(Audio)
I do not condemn him,
for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.
Jesus does not condemn anyone. But he does not prevent us from condemning ourselves. He tells us how to come to him and have life. But if we reject those words we will not find a path to life. The words will be testimony of the help he offered but which we refused.
Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words
has something to judge him: the word that I spoke,
it will condemn him on the last day,
because I did not speak on my own,
but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak.
When we reject something which Jesus says we are not rejecting merely human teaching, nor simply the elegant wisdom of a philosopher or a prophet. We reject the all-knowing, unchanging, entirely loving mind of God. When we do this we often imagine that we have a better idea, something more kind and loving in a specific circumstance. But our ideas are never more true than those of God, nor more loving.
I came into the world as light,
so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness.
Jesus wants us to come to him so that we can walk in his light. He enlightens us so that we can walk in love. He helps us to avoid the temptation to concoct our own plans, when such plans are other than the Father has revealed. Without his light we are like children scared in the dark, making desperate plans for survival and thinking that such plans are the best our love can do. With his light we are able to live in his peace and his safety, trusting in his word.
The words of Jesus condemn us if we do not come to the light, in the sense that we now choose to stumble in the darkness by our own choice, over and against the light he has now revealed. He tells us where we can find the light and where the is the darkness we must avoid. So let us not continue in darkness, even to any degree, even in the recesses of our hearts that we hold back from him. May he shine fully within us and through us.
Only in the light will we have confidence to listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit and obey him when he speaks.
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,
“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul
for the work to which I have called them.”
A significant reason why we don't hear the Spirit is because we are afraid to listen, afraid of what he might ask of us. But why? What darkness lies over our hearts, what recesses of them are still held back from God? What do we still imagine we need to protect by our own strength?
When we see what the Spirit asked of others we may fear that we could not rise to such challenges ourselves. But we don't have the grace for the missions of others. We will have grace for whatever he asks of us as individuals. Knowing in advance, we couldn't imagine doing whatever that might be, because we could only imagine how our own strength would fail. This is why we need to walk in the light of trust in Jesus. His call is not only possible, though it is, because all things are possible for God. It is better than any other option we might choose.
So they, sent forth by the Holy Spirit,
Whatever we do, may we too go forth, sent by the Spirit, to proclaim in our own way, the praises of God to all the nations.
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you!
No comments:
Post a Comment