In John 13-14 Jesus is revealing things to his disciples about what is going to happen and where he is going to have to go. These are important considerations if you are a follower, a disciple because where the master goes so go the disciples. In John 14:4 Jesus tells them, “You know the way to the place where I am going.” to which Thomas replies with the question on all of their minds, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus proceeds to tell them that the way is not a direction, a path or points on a map. The way is a person, Jesus Christ, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (14:6). In a world full of many “ways” that people hold equal and not necessarily even mutually exclusive (people hold Buddhist, Christian, and Kabbalah all at the same time for instance) this sounds reckless at best. The very best Christianity has to offer is not summed up in a creedal statement, a set of doctrines, or traditions. It is best summed up by the man Jesus Christ.
Many want eternal life but not all are ready and willing to accept the man, his mission and message.
In what ways does your life embrace the mission and message of Christ and in what ways are you still challenged to live up to the calling of Christ?
What challenges do you/we face today in being Christ-followers?
Why does our culture want to live forever but fail to recognize Jesus Christ as having anything to do with that process?
0 Responses
Thanks for the word, keep up the good work,cheers MLB
I can only take a blind potshot at the last question: Our culture wants to live forever because there is still hope that things might get better in the future … because it has been so disappointed in itself that it’s hard for anyone to believe in anything anymore … because Jesus Christ has been reduced to an epithet, an equal (or inferior) among many philosophers, an artifact of a bygone era, a Word without meaning.
And while that’s not totally our fault as believers, it’s mostly our fault because we still stutter to answer your first two questions.
“Why does our culture want to live forever but fail to recognize Jesus Christ as having anything to do with that process?”
Culture doesn’t recognize Jesus as the way, because it’s a complete paradox that one would have to die in order to live. Yet, that’s what Jesus is speaking of here in John 14 — his own death…
And, I believe, the death of his followers. Jesus is the only way to the Father and to life as it was intended — and our own death is the only way to live in Christ.
That’s incredibly difficult for Christians to understand and live (er.. die) by. How much more difficult for culture as a whole?
Very well said!
I just read Jay Guin’s comments on K.C. Moser where he wrote, “Even today, Dub McClish is still at war with Moser’s teachings in a fascinating 2004 paper [at https://www.scripturecache.com/resources/REVISITING+THE+MAN+OR+THE+PLAN+DISCUSSION-DOCUMENTED.pdf%5D , which gives real insight into the legalistic mindset ”
Your comment (and the Scripture on which it is based) should settle the matter.
Jerry