Pulling the All-Nighter of Your Life ...

Nearly all of us have done it.  Whether making a road trip, or in school, or due to work, or because of the birth of child, or perhaps death in the family; we have all pulled an all-nighter at some point in our life.  Doing this is generally unnatural to us.  Our bodies are wired with a natural wake / sleep routine that can be stretched, but when it is completely upset, it disrupts the chemicals in our brains and the capabilities in our bodies.  Needless to say, as the clock for how long we have been awake begins to exceed 24 hours, our reflexes, our instincts begin to be impaired.  We are not at our best.  Endorphins may keep us stimulated to do what needs to be done, but the expression “there is nothing like a good night’s sleep” takes on new meaning after an All-Nighter. 

In fact, we use similar language to describe the difference between a clean conscience and one that has clearly violated a moral code.  The expression “how do you sleep at night?” is intended to be a challenge to see if the conscience is clear, or guilty of a crime that should bring us a perpetual state of stress from our wrong doing.  Sleep is something we need.  But sleep is something that can be postponed, or interrupted by noise, by events, by stress, or in those rare cases we cannot avoid, by pulling an All-Nighter.  That is the common thread though, it is need.  When driving across country, while on the road, we need to stay awake.  The alternative risks death.  When pulling a work shift at night, we need to be alert and doing our jobs, lives may depend on it, our job certainly does.  That perception of “need” drives us to disrupt our normal wake / sleep patterns to accomplish the goal we set for it.

Peter was to know one of these nights.  It was during the greatest crisis that has ever been or will ever be.  It was at a time when the literal fate of the universe hung in the balance.  Peter would not face this crisis alone, he was in fact to bear witness to it with a few close friends, and the Savior of our world.  It would require an All-Nighter, where to sleep was to invite a disaster such as cannot be imagined.  We know his actions, but do we really understand what he and the others risked?  To set context, this event would occur only moments after Peter and the other disciples had promised Jesus that no matter what, they would follow Him, never deny Him, and if it came to it, they would die with Him.  They had all just made a solemn vow, a vow based in the certainty of their own strength and faith.  This was a vow they intended to forever honor, and now was to be put to the test only moments after making it.

So begins the recollections of Peter to John Mark in his gospel in chapter fourteen, picking up in verse 32 saying … “And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray.”  This night was different.  Normally when Jesus needed it, or wanted it, which was many nights, He would simply disappear into the nearby mountains and pray to His Father.  His strength was always renewed by this action.  Pulling an all-nighter by Jesus was common place, and His close proximity to God while in prayer, gave Him direction from God, and renewed His strength by miraculous means.  He did not need or take the disciples with Him on these events.  He let them sleep.  They could not know everything He and His Father would share on these nights anyway.  But this night was different.  He took them with Him, and only went as far as the garden in Gethsemane to pray.

Peter continues describing the events to John Mark in verse 33 saying … “And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;”  After leaving the main group of His disciples nearby, Jesus selects Peter, James, and John to go a little further with Him.  It is then, that the need for this all-nighter begins to show itself.  Jesus who is usually so benevolent and confident in the will of His Father, so connected with God the Father, begins to lose this connection.  The effect on Him is immediate and profound.  His entire demeanor is changed.  And He looks as if He carries the weight of the world upon His shoulders, for He does.  More than just our world, the risk is becoming clearer to Jesus.  If He allows Himself, to be stained with our sins, in so doing, He may never rejoin the Fathers company once again, forever alone, forever isolated from God.  That dear friends, is the very definition of hell.  It is not just the events of a nighttime that are at stake, these events may lead to eternal results, and without His connection with His Father, He cannot see what the results may be.

Jesus continues speaking in verse 34 saying … “And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.”  The essence of life of Jesus is defined by love, and connection to love.  God is love.  And on this night beginning right here and right now, the Father must turn away from His Son.  The lamb must now carry the sins of the world.  The day of Atonement is literally to be fulfilled.  And the connection between Father and Son that has gone on uninterrupted since before there was time or space, has now reached an artificial end.  It is the choice of Jesus to carry our sins, and with that choice must come a separation that neither Father or Son has ever seen.  The weight of it could destroy the universe as we know it.  What now hangs in the balance is more than our world.  Heaven, the unfallen worlds, everything that has been known since the beginning is now at risk with the separation between Father and Son.

It will not be whips, thorns, or nails in a cross that will kill the author of Life.  It will only be a separation from God He has never felt, could not imagine, and now is beginning to experience such as never before.  His very soul, His own essence, is sorrowful unto death.  Jesus is entering what is truly hell.  Not the flames, but the separation.  Not the physical torture, the only torture that counts, that cutting off from the source of all Love, of all Life.  Jesus cannot see past this disconnection.  It could indeed be permanent.  In this state, He turns to His three closest companions, and friends.  He turns to the men who only moments before had vowed their very lives to Him.  And He asks them to watch, and stand guard over Him.  He needs them to pray for Him for a change.  The One who usually needs no prayer from us, now needs all of them.  Surely these men who moments before were willing to die for Jesus, could not stand and pray, to help ward off the devil in His greatest hour of need.

Jesus continues in verse 35 saying … “And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. [verse 36] And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.”  Here is where you die when you crave life.  Here is where your prayer to be healed goes unanswered.  Here is where the author of life itself for us cries out to His Father screaming in the cold night … “Daddy”.  Every human father or mother who has ever heard that scream of desperation from their small child comes immediately running to fix it.  No earthly parent can ignore the REAL need of their child who screams for them, saying daddy or mommy.  The connection between earthly parent and loved child is just too strong.  We cannot sit back.  We cannot remain silent.  It is too much for us.  But this is what our salvation requires of our Father God to do.

Jesus continues saying … take it from Me, I KNOW You can do it, because You can do everything.  And God can do everything.  Jesus is absolutely confident His Dad can do anything.  He can save all his earthly children from the choice to break trust with Him and embrace the addiction of sin and slavery to it.  But His method of saving us, must cost this price.  The Father must sit back on His throne and ignore the pleas of His only child when He screams out … “Daddy”.  If the Father breaks His silence and ends this separation neither of them have ever experienced, if He ends this pain, we must face what we have earned, and all of us must know an eternal separation from God.  All of us must know that hell. 

So because there is a greater good here, a greater love here, that sees beyond the perspective of what we see while we suffer, He must remain silent.  His own son’s prayers must go unanswered when He needs them the most.  The Father must have enough love NOT to act, to remain silent, and let what is going to happen, happen.  Sometimes our prayers must go unanswered or answered with no when we believe our need is greatest.  It is not because our need is not real, but it may be because our perspective is limited to the finite, and God is working an eternal benefit we cannot see at the moment.  Sometimes we die, but our death is not the end of our story, because the Father God has love enough to work for the eternal even when the short term pain is real and extreme.  Love must suffer this much, to see us saved.

Jesus prays for what He wants.  He wants relief.  He wants another plan.  He is beginning to consider changing His mind, not because His body is being tortured.  That physical pain will follow these hours later.  But because the separation of Son from Father is killing Him.  His pain is so extreme over this, that He is driven to scream out for His Daddy, and look for Him to fix it.  But while the separation is crushing Him, He asks His Father to do as He wills, not as Jesus wills.  This is where the love of the Father God of the universe is put to the test.  This is where His silence against the pleas of His son, stand as a testament to how much He must love us.  We who are not worth it.  We who do not deserve it.  The price of His grace is not cheap indeed, it is the greatest price ever paid.  It is His silence against His own Son, that is our assurance of His love.  We who consider silence, apathy.  We who consider silence, a testament of non-existence.  Nothing could be farther from reality.  God the Father is doing, what must be done, to save us, no matter how painful that is in the shorter term.  Eternity rests on what He does.

The pain, the exhaustion of Christ are written on Him in tears of blood.  Not a human hand has been laid upon Him yet He looks emaciated, and beaten.  In this state, in this condition of absolute need, He returns to His friends, picking up in verse 37 saying … “And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? [verse 38] Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.”  They are not pulling the all-nighter of the century, or of the millennia, or of all time.  They are asleep.  They are watching nothing, guarding nothing, comforting nothing.  They are asleep.  This is the vow they made in action.  This is where the first request was made, and where their devotion could be measured when it means something.  And a task as simple as caring, went unanswered, in favor of sleep. 

Jesus asks could they not keep watch for merely one hour?  Other nights, they have fished all night.  On this one, the fate of the universe hangs in the balance.  Their own lives and salvations hang in the balance.  Jesus tells them that His mind or His spirit is ready for what is occurring.  But His body, or His flesh begins to dread the pain and death it knows is coming.  Fear, that infects all humanity, clouds reason, and causes us to make poor decisions, begins to infect One who has never known it.  Fear that comes from a separation from God, and fear that it might be forever.  Fear of a painful death that will mean nothing, accomplish nothing, except getting Him kicked out of heaven, because He can no longer be in the presence of purity after having been tarnished with all our sins, with each of our sins, with yours, with mine.  In this hour of greatest need, Jesus has woken His disciples and asked them once more to remain vigilant, to help Him through this.

John Mark records in verse 39 saying … “And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words.”  The test is not over.  Again He has called out to His Daddy in agony.  A tone of voice that has never been heard in all of time and space from Jesus to His Father.  This is the siren call of a toddler in pain and agony who wants it to stop.  They do not understand why you the parent cannot fix it.  It is not a random scream.  It is a scream to the one that has always, ever fixed everything they needed, it is a call to daddy.  The heartbreak that wells up in the heart of daddy, as he realizes he cannot fix what is causing His Son this pain.  He would gladly trade His own pain or life for that of His Son.  This is the breaking of the heart of Father God.  For indeed He could fix the pain of His Son.  But He must not.  With all the power, He must not use it.  Or we will be lost in the balance.  There will be no cheap grace here, purchased with nothing.  It will cost Him everything He loves.  It will force Father God to watch pain, hear those calls from His Son, and remain silent and separate.

John Mark continues in verse 40 saying … “And when he returned, he found them asleep again, (for their eyes were heavy,) neither wist they what to answer him.”  Jesus again turns for consolation and comfort from those He is saving through the pain of this sacrifice.  He turns to those who claim to love Him the most, His servants.  He finds them sleeping once again.  They have no words of excuse now.  They have no explanation for why they have failed again.  These men have vowed unto death, yet cannot pray for even an hour.  This is the value of our promises.  This is the value of our vows.  They can be undone by a simple urge to sleep.  And before we become too self-righteous in our condemnation of the disciples for sleeping, perhaps we should look in the mirror, and realize our entire generation has been sleeping for too long.  Our entire gospel, both in message, but also in transformation of who we are, goes unsaid, and undone, for our sleep.

John Mark continues in verse 41 saying … “And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. [verse 42] Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand.”  The answer was no.  The answer to the most desperate plea ever offered was no.  There was no other way.  There would be no other outcome.  Jesus had screamed for His Father, but was told no by inaction.  Jesus for the third time comes back to His disciples, but this time, He looks no more for our comfort or consolation.  He is now resigned that a no means no, and He must do what He does NOT want to do.  He must face a separation from God He may never recover from.  It is love for us that drives Him to risk this fate anyway.  He wakes His disciples now only to face His own betrayer.

What might have been?  What if instead of trusting to self, and to the strength of self, the disciples had rooted their language and promises in the will and love of God.  Perhaps that all-nighter might have come out differently.  While God the Father must remain silent to the pain of His Son.  We did not need to be so.  The arms of Peter, James, and John, might have reached out to hold Him up.  To help Him bear His burden in His hour of greatest need.  Imagine the beauty of that gift from them to Him.  Imagine the difference that might have made to Him. 

But He did it alone.  He faced it alone.  Not because there was no one around, but because there was no one awake.  They vowed and then did nothing but sleep.  We vow and what do we do afterwards?  Do we truly submit and be transformed, or do we prefer the sleep of ignorance and forgiveness?  There must come a time in the life of every Christian where forgiveness is not enough, where perfection is what is sought and desired.  Are you there yet, am I, or do we both sit sound asleep, fully unaware of what could be, what might be, and what a waste our sleep creates.

 

Nightmare Ending; A Paradox ...

Is power greater when it is used, or when it is restrained?  Until the final day when all will be revealed, we cannot know for certain the motives of Judas in doing what he did.  Perhaps one scenario was that Judas still held to his beliefs about the nature of the Messiah’s mission to be a king, and liberator of Jewish oppression from the yoke of Roman bondage.  After all, Christ Himself, had said for His listeners to come to Him with their heavy burdens, and take His yoke upon them, to find rest.  Perhaps in the mind of Judas, Christ just needed a “push” in the right direction in order for Him to stop avoiding becoming the king He was surely meant to be.  Human nature is fairly instinctual about self-preservation.  If Christ were put in a truly life jeopardizing situation, His human side would be sure to use His divine power to avoid death.  If forced into this scenario, perhaps then Christ would rise up, use the power He was endowed with, and finally and fully take control over things.  Power was decidedly within Him.  Judas perhaps reasoned that He could not just waste it, or leave it dormant, particularly in the face of imminent death.  And if God could die, how could He truly be God?

It is hard for me to accept that a disciple of Christ who experienced His love for three years, suddenly decided to betray His Lord for a mere thirty pieces of silver to satisfy his own greed.  Mary’s sacrifice spent on the feet of Christ was worth more than that.  Believers would be inclined to donate, and if needed, Judas could employ miracles in exchange for “donations” if all he wanted was to become richer financially.  There were easier ways to make money off Christ, than betraying Him to His death for a lousy thirty coins.  Why kill the golden-goose, so to speak?  In our day, many a charlatan uses the name of Christ, and preys on the faith of believers to enrich his own bank account.  All through time, ministers claiming to be sent of God, ask for money they can hoard, instead of employ, and all in the name of Christ.  It has become nearly an industry.  Judas, being a thinking man, might well have pioneered this industry if money were his only end game.  But I believe it was more than that.

What is much easier for me to accept, perhaps because I have seen it happen in the mirror; is to believe that Judas looked to his own scriptural understandings to shape the course of his life.  He was taught from youth what the nature of the Messiah meant to his nation, and to himself.  He heard no dissenting opinions by the learned-men of the nation on this topic.  Ironically, had Christ ever employed His power to assert dominance over Rome, the priests and leaders would have fallen behind Him in a minute.  Instead Christ taught a completely different version or understanding about the nature of the mission of the Messiah, one in which power was NOT the answer.  This was a message that doomed the Jewish people to remain under the power of Rome.  And as such, it could not be accepted by the teachers who daily told the people the wrong ideas.  The humility of Christ stood as a stark contrast to the struggle of the leaders of His day to maintain power and control over their religion and their people.  The love and care Christ showed for the under-class, treating them as He would a king, making no distinction – upset every cultural value they had relied on to date.  It was revolutionary.  It was undermining.  It was counter to everything the leaders taught, and perhaps too, to what Judas believed.  The decisions and actions Judas took, may well have been because He refused to accept what Christ said, and continued to believe his own ideas instead.

When we try to “help” God achieve His mission, we often take actions that instead, end in a nightmare for everyone involved.  I do not believe Judas thought the ending of this story would unfold as it did.  I believe he envisioned an ending of traditional designs, where Christ would be king, Judas would be His number two, the Romans would be banished, the Pharisees humbled, the nation saved, and Israel the predominant country to last forever under the leadership of Christ.  It was a nice dream.  It was an engrained understanding of scripture.  It was a choice to cling to his own ideas, and doctrines, and values, and it would lead him to see Christ die for it.  Instead of effecting the kingship of His Lord, he would witness the torture and death of His Lord.  His dream would become a nightmare.  As will ours, if we follow the same path of trusting to our own wisdom, instead of accepting the leadership of Christ alone.

John omits in his gospel, the agony, and the glory of the final struggle of Christ in the garden.  Instead John moves from the long communion of Christ with His faithful few, to the betrayal and how it took place.  Perhaps John thought the struggle in Gethsemane already covered well enough in other gospels, or perhaps he simply thought the pre-amble more important to emphasize.  But I do believe in John’s account there is an implied passage of time within the first few verses of Johns gospel chapter 18 as in verse one we find … “When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.”  Perhaps the final agonizing struggle of Christ occurred then, perhaps it had already taken place.  But John continues in verse 2 … “And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples. [verse 3] Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.”  This part of the plan would have to be difficult for Christ by design in order for it to work in the mind of Judas.  Christ must understand His life is in jeopardy, in order for His human side to use His divine power to save Himself and His friends.

John continues in verse 4 … “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? [verse 5] They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.”  So far, so good, for Judas’ plan – Christ steps forward, asserts leadership and asks who they want, then identifying Himself as their object.  John writes in verse 6 … “As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground. [verse 7] Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. [verse 8] Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way: [verse 9] That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.”  Now things were unfolding exactly like Judas had dreamed.  Christ answers “I am he” and an entire company of armed soldiers recognizes the divinity flashing through His humanity, and they are powerless to resist, falling backwards to the ground.  The voice of God, even in only 3 small words, is more than the force of their entire armed company.  This is what Judas wants.  Christ further asserts, that those who are with him, are of no concern to this mob, so they should be let go.  No one intends to argue that point.  The power of His voice is irresistible.  No sense to debate taking men the Pharisees could care less about at this point.  So far, all is as Judas desired.

But John then begins to twist the hopes and dreams of Judas as he continues the story in verse 10 … “Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. [verse 11] Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?”  First, there was no need for Peter being impetuous.  Christ had already flattened this mob with His voice.  But Christ’s words were now devastating to Judas.  Instead of seizing power, He intended to be taken.  Instead of becoming King, He would accept His betrayal.  He considered this cup of woe, to be the will of His Father, and part of His mission and intended to go through with it.  This was the nightmare ending, Judas had not envisioned.  The words and teachings of Christ of a sacrificial lamb that must be offered in order for the people to be redeemed, the broken body, the wine that would symbolize His blood, all the teachings come flooding back into the mind of Judas.  And now he is left with the inescapable conclusion, Christ intends to be that sacrifice.  Instead of pushing His Lord into a kingship, He has betrayed His Lord unto death.  Judas has done this.  Judas played this role. 

John closes out the last hopes of Judas as he continues in verse 12 .. “Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him, [verse 13] And led him away to Annas first; for he was father in law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. [verse 14] Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.”  Christ allowed Himself to be bound.  He heals the ear of His enemy, though John does not explicitly state that here.  But He is carried away to the homes of His enemies to Annas, and to Caiaphas.  These men intend to kill Christ, and Judas knows that.  He was counting on that.  He needed the threat of death to push Christ into becoming king.  So the threat is real, and is fully understood by Judas, and by Christ.  But instead of wielding the power Judas knows Christ has within Himself, the power that only recently put a whole company of armed men on their backs.  Christ submits.

Power then, is not to be measured by its employment after all, but by its restraint.  Hosts of heavenly angels, much more powerful than the wicked men who now threaten and injure their Lord, are at the ready.  They long to protect He who they love.  They long to take righteous retribution on these evil men, giving to them the punishment they have earned, and keeping their Lord safe from the insults, and pain He will now endure, and is enduring.  This angelic army defeated the forces of Satan before and cast them out of heaven.  They would be happy to do it again, and foil the plans of greedy men.  But with all their power and all their might, and despite all their love for their Lord, they are restrained by the will of God, and of Christ.  Power could have solved this danger for Christ, but it would have perpetuated our demise and our suffering.  He was here for this very purpose.  He came to take on our well-deserved punishment.  And despite His ability to extricate Himself from the pain, the danger, and the imminent death, He restrains Himself, and submits.

But the ultimate power, was and remains the power of God the Father.  God who could speak creation into existence by the sheer power of His own will.  God the Father who loves NOTHING more than His own Son, His only Son.  God the Father, must now sit restrained and allow what happens to Christ to happen, without interference, without intercession, without disruption.  He will not reduce the pain of Christ in order that He might bear this punishment.  He will not take away the death that is coming.  He will not comfort His son, as now His son bears the sins of us all.  The Father must instead bear witness to what occurs without doing anything to stop it.  This is the price of sin.  This is the pain that now the Father must bear, because of the choices we embrace.  In order to redeem that which He loves, He must see His son suffer what we have chosen.  The power of the God of the universe is not used to spare His son, or keep His own son from pain.  Instead all that power and all that might is silent in the face of our pain.  He allows His son to bear our punishment, in order that we might be redeemed and reconciled to Himself.

This mission was a partnership of Father and Son to redeem us.  Both love us so much, that they would endure this to see us redeemed.  Either of them had the power to end it.  They could at a moment’s notice simply end the whole thing.  To endure this was a choice both would have to make, and see that choice through to the end.  It was not a situation where at the last minute they could be spared.  Evil had brought death into the universe, and Christ must endure death in order to see us freed from its embrace.  Judas had his understanding of power from the designs of Satan.  Satan employs power to control.  Satan preserves self above all others.  Satan uses power over others to force them into slavery and compliance.  Whereas God used power to save Himself nothing.  His power was restrained in full, allowing a weak species to inflict maximum pain, insults, and torture upon the very embodiment of power.  Christ would submit to losing His life.  Christ would submit instead of rising up.  Christ would submit instead of control.  Christ would define love, showing there are NO limits to how far love will go to save another. 

This thinking was something Judas could not grasp.  This thinking did not make sense.  It was counter to every human instinct.  It was stupid.  It was ridiculous.  It would save us.  It would redeem us.  It was simply too high a price to pay for us.  We were not worth this.  We are still not worth this.  We do not deserve our redemption at this cost.  We are unworthy.  And yet, Christ will pay this cost anyway.  Love will go this far anyway.  Christ will submit, in spite of the ease with which He could have become a king.  It was a nightmare ending for the dreams of Judas.  It was a paradox his mind could not get around.  It happened because at the end of it all, he, like Lucifer before him, trusted in his own ideas about what made sense, what was logical, and not in what Christ had said.  When we modern Christians decide that our unique understanding of scriptures is the “only” version of truth there is, we follow the logic of Judas.  When we put our faith in our great leaders to explain the meaning of truth to us, instead of finding it on our knees in submission to Christ, we follow the path of Judas.  When we attempt control, instead of submission, we become Judas.  Knowing the love of Christ in a personal relationship was not enough to save Judas from himself.  Because despite feeling the love of Christ, Judas was never willing to let go what he trusted in, and cling only to trust in Christ.  Modern Christians are no less at risk today.  When we prize our doctrines ahead of our Savior, when we prize judgment over redemptive love, when we seek to exclude, rather than to redeem – we demonstrate our own ideas are what we trust on, and submission is not in our thinking.

Power was not the mechanism by which sin would be removed from the universe, Love is …

 

The Power of Prayer - Communion (part twelve) ...

 [continued from part 11] - - - Jesus then explains a concept about God and unity that many seem to struggle with as in verse 11 of John’s gospel chapter 17 He prays … “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.”  First Christ prays that we be preserved unto God through the power of the name of God and love of God.  In essence He prays that we do not turn away from God or His love.  He prays that the tempter is unable to distract us, and lure us away from the love of God.  But beyond just remaining nestled in the love of God, He prays that we remain “one” as He and His Father are “one”.  Christ is obviously not praying that our molecules bind and we lose our identity, and become a massive blob of combined human parts and brains.  This is not about physical “one-ness”.  This is about the more important spiritual “one-ness” that the Holy Spirit is able to bring to us, as we let go of self.  Christ and His Father were one, in the sense that both were united in goals, in mission, in approach, and in love to effect our redemption.  If only every Christian were also so focused on that single important goal.  If only we would leave judgment to God, and place redemptive love at the top of our list in dealing with each other and the world.  We would then identify ourselves uniquely as followers of Christ and the “one” true God.

Unity does not have to deny individuality.  We do not have to become part of the Borg Collective, to be effective Christians.  Our uniqueness rather allows us to love in a unique way.  In this each of us uniquely identifies another aspect of the love of God.  When we combine all those versions of love, we get a better picture of the love of God, than we look at any one of us individually.  But this is the point, the love must be to others, not to self.  It is our embrace of self-love, that asks all the wrong questions – like … what is in it for me; why aren’t you living up to your half of the 50:50 thing? etc.   “Self” introduces conditions to love, whereas God does not love that way at all.  He loves us WHILE we are yet sinners bound in pain, disease, ignorance, and hate.  His love looks to free us from those things.  His love is the power by which we are freed.  He does not approach us with a righteous assessment of just how bad we are, and rightly condemn us for the bad choices and habits we have formed.  Instead he patiently and carefully extracts us from those bad decisions, and bad habits, and in their place, He offers us a whole new way to live, without the pain of our former selves.  His love does this.  If we are to change the world, it must be done in love, not in condemnation.  Love redeems us from the pain of sin, condemnation only deepens the pain of sin.

Jesus continues to identify His disciples as he says in verse 12 … “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.”  The loss of Judas is painful to Christ, but it was foretold in scripture, and despite every effort to redeem him, Judas refused and looked to his own wisdom.  The wisdom of Judas led him to betray His Lord, unto torture and death.  This is what happens when we take it on ourselves to “help” God with our ideas of what He should be doing.  It is not unique to Judas.  Abraham took a handmaid of Sarah to “help” God out with His promise, and much pain was the result, and none of his efforts made the promise occur.  Moses decided to “help” bring water out of the rock by striking it rather than speaking to it as God asked, and he was forbidden entry to the promised land as a result.  David decided to “help” bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and without following the proper methods, a life was lost in his efforts.  God does not need our “help” to accomplish His goals.  And often the “help” we offer is more about doing what we want to do, than truly what God wants to do, in His time or His manner.  We rush God, and try to make God do what we ultimately want, and in so doing our “help” bears the fruit of Judas, our forefather in this regard.

Jesus continues to pray for His disciples in verse 13 saying … “And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. [verse 14] I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. [verse 15] I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”  Christ prays that we might have His “joy”, not our own, fulfilled in ourselves.  Our own ideas about joy and fulfillment are almost always the wrong ones.  But when we allow Christ to alter our desires, we are able to want different things, and find joy in things that have real meaning.  Next He outlines that the word we have received through Christ, does not make us natural friends with a self-centered, self-focused world.  It rubs those notions the wrong way, and puts us at odds with conventional wisdom.  Think for a minute about the notion of the American dream for instance … if you work hard, you can succeed by the power of your determination and hard work.  Whereas our philosophy is … we will be given everything we need from a benevolent God who saves us from ourselves despite our past and present, we can depend 100% on something outside of ourselves, and learn not to ever trust in us, but only in Him.   Those ideas are completely at odds with each other.  The American dream sounds good, and makes you believe in yourself, and what you can accomplish.  This Christian ideal sounds too good to be true, and requires trust that it is possible, and will occur, but in it, your only role is to give up control, not take more of it.  This is why the world does not like what Christ teaches.

For those who believe in isolationism to avoid sin and “contamination” of the pure church … pay closer attention to the prayer of Christ Himself.  He asks NOT that we be taken out of the world, but instead that we be kept from evil.  We are not to withdraw from others who are still suffering from the disease of sin which we have found a Doctor for.  Instead we are to remain in the hospital and share the good news of our Physician with them.  We do not become more holy by removing ourselves from the influence of the evil around us.  Our problem is not with the evil around us, it is with the evil within us.  Our submission is to have Christ remove the evil from within, it is difficult to be tempted by something you do not want, or find yourself despising, or come to see with only pity.  When that occurs, what was formerly temptation carries no more weight.  When that occurs, the evil around you has no more power over you, and instead the love of Christ you reflect changes evil.  This is how His power works.  The goal is not for us to run off to the woods and preserve only our own souls for His Kingdom.  In so doing we lose out on the most valued treasure in heaven – other people, the objects of the love we are learning to reflect.  Isolation is no more the answer for righteousness, and any other self-focused method of curing sin.  Focus on Christ alone kills temptation.  We are to stay in the world, and reflect that light and love, not just squander it on ourselves.

Jesus continues in verse 16 … “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. [verse 17] Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”  Christ makes the distinction for those who follow Him, that they are no longer of the world.  Instead we belong to God.  We present ourselves to Him as a gift, and He gives us more than we could possibly receive.  But perhaps more worthy of note, is the continuation of His prayer where He asks God the Father to “sanctify” us through His truth, His word.  Notice we do NOT sanctify ourselves.  There is no time limit on this activity, He does not ask that we receive this gift over the course of a lifetime, nor does He remind us that sanctification is a process we are supposed to do for ourselves.  Instead He asks His Father to do the work of Sanctification.  It is done through His truth … Jesus said of Himself that He was the Truth.  It is done through His word … John opens His gospel by saying Jesus was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God.  We are sanctified through our acceptance and submission to Jesus Christ, a work that is performed for us, by His Father, at the request of Christ.

Jesus continues the mission of our redemption as He continues in verse 18 … “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. [verse 19] And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”  As Christ was sent by God to us, so He sends His disciples to the world.  Our sanctification must also come from Christ.  If we are to be effective, if we are to be remade, it must come alone from the power of Christ.  Jesus goes on in verse 20 … “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; [verse 21] That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”  Our unity in a mission of love is a witness to the world that Christ is real, and our God is real.  As Christ and His Father united in a mission of love in action for us, for others, for His creation – with no thought to Himself; so we can be united with Christ and His Father in a mission of love to others that will change our world.  Families can be healed.  Communities can be changed irrevocably for the better.  Peace that follows love can result.  And all of it can point back to Christ and His Father, a perpetual witness to the unity that is only possible when founded in a mission of love to others based in Christ.

Then Christ does something very powerful and meaningful to us, He extends His familial relationship to us as He prays further in verse 22 … “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: [verse 23] I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”  We are to be bound in love to Christ, nestled in His love, and in the love of His Father.  We are to be made one with God, unified with God, participants in His mission of redemptive love.  In this, we are to be “made perfect”.  Perfection is attainable, it is more than that, it is a guarantee.  But only as we are “made” one with God, one with Christ.  There is no room for self in that equation.  It is the absolute absence of self and self-interest that characterizes the love of God.  It is how Christ lived.  And it is possible for us to live this way as well, as we recognize we do not “make” it happen, we “permit” it to happen.  We submit to Christ, and He “makes” us perfect, makes us one with Him and His Father.  This is a perfect unity we have so longed to see and experience.  It is the heart of the good news of the gospel.

Jesus concludes His prayer with a profound request in verse 24 saying … “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. [verse 25] O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. [verse 26] And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”  No longer are heaven and earth to be separated by any distance.  Christ tells His Father He wills that we be with Him, where He is, that we may see Him with our own eyes.  We can then behold the great love that the Father has for His Son, and for us.  Christ declares the nature of His Father to us, and in His life of selfless love, He reveals the Father to us in fullness, that we might begin to know Him, and to know His Son.  This is the eternal life, and eternal gift that is given to us.  A gift offered before our perfection was achieved, a redemptive gift that would see us freed from the power and temptation of sin and self; this is what He puts on the table for us to take. 

There has never been so powerful a prayer uttered in the Bible.  We are offered here a private first-hand audience in the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ to His perfect Father God.  And all throughout this prayer is every imaginable gift He asks for us, and for those few who were still with Him.  Imagine how selfless this prayer was, as it was uttered only moments before He would be tortured to death.  Despite knowing what is about to happen, He focuses the entire prayer on us, and our needs, not asking anything for Himself, except as it benefits us.  This is the power of prayer that cannot be denied.  This was a fitting end to the communion He had with us just before the end arrived …

 

The Long Walk - Communion (part seven) ...

How does creation work?  Perhaps of more interest, how does re-creation work?  When once I have made such a wreck of my life; how can my life ever become something else, something better, something worth living?   This is the essence of the question, how does salvation work.  Despite our repeated attempts at making ourselves “better”, trying to “do good”, trying “not to sin”, we find ourselves back on our knees again, defeated not by the devil, but by our own desires we are unable to change, diminish, or overcome.  If this pattern is ever to change, it must come from a source outside of ourselves, as we have demonstrated again and again our own ineptitude at accomplishing it.  So perhaps the most important question the lost must find an answer to, is “how can we be truly saved, truly transformed, truly remade?”  Jesus knew our need in this regard.  With time winding down, He takes a slow pace with His disciples walking to the Garden of Gethsemane.  He must answer this question for His disciples, and for us.  Time was so short by then; it may be the outskirts of the Garden were already near enough to see.

John remembers in great detail the words of Christ on the long walk to the Garden.  There was so little time left.  But in chapter 15 he remembers the words of Christ, the answer to the question, “how” do we become remade as in verse one Jesus continues … “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. [verse 2] Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”  First Jesus identifies Himself as the “true vine”.  In this analogy Jesus would be the source of life.  Nothing would live without a connection with Him.  To reject the source of life is to find that bearing fruit is simply not possible.  But perhaps the next most interesting concept is that in this analogy Jesus identifies His Father as the Gardener.  In times past Jesus has said that it is His Father who brings people to Him, draws people to Him, gives people to Him.  It is the will of His Father that ALL mankind would choose to accept the vine and the life that it brings and be saved.  But for those who refuse to accept the source of their salvation is Christ, for those who believe it can be done through their own power, or through some other way that is not founded on a connection with the vine, the Father removes those branches.  But then an even more interesting phenomenon occurs, for those who do accept that salvation comes not from themselves but from Christ alone, the Father prunes them.

Pieces of the branches that do accept the vine and are bearing fruit are STILL pruned.  Parts of them are removed, but the parts that are removed, cause them to grow even more and bear even more fruit.  Remember it is Christ who “is” the true vine.  Our ability to bear fruit at all comes from a submission to the vine, not because we try to take root on our own.  But even when we do accept and bear fruit, the work of perfecting us, is STILL not our own.  It is the work of God the Father.  And for us to reach the perfection He intends, there are pieces of ourselves that NEED to be removed.  Most of us as plants would be perfectly contented to be bearing fruit at all, and believe we need the parts we have in order to do so.  But here is Christ teaching us we are mistaken.  To be perfected, we must trust the Gardener.  We must allow the Gardener to remove even the parts we thought we needed or wanted or liked, and let the Gardener decide those things.  Here is the world’s anthem of “be true to yourself” turned on its head.  It is not “self” we must be true to, for “self” is to be wholly remade into something else.  It is the “vine” and the connection to the Vine we need to be true to; and to the Gardener who alone knows how we must be remade.  It becomes our goal to see the destruction of the “self” we have made, and watch as the Gardener creates a new “self” He intended us to be.

With the garden ever closer Jesus continues in verse 3 … “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. [verse 4] Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.”  We are clean, ONLY when we abide in Christ.  It is our connection to the source of life, that brings life to us.  It is our connection only to Christ that can see us transformed from who we were.  Branches without a connection to the vine simply do not bear fruit, they are not alive, they are dead.  Branches who try to do it themselves produce nothing.  This is something even the Christian community is reluctant to accept: That we do nothing in this process, except maintain a connection to the Vine, and even that work is done by the Gardener (God the Father) on our behalf.  Our only function is to choose to allow it occur; not to facilitate its occurrence.  Christ provides the life, the Father removes and prunes from us what must be taken, and the fruit that grows is a result of our transformation, not a prerequisite to it, or a result of anything we have done.  The work is simply not our own.

Jesus continues in verse 5 … “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. [verse 6] If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”  When we seek to abide in Christ, when we look not to ourselves and instead trust in Him to save us from ourselves, we bear much fruit.  It is the natural consequence of embracing Christ and the salvation He offers.  But when we look away from Christ, trusting to ourselves, our own ideas about salvation and the interpretation of scripture and doctrine, when we replace Christ with self-reliance, we die.  Our spiritual strength is not determined by self, or any actions we take.  It is determined by how much we embrace the Vine of Christ, the life He offers, and the salvation His Father the Gardener is allowed to perform upon us.  We can “try” to do good works on our own, we can “try” to control our actions, but we do not change who we are inside, and without a connection to the source of life we dry up and die; all of our self-efforts amounting to nothing.  At that point we are only good for kindling.  Our vitality, our spiritual vitality, is determined by being connected to Christ, and allowing our Gardener to do His work within us.

Jesus continues the analogy in verse 7 … “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. [verse 8] Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”  When we are transformed by the love and power of Christ, we become someone else, someone new, someone different than who we were.  We want different things.  We love others differently than we did.  We value different things.  What we ask for is now different than it was before, because we are no longer as interested in winning the PowerBall lottery and having a life of ease, as we are in winning one single precious soul into the kingdom of heaven.  That one life will be worth more to us than the hundreds of millions of dollars we once put so much value in.  The illusions of doing good with our wealth, are replaced with the reality of doing good for another of an eternal variety.  Pointing a soul to Christ, to the connection to the Vine, and KNOWING that Christ will save that soul no matter what it looks like to you and me; is worth more than winning every lottery since the history of lotteries were invented.  This is how God values people.  We are priceless to Him.  Money is meaningless to Him.  That kind of abandonment of self-interest is not natural to us in our carnal state.  It can only be achieved when we allow Him to prune our lives and hearts and minds and replace our self-focus, with a focus on loving others.  When we allow Him this work, we begin to bear REAL fruit.  We lose interest in great wealth of financial means, and find great wealth in the salvation of even a single soul.  It is not just all of us who are precious to Him, but each of us.

Jesus now reveals the core of who He is, and who the Father is in verse 9 He continues … “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.”  The essence of who God the Father is, is love.  It is the continuation of love, the expression of love, the connection to love, the abounding of love that defines the life of Christ, and the will of God His Father.  God reveals to us that He does not love Himself, but rather He loves others.  God the Father loves His Son and us, not Himself.  He does not spend His energy trying to please Himself, but instead spends His energy saving us.  Jesus while walking to the Garden, with the full knowledge He will be betrayed there by one He loved, does not think to love Himself, but only still to love us.  It is a love that seeks the best interests of its objects, not of itself that Christ has so clearly defined by His life, actions, words, motives, and example to us.  Christ and God the Father are love incarnate, and love defined.  It is then love above all else, that Christ wishes for us to participate and continue in.

Jesus continues in verse 10 … “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.”  Love is what commandments are all about.  Love is what salvation is all about.  Love is what God is all about.  Love for others is how we connect with God.  It is impossible to truly love someone else and then seek to do them harm.  It is impossible to love others greater than yourself and then choose to take actions to please yourself while knowing those actions will displease another.  When you love someone else with all your heart and mind, you seek their best interests ahead of your own no matter what the personal consequences.  Sacrifice is not even deemed sacrifice when it is done for the object of your love.  This was the mind of Christ, and heart of God.  Love for others was the embodiment of His life’s example, and was supposed to be defined in His commandments to us.  Somehow it has become easier for Christians to focus on a list of do’s and don’ts and attempt to prescribe detailed behaviors that can comply with the letter of the law, than to embrace the love behind the law that would radically alter not just what we do, but how we think.

Jesus tells us then why love is so important to us in verse 11 … “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”  When a life is based on love for others, not for self, that life becomes one of great joy.  This is why the life of God is one worth living, He finds His own joy in loving us.  We find His joy within us, as we love others.  Lucifer’s perversion of turning love inwards and focusing on self, turned love into evil, and life into death.  If we are to escape evil, pain, and death, we must learn what it really means to love, and love is not defined inwardly, but only as it is expressed outwardly to another, to someone else.  It is that kind of power love has, to turn an enemy into the closest of friends.  It is that kind of power love has, to redeem and forgive we who were lost, because He loved us all just that much.

Jesus then re-summarizes all of scripture, all commandments, the point of all the stories, the point of life itself and expresses again to His disciples in verse 12 … “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”  Notice the absolute absence of doctrine in this summarization of what Christ asks of us.  Notice the absolute lack of judgment on His part, or required of us on each other, in what Christ asks of us.  He does not specify the conditions under which we should love each other, i.e. only after we are pure, forgiven, living under a certain set of expectations, with a pure doctrinal understanding of scripture.  These men before Him were still under the misguided belief that He was there to setup an anti-Roman earthly kingdom that would never die.  They were all still mistaken about the most fundamental doctrine of the Jewish faith, and still planning to profit personally from Jesus fulfilling the misguided expectations.  Their lack of doctrinal understanding was mind-blowing, and yet fully unimportant to Christ with respect to what was truly important – that they love each other.  He did not give them a list of things to do or not do.  But instead He gave them a principle, or a value, or an action that would exceed any list of do’s or don’ts.  There would be no limit to how much we could love each other.

In contrast to lists that can barely scratch at the surface of what it means to love another Christ offers a scale by which love could be measured in verse 13 … “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”  Christ is telling them that even life itself is not so precious as love for others.  If it comes down to a choice of life or of love, Christ will choose love.  This is the measure by which love for us was measured out.  And even with the conscious choice that Christ will lay down His life for them, He is still ceaselessly looking to their interests, their comfort, their concerns, despite the long walk to the Garden of Gethsemane.  It is perhaps ironic that the first temptation and test of trust was made in a garden, and now the last one, the last struggle will occur in a garden as well.  But even in this dire situation, with time running out, Christ is still focused on the needs of his faithful few.  He now begins to break with rabbinical traditions, and societal expectations.  As he continues with them in verse 14 … “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. [verse 15] Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”

Even though He is our Lord, and rightfully so, He elevates us from the status of servants to the status of friends.  “Friends” implies community, equality, and peer participation.  Though we will never be equal to Christ in any way, shape, or form, in spite of this fact, He still thinks of us in the manner of being His friends.  When we allow His love to bear fruit within us, when we become part of the vine, He does not just consider us branches that bear fruit, but instead, friends that are united in purpose with the vine itself.  Christ is still the source of life in the vine, yet now, He thinks of us as His friends; for while we love others as greatly as He loves us, we are more than we used to be.  We are more than mere servants who follow blindly, instead He reveals to us our shared goals, the secrets of how our goals will be achieved, the truths of motives of our Father God.  Christ offers us, His friends, the full revelation of WHO we serve, and what it means to participate in service, and why service is joy.  The revelation He offers us is stunning.  And the status with which He thinks of us is more stunning.  To be thought of as friends of God, despite who we really are, is yet another measure of the power of love, His love.

But communion was not over just yet …