3 May 2014 - of first importance

3 May 2014 - of first importance

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?

Jesus, you are infinite.  There is always more to know.  But you are surprised that we don't know this.  You are surprised because it is so fundamental to who you are.  You show us the Father in your presence with us.  You reveal him in your very being.  You do not so much tell us about the Father.  You do tell us that he is like the Father of the prodigal son, waiting for repentance, and then running to us with his forgiveness.  But even more than this, you show us the Father.  Your power and your love reveal him.  Your mighty deeds reveal him.  As you transform areas of our hearts which we thought were hopeless you reveal him.

LORD, Philip may not know this completely.  But he does know you well enough to invite others to get to know you.  He knows something about your goodness that eludes many of us.  Help us to know this goodness which motivates him.  Help us to say with the Apostles, "we can't help but speak the things we have seen and heard."

Philip has been with you Jesus.  He invites people to know you.  But there is still more he needs to see.  So to with us.  We've been through a lot.  With Philip we see the face which reveals the Father die on the cross.  LORD, we see the light leave your eyes.  We begin to invest our hope in you but the reality of death quickly turns us aside.  We know you, but we see the reality of the laws of the natural world, the laws of the flesh, and the law of sin.  We can't really see the Father in you because these things press on us so strongly.  They've defeated everyone before you who have challenged them.  They can't defeat you if the Father is in you and you are in the Father.  Yet it seems that they have.  Circumstances don't just yield death once in our lives.  Our hopes are often crushed.  Death is the preeminent feature of our lives, placing any limits it wants on our hopes and dreams.

But Jesus, it does not end on the cross.  This is the essential truth.  This is what Philip needs to understand and what we need to understand.

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;

Reveal to us that you are risen indeed.  The third day triumphs over our hopelessness and despair.  Death is defeated.  Where now is its sting?  Appear to our hearts LORD Jesus.  We pray the scriptures: "he was raised on the third day" and as we pray you appear to us.  Let this be our mantra today.  Let it strengthen us more and more each time we repeat it.  You are raised on the third day.  You reveal that the Father is really in you.  We really can hope.  Death has no say anymore.  Death no longer reigns.

This is the truth at which creation only hints.  Day and night suggest it subtly.  The seasons whisper it.  But you tear the veil which keeps us from seeing it.  We can now believe with our entire heart, mind and strength.  We can hope with all that we are.  We can love from the very core of our being, as if we've never been hurt before.

So let us join Philip in inviting people to know the one who does this, LORD.  Appear to us as the risen one.  Fill us with the belief which, you tell us, will not just do the works that you do but "will do greater ones than these".  The greatest of these works is to make you known.

And whatever you ask in my name, I will do,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”