Is Jesus really up to it?
Like the healed paralytic in John 5:1-15 sometimes a voice of authority or popularity frightens us or makes us feel foolish. If a scientist makes a claim that undermines the Christian faith or a celebrity jeers at us many of us feel the pain of it; it's just that we're a bit high strung and not that we really believe these people. The critics were able to intimidate him but the paralytic was no fool—he ran and hid behind Jesus ("The one who enabled me to walk told me to do it").
When you feel your life is going nowhere, that you've accomplished nothing; when you're sure you're an insignificant one in countless millions; when you feel that sort of thing, the weight of the entire universe seems to have landed on your shoulders and you're not up to handling it all—"One life and I've screwed it up, done nothing with it, going nowhere with it; one life half done and what's it all been about? And I'm not alone—the whole world seems to be a waste of space." Weariness and sourness and impatience become the order of the day.
Then somebody mentions the name, "Jesus".
"Yes, yes, Christmas and Easter and all that syrup and fluff! But it's all sizzle and no bacon."
Get past the syrup and fluff and the sometimes sickeningly sweet sentiments you read on the greetings cards on the endless stream of internet "forwards". Don't let all the surface stuff blind you to the truth that Jesus was and is real. Take him and his claims seriously if only for a while and you might find yourself thinking that maybe God really does take an interest in us. Look around you and see if others have sensed what you find yourself tempted to believe.
It isn't that our world isn't wicked; it isn't that the human family isn't up to its eyes in injustice and sin—Jesus doesn't deny the awful shape we're in! In fact, he came precisely because these things are true of us and he came to rescue us from them. As individuals we've made a hash our lives and as a human family we've distorted and bent the world out of shape, but this one came saying that he had come to make everything better! In and through him, "He who sat on the throne said, "Look, I am making everything new." (See Revelation 21:5.)
"Yes, yes, all very pious and all very Christian but can he really bring about a cosmic turn around?"
Do you mean: can he wave a wand and everything becomes lovely? Do you mean: can he put a spell on the human family so that it'll behave as he wants it to? You want Cinderella or the Stepford Wives?
Go to the movies!
Jesus really is Lord of All and when everything looked for all the world like a lost cause and Pilate asked him if he was a king (John 18:37) Jesus said, "I was born to be King!"
One way or another, you and I will see this human enterprise isn't over till it's over! In the meantime, Jesus Christ has been changing lives by the million down the years and these are all pointers to the coming final curtain so keep your chin up.
What a finale it's going to be!
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.
Like the healed paralytic in John 5:1-15 sometimes a voice of authority or popularity frightens us or makes us feel foolish. If a scientist makes a claim that undermines the Christian faith or a celebrity jeers at us many of us feel the pain of it; it's just that we're a bit high strung and not that we really believe these people. The critics were able to intimidate him but the paralytic was no fool—he ran and hid behind Jesus ("The one who enabled me to walk told me to do it").
When you feel your life is going nowhere, that you've accomplished nothing; when you're sure you're an insignificant one in countless millions; when you feel that sort of thing, the weight of the entire universe seems to have landed on your shoulders and you're not up to handling it all—"One life and I've screwed it up, done nothing with it, going nowhere with it; one life half done and what's it all been about? And I'm not alone—the whole world seems to be a waste of space." Weariness and sourness and impatience become the order of the day.
Then somebody mentions the name, "Jesus".
"Yes, yes, Christmas and Easter and all that syrup and fluff! But it's all sizzle and no bacon."
Get past the syrup and fluff and the sometimes sickeningly sweet sentiments you read on the greetings cards on the endless stream of internet "forwards". Don't let all the surface stuff blind you to the truth that Jesus was and is real. Take him and his claims seriously if only for a while and you might find yourself thinking that maybe God really does take an interest in us. Look around you and see if others have sensed what you find yourself tempted to believe.
It isn't that our world isn't wicked; it isn't that the human family isn't up to its eyes in injustice and sin—Jesus doesn't deny the awful shape we're in! In fact, he came precisely because these things are true of us and he came to rescue us from them. As individuals we've made a hash our lives and as a human family we've distorted and bent the world out of shape, but this one came saying that he had come to make everything better! In and through him, "He who sat on the throne said, "Look, I am making everything new." (See Revelation 21:5.)
"Yes, yes, all very pious and all very Christian but can he really bring about a cosmic turn around?"
Do you mean: can he wave a wand and everything becomes lovely? Do you mean: can he put a spell on the human family so that it'll behave as he wants it to? You want Cinderella or the Stepford Wives?
Go to the movies!
Jesus really is Lord of All and when everything looked for all the world like a lost cause and Pilate asked him if he was a king (John 18:37) Jesus said, "I was born to be King!"
One way or another, you and I will see this human enterprise isn't over till it's over! In the meantime, Jesus Christ has been changing lives by the million down the years and these are all pointers to the coming final curtain so keep your chin up.
What a finale it's going to be!
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.