Wednesday,
May 5, 2021
Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?” Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. John 14: 22 – 24a
Some of Jesus’ words confused the disciples. It was not that His words weren’t plain
enough to understand. After all, how
complicated is if you love me you will do what I have commanded you? When I was a young boy my father asked me to
dig a hole. If I respected his wishes I
would have dug the whole hole, not just the five or six shovels-full he found
when he got back. As a juvenile I didn’t
misunderstand the words; I misjudged my actions against the weight of
respect. It wasn’t my father’s fault; I
didn’t do what he asked, and demonstrated my lack of love by my disobedience. I just chose playing basketball with my
friends over loving (obeying) my Dad.
(We did talk when he got back, though!).
Judas was trying to wrap his mind around why the Messiah
wasn’t going to give a full-disclosure of his arrival as
Lord to the world at large. The
disciples were a little dense at this point, failing to see that the
announcement was Jesus’ love. Now, don’t
sit there shaking your head in agreement about those poor dense disciples; none
of us would have fared better.
Jesus’ whole point to Judas was that there was to be no fanfare
response like some great military conqueror might receive. This was going to be a groundswell movement within
people’s hearts from day-one! It was a
kingdom that started on the inside, and worked its way outward to all the
actions love demands and produces. If
you believe because you love, you will behave because love acts consistently
with what it loves. Belief produces
behavior. Love produces loving!
The larger lesson here, from this table talk, is
that the Gospel is announced to the entire world by God’s church, but it is
received one heart at a time. And that
was God’s intention with it; it’s personal between God and those who love God. Note that Judas asked why it wasn’t an open
declaration to the world at large. Jesus’ reply was about individual response;
when the heart came to love the Chief Lover of human souls, the Lover would
respond by moving-in…creating a home of God and individuals. Love would be requited, not simply as an
earthly king might rule subjects, even in a benevolent manner. Rather, this Kingdom was going to begin
within, stay within, and inspire the outward behavior of a whole lot of
spritual fruit, that which Apostle Paul would later list for us:
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23
So the takeaway is that God is rarely interested in the
pageantry, our ceremonies of praise and adoration, not nearly as much as the
processional in the heart that moves from believing to behaving. God is looking for the hearts to build Him a
home that is constructed with loving response towards that which God
loves. It’s an inside-job that has
outward consequences. Much later, after
years of reflection, Apostle John got this concept and wrote it down for us to
understand:
We love each other because he loved us first. If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 1 John 4: 19 - 20
That’s what Jesus told the disciples that day, talking around
the table, and that’s what He’s looking for in those who drag themselves to
church out of habit, or those who just try to obey the ten commandments out of
fear of going to hell for being bad.
He’s simply looking for a little heart love that will result in opening
a person’s “heart-door” for Him to move in with all his love-baggage.
What a change for those who respond.
For You Today
When life gets a
little tedious, boring, or frightful, it’s time to check the storage room of
your heart. Is there love for God
there…or has something else evicted the One who once lived there?
[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
No comments:
Post a Comment