The Narrow Gate

Covered.

"I'm praying not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me..." -

John 17:20

My thoughts this morning as I read this chapter were both simple and profound...and I carried them with me throughout the day.  

Jesus prayed for me.  

He personally prayed for all of us who follow him.  And as I read through some of the things he prayed for in this chapter, I got chills.  

Think about it.

These prayers had to be in line with God's will because it was God who was praying them.  James 5:16 says that the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective.  Can't think of a more righteous man than Jesus...on and on and on.

Read over these verses again and then just sit with it for a day or so.  Let these verses just marinate in your soul for a while.  

We are so totally covered.  

Eucatastrophy.

"I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.  A woman giving birth to her child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.  So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy." - John 16:21-22

J.R.R. Tolkien coined the word "eucatastrophy" in his attempt to convey the turn in his stories from imminent, guaranteed disaster and heartbreak to joy and heroic victory.  And I think it's a great word to describe what's going on here as he's explaining to his disciples that what's about to come is the greatest suffering the world will ever witness - but yet out of that - victory.

Sarah had an incredibly difficult labor and delivery when Lilly was born.  I'll never forget the moment in the delivery room when it got very quiet and there were all of a sudden twice as many doctors and nurses in there as before.  In that moment hung a great fear that something very serious and very dangerous was happening.  

But it was amazing because all of those feelings, emotions and physical pain were just completely washed away when Lil was handed off into Sarah's arms.  I'll never forget that moment either. The pain and memories of that moment didn't go away - it was just forgotten about in a bigger moment of joy.

This is the best analogy that I can think of as it relates to Jesus' death and resurrection.  We never forget what happened that day on the cross.  We cannot forget that.  But the joy in a new life and redemption and torn curtains...that's the most important thing about this work.

I grew up Catholic and a lot of people have asked me why I "left" the church.  Those explanations are best left for another post, but one thing that I still have a tough time with is the depictions of the cross in the church.  Jesus is still on it.  

And again, I think that's so important to remember and meditate on at times, but to me, there is a victory on the other side of that moment that is the whole point.  It's like parents taking pictures of only the painful labor - and none of their babies in their mothers' arms.  It's like never telling stories of first steps and funny things our kids say as they grow up - but just constantly repeating the dull dirge of how difficult the birthing process was - and ignoring the playful squeals of the two-year -old from the next room.

I'm not knocking the church - just trying to share what's on my heart as I read Jesus' words here.  We can never forget the great victory over sin and death that was won that day on the cross.  But a great price was paid for us and I believe God wants us to experience the extravagant joy of living in the freedom and forgiveness he so selflessly offers us.

Pruned.

"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."  - John 15:1-2

There's so much to unpack in the grapevine analogy...

I used to focus so much on the cutting-off-the-fruitless branch part.  In a way it motivated me to really focus on bearing fruit in my own life.  But, like much of what Jesus said, it had quickly gotten bastardized by mixing in with a 21st century American mindset.

Sarah and I had an incredible 10-day trip to Europe last month with her family.  As we were making our way up the coast of northern Spain and into the south of France, I was blown away by the sheer number of vineyards I saw rushing by through the window of the van.  

After a while, it was easy to see which vines were the oldest...they were the smallest plots of land and the plants just looked old.  Gnarled and weathered, yet holding on strong to the hillsides.

I'm not a wine snob by any stretch of the imagination, but I started to think about what makes a good wine...what would make a particular vineyard so special.  Obviously, it's the quality of the grape.

And instead of boasting in the quantity of wine a vineyard could produce, you could almost feel the winemakers' pride in the quality of their wine as you passed by those old fields.  

I think it's interesting here because Jesus is telling us that he's not into the mass-marketed, shallow and superficial fruit with little nutritional value whatsoever.  In fact, he's saying that he's willing to cut back the vine so that better fruit can bear forth.

If you don't prune a grapevine, you'll get a ridiculous amount of grapes.  But that's a Pyrrhic victory, and here's why. Grapes are produced on the previous year's growth.  So if left unpruned, you'll get a massive harvest of grapes the first year - a seemingly good thing.  But because all of the vine's energy went toward all those grapes: (1) they won't be fully ripened; and (2) the vine won't be able to produce new growth for the next year's crop.  The whole reason for pruning is to produce the maximum amount of high-quality grapes and adequate vegetative growth for the next season.

It's an art and a science to do it right. 

I think Jesus is telling us that God's not necessarily impressed by the numbers...but rather with the quality and depth of our fruit.  This makes sense when you think about his command to go make disciples - not consumers.  His kingdom is not a business - it's a movement in love and depth and complexity.  And God will sometimes have to cut us back in order for us to bear the only fruit worthy of his label.  

Addition by subtraction.  Trust the gardener.

Seen.

"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.  From now on, you do know him and have seen him.'" - John 14:6-7

Here's the thing...you can't know God unless you know Jesus.  It's that simple.  His words, not mine.  

You can't say that Jesus was just a really good guy, or a good teacher, or lived a moral life and then ignore what he's saying here.  How could he be such a great teacher if he lied about anything?  If he lied about this?

You want to reject the faith because of hypocritical Christians, fine.  You want to walk away from church because of who everyone else says Jesus was, do it.  But you can't pretend that you know, believe and love God without Jesus.  They cannot be separated because they are the same.  And you've got to do something with that.  It's quite a predicament.

Sometimes we all just need to step away from the fray of all the negative "Christian" perceptions and stereotypes for just a second and think about Jesus...God with skin.  Put away everything else, and I promise you'll be surprised at how much you click with him.  Because everything the human soul aches and longs for in this life, everything that we chase after trying to find it, is found in him.  

Jesus shows us with his life that he is true and real love.  He reveals that there really is such a thing as a love that never gives up, that cares more for others than for self, that doesn't want what it doesn't have, that doesn't strut or preen, a love that doesn't force itself on others and isn't always clamoring for attention or needing to be first in line.  That there is a love that doesn't fly off the handle, keep score of the sins of others, doesn't take joy in someone else's pain.  A love that takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God for everything, always looks for the best, never looks back and never gives up.  A love that never dies.

And if you love that...you'll love Jesus. Because that's exactly who he is.

And if you truly want to get to know him...

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." - Matthew 7:7

Stories.

Sorry for the 4-day hiatus...back at it tomorrow.  But check this out for now, if you haven't seen it already...pretty powerful stuff.  

Thanks, Tray, for making me cry like a little girl.

Wash.

"...so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him." - John 13:4-5

I don't think that there's another passage in the entire bible that hits me more than this one does.  This destroys me, encourages me, disgusts me, and fuels me in so many ways...good and bad.  It always has. It always will.

I was talking with a good friend of mine this afternoon and he said something that really stuck with me.  He said that God really starts working through you in amazing ways when you "reach the end of yourself."

What an amazing piece of truth and wisdom.  Which, by the way, can usually only be spoken by someone who has truly made it there.  

I think about those words as I gnaw on this passage yet again tonight...and I realize that what happens when we reach the end of ourselves is service.  When we stop putting ourselves first, when we start acting on Jesus' poignant act of humility, servitude and love here, we're able to take up the towel and wash some feet.

Simple.  True.  Powerful.

Father, increase in us all the desire to become less, the courage to move toward the end of ourselves and the strength to finally get there.  

Psycho.

"Mary came in with a jar of very expensive aromatic oils, anointed and massaged Jesus' feet, and then wiped them with her hair..." - John 12:2-3

I'm not going to lie...this weirds me out a little bit.  And don't play like you'd be cool with this if it happened to you tomorrow night at dinner.  It would freak you out too.

First off, the dude who was dead and buried in a cave yesterday is sitting right across the table, passing you the salt and pepper, and then a hooker waltzes in and starts anointing Jesus' feet with expensive oil and wiping her hair all over them. 

Luke's version of this event adds to the strangeness of the moment - he says that her tears mingled with the oil and that she kissed his feet over and over again.

Sorry, but at best, this looks a little shady...and at worst...a little psycho.

But Jesus is cool with this and sees it for exactly what it is...an unabashed, unashamed, and uncontrollable expression of gratitude for the one who saves us from our sins.  He tells us that those of us who have been forgiven of the most, love the most.  They're the most thankful, grateful and hopeful.  They know the value of the cross because they understand what life would be like without it.

Maybe we're just not psycho enough.  So many of us don't realize how much we've been saved from - so we just make our faith in Christ about as important as a pickup basketball game.  

It's not a fun place, but we have to go there sometimes - we have to open that door that hides all the garbage in our lives.  We need to open the door, turn on the light and take a good hard look at who and what we really are as it relates to God.  It's only then do we understand the need for a savior.  And drives us even deeper in our love and gratitude for Jesus.

It's easy for the troubled, the addicted, the messed-up, and the broken to meet Christ...we're well-aware of our shortcomings.  We're already flat on our back with nowhere to look but up.  We know how much has been forgiven...and it's not easy to forget.

But it's when we think we're all good...that we're decent, honest and basically pure...that's when we get into trouble.  We lose the depth of our relationship with Christ.  Our love starts to run shallow and grows stagnant...eventually drying up altogether.

"She was forgiven many, many sins, and she is very, very grateful.  If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal" - Luke 7:47

So then the question comes whispering in the night, demanding an answer...how grateful are you?  

Convenience.

"The high priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the Jewish ruling body. 'What do we do now?' the asked. 'This man is performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, pretty soon everyone will be believing in him and the Romans will come and remove what little power and privilege we still have.'  Then one of them - it was Caiaphas, the designated Chief Priest that year - spoke up, 'Don't you know anything? Can't you see that it's to our advantage that one man dies for the people rather than a whole nation be destroyed?'" - John 11:47-50

It's so easy to make it all about us.  

The big story in John 11 is Jesus raising a man from the dead...literally.  And a crowd of witnesses saw a stone rolled away from his tomb, smelled the stench of death and watched, as Lazarus walked out into the day still wearing his grave clothes.  Life trumps death in that moment.  It doesn't happen often.

And still, while the miracle is still hanging thickly in the air, we see a group beginning to collaborate on a plan to kill Jesus.  And I think the reasons in the verses above are incredibly disturbing - and incredibly telling.

The Romans had given the Jews some latitude in their daily living, so long as they kept under control and didn't create problems.  Over time, certain Jewish people and groups begin to enjoy a little more freedom and power than others (tax collectors, Sadducees, etc.) under Roman authority.  And a good deal of that was a direct result of them compromising their faith.  Manipulating God for personal gain became commonplace.  

And here we see actual fear in the movement of Jesus because it threatened the easy, convenient life of a small group of privileged religious leaders.  Their little kingdom that they spent so much time building and creating, were coming under attack by a man that they could not control or censor.  So they decided to take matters into their own hands - even rationalizing murder..."rather than a whole nation be destroyed."

Things aren't much different today - it just looks a little different.  We stick to Scripture, chapter and verse when it comes to certain issues and stances and arguments when it's convenient for us...and yet we completely ignore and gloss over other commands and teaching when it shakes the foundations of our own homes.  We take a highlighter to scripture - or worse - we get convicted and then seek to rationalize away Jesus' words and the kind of life he's calling us to by saying things like, "Well, that's not really what he's saying to do here," even though we know it is.

Jesus is not easy.  Jesus is not convenient.  He will not be snuffed out.  He will surprise us and challenge us and turn our lives upside-down as much as he did 2,000 years ago.  He can not be controlled by our desires and he doesn't compromise at our whim.  He will not be ignored.  And not because he wants to take away...but because he wants to add.  To show us a depth to life previously unknown and unseen.  To show us a different way to live and interact.  To break us free from the tyranny of ourselves and what we think life is all about.  

He shows up to give and serve in love - and we want to kill him off.  

Father, give us the strength and wisdom to see you for who you truly are, help us to see beyond our images and ideas of who we want you to be, and give us the childlike anticipation to be surprised as you answer this prayer. 

  

Decide.

"If I don't do the things my Father does, well and good, don't believe me.  But if I am doing them, put aside for a moment what you hear me say about myself and take the evidence of the actions that are right before your eyes.  Then perhaps things will come together for you, and you'll see that not only are we doing the same thing, we are the same - Father and Son.  He is in me, I am in him." - John 10:37-38 

John 10 is a chapter of huge importance...it's where Jesus reveals his deity, says that he and God are one, and confirms what many had suspected...that he is the Messiah.  And there's so much theologically here...there's no way I can tackle it in a few clumsy paragraphs.  

But Jesus' words here are a great reminder that each and every one of us need to make a decision regarding who we believe he is.  And we can't make a decision worth anything unless we come face to face with Jesus himself in his own words...only then can we figure out what to do with him.

It's amazing how much we research cars, cell phones, computers, and real estate before we buy them.  We pour over financial statements and org charts learning everything about a company before interviewing for a job.  We (ok, I) spend days shut off from the world with 5 years' worth of statistics on every player in the league before our fantasy drafts.  But with the most important person in the history of the world who makes the most important claims in the history of the world...we brush him aside without a second glance.

And that goes both ways.  We dismiss him as irrelevant or as a fairy tale because of stereotypes, bad experiences or flat-out disbelief.  But just as dangerous is if we believe without taking the time to really get to know him...to follow him...to recognize his voice.  

And I've said it before, but it's true...that kind of belief, by the way, is really no belief at all.  Jesus talks about it in Matthew 7 when he's talking about the end of days and all the people who will come up to him claiming to have been his followers and he basically says, "Sure, you say you followed me and you called me Lord, you had all the Christian bumper stickers and t-shirts, and you went to church every week and lit a candle, but I never knew you."  And they're out.  

So the bottom line here, is that we need to decide.  One way or another.  When I made the decision to follow Christ, I didn't have a lightning bolt come down from the sky. Nor did I see a burning bush or a pillar of smoke and fire.  I just made a decision one day to give God an honest shot.  I went into my room, closed my door and opened my Bible for the first time in a long time.  And I put down what everyone had ever told me about Jesus...the media, friends, family, the church...and I was determined to finally make up my own mind.  I was going to decide on my own who I believed Jesus to be...I wasn't going to take anyone else's word for it.

And a crazy thing happened.  He met me in that place...and nothing has been the same since.  God responds to the honest heart that seeks out the truth.  I pray that we never lose that earnest desire to meet with him.

Blind.

"He replied, ' I know nothing about that one way or the other.  But I know one thing for sure: I was blind...I now see.'" - John 9:25

There is so much power in simplicity.  

Here we've got a humble, previously blind homeless man getting grilled about Jesus by the most educated religious authorities of the day.  Every question is complex, every answer is simple. 

You can feel the mounting frustration and hostility in the Pharisees' words as they interview this guy who claims to have been given back his sight from Jesus.  The lengths that they go to explain this away are borderline humorous.  Their hatred and distaste for Christ...not so much...and it spills over onto an innocent man during the questioning.  All because they cannot get around the simple truth that Jesus was "good."

How often does this happen to us when we share our experiences and encounters with Jesus?  I've lived this first-hand.  One day, you're living a life that has become the norm, you've established an identity in it, you've grown accustomed to it, and everyone's aware of and comfortable with it it and then...Jesus comes along and changes everything.  And it's a noticeable change...and all of a sudden, people start getting uncomfortable.

Just like the man in this chapter, people begin to question whether you really are changed, they present theories and explanations as to why Jesus could not possibly be the source of the change, they question, cross-examine and debate your story and eventually, they reject you and throw you out. 

And all the while, in a flurry of accusations and arguments a simple fact remains...yesterday you were blind, and today you can see.  And the only thing that happened was an encounter with a man who calls himself Jesus.

There is power in the simplicity of our life stories.  

There is absolutely a place for apologetics and discussion of deep theology...but here we see the overwhelming effect that a simple telling of our story can have.  

God doesn't always need us to convince the world that he exists by carefully making the case for him.  He does that by changing us.  Our job is simply to talk about it.