Love Beyond The Human Condition

I was reading the passage of John 20:24-29 the other morning and i found myself deeply identified with the Apostle Thomas:

Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” – John 20:24,25

How many times do we find ourselves like Thomas, becoming doubting disciples?

Doubting the Lord’s plan and the Lord’s path when we’ve already seen what He’s done on the past, Why?

Well our minds can have such a finite vision at times,

Ones that solely focuses on what’s ahead of us and how big our mountains seem be that our doubts or our adversaries but that forgets what the Lord has already carried us through.

And then once we realize how short our vision has been we can sometimes fear coming to our savior, sometimes because of shame and others cause sometimes we lack the belief that he is bigger than it all

But here’s the secret friends,

Jesus is not afraid of our doubts, he has never been.

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” – John 19:26-28²

When Thomas was filled with doubt Jesus did not cast Him aside, He did not belittle Him

Instead he met Thomas right where he was at, in the middle of His fear and in the midlle of His pain, and all he ask him wa sthat we would believe.

He is not afraid of our questions, our fears, our anger, or our concerns

On the contrary He is willingly there, alway ready to listen and comfort us through it all.

He is bigger than all our questions, fears and pain and fills all the gaps we could ever think of or imagine.

He walks with out through our every point of doubt, every step where our forgetful heart overlooks the footprints He has already left behind us as He has carried us through it all.

This is something that the Lord has been re-teaching me recently, the fact that I never have to be afraid to run to him, that He is always ready to embrace any questions i may have, that he is more powerful than my doubts and that He is in control through it all.

All I have to do is call on him an let myself be carried

Let us be disciples that run to Jesus always, and even so more when we are confused and afraid;

who because of His love can love other beyond the human condition.

Recently I’ve been realizing how much we as humans try to stretch ourselves above our finite “ability”

How many times do we find ourselves relying in our own strength?

Trying to get through the day, looking at God for the big stuff and trying to manage the “little” stuff on our own,

But the thing is we were never managed on our own, we cloud our own vison by even thinking we do.

In John 15, we see this shown in full detail:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” – John 15:1-4

In this passage Jesus uses the analogy above to shows us a couple lessons:

1. If we bear no fruit he has promised to cut us off (verse 2a)

This serves as a warning to us, he promises that if we bear no fruit as we are a not abiding in him he will cut us of from his tree

This is not really a promise to believers aa theres nothing we can do that can separate us from Gods love, but more of a warning to unbeliever who decide to not follow him.

2. If we are bearing fruit He will take his time to prune in his love(verse 2b)

Pruning hurts, its not pretty and sometime it even leaves scars, but through it all the Lord does it for our good

If you are being pruned know that you are bearing fruit, the pain is worthwhile there is a purpose behind it all

He is the great surgeon of our hearts, the one who carefully removed those part which are hardened to him

He prunes us gently in all his love, and yes saying goodbye to parts of our flesh might cause temporary pain but but will ultimately bring us perfect satisfaction when we rest in him

He is only pruning so that he may use you for greater things, ““Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much…” – Luke 16:10

3. There is nothing can do apart from him (verse 4)

He says in verse 4 how without him we can bear no fruit, there’s nothing we can do in our own strenght.

In reality all we are are branches bounded by love, holding on to our savior for our every need

It is always Jesus, it has always been Jesus, we can do nothing apart form him, and by His grace with Him nothing is impossible

Let us rest on His promises, let us be servants who rely completely on our savior,

Who because of His love can love others beyond the human condition.

In today’s day and age, it is incredibly easy for us to misplace our worth.

Society has trained us to look to ourselves as our own measure of value

It has taught us to rely on our own strength and power to go through life, and obviously, when we do this we fail time and time again. We become burdened of our sin and a lot of times we even become ashamed to come to our father in repentance

The thing is we were never meant to carry this burden, we were never meant to be on the spotlight.

In John 13 we see a great example of this. Jesus shows us a perfect picture of sacrifice as he offers to wash the Disciples feet. When He does this Simon Peter refuses to let him do it as he does not see himself worthy of Jesus washing his feet and he was right he didn’t deserve it, but Jesus said to him “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” (John 13:8).

My friends this is a beautiful picture of our own redemption, we need to let Jesus wash us clean and let his righteousness stand for us.

You see the thing is once we are Christians the Lord sees us as righteous because of Jesus sacrifice not because of anything we’ve ever done.

“But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ” – Ephesians 2:13

Friends once we put our faith in Christ we have been washed worthy!

There is nothing we can do to change the view the father has of us. When He sees us he does not identify us by our current struggles or by our past mistakes, He sees the purity and Holiness of His son.

Let us live in that truth and walk in faith by the one who makes us worthy,

Let us rely on Jesus and live everything behind,

Let us be servants,

Who because of His love can love others beyond the human condition.

There are a lot of times in life we grow to question… question our purpose, question God’s plan ,question “our” calling.

Times where we end up in circumstances that prevent us from seeing where we are going, and a lot of times we end up frustrated by our inability to see

The other day I was reading the story of Jesus healing a Blind Man in John 9:1-7:

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. (John 9:1-7)

Here’s the thing friends, have you ever thought that maybe that circumstance has been purposefully placed, “so that the works of God might be displayed” in your life.

You see in this story we see this man who was blind from birth, be restored by Jesus because of his obedience.

Even though Jesus take all initiative in the healing of this mans blindness, as the man does not approach Jesus, but Jesus approaches him.

The blind man in this story does not question Jesus’ methods when he’s covered in mud. He does not proceed to rub all mud off his eyes, and go on with his day. Instead, he follows Jesus’ command and goes where Jesus has sent him.

Oh friends how many times in our lives do we find ourselves with mud in our eyes unable to “see” the path before us and we try to wipe it off so that we can see more clearly but honestly we just end up fogging our vision more.

There times in life where we will not be able to “see” an outcome, where our circumstances will prevent us from seeing where the Lord is leading us.

And it is in these times that we need to let the mud touch our eyes, and learn to walk by faith and not by sight.

We need to be lead by our savior and rely less and less on our own understanding.

Let us stop being muddy meddlers and let us rely upon and look at our Savior as our guide through the unraveled mud filled roads of this life.

Who because of His love can love others beyond the human condition.

Recently I was talking with a friend about the concept of Selfless Leadership and abundant the lack of it in our society.

Our culture has established a sense of “Me” focus leadership. One whos focus is based more on exalting the leader than actually leading others towards a greater purpose. And sadly friends our “Christian bubble” is not devoid of this, many times we can lead the charge.

So who do we look at as our example? How do we approach selfless leadership when there very little people actually practicing it?

In John 3 there’s a group of people who approach John the Baptist regarding the fact that Jesus now baptizing people and that He was building a following. To a common leader in our culture today this would seem alarming as John could have seen Jesus as competition, but John’s response is totally countercultural:

To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ ²⁹ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. ³⁰ He must become greater; I must become less.” – John 3:27-30

The people expect John to build himself up, to somehow discredit Jesus’ ministry and exalt himself. The focus of biblical leadership is never to put the focus on yourself, but glorify the Lord’s name above all else. Above our wants, and our deepest desires. Above our reputation and pride.

A leader is someone who is a selfless servant.

Friends let’s lay our lives down and become living sacrifices. Let us dedicate ourselves to making Christ’s love known to others.

“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake”- 2 Corinthians 4:5

Let us be arrows that point others towards our Savior, not makeshift idols in search of purpose or importance.

Who because of His love can love others beyond the human condition.

There are only a few passages recorded in scripture in which Jesus “Loses His cool”. 

There’s the scenario in Mark 3 where a man approaches Jesus to be healed on the Sabbath. Jesus asks the crowd “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save a life or to kill?” But they remained silent (3:4); It is then said that Jesus was “angry and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts” (3:5, NIV). The only other instances where this is seen is in the temple clearing recordings in the synoptic gospels (Matthew 21:12-17, Mark 11:15-19, Luke 19:45-48, and John 2:13-16).

In John 2 we encounter what seems to be the first* temple cleansing recorded in scripture. It is set in the first week of Jesus’ public ministry when not a lot of people knew who he was. By the world’s standards, this should be the time where Jesus plays it cool and stays away from any controversial topics or scenarios while he builds a “following”.

But Jesus was never in the business of building a fan base, He is and always will be in the business of making disciples. 

Let’s look at the passage:

“When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts, he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves, he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” (John 2:13-16, NIV).

Jesus walked into the temple and realizes they have taken what used to be the court of the Gentiles a place where those who weren’t of Jewish descent would be able to worship the Lord, and have made it into a market to sell animals for sacrificing and trade money. Jesus became angry, righteously angry. He is seeing His father’s house being used by the religious people of that time for their personal benefit.

“What Jesus conveys by His clearing of the temple, therefore is that God’s holiness and purity cannot tolerate the consistent defilement of his “House”, the temple….” ( p.61)

Köstenberger, A. J. (1999). Encountering John: The Gospel in historical, literary, and theological perspective. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Books.

While reading this passage I realized…

If Jesus was this zealous with the condition of the physical temple of the 1st century, How much more zealous would He be with a temple he created in his image?

A temple not established by human hands but one bought by his blood. 

Friends, how are we treating our temples?

Is what we watch, listen to, what we do, who we follow on social media, who we do or don’t surround ourselves with, all a reflection of someone who’s God’s temple?

Are we treating our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit or are we just turning them into a “market” for our benefit today?

I don’t know about y’all friends, but I have not done my best at being a Temple the worships our Heavenly Father. On a daily basis, I make selfish decisions. I constantly forget that I was bought at a price; that I’m not my own.

So how do we cleanse these Tainted Temples?

Well, my friend, I have good news for you, WE don’t do it ourselves.

The price has already been paid, we have already been made clean.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, NIV)

He paid it all on the cross, He established his dwelling among us by paying for our sins and cleansing us before the father.

Friends let us come to our savior with repentant hearts and open hands. Let us not turn back to living for ourselves as we did before, lets us be living sacrifices. 

Who because of His love can love others beyond the human condition.

*Some believe these to be the recording of one temple cleansing from multiple perspectives. But because of the fact that John records it at the beginning of Jesus ministry and the other Synoptics record it at the establishment of his final week in Jerusalem, it is believed that the recorded instances of the temple cleansing are actually a doublet; two occurrences of the same type of event during  Jesus’ ministry (Köstenberger, 1999, P. 62-63).