“Discipleship gets shrunk in our imaginations to information transfer. We picture a curriculum, a class, a few months of catechesis, and a certificate of completion. The New Testament envisions something far larger and far more dangerous: the actual reproduction of Christ’s life in ordinary human beings, scattered into every possible context, so that His redemptive…
Re-presenting Jesus, re-presenting God!
“Whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.” (John 13:20) God sends Jesus as a re-presentation of Who God is, what God is like.Those who respond positively to Jesus, are responding positively to God.This is because Jesus is like God, and God is like Jesus; to accept…
Believing or Becoming!?
“For an evangelical, the spiritual path is an intellectual ascent toward certainty and right belief. Sadly, this is exactly what the ego craves. When spirituality is framed as an orthodox set of beliefs rather than an unorthodox way of being in the world, the ego goes into overdrive. Faith becomes a competition, not communion. Christianity…
The way to be blessed!
“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:17) In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that God’s blessing rests on the ones on the bottom.The poor, the grieving, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, the persecuted, etc.All these have something in common: they are at the bottom…
My part in the Jesus kingdom!
“Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” (John 13:8) Jesus came from God to restore God’s ‘very good’ creation kingdom.Peter was eager to receive his share (or part) of that kingdom (Matthew 19:27).What troubled Peter was how Jesus was behaving; like a slave, not a king.Peter did not understand that this was God’s way…
The full extent of God’s love!
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” (John 13:1) Jesus had a special love for those He spent time with while on earth.The phrase ‘loved them to the end’ does not capture what the original Greek says.The word ‘telos’ means the ultimate goal or purpose, not just the…
Rejecting God’s call to love!?
“There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.” (John 12:48) Jesus came to proclaim the glorious goodness of God’s Name: LOVE!“The compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love…
Seeing Jesus, seeing God!
” The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me.” (John 12:45) Once again Jesus stresses the connection between Himself and God.When we see Jesus loving, suffering, forgiving, blessing, we see God in action.‘Jesus’ is the answer when someone asks what God is like.‘Jesus’ is the glorious goodness of God revealed in the…
Seeing and sharing His glorious love!
“Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.” (John 12:41) John quotes Isaiah 53:1 and Isaiah 6:10 to explain the peoples’ unbelief.Isaiah 6 explains how God reveals His glory to Isaiah when He calls him as a prophet.Isaiah 53 describes the suffering, death and resurrection of God’s Messiah.John is connecting the glory of God to the…
Reflecting the light of Jesus!
“Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” (John 12:36) While Jesus was on earth, He revealed the glorious goodness of God’s love.He showed humanity what God is like, and how humans were made to be like.Jesus is a shining example of the Adam life, in the…