New Thoughts (05/21/12-05/27/12)
Aiteo vs. erotao (05/22/12)
In this passage we are once again presented a point made by Jesus in which both the aiteo and the erotao form of asking are in view. In verse 26, He speaks of a time when the disciples will aiteo in His name. He points out that on those occasions, the idea is not that He will then erotao the Father on their behalf. In this instance, if we attempt to consider erotao as asking a question, the sentence makes little sense. If you beg a favor in My name, I’m not suggesting I will ask the Father questions for you. No. That just doesn’t work.
If we follow Thayer’s suggested distinction between these words, we arrive at something along these lines. You will ask that something be given you in My name, and I’m not saying that I will therefore ask the Father to do something for you. Once again, the suggested distinction does not really seem to make a great deal of sense. Or, if it does make sense, then there was no need for Jesus to say it, and the sentence winds up telling us nothing. It does not, in this perspective, preclude Jesus from asking for that same thing to be given, only that He won’t ask something completely different.
On the other hand, if we go back to that distinction that Zhodiates holds to, and which Thayer at least notes as being the more common view, things make a degree of sense. You will ask of your superior on My authority, and I am not telling you that I will follow up by asking Him as My equal. This adds up. Given the point that immediately follows, that Jesus both came from and is returning to His place with the Father, this stressing of His equality with the Father is not at all out of place. Indeed, it suits the immediate explanation. You will ask as one begs a favor from his superior, but it won’t need My adding My stamp to your requisition for the Father to act. He loves you Himself! He is pleased to act on your behalf because you love and believe in Me. There’s that whole ‘in My name’ aspect, too! You’re seeking what I would seek, the same things I have been seeking from Him over the years. You don’t need to interpose Me between yourself and your God. I AM. And, I do assuredly intercede on your behalf, but that’s a separate issue. In this matter, you go direct. You should understand that. You ask in My name, but you ask Him and He answers you.
The clear point of what Jesus is saying is that He is not going to be in there petitioning the Father to answer for the simple reason that there’s not need for it. His mediation pertains to other matters. On this point, He has already authorized. It is upon that authorization that you have come in the first place. Why, honestly, would we think He needs to act further on what He has already authorized? This steps me into my next point, so suffice it for this head, that we simply recognize that there are multiple ways in which these two terms may be distinguished, and we will need to allow context to aid us in understanding what distinctions may apply.
Trinity: How we pray (05/22/12)
Verse 26 also serves, as I have already begun to note, to demonstrate something we need to be reminded of when it comes to prayer. Jesus is establishing a clear pattern here. You pray in My name, but you pray to the Father. You don’t ask Me. You don’t ask the Spirit. You certainly don’t ask My mother! You ask the Father, and you do so in recognition that He will answer. Son will do, and rest assured Spirit will have His role in the matter as well, for Trinity always acts as One. But, as in all things, the response originates with the Father, and He is the right and proper recipient of your requests.
Notice, too, how the Trinity shapes our prayer life at our end. The things we pray in making request of God are those things which the Son has authorized us to request. They are interventions of the sort which serve the mission to which He assigned us. They are the things He asked for and received as He served in His mission. They are the things He would be asking for were He here doing this task Himself. And, in that regard, as we obediently seek to fulfill this task, He is here. He abides in us, after all!
There is also that particular ministry of the Holy Spirit who prays in us, through us, on our behalf, when we simply don’t know how to pray as we ought (Ro 8:26). He Himself intercedes for us, and in perfect accord with the will of God. How could it be otherwise, when He is God? Yet, how marvelous is it to know that our prayers are thus informed, thus filtered before they ascend to heaven! We pray, then, as authorized by Jesus, as prompted and filtered by the Holy Spirit, but ever to the Father. Let me amend that ever so slightly. We pray to our Father.
This, too, we need to fully engrave on our understanding. There is a reason that Jesus stressed that our aspect of the matter when teaching how to pray. Don’t allow yourself into thinking God some remote, uncaring being. Don’t fall for that watchmaker view of the deists. No! He is not some detached inventor. He is your father, and He looks upon you as His children. This is not just the outworking of some mechanism He set in motion. This is not cold, dispassionate science. This is relational. We are family! Look at the closing prayer of this discourse, which I shall be pursuing in the next study. It’s filled with this image of unity, of relationship, of abiding together, being filled with thoughts for each other, with being filled with each other.
This is the steady state condition of the Trinity: I in You in He in Me. And we have been blessed, honored, with the privilege of joining in that blessed state. We in He and He in us. Note well that it is both Father and Son who come make their abode. Spirit, at that stage, is already present and in the house of His temple, which we are. And where He is, so too are Father and Son, ever and always together. Imagine! In all eternity, there has only been that one briefest agony of separation between He/Them. And, that brief moment was nearly enough to see creation destroyed for the grief of it! But, it was His determined plan not to destroy, but rather to save. That moment of grief through which He suffered, that separation which, for all its brevity must have ached with eternal pain and sorrow, was in His purpose, planned from before the creation began. And, its power, its significance reaches not only all the way forward into eternity, but also all the way back to that first moment of creation. His agony was sufficient not only unto saving these eleven, not only to saving a generation, not only to saving all who would come thereafter. His agony was also sufficient to save all who had ever clung to faith in the One True God, the Covenant Lord of Creation, God Most High. All the way back to Adam, those who had died longing for this Messiah saw Him, and seeing Him, were saved.
This is He Who authorizes our prayers! Yes, and it is the Father Who authorized Him to go forth and to return hence. It is the Father Who gave Him authority to set down His life in this mission, and to take it back up again as the seal and proof that His sacrifice had been accepted with joy. And, we must note, it is the Spirit Who, authorized and appointed by both, powered the act. The Trinity is always One!
So, we have our proper instruction in prayer. Informed by, for the purpose of, and directed towards: fully Trinitarian in nature, we pray. Clearly, the Apostles, in their prayers and in their teaching, ought to be seen to model this for us, and they do. Yet, there are times, it must be admitted, when one might wonder. I was struck, in this matter of prayer, but the rather shocking words of Paul to the Corinthian church. “Let all who do not love the Lord be accursed. Maranatha” (1Co 16:22)! Really? Curse the heathens, Lord come soon? Paul, didn’t you hear? We’re supposed to bless those who spitefully use us. We’re supposed to be seeking to bring the darkened masses into the light, not cursing them for all eternity. What are you doing?
And yet, we must surely understand that this is the man of God’s choosing. We must surely understand that he was writing under the inspired guidance of the Holy Spirit. We must surely understand that he is serving faithfully in his role as shepherd over that church in Corinth. He is not just blathering. He is not just venting his own imaginations. No! Even when he is rendering opinions that he is perhaps a bit less certain of, he is careful to demark them as such. “I do not speak as from God on this, but only offer my opinion.” There’s no such disclaimer on this bit. And, it just feels so jarring!
If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed. May His grace be with you. Yikes! It grates. It offends. Yet, it is not God who is offended. It is me. In all truth, those who reject the great love of God, expressed in this closing work of His Son – the very person of God setting Himself to die on the cross that we might live! – they are accursed. How else to explain their rejecting so great a boon? And, to be sure, those who persist in opposing their Creator are assured of their place in hell. Oh, we don’t like to say that, now. That’s not how you attract converts. No, no. You have to point out all the wondrous benefits of heaven. You have to point them to the health and happiness that will be theirs in abundance if they will just embrace the Son.
The truth is, however, that more has been done on behalf of God’s kingdom by those who, like Paul, did not shy away from pointing out the ugly truth. You oppose God? Rest assured, then, that His curse is upon you! Rest assured that His wrath, though it be held back at present, is absolutely guaranteed to break forth against you, and when it does, it shall never relent. Yet, perhaps it is not too late. Perhaps, being warned of the path you are on, you will repent. Perhaps the reality of your situation will finally register and you will find cause to change. Ah! How Amos continually strikes the Gospel note if we but listen to him aright!
Woe to the nations that have set themselves in opposition! Woe to those who demonstrate such impenitent hatred and abuse towards their fellow humanity. Woe to God’s people, who abandon His ways even as they continue to insist that they are His! They all face the certainty of wrath. Unless… We were discussing this point in Sunday School last week. There is a line in the sands of time, a point which once crossed cannot be re-crossed. We speak of it as the point of no return. Or, for those science fiction fans amongst us, we might think of it as the blue event horizon. Cross this line, and descent into the assured destruction of the black hole is inevitable. There can be no escape. The Rubicon: The crisis moment reached and traversed, and now there is only the playing out of what your decision has set in motion.
But, the Gospel holds out hope. That line has not yet been crossed. It is very near, far nearer than you suppose. Yes, and it is entirely possible, almost a given, that you may cross that line without realizing it. But, in the Gospel, you are granted not only hope, but a warning. Look! There is the line! Look! Your King is here, and you are all unprepared. Look! The patience of God, though longsuffering, does not put up with your rebellion forever. Look and understand that if you persist on this course, there is nothing for it but that you will be accursed, cursed by the only One whose decision truly matters. Don’t make your decisions out of fear for those who can do nothing worse than killing you bodily. Rather, fear Him who is able to destroy you body and soul (Mt 10:28). Yes, I tell you, fear Him (Lk 12:5)! Fear Him, reverence Him. Kiss the Son while yet there is time for reconciliation. It is for this that He came. It is for this that He died: That you might have that opportunity yet before you. But, know that the time comes when opportunity is past, and the future sealed.
Choose you this day.
Trinity: Came forth? Proceeded? (05/23/12-05/24/12)
When it comes to the challenge of describing the Trinity in some reasonable fashion, we are faced with the need to describe the unique characteristics of each Person of the Godhead while simultaneously upholding their essential equality. Those efforts generally lead to a description of Jesus, as the eternally Begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit as eternally proceeding from Father and Son alike. Of course, that term proceeding is as likely to leave us scratching our heads as it is to provide us with any particular insight. I have already glanced at that term once in recent weeks, in that verse where Jesus describes the Spirit as proceeding from the Father.
Now, however, we have a challenge, for Jesus describes Himself as proceeding from the Father. In this passage, He speaks of coming forth from Him (verse 28) to Whom He will now be returning. It is in one of the parallels to this verse that we find Him referring to His proceeding from the Father. John 8:42 reports Him saying, “I proceeded forth and have come from God.” The English suggests that both proceeding and coming forth are presented here, but in actuality, it turns out that the ‘proceeded forth’ of that earlier verse is the same term as ‘came forth’ in this present passage. So, it seems I’ve been on a bit of a goose chase here.
Let me, though, quickly note the distinction, for the two concepts might seem to be near enough to synonymous. Clearly, the NASB translators found the one capable of being understood in a fashion similar to the other. But, proceeds, as applied to the Spirit, is ekporeuetai where this coming forth of Jesus is exeelthon. Both share the prefix of ek, indicating a point of origin, a from our out of aspect to the matter. What is distinct is that to which the prefix is attached. In proceeding, we have poreuomai, to traverse or travel, leading to the idea of being discharged from, or projecting from that point of origin. Thayer suggests the ideas of breaking forth from that source and spreading abroad.
Meanwhile, in the coming forth of Christ, the root is erchomai, a simple verb of action indicating to come or go. The general sense is fairly obvious, then. To come out from, or go out from that source being indicated. When my work situation is such as requires me to commute, I could speak of how I exeelthon my house in having gone to work. However, for Jesus, and with the referenced source being the Father in His heavens, the message is more powerful. It declares Himself to be of heavenly origin. After all, one could hardly depart out of the Father except one had been there in the first place. Likewise, the follow-on claim that He is returning hence. This is to say that His natural abode remains in heaven – always has been, always will be. The incarnation, with its infinite significance for us, was but the briefest of sojourns for Him, an assignment, a mission into foreign fields, but always with the assurance of return Home.
That sense of source for Jesus was not lost on those who met Him, either. I think particularly of that visit with Nicodemus early on. Nicodemus, a member of the ruling council, a Pharisee, had come to see this Man. He came in a bit of stealth, but he came. And by way of starting the conversation, he makes this confession. “We know that You have come from God as a teacher” (Jn 3:2). He has witnessed the signs, and he has accepted their significance. “No one could do as You do except God is with him.” There is no other viable explanation possible. But, it is that first half which, while the words are from his lips, one questions whether he actually comprehended. “We know that You have come from God.”
Actually, the evidence would seem to show that Nicodemus meant just what he said, or at least came to mean it. It certainly seems, from the few glimpses we have of this man, that he took his meeting with Jesus to heart and became a true child of God. But, for the moment, consider what that phrase really says. Consider how lightly we apply a nearly synonymous form of acknowledgement to mere mortals. I think, for example, of the newly settled pastor at our own church. We know he was sent from God. He, too, knows that he is pursuing the course laid out for him by God. Yet, I would note a very careful distinction: We do not look upon our pastor, any pastor, as having come from God. Sent by, yes. Come from, no. That place remains distinctly unique.
Is there any other to whom a Pharisee might have offered such a statement? It’s hard to imagine that it could be so. Nicodemus was, after all, expressing a certain admiration. But, more than that, he was remarking the clear evidence of God’s own backing of this Man. Is it really such a leap of understanding to perceive that where there were signs such as had been following Jesus throughout His ministry, there was more than just the benevolence of God present, but also His authority and indeed Himself. A I say, I’m not certain that Nicodemus grasped that fully in the moment he spoke, but it’s not entirely out of the question. One supposes that a man of his training and position might be rather careful in choosing his words.
Let me take this to a more personal level before moving on to the next question. The thing I see in this is a need to consider my own understanding. I speak of Jesus as God, and of God in a more general sense. I speak of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I speak of their holiness. Yet, I have to wonder to what degree these are still mere concepts, things that I construct in thought, but have yet to truly grasp as real components of my reality. After all, as Table Talk reminds this morning [05/24/12], it’s all well and good to know about, but it’s of far greater import that one actually know. This, of course, arises in connection to knowing about God versus knowing Him. There’s a stronger engagement, a more intimate relationship in that latter knowing. So, too, with the things Scripture teaches.
It is one thing to be able to quote Romans 8:28, for instance. It’s another to accept it as being true. But, to live in light of that truth, to have one’s perception of events informed by that truth, is something else again. It’s fine to read that God works all things for good, and when life is fine, we nod our heads and see the proof of it all around. But, let life get hard! Let chronic pain or sickness set in, or financial hardships loom. Is He still good? Is He still good when you don’t get to do what you want? Are those trials of life really something we can look at as being worked for our good? Yes. But, it’s a harder reality to hold onto when challenges come. To make matters worse, we can get into a mindset of trying to force ourselves to believe the truth of the matter. Instead of being moved by Truth, we try to physically conform ourselves to that Truth. This tends to lead to overreaction. We see that God apparently works all things to our good, so we start trying to look at every event in life as being good in itself. But, that’s not what it says! Joseph did not, I am certain, look upon his imprisonment on wrongful charges as a good thing. He did not look at himself, thrown down that hole, or sold into slavery, as experiencing the most wonderful of blessings. But, he also did not view them as indicative that his life was over and he might just as well stop making an effort. He knew God was there in spite of current events. That’s what we need to hold onto.
Now, coming back to matters of this Triune Godhead of ours, and particularly to His holiness, this is something perhaps more challenging to get a grip on. The goodness of God, yes: We get that. We rather count on that. The “It is finished, I have overcome” aspect is the very seed of our hope! We’re counting on that being true, or all is certainly lost. Yet, when it comes to the holiness of God, the absolute purity of this One Who has saved us, we start to fudge. I do, anyway. I would have to believe, based on Scripture’s diagnosis, that I am far from alone in that. Were it otherwise, we would know of fellow believers who have truly found absolute victory over sin in this lifetime. But, we don’t, and God’s Word tells us we won’t. But, if He is holy, if He is absolutely pure, how can we even conscience the idea of sinning against Him? He is our Father, or so we are inclined to believe. Yet, we would so besmirch His good name by the things we do?
This is, of course, a flavor of that great conundrum that has perplexed me for years. If He is so holy that He cannot abide the presence of sin, how can He abide in me, a man known to be a continuing sinner? How can that be? I have arrived at an answer of sorts to that mental knot, but it is not the sort of answer as lets one off the hook. I am a temple of the living God! I am sanctified and set apart for His exclusive use. It’s no good to think down those lines without insisting on that exclusivity point. We have musical acts that come through the area. They make arrangements to play at one venue or another. Yet, to seal the deal, they are required to sign up to terms of exclusivity. We’ll let you play this venue so long as you do not play anywhere else within a so-many-mile radius. In our contract with God, the radius is infinite! You will host no other. You will play with and for no other. His alone! And the terms also insist that once signed, the contract remains in force forever.
I have signed that contract. I have this covenant with my God, that I will be His alone. Yet, every sin that I still commit bespeaks an ignoring of that covenant. Every sin that I still commit bespeaks a disregard for His holiness. In truth, it belies the degree to which His holiness and even His existence remain just concepts to ponder, and not realities to be lived in. If God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-pure, if His eye is ever and always upon me, how dare I to act or even think in ways displeasing to Him? Would I really presume upon His grace? Would I really act in such a way as demonstrates that I think I can demand His mercy?
Of course, we know that more often what happens is that we are simply negligent of this ever-present Holy One. How that can be is another question worthy of consideration, but it seems to be in the nature of humankind to deceive ourselves so. It’s not that we consciously think to piss off our Lord and King. It’s more that we treat Him as being out of sight and therefore out of mind. We speak our belief in Him, yet we live something different. We seek to know Him, even. But, we seek to know Him on our terms, and would prefer it could we set Him aside when He’s inconvenient.
What I am seeking to do here is not so much to revel in some navel-gazing exploration of my failures. I am far more interested in so engaging my recognition of reality as to create greater barriers against sin. I long to be one who is truly mindful of my Shepherd’s eyes upon me at all times. I long to be one who truly hears His voice providing guidance in every situation. Yet, truth be told, I cringe at times to see how some appear to walk who think they walk in this fashion. I have to wonder: am I cringing at the very thing I long for? Or is there something off about that example? Am I fit to judge? OK. I can answer the last one: No. No, I can only seek to walk this course of faith according as the Holy Spirit sees fit to enlighten me.
Father, I pray that You would see fit to aid me in this, and I feel certain that You do see fit to do so. I long to be more true to You than I have been, to be more true to You than I feel myself able. Truly, I arrive at recognizing that without You working within, I am hopeless. It pains me to know how readily I offend against You, how begrudgingly I come seeking pardon from You. I see, at least for this moment of time, how presumptuous I am of Your mercy, and I do indeed ask for Your mercy. I know it is undeserved. I know that my sins against You are manifold, and my claims to repentance weak. I am weak. I must needs confess that first and foremost. I am weak, powerless in myself. I need You, Lord. I need You to will and work in me according to Your own revelation. I know You do so. I know You are here. Yet, I feel so distant, so apart from You at times. How is it that I am so easily offended by those who seem to ooze Your presence, or their sense of it, anyways, from every pore? How is it that I want to change the subject rather than spend all my time talking about You? God! Such an imperfect temple am I! Cleanse me. It is all I can ask. Cleanse me. Guide me in Your ways. Open my ears to Your words. Soften my heart, Lord. Holy Spirit, work in me, that I may be more like You. Jesus, thank You, that You have made provision for me, that I might come with even such requests as this, knowing that I will be heard, knowing that You, Holy Trinity, will answer. Let that knowledge be my reality. Let what I know of You become who I am in You.
V30: How to parse? (05/25/12)
Coming to verse 30, I find a particularly difficult passage. I am apparently not alone in this. The variations in translation are striking. The NASB provides us with, “We know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You.” Fine, but who is it that has no need? This is our first small problem. Is it that Jesus doesn’t need anybody asking Him, or that they find no further need to ask? Well, that part at least is easy enough to answer. The verb is in this case singular, which points back to Jesus as the subject of the need, not the disciples.
Even so, their meaning in this statement is a bit obscure. Consider some of the interpretations we are given. “You do not even need to have anyone ask you questions” [NIV]. “There’s no need to question you” [NLT]. “You can answer a person’s question even before it is asked” [NCV]. “You won’t have to put up with our questions anymore” [Message]. I have to say, that last one seems rather wide of the mark. “You don’t need to have people put their questions into words” [CJB]. “You don’t need to wait for questions to be asked” [GWT].
That bit of a survey suggests the general consensus as to what they meant. They were impressed by His ability to perceive their question and answer it without their having actually put the question to Him. Yet, if I have the setting right, it really doesn’t seem so shocking to me that He would be aware of the discussions they were having around the table. The disciples were speaking amongst themselves on this question (Jn 16:17), and confessing that they really didn’t get it (Jn 16:18). “We don’t know what He is talking about.” It’s hard to state the case any more plainly than that!
So we have these twelve men (Judas having left) reclining around what can be presumed to be a U-shaped arrangement of tables. They are most likely leaning on left elbow, heads towards the table, and while it is possible to have a private word with the one immediately to one’s left or right, even that privacy is likely to be overheard. I think of conversation in the cubicle farms of work. Any sense of privacy there is more likely illusion than reality. One has to consciously avoid accidental eaves-dropping in that setting. How much more when these guys are all together around the table? It’s not like they’re at some noisy cafeteria where hearing the one next to you can be hard enough. They’re in a private room, and they’re the only ones talking. How hard is it, then, to suppose that Jesus wasn’t intuiting their question, but overhearing it?
As much as that interpretation seems to be favored, then, it seems at odds with the setting. What is impressive about Him hearing their discussion and joining it? “By this we believe You came from God.” That hardly follows. Although, if this is the proper understanding, it would rather color how we next hear Jesus. “Do you now believe?” If this is the scenario, I would be inclined to hear Him dripping with sarcasm at that point. You believe because of this? Because I heard you chattering and gave you an explanation? My, but you guys are easily impressed. And as easily shaken. You’ll be gone in a flash when My troubles start.
The question that must be asked, then, is if there is any other reasonable way to understand that verse. So, I must confess from the outset that I am hardly expert in parsing Greek syntax, or even English for all that. But, the tools are here to at least take a stab at the thing. So, we have the disciples as a plural we who know, and Jesus as a singular He who knows, The object of their knowledge is obviously His own knowledge, and the object of His knowing is all things. So, that bit’s not terribly difficult to grasp. Again, that question of having need, or more simply needing, arises as a singular verb, pointing us back to a singular subject. So, it is clearly Jesus who has no need and not the disciples.
What follows? Any man is introduced, and is introduced in the singular subject of the next action, which is the asking. Asking is done third person, with the subject performing the action. Fine. Any man asks. Then there is the second person pronoun, you, presented in the accusative. Jesus, then, is the object of this questioning, but of that there was little enough doubt.
Frankly, none of that seems to do very much to clear up the question. Let me try a different tack and go to the commentaries on this point. Clarke seems to hold with the majority of those interpretations I have noted, that they find in His answer proof that He sees the heart, and knows the inward thought. But again, I must note that those thoughts were hardly inward. Barnes insists that it is evident that Jesus had not heard their discussion when He spoke up. He points back to John 16:19 for his evidence, but what this verse says is simply that He was aware of their question. “Jesus knew that they wished to question Him” says NASB. I find nothing in that statement that requires me to suppose He had arrived at this point without an abundance of evidence for His senses. Indeed, the particular knowing we are talking about there is the ginosko variant, which hints as His knowing from experience. Experience of what? Of what they were chattering about comes to mind.
Barnes continues with this point, which is perhaps a bit more convincing. His answers demonstrated more than just an overhearing of their failure to understand, but also a recognition of their doubts. OK. That’s an interesting line of thought. They expressed their failure to comprehend, not all of the misgivings that were within. And, it is to these misgivings that Jesus more particularly addressed His answer. It was to the turmoil within that He was speaking, more than to the matter of clarifying His previous point. I can buy that. This actually holds together rather well with His final point in this passage. “I have told you these things so that you may be at peace amidst the trials to come. Even when you are running from Me; even after you have abandoned Me, I would that you have peace, knowing that I have not abandoned you, indeed, for all that tribulation to come, here is the ultimate balm: I have overcome the world!” You know, that was a message that was about to become all but impossible to accept. Yet, it was Truth. And, when the evidence was in, it would be proven True. They would shortly see the proof of that victory, and after that, this peace Jesus speaks of would surely be settled in them once for all.
Matthew Henry sticks with a similar thread of thought, noting that the way Jesus could answer their unvoiced questions set Him apart from other teachers. Most teachers would wait to hear their students express whatever confusion they suffered. “The best of teachers can only answer what is spoken”. Jesus, on the other hand, had demonstrated that He could answer what was as yet but unspoken thought, the question held back for fear of voicing it. Again, I have that same bound set on how I far I could take such a point. He had heard what they were voicing, it would have been highly unlikely that He didn’t. But, with Barnes, I can accept that His understanding went far and away beyond what was spoken and arrived at what lay behind and within.
Isn’t this in keeping with the Jesus we’ve seen throughout the Gospels? How often have His answers to the spoken questions, His responses to the spoken statements, arrived not at the surface appearance of the conversation, but at the buried truth? I could think, for instance, of the woman at the well. She was speaking at one level, trying to keep the conversation a matter in which she could feel herself in control. Hah! I know your type. You must want something more than water from me, for a proper Jew would never ask a lowly Samaritan to give him water. Indeed, for all her fallen state, she feels a sense of superiority and command in this situation. She has a certain power, as she sees it. But, Jesus’ response to her goes to the heart of the matter. In that case, He arrives at some statements that reveal a very thorough knowledge of the woman to whom He is speaking, knowledge that lay hidden as best she knew how, yet was as good as announced on placards in His perception.
It seems, then, that this is how we ought to perceive the seemingly unjustified response of the disciples to His having said more to them. Never mind the question of how well they understood what He was truly saying, or if they got it at all. The point is not in His speaking to the voiced questions of their debate, but to the issues that lay deeper, the concerns that all were feeling yet none wished to admit. Go back and look at what He had been saying with that idea in mind, and things take on a rather different sense!
His plain-spoken response, as they saw things, set before them the example of a woman in labor. Yes, there was pain, pain beyond what most men will ever experience. Yes, there is sorrow. Who can suffer through pain like that without knowing a depth of regret and wanting it to be otherwise, to be over with? And note the permission in that! We are not, as proper believers in God’s Providence, required to view every lousy circumstance of life as wonderful and simply thrilling to have done to us. God does not command us to laugh at pain, nor to welcome torments. He does, however, promise that it isn’t pointless, that there is something lies beyond the pain. Just as that woman in labor eventually arrives at the overwhelming joy of having given birth to a new life, so the trials and sorrows of our own lives must eventually give birth to that newness of life which is now begun in us, but which will only know its fullness under heaven’s bright sun.
That is the message delivered. Whether it’s the message heard is a question for debate, but that is the point Jesus makes. You are going to have trials in this life. Count on it. You are going to undergo terrible things for My sake. They will hunt you down. They will ostracize you and far worse! You will know the same depths of humiliation that I shall know by their hands – at least as far as human sense goes. Yet, you will not have suffered the separation from your Father. You will be spared the full force of His wrath, for I have taken that on your behalf. This, you don’t get now, but you will. Indeed, I have overcome the world. Notice that! It is spoken of as accomplished fact, not future potential. Indeed, here we are several hours before “it is finished”, but He has already sealed the deal. But, that is tomorrow’s topic!
Overcoming Tribulations – Peace in Anxious Times (05/26/12-05/27/12)
These final words from Jesus, as greatly as they encourage, are a very odd way of encouraging. Yet, they do explain what He has been doing, what He has been saying. He has spoken as He as so that we may have peace in Him. This must be understood as applying most directly to the eleven men who reclined at table with Him. They would know such shocks as we are unlikely ever to experience in service to our God. They would see God dead and hanging on the cross. Now, we can have heated debate as to the accuracy of that statement, were I inclined to defend it. But, as far as the emotional impact of events goes, as far as the incredibly disillusioning perception of what was happening before them goes, I think it suits.
Yet, the intent of Jesus, as He looks to His own demise, is that they would know that He is at peace with them, that God is at peace with them. How many, in all of history up to that point, had ever truly known such a thing? It’s a number greater than zero, to be sure, but even then, their knowledge was founded more on hope and visions than upon solid experiential evidence. With the disciples, that was about to change. They would see the greatest of horrors. But, they would thereafter see the most indescribable of wonders. The Son of God! He is not dead, though we saw Him in the grave. He is risen! Truly, that victory He had claimed has been won. Now, we know. Now, we have such a certainty as to His true being and the Truth He has taught us as can never be shaken, whatever may befall.
And that’s exactly as Jesus intends things to be. But, it’s not to be so just for these eleven greats of the Church. It’s to be so for all who have come to Christ seeking salvation in Him alone. And to such as these, to such as us, Jesus proclaims this Truth that we, too, might not be troubled but rather know that we have peace in Him: “In the world you have tribulation.” Oh! That we would recognize the powerful nature of this statement. I am, I suspect, repeating myself, but it bears repeating. We are not called to live in some masquerade of self-delusion. We are not called to celebrate, leaping and singing, in the midst of terrible events. We are not called to claim everything is wonderful, when events are clearly against us.
So, where’s the good news? Well, the first bit of good news is this: Your king knows! He is not unaware of what you’re going through, nor is He unsympathetic to your plight. Indeed, He has in Himself bodily suffered the very sorts of trials that you are undergoing (Heb 4:15). And, let’s face it: He’s suffered far worse than you can (or are willing to) think or imagine. But, that is only the first marker of goodness in this situation. There is a second critical point to understand in what He says here: These tribulations are not God’s retribution. He has not given up on you and consigned you to the full experience of His wrath. This is not a down-payment on your eternal debt to heaven’s court. No! That’s been paid in full by the very event that so shocks, so dismays. The death of the Son, the horrors He underwent; I will not say that those torments of the flesh were nothing, for they were far from it. But, more horrible by far was the knowledge of God’s own wrath upon Him, in full, even for so brief a time. The utter desolation of being separated from the One He loves, and who loves Him, even were it for but the briefest blink of an eye, was an agony beyond any we shall ever know as believers. I dare say, it is even an agony beyond what will be known to the damned in hell.
But, He underwent this for one purpose: That we might have peace with God in Him. He did this, as Paul notices, while we were enemies. We were violently opposed to the rule of our God and King, but He reached out to us. He washed us. He chose to give us cause to repent of our revolt, rather than simply squashing the rebellion as is His right. John, too, knows the marvel of this rescue. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us! He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1Jn 4:10). He made His own Son, Who knew no sin, to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ (2Co 5:21).
Yes, you will have tribulations, but those tribulations are not God’s punishment. They are the world’s anger at a rebel who repented of rebellion. They are the emblems of warfare, but not against God. Rather, with God. You have joined the ranks of the King, and the rebel forces who are rampant in His kingdom are not pleased that you have deserted them for the winning side. Thus it has ever been, and thus it ever shall be so long as this old world persists: “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Ac 14:22). It continues as it was from the time John the Baptist arose: The kingdom suffers violence, and violent men take it by force (Mt 11:12). I could ponder again what that was intended to mean. Is it that we ought to battle our way into God’s presence, to struggle with all our might to find entry? Or, is it that this world in which we live, rightfully and truly a part of His kingdom, has been overrun by these rebel forces, who not only steal the land from Him by main force, but oppose every single being – human or otherwise – who seeks to see the True King’s rule reestablished?
Now, we come to the penultimate declaration of hope which is to be found in this closing verse: “I have overcome the world!” I say penultimate, because the ultimate hope remains in the words, “It is finished!” But, here, that finished work is already proclaimed. There remained the formalities by which the battle would be full and truly won, but it was already sealed, irrevocable. There remained not the slightest of probabilities by which this victory might be thrown off, and the rebels left in control. That victory which to our linear way of viewing events remained yet a day or two in the future was already obtained. “I HAVE overcome.” Whatever your senses may report to you in the events of these next few days, understand this!
Oh, recognize that Jesus knows our weakness even as He speaks this marvelous truth! You will all run away. You’re not going to hold onto what I’m telling you just now. It will be forgotten in the midst of your crisis. I know. I am not so easily put off by you. My love is eternal. You will forget in the crisis, but you will come through the crisis. You will come through the crisis, because I’ve already won that victory for you. It doesn’t look that way, doesn’t feel that way. But, it is that way. In time, with the crisis behind you, you will look back and you will know that I was there, that I was as fully in control in the midst of all that as I ever AM. And you will know peace in that. You will know peace not only with Me, with Father, but with yourself. This will be settled ground for you, established Truth that shall no more be subject to doubts.
When Jesus says that He has overcome, He speaks the term nenikeeka, which has the obvious sense of overcoming, but bears a more military connotation as well. He is victorious. He has conquered the world! It’s interesting that in the Amos study this week, that prophet brings in the particular name of God that suits this perspective, that He is Lord of Hosts. The One Whose might cannot be opposed has conquered! He is the victorious Warrior King. This is powerful! It’s going to be particularly difficult for these guys to believe in the next few days, but it’s powerful. And it’s True. He has conquered. There are, to be sure, major cells of resistance remaining, but their cause is futile.
In another sense, this term can take on a more forensic sense, an application in the court of law. The sense of winning remains, but now it’s a legal judgment. In this light, consider that Jesus is our primary Advocate in the courts of heaven, as well as its presiding Judge. Think also of that Holy Spirit introduced to us as our other Advocate, our Counselor. While I find this perspective intriguing, and there is that connection to the role of the Spirit, I think that in this instance it suits better to retain the military view.
It’s just possible, I admit, that Jesus means nothing more by this than His personal victory, His having succeeded in living a life in perfect accord with God’s Law, sinless in every way. And, in truth, we have great cause for courage in that He did this thing. It might not hurt us to settle for this more mundane sense of overcoming, for truly all our hope is found in the fact of His righteousness. Yet, for myself, I find greater comfort in the knowledge that this enemy that yet raves is one that has already been defeated, one that cannot win because the Lord of Hosts is ever against him. There is a reason that the gates of hell shall not prevail, and it’s certainly not found in the strength of man!
As a closing thought for this portion of the study, I want to consider a set of verses that arise as parallels to the last few verses of the current text. They are these three: “He Who sent Me is with Me. He has never left Me alone for I always do what pleases Him” (John 8:29). “Don’t let your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe in Me” (John 14:1) “In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
Why do these particular things jump out at me? I shall explore. Starting with that first comment from Jesus, notice how that continues to hold. He has never left Me alone, and lo! Even in this extreme of life, the Father is with Me! It is almost painful to me to think on that and know that the moment is but a day ahead when Jesus will know that agony in which He cried out, “Father, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mt 27:46). How devastating this was for Jesus I cannot begin to fathom, honestly. But, having lived for the whole of His earthly life with the absolutely certain knowledge of Father’s company, having existed throughout all of eternity, as concerns His godhood, in unbroken fellowship with Father, how this must have destroyed Him, to know even so brief a separation!
The second thing that strikes me about this is the precondition. It is not, I should stress, as though God’s love were not unconditional, yet even in unconditional love, there is a reason. “I always do what pleases Him.” Would that I could make such claims! And, that is where I am focused for this moment. I ought to be able to make such claims. God wants nothing more or less than that I would be able to do so. Let me reverse the image for a moment. If, as is many times the case, I fail to sense God with me, if I feel a distance, a gulf forming between us, where ought I to look first? Surely, I ought to consider if I am doing what pleases Him, or if I am instead doing what pleases me. The truth of the matter is that these two sets of activity remain firmly at odds.
It’s not that I don’t desire to please God. Not at all! But, the flesh, as Jesus says, is weak. It wants what it wants, and would prefer that the spirit man would just shut up and leave it to its own devices. We live, we Christians, in a state of constant war within. Flesh and spirit, habit and character, selfishness and Servanthood. I am put in mind of that English teacher from my youth, and his insistence on the tensions to be found in Frost’s poetry. That is us. We are at tension, ever pulled in opposing directions, and it is we who tug the lines. But, if we would know our God is with us, it would behoove us to allow that line of obedience to be tugged on harder.
Now, having admitted that weakness of flesh, and knowing as the apostles know that Jesus knows the heart, how wonderful to add that second passage to the doubts that might be instilled by the first! If my incapacity for obedience is cause for concern that God might depart my presence, there is this: “Don’t let your heart be troubled! You believe in God. Believe also in Me.” And I do! How could I not? I have been left no choice. I spent years trying to ignore, deny, despise this Jesus, laughing at those who fell for such nonsense. But, He laughed at me in all of that, and simply orchestrated events (oh, You God of my Providence!) such that I could no longer deny Him, could no longer do anything but believe Him. When God proves Himself, He tends not to leave much room for doubts!
And now, here is this God, this Christ, my Savior, saying “I have overcome!” And, who can but join Paul in the rejoicing over what this must necessarily mean for us? “In all these things we, too, conquer through Him who loved us!” No, Paul’s not satisfied with that. It doesn’t stir the heart sufficiently. We don’t just conquer through Him, we don’t just ride to victory on His coattails. We overwhelmingly conquer! Why? Very simply, because He has overcome the world! Consider for just a moment or so those things over which Paul is claiming this incredible victory: Right there at the head of the list is tribulation and distress. In this world you have these in abundance, but in Christ you have victory in superabundance. Persecution? Famine and want? Who can want for anything when Providence Himself leads us? Even the threat of death, or even the reality of death are nothing, for the Prince of Peace, Who stands as General over the hosts of heaven, is Life itself! He has conquered death right along with the world. Who, indeed, can possibly stand against us when One such as He is for us?
Take courage! He has overcome the world!
