Is that all you got Jesus?
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Written: |
12/2/97 |
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Published: |
12/31/08 |
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Bibliography: |
Luke 11, Raising of Lazarus from the dead |
I am deeply moved by the compassion and grief Jesus showed at Lazarus’ death.
Those present at the time of Lazarus’ death snidely said of Jesus, ‘If he [Jesus] can open the eyes of the blind, couldn’t the have prevented Lazarus’ death?’
The irony is unreal. They believed Jesus could heal the blind, but still didn’t believe that he was who he said he was [the Christ]. They wanted more. Prove it, if you really are the Christ.
I see this tendency in myself as a subconscious habit. I expect him to do things, because he is the Christ, and then doubt that it ‘really was Jesus’ when he does do them, holding out for more.
‘If you really are good, Jesus, you’ll do this, and until you do I’m going to doubt that you are good and perfect and can be trusted with the things that matter most.’
How much this must grieve the Lord. He is perfect, and wants us to know that he is good and can be trusted and worshipped, but we doubt him and hold out for more, grasping desperately at control over our lives and self-protective living because we are unwilling to trust him.
Forgive us, Lord, and teach us to live right-seeing and trusting that you are who you say you are.
Nearness vs. Approach
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| Written: | 9/18/99 |
| Published: | 12/8/08 |
| Bibliography: | Lewis, C.S. The Four Loves. |
We must distinguish two things which might both be called ‘nearness to God’. One is ‘likeness to God’. God has impressed some sort of likeness to Himself, I suppose, in all he has made. Secondly, there is what we may call ‘nearness of approach’.
We see that these two do not necessarily coincide.
Perhaps an analogy may help. Let us suppose that we are doing a mountain walk to the village which is our home. At mid-day, we come to the top of a cliff where we are, in space, very near it because it is just below us. We could drop a stone into it. But as we are no cragsmen, we can’t get down. We must go a long way round; five miles, maybe. At many points during that detour we shall, statistically, be farther from the village than we were when we sat above the cliff. But only statistically. In terms of progress we shall be far ‘nearer’ our baths and teas.
At the cliff’s top we are near the village, but however long we sit there we shall never be any nearer to our bath and our tea. So here; the likeness, and in that state nearness, to Himself which God has conferred upon certain creatures and certain sates of those creatures is something finished, built in. What is near him by likeness [or resemblance] is never, by that fact alone, going to be any nearer. But nearness by approach is, by definition, increasing nearness.
…a devoted mother, a beneficent ruler or teacher, may give and give, continually exhibiting the likeness [to God's character], without making the approach.
There are many things in life which display aspects of God’s character and love—and these things are ‘near’ to God by resemblance. A friend’s love and respect for indigenous peoples, my compassion for a close friend, a fierce love for my wife, a choking in my throat when I see pictures of outer space—these things are nearness to God by resemblance. But if I merely focus on one of them, I do nothing to draw closer to God, or become nearer by approach, because I have done nothing which draws me closer to God.
There is a critical link here between action and inaction in the life of an apprentice.
