Category Archives: John

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What Kind of God Would Allow That?

Being With Jesus:
John 19:1-3

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.

The great essayist, Dorothy Sayers wrote, “What does the Church think of Christ? The Church’s answer is categorical and uncompromising and it is this: That Jesus Bar-Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth, was in fact and in truth, and in the most exact and literal sense of the words, the God ‘by whom all things were made.’ His body and brain were those of a common man; his personality was the personality of God, so far as that personality could be expressed in human terms. He was not a kind of demon pretending to be human; he was in every respect a genuine living man. He was not merely a man so good as to be ‘like God’; he was God.”

Yes, as Christians we believe that Jesus was God. But why would a God “by whom all things were made” permit what he had made to treat him thus: to brutally beat him to within an inch of his life with the barbaric Roman cat o’ nine tails, to press into his brow the crown of thorns, to slap him and spit upon him? What kind Creator would give the created even one second to mock him as they did? Where else could we find Deity submitting to the humiliation of the cross? What kind of God would allow that?

Only the one, true God! No other real god would do that—could do that—not a god that had any power, or goodness or love or divinity. The fact that Jesus surrendered to the pain and shame of the cross is evidence itself that he was not merely a man so good as to be like God; he was God. What kind of God who would allow that? Jesus!

Jesus was, and is, a God of patience. The fact is, it should have been sinful man who was brutally beaten, mocked, humiliated and publically executed like a common criminal. Our common sin made us offensive to a holy God. He had every right to wipe us out and begin anew—as he did in the days of Noah, or as he threatened with Moses on Mount Sinai—or to never make another creature with the freedom to choose. But so great is the patience of this God that he would submit to our utmost defiance. Thank you, O Lord, that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness; one who relents sending the calamity we deserve. (Jonah 4:2)

Jesus was, and is, a God of mercy. Rather than giving us what we deserve, he took what we deserved into himself as he was punished on the cross. We deserved the cross; he became the crucified. Thank you, O Lord, that you were wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and that the chastisement that brought our peace was upon you. (Isaiah 53:5)

Jesus was, and is, a God of justice. Sin requires punishment, else God is not holy, righteous and just. Yet that sin was not atoned for by the guilty, but by the innocent. Jesus received the punished, endured the humiliation of a trial and hung upon the cross in our place not as a victim of man’s anger, but to satisfy the wrath of God. Thank you, O Lord, that the Father laid on you the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)

Christ Died For The UngodlyHe was, and is, a God of love. It should never cease to amaze us that God, the holy One, wanted us, unworthy, guilty sinners, to live so much that in an act of extreme love he provided a way of escape from eternal death into eternal life. Thank you, O Lord, that you loved a sinful world so much that you gave your only begotten Son, so that by belief in him, sinners would have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Jesus was, and is, a God who is for us. What more could Jesus do to prove his love for us, and thereby convince us that he has set himself to help us than by his substitutionary, sacrificial death on the cross. Should we ever again doubt that God is for us, that he will help us, that he will fulfill all his promises to us and bring us through the trials and tribulations of this life and one day bring us into his eternal Kingdom? Thank you, O Lord, that you who did not spare your own life, but delivered it up for us will also certainly and freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32

What kind of God would allow his created ones to inflict the cross upon himself? Jesus, that’s who—the God of patience, mercy, justice and love—the God who is for us and therefore, the One whom we should love, serve, trust and follow shamelessly and without reservation now and every day until the end of the age.

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“The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God!” (Oswald Chambers)

 

Getting To Know Jesus: Read Isaiah 53 today, and verse by verse, offer your gratitude to God for the gift of Jesus and his sacrificial, substitutionary death on the cross for you.

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The Second Amendment—Or The Great Commandment

Being With Jesus:
John 18:10-11

Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”

Responding to the mass shooting—apparently targeting Christians—at a community college in Roseburg where nine people were murdered and scores were injured, Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey encouraged fellow Christians who are serious about their faith to consider getting a gun.[1]

Is it time for believers to arm themselves? After all, Jesus said that increasingly the world will hate us because of our faith in him. Just read John 15:18-25 as well as all of John 16 for that bit of cheery news. Things are going to get rough for believers as the time for the Lord’s return draws close (which, by the way, Christians around the world have known all along. We in America are just discovering, much to our dismay, that this may include us, too!)

But when Jesus predicted this rise in hostility—and even violence—against his people, did he anticipate that they arm themselves to the teeth to push back against the persecution? Did he foresee the Second Amendment would be our Constitutional right, and therefore we should use every legal means to defend ourselves as American Christians? For the Christian, does the Second Amendment trump the Second Commandment (Matthew 22:37)…or does the call to lay down our lives override the right to take up arms? Is this an either/or conundrum or can the believer in Jesus grasp the one without letting go of the other (Ecclesiastes 7:18)?

The Great CommandmentSeriously, these are questions American Christians need to grapple with. Now I say “American” because for Christians in other countries, these options aren’t even in the realm of possibility—which is probably both a blessing and a curse. In our nation, as citizens we have constitutional rights, and as Christians, we have Kingdom values. Most of the time these rights and values peacefully coexist, but at times, the earthly and the heavenly kingdoms are in conflict. Sometimes, what may be constitutionally legal may not be eternally blessable. At those times, to be both a good citizen and a good Christian, the believer must be willing to do the hard work of “thinking Christianly” about such matters. That is, the follower of Jesus must be completely open to the original meaning and full intent of God’s word, allowing Scripture to impose its unfettered rule over everything in the believer’s life.

Having said that, I think it is fairly clear here that Jesus wasn’t thinking his followers would lock and load in the face of opposition and hostility. In fact, he says as much: “Put away your AK-47 Peter. Do you think for a minute I’m not going to drink this cup of suffering the Father has assigned to me for the redemption of the world?” Later in the chapter (John 18:36) as Jesus is standing at trial before the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, he said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

So back to the issue at hand in our modern American culture: Should a Christian take up arms to defend themselves against the coming hostility? I will leave that to you to come up with your own answer—but I would ask you to allow what Jesus says here in John 18 to inform your opinion. Do the hard work of thinking Christianly about this matter. And at some point, as believers, we all need to remember that we have been called as citizens of another Kingdom to surrender our human rights—just as our leader did—for his eternal cause.

Yes, as citizens of the United States we have the right to bear arms. But as citizens of God’s Kingdom, our calling is to lay down our lives!

[1] http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2015/10/02/lt-gov-ramsey-christians-serious-faith-should-consider-handgun-permits/73203888/

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“The whole point of the kingdom of God is Jesus has come to bear witness to the true truth, which is nonviolent. When God wants to take charge of the world, he doesn’t send in the tanks. He sends in the poor and the meek.” (N.T. Wright)

 

Getting To Know Jesus: Your assignment this week is to think Christianly about your right to bear arms. Theologian Walter Wink offered this thought: “Jesus did not advocate non-violence merely as a technique for outwitting the enemy, but as a just means of opposing the enemy in such a way as to hold open the possibility of the enemy’s becoming just as well. Both sides must win. We are summoned to pray for our enemies’ transformation, and to respond to ill-treatment with a love that not only is godly but also, I am convinced, can only be found in God.” Agree or disagree with him, how will you balance the Second Amendment with the Great Commandment?

 

 

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The Unceasing Doxology

Being With Jesus:
John 17:1-5

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”

Let me listen to the content of your prayers and I will describe your theological grasp of God as well as the level of your spiritual maturity. Not that I want to throw a wet blanket over your access to the throne room of your Heavenly Father nor make you second guess the kinds of things you are praying for.

Obviously, we have been invited to “ask for what we wish” in prayer (John 15:7), to “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence” (Hebrews 4:16) and to freely “pour out your hearts to God, for he is our refuge.” (Psalm 62:8) Nothing, no one nor any teaching should ever cause us to shrink back from the privilege of openly and authentically connecting with our loving Heavenly Father in prayer.

Nevertheless, the kind of prayers we consistently pray reveals the kind of Christian we are. So if you are concerned about becoming more like Christ in your spiritual journey—as we all should be—then the content of your prayers over time must turn toward the kind of focus Jesus had every time he prayed.

In this prayer recorded in John 17—what we call Jesus’ “high priestly prayer”—the last recorded prayer he offered right before his arrest, trial and crucifixion, we see an intense, passionate yet calm, centering supplication being lifted to God. We get a glimpse of that which was most important to Jesus—his priorities—of how clear he was about the divine plan—his submission to God’s will—and of what he understood about his Father’s character—his theology.

As important as anything in this important prayer was Jesus’ passion for the glory of God. He uniquely understood the glory that emanated from the eternal God, for he had shared in that unfettered glory from the beginning of time (“the glory I had with you before the world began”, John 17:5). He was fully committed to his own life—and death—reflecting that glory to the world (“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you”, John 17:1) He had perfectly and completely testified to the glory of God through his thirty-three years as an earthly man (“I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do,” John 17:4). And now Jesus rightly expected that the Father would restore all the past and future glory of the of eternally existent Son, second person of the Holy Trinity, to him as he submitted, body soul and spirit, to the cross for the sin of the world (“Now, Father, give me back the glory that I had with you before the world was created.” John 17:5, CEV).

Yes, what Jesus prayed revealed who Jesus was, how he believed and what was most important to him. His final prayer tells us that he believed there was no greater theology that the glory of God. It also shows us that there was no more important focus in life than the glory of God. And it reminds us that there was no greater commitment, no greater expenditure of energy, no greater sacrifice for Jesus than to use his one and only earthly life for the glory of God alone.

What do your prayers reveal about you? Your anxiety about God’s competence to care for the details of your life or your desire for the temporal things of this world or your passion for quick fixes, pain avoidance, comfort and prosperity? Over the course of the next few days, pay attention to the content of your prayers to get an honest assessment of what they reveal about your theology and your spiritual maturity. Like me, you will probably realize that your trust, obedience and understanding need to go much deeper in God.

God's GloryWhat if you and I began to shift the focus of our prayers (and our lives) to the glory of God alone? Truly, there is no greater theme in all creation than God’s glory. And if we will begin to passionately invest our praying and our living toward that end, we will not only fulfill the purpose for which we were created, we will be well on the way to sharing in the glory of the One who rightly deserves it all.

At the end of the day, may it be said of us that the glory of God alone was our unceasing doxology.

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“To live and work for the glory of God cannot remain an idea about which we think once in a while. It must become an interior, unceasing doxology.” (Henri Nouwen)

 

Getting To Know Jesus: The early church father, Irenaeus, wrote in his magnificent work, Against Heresy, “The glory of God is the human being fully alive, and the life of the human consists in beholding God.” Spend some moments in prayer asking your Father to make you a living example of a fully alive human being bringing glory to God alone.

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Looking Forward!

Being With Jesus:
John 16:16,22-24

Jesus said, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me. …Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”

People who have followed Jesus throughout the ages did something that Christians don’t do as much in our day: They thought a lot about heaven.

They were right to do so. Perhaps they had a more balanced theology than we do, possibly their spiritual leaders taught more often on the future world than ours do, or it could be that since life for so hard and following Christ came at such a high price looking forward to eternity was simply the natural thing to do. Maybe it was all of the above.

Whatever the case, heaven was on their minds. Not so much for us. Earth has become so good to us that we almost see the approach of eternity as a rude interruption to our pursuit of the good life in this present world. Some believers almost think and act as if heaven is a cheap substitute for Planet Earth. It is not. It is our true home, our Divine destiny purchased by the blood of Jesus when he died on the cross, the place where our full potential will be perpetually, increasingly, uninterruptedly released as we rule and reign with Christ. As the old timers used to sing,

“This world is not my home I’m just a-passin’ through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door. And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

We would do well to practice dwelling on our eternal dwelling more. Doing so is not wishful thinking, or pain avoidance, or escapism. It is what Jesus instructed his disciples, and by extension, you and me, to do. The fact was, Jesus was going to leave—and at first, it would be a pretty painful leaving. He would die on the cross, according to God’s eternal plan. Then he would ascend back to his Father. In his absence, he would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who would be with the disciples, and in them continually. The Spirit would constantly abide with them, empower them for Christian living and witness, would lead them into truth and reveal the deeper things of God to them. Even still, life would be tough for them because they followed Jesus—they would be persecuted, rejected and killed for their faith. But one of the things Jesus said they needed to do to endure the hardships of this life and thrive in the midst of pain was to dwell on the good things to come.

What are those good things to come? For starters, there will be fullness of joy. The grief of the present will turn to joy (John 16:22), and the joy will be so great in heaven that the grief of the past will pale by comparison until it fades into oblivion. Pain, disappointment and heartache will be forgotten and joy would be their new reality—for all eternity.  Furthermore, there will be fullness of life. (John 16:23a) Christ’s disciples will not even need to ask him for anything; they will already have everything. And finally, there will be fullness of relationship. (John 16:23b) The disciples will be able to go directly to God for anything they want because of what Jesus has accomplished. We will no longer wrestle with the image of God being a distant, immovable, uncaring deity in a galaxy far, far away; he will be up close and quite personal.

Imagine HeavenJesus seems to be saying that we should continually keep those future realities in our present thoughts as we face the harsh conditions of our current lives. And, by what he then says in verse 24, by practicing this type of “heaven-thinking” now, we will be so filled with confident assurance that asking for what we want and need right now in this present world will be our faith response to whatever comes our way:

“Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” (John 16:24)

Looking forward to your eternal future on a regular basis is one of the best things you could do for your faith. In one of his letters, C.S. Lewis wrote, “Good and evil when they attain their full stature are retrospective. That is why, at the end of all things, the damned will say we were always in Hell, and the blessed we have never lived anywhere but in heaven.”

Why not go ahead and imagine your future home right now, because when you finally get there, you will realize that Jesus made sure it was always pretty close.

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“A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do.” (C.S. Lewis)

 

Getting To Know Jesus: Carve out some time and schedule a place where you can be alone with God this week—perhaps even today. Take your Bible and open it to the very last book and chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22. Slowly and gratefully read it and let that picture of your future reality invade your present world.

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Abide!

Being With Jesus:
John 15:5

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

As a society, we are busier than ever—and with that, we have much less capacity to experience and enjoy what’s most important in life. Cardiologist Meyer Friedman, a respected authority on the Type-A personality, says that modern America suffers from what he calls hurry sickness. We might define hurry sickness as the relentless drive to do more, have more and be more in less and less time.

That is nothing new; it has been the steady march of fallen humanity asserting independence from God. Even 200 years ago, Soren Kierkegaard said, “The press of busyness is like a charm. Its power swells … it reaches out, seeking always to lay hold of ever-younger victims so that childhood or youth are scarcely allowed the quiet and the retirement in which the Eternal may unfold a divine growth.”

Even believers have fallen pray to uncontrolled, purposeless. We have elevated intensity of living over intimacy with God and predictably, that is stunting the fruit-bearing, joy-filled, abundant life described here in John 15 that Jesus died to provide—and which is the most compelling witness, arguably, to a hurried, stressed-out world that desperately needs the Christ-follower to be an oasis of unforced centeredness in a sea of chaos.

Abiding & Fruit-bearingAs believers, we have been called to abide. And Jesus, who perfectly balanced the relentless demands of people and mission with quietness and solitude, is a great mentor for us. He knew how to make space in his life for what was most important in life: abiding with his Father. Mark 6:31-32 is a great example of how Jesus practiced abiding in his Father:

“Because so many people were coming and going that Jesus and his disciples didn’t even have time to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they left in a boat to a solitary place.”

Now we are not told what they did when they got there. They may have enjoyed a season of prayer. Maybe Jesus led them in a devotional. Perhaps they took a nap, or had a potluck, or played tag—all legitimate activities when you are with Jesus. We don’t know for sure, but we do know they did this:

  • They ceased their normal activity
  • They retreated from the demands of people
  • They set aside a specific time and place for quiet
  • They were with Jesus in an undivided way.

And that experience of abiding resulted in rest. Now that same practice of abiding will work for us too:

Pausing from our normal routine; scheduling a time and place for solitude and reflection; giving full and unfettered access into our lives to Jesus. That’s a simple but sure template for abiding in Christ if you’re looking for one.

Without a regular and fiercely guarded time for abiding in Christ, life will constantly remind you that this world demands your blood, sweat and tears. But by abiding in Christ, you will be reminded that your eternal soul belongs to Someone and someplace else.

In John 15:4, Jesus says, “Abide in me, as I abide in you.” That is not only a command, it is an invitation that requires a choice on your part. Jesus invites you to come away with him from the busyness of life and the bondage of hurriedness for a satisfying renewal of your soul. “Come with me” Jesus says, “to a quiet place and get some rest.” (Mark 6:31)

Will you? If you want to really live the fruit-bearing, God-honoring, joyful life Jesus came to give you, you have to make the choice to abide.

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“It is the responsibility of every believer to carve out a satisfying life under the loving rule of God, or sin will start to look good!”   (Dallas Willard)

 

Getting To Know Jesus: Most of your life you are required to “wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth” (Abraham Heschel), but Jesus calls us to carve out a regular time where we get away with him just to abide. Do that today…and everyday this week. And while you are with him, simply reflect on who you are and to Whom you belong and why he put you on this earth. And in those moments, gratefully remember intimacy with him is greater than anything else in life!

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Receiving Revelation

Being With Jesus:
14:22-24

Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but his other disciple with that name) said to him, “Sir, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us disciples and not to the world at large?” Jesus replied, “Because I will only reveal myself to those who love me and obey me. The Father will love them too, and we will come to them and live with them. Anyone who doesn’t obey me doesn’t love me. And remember, I am not making up this answer to your question! It is the answer given by the Father who sent me.

Why do some people seem to get more insider information about God than others? I’m not talking about those who claim to have special revelation but within seconds of being with them you realize they only have half of that equation—for sure, they are “special” but they have zero revelation! No, the kind of people I am speaking of have greater insight into Scripture, get more profound insights out of their daily devotions, display a special connection to the Holy Spirit and day by day seem to grow more profoundly, deeply connected with God than the average believer.

Does God love them more than others? No, but for a select few of these types, it may be that God has sovereignly selected them to reveal himself more clearly for the purpose of ministering to others the deeper things of the Lord. Is it because they are spiritually smarter than the rest of us? Probably not. Do they have more faith than you and me? I doubt it.

It Takes FatihSo what is it? My sense is that except in special cases where God has uniquely marked certain individuals for a greater download of divine information, those with deeper revelation have simply and consistently exercised their faith more than the rest of us. The exercise of their faith has been met with greater revelation. It is as St. Augustine said: “Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.” The surest way to a greater faith—which, remember, is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, according to Hebrews 11:1—which leads to a closer relationship with God and greater revelation of who God is, is to exercise the faith that we have.

That seems to be Jesus’s answer to Judas, who asked the Lord, “why don’t you just go ahead and prove yourself to the whole world? Wouldn’t that make things a lot easier for you?” It almost seems as if Jesus sidesteps that question when he begins to talk about love and obedience: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23). But what Jesus is getting at is that deeper revelation comes by way of our receptivity, and receptivity is conditioned by our love, and our love is displayed by our obedience to Jesus’ commands, and our obedience comes from the exercise of our faith. If we don’t exercise faith, revelation would be wasted. Thomas Aquinas, a brilliant church leader in the thirteenth century, made this profound observation: “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” So why would God waste revelation on someone who has been unwilling to exercise faith?

But when we exercise faith, our faith grows. As our faith grows, greater love flows from us toward God. And as love flourishes, obedience becomes our willing offering of response to God. It is our growing faith, flowing love and willing obedience that acts as our invitation for God to make his home in us. And when God talks up residence in our lives, deeper insight, special revelation and spiritual familiarity will come to characterize our relationship with God.

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“Faith fills a man with love for the beauty of its truth, with faith in the truth of its beauty.” (Frances, de Sales)

Getting To Know Jesus: Do you desire greater revelation of God? Are you willing to exercise your faith? Are you ready to love God more and obey him with greater willingness? Think about the following challenge from Martin Luther: “What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow.”

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The Blessed Distress

Being With Jesus:
John 13:21

Now Jesus was in great anguish of spirit and exclaimed, “Yes, it is true—one of you will betray me.”

I have always had an easier time accepting Jesus’ divinity than his humanity. I suppose that’s because I tend to think of human emotions—anxiety, disappointment, temptation, fear—as flaws and weaknesses. How could the Son of God be flawed or weak? No way; not my Messiah! Jesus in “great anguish”! How could this be?

Jesus was God, so he knew all things in advance. He knew what he would face, but he also knew the outcome was pre-set, so there would be nothing but victory and glory for him at the end of the day. Even though he would allow hurtful and harmful things to happen to him in his assignment as the world’s redeemer, he had power over those things; he would turn them toward his Father’s ultimate purpose. How then, would he ever be upset, feel overwhelmed, and weep over things that didn’t go his way.

Yet over and again in the Gospels we see Jesus expressing a variety of emotions that we mistakenly attribute to humans only: tiredness, hunger, anger, grief, disappointment, distress. The truth is, those emotions are resident in the Creator, and we, made in his image, simply are able to feel and experience what he felt and experienced, too. We feel because God feels. In fact, the writer of Hebrews tells us that not only does he feel what we feel, we ought to be supremely grateful for that since that makes him our empathetic High Priest:

Jesus' Anguish“But Jesus the Son of God is our great High Priest who has gone to heaven itself to help us; therefore let us never stop trusting him. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses since he had the same temptations we do, though he never once gave way to them and sinned. So let us come boldly to the very throne of God and stay there to receive his mercy and to find grace to help us in our times of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)

In the case of his betrayal, knowing in advance that Judas would hand him over, for a price, to the Jews, having deliberately selected him with that knowledge in advance, Jesus was still distraught as he announced to his disciples that one of them would stab him in the back. And his distress was not hidden behind a stiff upper lip. The disciples were very aware that Jesus was terribly upset, so much so that Peter tried to counteract these messianic emotions with some bravado of his own: “Don’t worry Lord, I’ll be with you through thick and thin!”

Many times during my two daughters’ growing up years, they would come to me for comfort when they had experienced fear, frustration, disappointment and/or hurt in their lives. And being a little thick-headed father (I know, that’s a bit redundant), it took me a while to realize that they didn’t always want me to fix their problems, they simply wanted me to listen to their upset and offer an emotional response that assured them I identified with their hurt. They wanted me to “feel their pain.” They wanted, and needed, an empathetic father. To be sure, they sometimes needed me to fix things; but most of the time they just needed to know that I cared. Here’s the thing: They didn’t care how much I knew, they needed to know how much I cared.

The fact that Jesus cared so much about Judas’ betrayal—even though he knew in advance it would happen and that God would leverage it for his eternal plan—proved to his disciples that he cared for them, too. They knew how much he cared, and that made him a perfect, empathetic High Priest they could come to for anything they were facing.

What a drag it would be to serve an uncaring, unfeeling Messiah. Thankfully, that is not the Messiah you serve. Jesus was distressed—but what a blessed distress! It proves that even as one who is fully God, he is still perfectly capable of feeling emotions for you, too.

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“When all is said and done, people may admire how much you know, how well versed you are in your field (doctor, mechanic, lawyer, engineer, community leader, etc.), but they will remember you for the ages for how much you cared for them… When [they] know how much you care, you have begun building the foundations of trust-based relationships.” (John Maxwell)

 

Getting To Know Jesus: Where are you hurting today? Boldly—with unmitigated fear, anger or hurt, if necessary—go to Jesus and pour out your heart to him. He cares! And he knows what to do for you too!