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But for Christ, things were different. He knew His time was nearly at an end, He knew His words would be silent for a while, during the time of Satan’s unrestrained rage to attempt to end His life forever. So the communion that took place between our Savior and those closest to Him, was perhaps the most important communication they had had up till now. Already Judas had parted company with the others and was lost in darkness, consumed by Satan and driven to betray Him to His death. John in His gospel remembers the words of Christ right before He would die. In fact, there are nearly 5 chapters of the Gospel of John from 13 to 18 that cover the conversation Christ had with them before the cross. Those were His last words with them before disaster. Christ with the weight of our salvation pressing down upon Him, would spend His final moments with us, not thinking of relieving His own burden, but still thinking of relieving ours.
In chapter 14 of John’s gospel account we pick back up in verse 5 with Thomas’ part in the conversation. Jesus had told them He was going where they could not go. But that one day they would be with Him and would be able to see where He went forevermore. Thomas was not sure what this meant and so He states … “Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?” Thomas like us, wanted to know the direction we are to follow. He wanted specifics. He wanted a spiritual Google map that would give him step by step instructions on how exactly he would follow the path he was supposed to walk. But foreknowledge in every particular does nothing to build our faith, and require our trust. An inalterable guarantee would likely diminish our faith, not increase it. And so Jesus offers Thomas and us one of the most profound answers to our questions recorded in scripture.
Jesus responds in verse 6 … “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” First let us remember, the destination of our journey, is HOME to be WITH OUR Father. It is where Christ will be going, and where we will be going, through the beauty of His plan of our salvation for us. Next, Christ tells Thomas, that “He” (Christ) is “the way”. The specific path to our Father God is through Jesus Christ and ONLY through Jesus Christ. We do not find God on our own. We do not find God through competing deities, or other ideologies, or through our determination, our will-power, or acts of good deeds, not even through our ability or desire to love. We find home with God, only through Jesus Christ. We must be led. There is no spiritual Google map to outline the path of our lives, because only Christ can provide us the next step, and only as we submit our own will to Him, and allow Him to make this choice for us. While we retain the illusions of control, we deny Christ the ability to lead us, and instead “tell” Christ where we are going, expecting Him to bless our decisions, instead of following in the blessing of His decisions. While we take on the burden of leadership, we navigate ourselves directly to failure. But when we follow, we find only His successes, and are blessed through them in our own lives at each step, regardless the path we find ourselves in.
But Jesus is more than just our navigator, and our leader, He is also truth itself. In today’s age, we read the scriptures to learn more of Christ. But often we trust our own interpretations of scripture as being “the truth” instead of remembering that only Christ is “the truth”. Our Bible’s, as precious as they are, are not equal to the Christ who inspired them, or whose story is told within them, or who is VERY real in our lives and relationships today. A REAL experience with Christ is required today, just as much as it was for Adam, Moses, Daniel, or Peter, in order to truly find truth. When we submit ourselves to the leadership of Christ, and the influence of His Holy Spirit over our own ideas or “wisdom”, we find the truth (Jesus Christ) within our scriptures. When we can be taught, instead of thinking it our job to teach, we can learn even more of Christ from a verse we have read countless times, or a story we thought committed fully to memory. There is infinite depth in the truth of Jesus Christ. It is only our arrogance to assume we have come to know it all, or to know what is important. We have come to know what would fit on the head of a needle, in comparison with what Jesus can teach us of truth, if we but let Him. His message to us is a strong one. The interpretation of scripture without the lens of Jesus Christ leads to errors, not to truth. This was the mistake of the Pharisees, and it was rooted in the disciples also. But through Jesus Christ, and the willingness of His followers to be taught by Christ, the real truth throughout scriptures could be revealed. If we are to find truth, we must find Jesus first.
Lastly Jesus reveals Himself to be the way, the truth, and finally “the life”. Existence itself, is founded in Jesus Christ. What our lives were meant to be is founded only in Jesus. Existence away or apart from Christ is a tortured one, full of pain, and craving only death as a release from it. Whereas Life is found in Jesus; life was meant to be lived without pain in any way. Life was meant to be lived where death or an end to it, has no relevance or meaning. Life was meant to be lasting as Christ is lasting. Life lived as Christ lived it, is our definition to which we should aspire. His life was an expression of love in action for us, the objects of His great love. He thought of nothing for Himself, but thought of everything for us. This is the model upon which God lives. God Himself serves. God Himself chooses to show love to those creations He wills into existence. It is the fundamental difference between the philosophy of God and that of Satan that twisted love for others into love for self. Satan internalized love and it became evil. The quest to make one’s self happy turned choices into compulsions. Whereas there is no limit to what God does to love us, there is also no limit to what Satan would do to try to please himself at anyone’s expense. The path of God leads to ultimate fulfillment in doing nothing for self. The path of Satan leads to ultimate emptiness by doing everything for self. This is why “Life” is found in Christ, and why “death” is the only alternative to that life.
So to the question of Thomas in seeking specifics, Christ offers him and us, the more important answer, Himself. To find our way home to be with God forevermore, we need only find Jesus. Jesus then continues and offers another revelation to his followers … “If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.” To see Christ, to know Christ, is to know the Father God. They are united in purpose, united in the expression of love, and united in the plan of our redemption. For those who would deny the divinity of Christ, they would by proxy deny the divinity of God the Father. Jesus links Himself with His Father, and states to know one, is to know the other; to see one, is to see the other. And by counterpoint, to deny one, is to deny the other.
The point of Christianity is not to threaten non-believers with punishments of hell and damnation. The point of Christianity is to love our enemies, and those non-believers who would do us harm, without restraint, or condemnation, back to the throne of grace where we too find redemption and God. Christ is here offering us a pathway back to God through His transformational power. He is the only one capable of making such an offer. Those competing ideologies would attempt to offer us another way of finding God, have no demonstrated way to change the core of who we are. We can constrict our behavior, but we are wholly unable to alter what we want, or how we think. Only Christ can bring a reformation that alters our very desires, thoughts, intentions, and motives. After He changes the core of who we are from the inside, our actions begin to reflect His changes. To attempt to act on our own is to find only a shallow reflection of what is possible alone in Jesus Christ.
These two texts that John recorded of the words of Christ are in themselves a summary of the entire gospel. They tell us where we are going, how to get there, and what is important. Living them, becomes an experience that cannot be captured in written words for none are adequate to express what they mean. We worship God, not to achieve our salvation, but because of our salvation. And to be saved one must experience being saved from self, from slavery to evil, from uncontrolled compulsions that once ruled our lives and now have found no place in them. To experience that kind of freedom in the salvation of our God Jesus Christ, is like nothing else on planet earth. Reading about the possibilities, is not the same, as embracing the reality of salvation from self in your life, by His power and none of your own. When that is your personal experience with Christ, you BECOME a witness to His great power and victories IN you. The victories will always be His, but you will now be a witness to them, and have something of meaning to say to others. A third person account of salvation may be interesting, but it is not as compelling as first person account. When you give YOUR testimony of the power of Christ, you will be speaking from your own heart, about what the living God did for you. All of the sudden the written word has real relevance and makes a real impact, because it is no longer just a collection of stories, but a transcription of your own reality and salvation. This is the difference between interpreting scripture and finding the God behind them.
To these profound truth’s Phillip looks for clarification. He reasons that if Jesus and the Father are so linked, it should be easy enough for Jesus to ask for the Father to appear among them, and in this way, all doubts would be removed, and the “proof” of the divinity of Christ established, at least for him. So he asks in verse 8 … “Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” Phillip’s request was not much different from the Pharisees who demanded proof, or the atheists in our day who demand the same, or perhaps even ourselves who ask God to just answer one particular prayer in order that we would believe. When we put conditions to our belief, we introduce doubt, and what we reveal is a more deep-seated choice not to believe. An atheist friend of mine, once told me that if a 50 foot Jesus appeared on the 50 yard line of the Super Bowl, he would then believe in God. To which I challenged him, would he really? If he only saw it on television, might he simply not attribute it to special effects? If he were there in person, wouldn’t his first thought be that this was simply some form of grand magician’s illusion? And failing that, might he not prefer to believe that this event was some form of mass hallucination based on a toxic chemical release in the air rather than a true revelation of something he refuses to believe is possible?
When we ask for concrete proof to assuage our doubts, we find our doubts are bigger than the “proof” we demand. Our trust and our faith cannot be founded in absolutes or they would cease to be faith at all. Lucifer had trust in himself and his own logic, ideas, and “facts” as he knew them – but he was wrong. He trusted his own wisdom over that of God, and evil was born into the universe. If evil is to be extinguished we must make the choice to trust God over our own ideas, “wisdom”, and perception of the “facts”. That choice to trust cannot be made if we base it ONLY on absolutes. It must be made with a recognition of our dependence on Christ because we do NOT have all the answers. This leads us to trust in His wisdom over our own. It leads us to know His motives are pure, and we can put our faith in Him, because He loves us, and love is all that matters. Phillip’s request to see the Father was not an unreasonable one, often our requests seem equally meager. But we ask the wrong questions, when it comes to the building of our faith. We must choose to believe in spite of our lack of knowledge, not because of the accumulation of it. We must choose to trust, because He is worthy of trust, not because we have no alternatives, or because we have no reason to doubt. Trusting in Him, in spite of what we might “think” is true, is the beginning of real wisdom and truth and faith – and it forms the cornerstone of our salvation. For part of the transformation we are to undergo is to have even our thinking be remade. That cannot happen while we cling to it and refuse to undergo His changes in us.
Jesus responded to the request of Phillip in verse 9 … “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? [verse 10] Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.” The answer of Christ was a simple one. You already have it Phillip. Everything you have already seen in your own life, shows you who Christ is, and the example of His life shows you who the Father is. There is no need to ask the Father to materialize to show Him to you, because what you see in Christ is already sufficient to see the Father. After all it is the works of the Father, that Christ performed, each miracle a revelation of divine love.
Then Jesus offers another perspective on “why” Phillip should believe. If he must have evidence of the supernatural to prove the divinity of Christ he could believe based on the miracles he has already seen. Jesus continues in verse 11 … “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. [verse 12] Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. [verse 13] And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. [verse 14] If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” Here Christ ups the ante. Not only has Phillip seen the miraculous works Christ has performed in the name of the Father, upon which he could choose to shed his doubts. But Christ furthers offers participation in performing miracles, that are requested of Him, in order that the name of the Father might be glorified in the Son. Keep in mind, that God measures glory in acts of love in action for others, not in the accumulation of wealth, fame, and power for us. But in effect, Christ is telling Phillip, you have seen what I have done, now I am offering you participation in the enactment of miracles wrought in the name of Christ, for the glory of God the Father.
The most mind-blowing portion of that scripture stands as a sharp rebuke to the faith of myself, and the modern Christian church of today. Christ tells us that those who “believe on Him” would do “greater works than these” because He has returned to His Father. So let’s first think about the miracles He has already performed …
· Turning water to wine at a wedding
· Revealing the entire life history to a stranger and ministering to her and her town
· Healing the child nearly dead without even being in the area at the time
· Restoring the eyes of a man blind from birth
· Healing a lame man who has spent decades in this condition
· Healing a woman who but touched the hem of his robe in a crowd of people
· Walking on water, and instantly moving 12 men across a significant distance
· Feeding 5000 men, plus women and children, with the lunch of a small boy
· Disappearing from sight in crowds of thousands bent on making Him King
· Raising Lazarus from 4 days dead back to life
These were but a few of His miracles, and the question that haunts my own faith, is where is ours? Christ says if “we” believe on Him, whatever we ask of Him, He will do it for the glory of the name of His Father. So I understand that the name of the Father would not be glorified in my winning the Powerball lottery (despite what I claim I would give away), or becoming CEO of my company (despite how I might be able to use my firm for good), or being President of the United States (despite what changes I believe I could enact for good in the world). All of those things are about the glory of myself measured in terms the world understands. But what about the healing of AIDS and Cancer, in those who have need? What about addressing the needs of the hungry in spite of our lack of means to do so? What about the greater miracle of allowing Christ to completely re-create who we are from the inside out? Are we seeing these miracles in the church of today, wrought within the believer in the mirror, for the glory of His name and not our own? Are we so caught up in the idea of it being “us” who gets to take the credit for miracles that none can be performed? Christ said “anything”. Do we even ask that much anymore or have we become so meager in our faith that we only ask for what we believe is “possible”, “reasonable”, and “doable” as defined by our human reality.
To become something more, we must be remade by Christ. But as we are remade, let us not abandon the power of the Love of Christ to accomplish what cannot be accomplished. AIDS and Cancer may kill many based on the limits of human medicine and science, but they are no match for love of God in action in the life of a person afflicted and in need. Christ healed all those in need. Everyone who sought Him did not leave disappointed. He did not require faith first of those He healed. Instead their faith was built because of what He had done for them, not as a prerequisite. They worshipped Him because He had changed their lives, not in order to secure the change. Part of our challenge is to learn to want different things. While what I crave is the power and fame of this world, what I ask God for is less about His real measure of glory and more about my own corrupted view of it. But as I allow Him to remake me, I think less about my own gain, and my own fame, and more about the real needs of others. I do not wish to be on CNN, and known as this country’s Christian miracle worker; nor do I wish the praise and gratitude of those who are healed through the power of prayer. Instead it is enough to offer silent prayers that only Christ can hear. It is enough to know that He will hear them, and those in need will be cured. It is enough to know that He allowed us the great privilege of participation in the miracle of meeting the needs of another, without the accolades of fame, or false gratitude to us that in truth belongs only to Him.
We must become a church of miraculous service to others. We must learn to fulfill the mission we have been offered as yet another gift of our Savior. We do not need to have the means first to accomplish our goals, for in truth we will never have what we need based on our own efforts in any case. What we truly need to accomplish sharing in His mission, is Christ. We must take Him up on His offer, and participate in the miracles He would have worked in the world of today, by offering intercessory prayer for those who have need. For our enemies first. For those who would do us harm first. For those who do not share our beliefs first. For theirs is the greater need. Then should we continue to pray for those who we love, until those who we truly love cannot make the distinction between family and one who would choose to be our enemy. We should pray first for their salvation and restoration to God, thus asking God to act in their lives in order to answer our prayers, even if the objects we pray for would not have ever thought to ask for themselves. Thus do we participate in the salvation of our enemies and our families until they are one. Then we should ask for our Lord to work His miracles to meet the needs of those we know. We should be content in the knowledge that He will act, and need no confirmation of this fact, other than the fact that we asked. A praying church, who like Christ, looks to the interests of others, and never seems to get around to seeking its own interests, would be a church that would truly change the world, and bring about an end to the power and influence of Satan.
But the last words of Christ and His communion with His faithful few was not over yet …
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