COME FORTH

Jesus speaks into the weariness of our lives in His famous words of Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Ours is a weary world, isn’t it?  Weary for a thousand reasons, all of them rooted in the fact that we live in a fallen, broken, longing world.  The stress, the strain, the everyday-ness of things, not to mention the weight of managing our own lives, crash into our world so consistently that peace and calm seem light years away from any hope of personal reality.   Yet, Jesus speaks.  Everyday, day in and day out, moment-by-moment, He stands before us and speaks into our longing, always calling us into His life.  He bids us come and find the rest we so much seek. 

I sometimes wonder if He is not standing before our lives almost as if the way He stood before the grave of His friend, Lazarus.  Deceased and hidden away in a grave, the story of Lazarus was over.  Or was it.  Jesus stands before the place of death, cuffs His hands to His mouth and speaks a ludicrous word to a dead man, “Come forth” (See John 11). 

What’s that about?  Dead men don’t hear words or follow commands.  Yet, surprise, surprise, Lazarus comes forth from the grave, still wrapped in the grave clothes.  Suddenly we are faced with a new reality.  Maybe death isn’t necessarily the final word about our lives, after all.  Maybe Jesus stands before our lives and says to us, “Come forth.” Maybe He weeps over us and calls us to life.  Maybe there is a whole of lot of living for us to do before they wrap us in grave clothes and hide us away in a grave.    

Maybe Jesus was totally serious when He cuffed His hands to His mouth and called out, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Maybe He is calling out to us, “No longer be yoked to the things that weary you and burden you down.  Take my yoke to yourself, the yoke of mercy and grace and divine love, and let them be the driving force in your life.”  Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if we could find rest for our souls?  Could God possibly be that good to us? 

In his book The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard translated the famous John 3:16 this way: "God's care for humanity was so great that he sent his unique son among us, so that those who count on him might not lead a futile and failing existence, but have the undying life of God Himself."

Who are we counting on in this thing called life?  That’s our question.   Is a futile and failing existence to be our lot in life?  I think not. The God whose care for humanity was so great that He sent His unique Son to give us “the undying life of God Himself” is calling us to “Come forth! Take the yoke of My mercy and grace and love.  Come forth and live.”

COMPETITORS NEED NOT APPLY

In 1736 John Wesley was in Savannah, Georgia on a mission to evangelize.  While there he began to examine his own heart and later wrote in his journal, “I went to America to convert the Indians, but oh, who shall convert me?”  A struggle was brewing in his heart; a struggle to know Christ fully and to experience all God would have for him. 

 While in Savannah Mr. Wesley wrote a prayer in his journal that is a wonderful prayer for everyone who would take God seriously.  He prayed,

Is there a thing beneath the sun,

That strives with thee my heart to share?

Awe!  Tear it thence, and reign alone,

The Lord of every motion there!

The weeping prophet, who turned out to be a great prophet of hope, told a hurting people that God had made Himself available to them, and that what they needed to do was seek Him with all their heart (Jeremiah 29:13).  The prophet, whose name means, “the Eternal One is Salvation,” told the people of his day to “Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:6).

As in ancient Israel, God was at work in Savanna, Georgia in the heart of Mr. Wesley and began to create a spiritual hunger in him that led him to realize that any so called fulfillment not rooted and Grounded in the Living God, was only temporary and shallow and ultimately, empty.  So it was that Mr. Wesley came to a decision not to allow anything “beneath the sun,” to compete with the living God in his life.

As in Savanna, Georgia, in the restless heart of a man who knew there had to be more to spirituality than personal striving and good efforts, God is at work here today.  He is here for each one of us, to meet us at the point of our need and to bring us into the full meaning of His presence. 

If there is anything in your heart that competes with God, let God “tear it thence.”  Then invite Him to “reign alone, the Lord of every motion there” in your heart.  Don’t let anything “beneath the sun” compete with the God who loves you with an everlasting love.

Seek Him.  You will find Him.  Call upon Him.  He will answer you.

I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:11-13) 

I AM GOING FISHING ... John 21:1-19

What would you do after having witnessed the resurrection of Jesus?  Peter, along with a few of his friends, went fishing.  How’s that for a change of pace?  I think only Peter could come up with an idea like this at a time like that. 

I kind of like it, though.  They were still processing the whole thing, had some time on their hands, and went out to do what they did so well, fish.  Maybe that is where serving a resurrected Lord begins, with what one knows to do.  There was no pomp and circumstance in it.  They just went fishing.

Then the fishing trip became embraced by grace.  Jesus shows up.  Suddenly we know something great is about the happen, something that will add to the drama of the unfolding impossible.  And, wouldn’t you know it.   There is nothing extraordinary, no life changing revelation.  Jesus just asked the guys if they had any fish on hand. 

That’s it.  The resurrected Lord, who suffered, died, went to Hades, and then was raised from the dead asks about fish.  You’ve got to be kidding.  Fish!  One would think Jesus would have said to the men, “We’ve got bigger things to fry than fish.”  But he asks about the fish, and then directs the fishless men, to cast the net on the “right side of the boat,” with the promise that if they did so, they would catch lots of fish.  They did, and Jesus was right, they caught more fish than they could handle (John 21: 5-6).

In that event the disciples recognized Jesus.  It was the last time we read of them fishing for fish.  No longer would they do the ordinary because the ordinary, all of it, would now be stamped with the glory of God in such a way that even the ordinary would become a most holy place and event.  Jesus would encounter the routine and He would make all things new.

Is it not breathtaking to know that Jesus is with us in the ordinary and routine?  I think so because most of life is lived out in the ordinary and routine.  God is with me now, and He is with you, too.  Listen carefully and He may ask you, “What’s for breakfast?”  In fact, He may just prepare breakfast for you and your friends (John 20:12). After all He is Lord of heaven and earth.  I’m sure He knows how to cook, too.

BLESSED

I’m from Missouri, the “Show me,” state.  Good, empirical evidence is crucial to Missouri folks.  That’s why I think the disciple, Thomas, would have been a good citizen of South East Missouri.

After his ten fellow disciples told him that they had seen the resurrected Lord, he said to them, ““Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 29:25). 

Can you blame him?  I can’t.  In fact, I celebrate his courage and his conviction.  Asking someone to believe in the resurrection is a huge request, isn’t’ it? Over the years I’ve learned to cut people a little slack as they wrestle with what must appear to them to be an outrageous claim.

I celebrate Thomas because of the fact that when the issue became clear and he encountered the resurrected Lord, any doubt he may have had ended, and he fell on his knees before Jesus and said to him,  My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).

Now the ball is in our court.  What will we do with the resurrection?  Jesus asked Thomas, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed?” (John 20:29). What will He say to us?  We weren’t there on that glorious Sunday morning.  We’ve come on the scene two thousand years later.  None of us will ever see the historical event of His resurrection.  Are we left to our own devices to find a way to abundant life?  No. 

To us Jesus says, “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed” (John 20:29).  People who believe,  even though they haven’t seen, are covered by Jesus.  He’s got our back.  We are embraced by grace and living the life as people of a new reality.  The kingdom of God has spoken, shaken all history, conquered death, and poured the very life of God into us. 

No wonder Jesus says to everyone who comes to you Him, “Blessed.”  

EASTER PEOPLE

Every time holy week comes around I find myself in full weakness to adequately express what is in my heart.  How does one communicate the passion, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead?  I certainly don’t have the communication skills.

Still, the impact on my life has been so great that I must try.  That God would empty “Himself of all but love and [bleed] for Adam’s helpless race,” still stuns me and leaves me standing in awe.  That God would include me in His loving embrace, when He could have written me off and no one would have held it against Him, still leaves me mystified, even at this late date in my life.    

           

To live within God’s loving embrace in a world so broken, and to live there forgiven, restored, re-energized with abundant life available only from the One who created me, still catches me off guard and leaves me amazed by grace.  

           

To be enabled to live in the abundant and resurrection life of God in Christ and, because of Him, to be on a journey to wholeness that will culminate in my own resurrection at some date still to be named, leaves me speechless. 

But there’s more. I love the words of N.T. Wright in his book, Surprised by Hope. He writes, “Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven…”

That’s it, isn’t it?  God is doing something right now, today, right here.  We don’t have to wait for heaven for the party to begin.  It’s already underway.

Pope John Paul II said, “Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”   I say, YES.  Join the festivities.

Remember, Good Friday does not have the final word.  Easter is on the way.  We may live in a broken world but the River of God is flowing in and through that brokenness.  The last words are not brokenness and death. The final words are, “HE IS RISEN.”