Todays Reading: John 13: 1-20 Read the Scripture here: https://biblegateway/passage/?search=John+13%3A+1-20&version=CEB Humiliation and Glory would come together. Love did not have to join them, but it did. Jesus was from God and was returning to God and yet he decided to love to the very last moment going out the door. He was fully vested in loving even in his departure. That’s to say I think I know how I would have left the scene if I were Jesus. Quietly, slipping out the back door. Not simply not seeking to ‘make a scene’, if I knew that I would be betrayed … the weight of that alone would cause me probably to leave prematurely. Knowing that all good things would come to an end and I would be left alone, I am sure in my weakness I would have chosen the path that was alone quickly to spare ME further grief. And yet, I would not have loved those around me the way that Jesus did. That is what is remarkable when we consider these last moments of Jesus. He stuck it out and loved to the end… he is so unlike me and probably you! Jesus proved his love by being with his disciples as long as time in heaven permitted. He gave of himself every last step of the way. What if Jesus didn’t say goodbyes? Maybe we’ve never thought about that, but take a moment today as we prepare for the passion of Christ. What if Jesus simply found an inauspicious moment and went to turn himself in to authorities or allowed himself to be ‘caught’ in a public one? Never mind that could have been easily done without the disciples being the wiser, then all of the drama of the last days would have been spared. Jesus then would not have had to worry about facing Judas or talking Peter through his betrayal which hurt Jesus more than Peter. Gone too would be the bitter loneliness of a failed prayer request, the only time in Jesus’ life that he imposed and asked the disciples specifically for that grace. Also gone would be the false pretense of the crowd in triumphal fashion pretending that they really had love for Jesus and not simply their own aspirations. Jesus would not have had to endure any more teaching moments about what would happen after he was gone. Wouldn’t it be enough, couldn’t the disciples figure it out when the Father moved with the Spirit at Pentecost. Surely the Father could cover that lesson some other way. And no tearful goodbyes! The path of least resistance undoubtedly would not only have been tempting for me, I would probably have found a way to think of it as a gift or grace I was giving the disciples. See, we can justify most anything we want to if we try hard enough… Yet if Jesus chose to do what I/we would have done, there would not be this poignant and inescapable example of service either. In our haste to get home, we would have left behind the teaching moment that is the point of what it means both to walk with Jesus and to pursue greatness. Gone would be the truth that if we are unwilling to connect with Jesus through selflessness in serving we can have no part with Him in glory. We would have missed out on this essential truth. We are the ones who need to hear that Glory comes together humiliation still today. There is no place of service that is to small or too humiliating for us because there wasn’t for Jesus. What would we have if Jesus stepped away from the humiliation of serving? We would have the truth of God loving us in Jesus and the promise of heaven … and the field day that it would be acceptable to pursue Jesus and greatness as we want! We too could think we should be healthy, wealthy and wise going from strength to strength. There would be nothing stopping us from the evils of the so called ‘Gospel of Prosperity.’ We would then have open grounds for the pursuit of Christ and our own glory too. Yet Jesus sticking it out, loving the disciples ‘to the end’ involves this moment that sets the order of everything aright. Jesus showed that he alone was willing to be last, to be trampled on, that winning came through losing … and that the love of the Father for the world involved becoming the world’s servant. There is only one path home. Now the words that Jesus spoke in yesterday’s reading take on fresh meaning, ‘those who love their lives will lose them.’ Because Jesus stuck it out and didn’t leave the scene of the crime prematurely as I would have have, we now have this gift. This is the way home. Greatness and faithfulness in following Jesus is given expression and meaning through the one who serves. As we have seen, now we are called to embrace. In Christ’s love who thankfully stuck it out to the bitter, humiliating and glorious end, John
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 09:53:17 +0000
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