? Do our experiences make us stronger?
Our experiences can leave us bitter or they can make us better. When you feel a tug to do good to another, where is that from? Maybe the Spirit of God? Look at Peter. He is requested to go speak in a gentile’s home. He has never done anything like this. But God has reminded him that this gospel is for all people in a dream. He goes. He speaks and things happen that surprise him.
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Each generation takes on the work of Christ. If we follow the leading of the Spirit, we join in the works of God. But look how he says it: Put up treasure for yourselves. It takes faith to trust God to reward you. Can an ordinary human act with God? Yes, we, like Christ, like the apostles, are sent by God to do good in this world. What is your part? What is my part? First, we come to him. Then we go with him.
Two things to remember: First, he has given us a place in his kingdom. We are assured of a welcome into the next life. It is called eternal life.
Second, we have a secure place to accumulate wealth! Add to your reward. God is rich. He pours out his wealth of mercy on you and me. Now, share my wealth with others. Be merciful to others.
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