10 Apr What god is working for, Part 2
Being taught, being led, being forewarned, being held up when you think you cannot stand, being comforted by a perfectly worded message to meet your specific need in a given moment of time, being shown what God is working for — this is what the divine dialogue makes possible. This is what was taking place in Jesus’ last hours, before the storm hit. The purpose of the divine dialogue is to enable God to lay hold of us, so that we can lay hold of Him
Knowing the end was near
Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. John 13:1
As we sense a chapter closing, nothing is more important than to tie up loose ends with those we love,. It helps to prepare them, as well as ourselves. Jesus’ last moments alone with his disciples were not maudlin, but moving, with lasting memories rich in symbolism — broken bread, poured out wine, disrobing himself to kneel before them to wash their feet. He establishes a mood — not of panic but of love. He sets their course — not with a call to fight but with a call to serve. He intentionally spent that last supper with those he loved, not bracing himself for what was to come, but serving with undeterred commitment to strengthen these raw recruits who could never be adequately prepared for what was to come. He spent that last hour loving those who would be taking their position on the front line for him when he was gone.
As the hour of the power of darkness bore down on him, Jesus faced his enemies with mastery, not malice. With his own hand, he dipped a piece of bread and gave it to Judas: a last intimate gesture toward the one he knew was his betrayer. It was not a final appeal to Judas to change his mind, but a demonstration of his undeterred love for even his enemies. Jesus was showing us how to conquer our fear of what our enemy might do to us
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven Matt 5:44-45
But I say to you . . . love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other . . . whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Luke 6:27-30
When missionary Jim Elliot went to the fierce, unreached tribe of the Auca, in Ecuador, he was speared to death. His wife, Elisabeth, learned the Auca language and went to live with that same tribe two years later, to bring them the gospel her husband had died for. She took their 3-year-old daughter with her, mastering her fear of her enemies — by loving something more than what she had lost, by loving something more than what she stood to lose — by loving what God wanted to do among the Auca.
In her dialogue with God, she determined that God wanted to bring the gospel to them by the widow of the man they had slain. By learning their language, by forgiving them, by going to them to bring them Jesus, she was loving her enemies, blessing those who had cursed her, giving them yet another opportunity to strike her, acknowledging that they had taken her husband’s life, yet she did not withhold her own or her daughter’s. Elisabeth won their hearts, She stands among the ranks of those warriors, against whom the power of the enemy could not prevail — following the example of her captain, by focusing in the storm of her grief and loss on what God was working for.
When the Temple Guards came for Jesus that night in Gethsemane, Peter was ill equipped and did not know how to master his fear, pulling out a sword, taking a swipe at a man, cutting off his ear. Jesus took the ear and placed it back where it belonged, healing his enemy, even as they took him away. Peter was fighting for survival; Jesus was fighting for what God was working for.
What comes across strongly in his last hours is that Jesus was the master and not the victim of the situation, even though the power of darkness hurled everything in its arsenal against him, to bring his soul down. Those he had spent the most time with, teaching and preparing them to take over when he left were clueless, timid, confused, ran away and denied him. Those who had welcomed him with glad shouts of Hosanna just days before, demanded his death, when he offended their Messianic expectation. When he came to his own, they did not receive him. His sheep were without a shepherd, because their leaders were corrupt.
And even as they nailed him to the cross, even though it was written, no one understood what God was working for
But Jesus refused to be hooked or baited by any of this. He never took his eyes off of what God was working for — bringing every gesture, every word, every thought into captivity to that.
I want to bring this home. Thoughtful people on every front feel frustrated and overwhelmed by government out of control. It is like we are being set up for failure. Victims are suspect; criminals garner sympathy. Government programs are bloated with outrageous budgets, hiring unqualified personnel, who do not know what they are doing.. We feel betrayed by those we vote into office. Hungry for facts, we turn to the news to find spin, quarreling and incivility as networks only tell what serves their worldview. Politicians blatantly lie as if truth has no meaning. Anger thinly masks our fear.
Are we going to be hooked and baited by these things — or are we going to shift our focus to what God is working for — and join Him in that? God is on His throne. And He is telling me to walk in what He is working out.
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