At the beginning of creation, humanity walked with God in the Garden of Eden. The Scripture says that when humanity sinned and tried to hide, God walked through the garden calling their names.
Now God no longer walked with humanity. Instead, he commanded Abraham to, “walk before me and be perfect.” Later, when his people were lost to slavery, he delivered them by walking them out of Egypt. Now God went before them, as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, walking them through the waters, across the desert and into the Promised Land.
When the time had come, God chose to once again walk with humanity by becoming human. In the land of Palestine Jesus Christ walked among us, bringing good news to the poor, comforting the brokenhearted, and announcing that captives would be released and prisoners would be set free.
He walked out of the garden of agony and to the cross, where he gave up His life so that humanity no longer needed to hide from sin, but instead could walk with God into eternity.
And now we are called to walk on. This may be a new year, a new semester, and for some a new chapter in life. But our call remains the same: Walk on as Jesus walked.
Our text for this semester comes to us from John, a beloved disciple who physically walked with Jesus. Throughout his three short letters in the back of our bibles he consistently uses one word: Walk.
He calls us to not walk in darkness but rather walk in light and have fellowship with one another.
To walk in obedience. To walk in truth. To walk in love.
This is our call, and this is our standard: "This is how we know we are in him,"John writes. "Whoever claims to live in Christ must walk as Jesus walked."
Friday, January 18, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Unforgiven
This semester we will be featuring reflections and stories written by some of our Catalyst interns. Today our inaugural post is by senior Eric Page:
One of the movie lines that has been repeating in my head lately is Clint Eastwood's most famous line from the movie Unforgiven. At the end of the movie, he has a rifle pointed at Gene Hackman's character and Gene says "I don't deserve this." Clint snaps back "Deserve's got nothing to do with it". For some reason, this line has become the de facto answer in my head as to why bad things happen in this world. People like to ask the devout and even God himself "Why do bad things happen to good people?" but they miss the point: deserve's got nothing to do with it. No one man is better than another, and because of that no man deserves terrible things to happen to him than another. People do not find it easy to see the good in a murderer or the bad in themselves. People can be more concerned with justice than caring and this hard-nosed way of viewing others creates a vicious cycle of neglect in our world. In Unforgiven, this is Gene Hackman's downfall. Without spoiling the movie, his lack of caring for Morgan Freeman's character, even while strictly upholding the law, causes Clint Eastwood to fall back into his old outlaw ways. This, of course, can be translated to the pious upholding God's law while damning the sinners instead of caring for them.
There is another side to the line that saves humanity from its faults. When we are all sinners and all deserve bad things to happen to us, why do we deserve the love of God? Why do we deserve to inherit the kingdom of heaven? Well, deserve's got nothing to do with it; love does. It is because of God's love and caring that He forgives us and shows us how to love others. He set the example, now we are charged with showing it to the world. If we screw up, that's ok, keep trying because God will forgive you of your mistakes. Even the justice system may never forgive you, but God will. We may not deserve it, but deserve's got nothing to do with it.
I was very curious to see if anyone else had analyzed that line to the depth I had, so I typed it straight into Google and searched on it. I was surprised when the first result listed was "Christian Cinema" and had an anaylsis similar to mine. It concluded with the following:
"From a Christian perspective, Unforgiven is powerful because it views its characters from God's perspective; it sees things from His vantage point. For all rational purposes, [Gene Hackman] should be the hero of the film. That our sympathies go with the sinner gives us a glimpse of the things God sees."
I didn't feel so bad about taking part of my Christian perspective from a character that was a "known thief and murderer".
I am writing this as a reflection because I would like to really like to know how well this line of thinking fits in with God's teaching and has seriously been the most prevalent God-related thing on my mind recently. Also, would it apply to why the Cowboys lost?
One of the movie lines that has been repeating in my head lately is Clint Eastwood's most famous line from the movie Unforgiven. At the end of the movie, he has a rifle pointed at Gene Hackman's character and Gene says "I don't deserve this." Clint snaps back "Deserve's got nothing to do with it". For some reason, this line has become the de facto answer in my head as to why bad things happen in this world. People like to ask the devout and even God himself "Why do bad things happen to good people?" but they miss the point: deserve's got nothing to do with it. No one man is better than another, and because of that no man deserves terrible things to happen to him than another. People do not find it easy to see the good in a murderer or the bad in themselves. People can be more concerned with justice than caring and this hard-nosed way of viewing others creates a vicious cycle of neglect in our world. In Unforgiven, this is Gene Hackman's downfall. Without spoiling the movie, his lack of caring for Morgan Freeman's character, even while strictly upholding the law, causes Clint Eastwood to fall back into his old outlaw ways. This, of course, can be translated to the pious upholding God's law while damning the sinners instead of caring for them.
There is another side to the line that saves humanity from its faults. When we are all sinners and all deserve bad things to happen to us, why do we deserve the love of God? Why do we deserve to inherit the kingdom of heaven? Well, deserve's got nothing to do with it; love does. It is because of God's love and caring that He forgives us and shows us how to love others. He set the example, now we are charged with showing it to the world. If we screw up, that's ok, keep trying because God will forgive you of your mistakes. Even the justice system may never forgive you, but God will. We may not deserve it, but deserve's got nothing to do with it.
I was very curious to see if anyone else had analyzed that line to the depth I had, so I typed it straight into Google and searched on it. I was surprised when the first result listed was "Christian Cinema" and had an anaylsis similar to mine. It concluded with the following:
"From a Christian perspective, Unforgiven is powerful because it views its characters from God's perspective; it sees things from His vantage point. For all rational purposes, [Gene Hackman] should be the hero of the film. That our sympathies go with the sinner gives us a glimpse of the things God sees."
I didn't feel so bad about taking part of my Christian perspective from a character that was a "known thief and murderer".
I am writing this as a reflection because I would like to really like to know how well this line of thinking fits in with God's teaching and has seriously been the most prevalent God-related thing on my mind recently. Also, would it apply to why the Cowboys lost?
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Grace Released, Truth Revealed (Continued)
I’ve tried to put a definition on the dynamic of full grace and full truth that John weaves through his Gospel. Nothing satisfies. Trying to define this kind of thing is like standing underneath a water fall, trying to catch the falling current with your hands. Grab and snatch all you want, you will never be able to confine the flow in your grasp. You don’t define it, nor can you confine it. You can only relinquish yourself to the gush and attempt to describe what it’s like.
What if our communication of truth wasn’t limited to well-placed words, neat formulas, or rational argument? What if our words of truth were clothed with flesh and blood grace? Sometimes I wonder if what we need in our search for and communication of truth is not more teaching, more thinking, more doctrine, more programs, or more rules, but more grace. I wonder what our lives would be like if we let the dynamic combination of full grace and full truth capture our hearts. I wonder what our witness would be if, more than concentrating on great church experiences and programming, we released full grace into the lives of the people we live with, study with, and work with. I wonder what kind of truth would be revealed, what kind of forgiveness would be experienced, what kind of salvation would come, and what kind of Kingdom stories would be told.
What if our communication of truth wasn’t limited to well-placed words, neat formulas, or rational argument? What if our words of truth were clothed with flesh and blood grace? Sometimes I wonder if what we need in our search for and communication of truth is not more teaching, more thinking, more doctrine, more programs, or more rules, but more grace. I wonder what our lives would be like if we let the dynamic combination of full grace and full truth capture our hearts. I wonder what our witness would be if, more than concentrating on great church experiences and programming, we released full grace into the lives of the people we live with, study with, and work with. I wonder what kind of truth would be revealed, what kind of forgiveness would be experienced, what kind of salvation would come, and what kind of Kingdom stories would be told.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Grace Released, Truth Revealed (Continued)
...continued from October 26 and October 30....
The gap between what’s true and what’s not true about God is not bridged by good feelings of church friendships, a system of rational thought, a carefully outlined God-doctrine, or even a well-articulated belief system. God bridged the gap by binding truth to a person—the person of Jesus Christ—who comes full of grace and full of truth. The world of words and concepts becomes a life of flesh and blood. By embodying the fullness of God’s grace and truth, Jesus’ life of grace becomes the catalyst for God’s truth. Releasing the grace of Jesus reveals the truth of Jesus. I’m not suggesting the truth of Jesus is always received, only that until and unless the grace of Jesus is released, the truth of Jesus will not be received.
I’ve seen research that declares a truth crisis spreading like a plague through the value system of American teens. By looking at these polls, you would think all young people are morally adrift in a sea of moral swill, not the least bit interested in anchoring their lives to bedrock, absolute truth. And, I have to say, that anyone who works with young people can easily find some merit in the statistics. But maybe there’s a crisis of truth in our culture because there’s a crisis of grace. I’d like to see a poll on that.
Grace reaches out and grabs truth out of the ethereal world of the propositionally abstract and deeply plants it into the messy world of human living, providing a relational context in which the truth of God becomes visible, touchable, tangible, and even vulnerable. Wherever, whenever, and with whomever God’s grace—his generosity, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, kindness, faithfulness—intersects our lives, defying our conventional expectations of what’s true and not true of God, God’s truth is revealed, and the potential exists for his truth to be received.
More to come...
The gap between what’s true and what’s not true about God is not bridged by good feelings of church friendships, a system of rational thought, a carefully outlined God-doctrine, or even a well-articulated belief system. God bridged the gap by binding truth to a person—the person of Jesus Christ—who comes full of grace and full of truth. The world of words and concepts becomes a life of flesh and blood. By embodying the fullness of God’s grace and truth, Jesus’ life of grace becomes the catalyst for God’s truth. Releasing the grace of Jesus reveals the truth of Jesus. I’m not suggesting the truth of Jesus is always received, only that until and unless the grace of Jesus is released, the truth of Jesus will not be received.
I’ve seen research that declares a truth crisis spreading like a plague through the value system of American teens. By looking at these polls, you would think all young people are morally adrift in a sea of moral swill, not the least bit interested in anchoring their lives to bedrock, absolute truth. And, I have to say, that anyone who works with young people can easily find some merit in the statistics. But maybe there’s a crisis of truth in our culture because there’s a crisis of grace. I’d like to see a poll on that.
Grace reaches out and grabs truth out of the ethereal world of the propositionally abstract and deeply plants it into the messy world of human living, providing a relational context in which the truth of God becomes visible, touchable, tangible, and even vulnerable. Wherever, whenever, and with whomever God’s grace—his generosity, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, kindness, faithfulness—intersects our lives, defying our conventional expectations of what’s true and not true of God, God’s truth is revealed, and the potential exists for his truth to be received.
More to come...
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Our Shared Stories
This past Friday we held our annual Fellowship Dinner... which is a fancy way of saying our annual fund-raiser. Four of our student-interns shared their stories via a video we produced for event. And along with their stories, we introduced our supporters to one of the big reasons we need to raise funds: Big Blue.
I had a lot of fun putting this video together because it offered me the chance to get to know some of our interns a little bit more. We have a great team here. They love God, and they love each other. In the end, that is all we can hope for and all we are called to do.
The music in this video is performed by our friend Matt Maher. The song is called You Know Who I Am from the album The End and the Beginning. You can find Matt here on or on iTunes.
I had a lot of fun putting this video together because it offered me the chance to get to know some of our interns a little bit more. We have a great team here. They love God, and they love each other. In the end, that is all we can hope for and all we are called to do.
The music in this video is performed by our friend Matt Maher. The song is called You Know Who I Am from the album The End and the Beginning. You can find Matt here on or on iTunes.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Grace Released, Truth Revealed (Continued)
Between the bookends of John’s prologue (John 1) and Peter’s restoration (John 21), encounters with Jesus weave a tapestry of grace released and truth revealed, bridging the gap between what’s true and not true about God.
When you have some time, read through John to peer into the lives of all the people whom Jesus encountered—four men who discover that Jesus is the one they’ve been waiting for all their lives, the partying guests who enjoyed the choice wine Jesus miraculously provided at a Canaanite wedding, a seeking Nicodemus, a humble John the Baptist, a respected government official who is also a desperate dad, an outcast Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, a helpless invalid of 38 years, the 5,000 poor who filled their stomachs with five loaves and two fish, the desperate disciples who saw Jesus walk on water, a shamed woman caught in the act of adultery, a man blind since birth with the spit of Jesus on his eyes, a dead Lazarus and his broken hearted sisters, Mary and Martha, the worried disciples in the upper room with clean feet and comforted hearts, a surprised and overjoyed Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb, and a doubtful Thomas with his finger in Jesus’ wounds.
See if, in fact, the truth revealed to them about what’s true and not true about God was released by an act of Jesus-grace. If we could ask them, my bet is that they would say it was. They might even say that not only is Jesus the Truth, Jesus is the Grace.
More to come...
When you have some time, read through John to peer into the lives of all the people whom Jesus encountered—four men who discover that Jesus is the one they’ve been waiting for all their lives, the partying guests who enjoyed the choice wine Jesus miraculously provided at a Canaanite wedding, a seeking Nicodemus, a humble John the Baptist, a respected government official who is also a desperate dad, an outcast Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, a helpless invalid of 38 years, the 5,000 poor who filled their stomachs with five loaves and two fish, the desperate disciples who saw Jesus walk on water, a shamed woman caught in the act of adultery, a man blind since birth with the spit of Jesus on his eyes, a dead Lazarus and his broken hearted sisters, Mary and Martha, the worried disciples in the upper room with clean feet and comforted hearts, a surprised and overjoyed Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb, and a doubtful Thomas with his finger in Jesus’ wounds.
See if, in fact, the truth revealed to them about what’s true and not true about God was released by an act of Jesus-grace. If we could ask them, my bet is that they would say it was. They might even say that not only is Jesus the Truth, Jesus is the Grace.
More to come...
Friday, October 26, 2007
Grace Released, Truth Revealed
Henri Nouwen expressed that the only way to know the truth of Jesus Christ is to be transformed by an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. “Truth does not mean an idea, concept, or doctrine, but the true relationship. To be led into the same relationship that Jesus has with the Father; it is to enter into divine betrothal” (Making All Things New, 54).
John sets the tone to the true relationship Jesus offers by beginning with a prologue of grace and truth, characterized by God taking the first step to bridge the gap between what’s true and what’s not true about God (John 1:1-18).
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' "From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known (John 1:14-18, emphasis mine).
John ends his gospel with an event of full grace released and full truth revealed—the restoration of Peter. Peter finds himself in the gap of truth, a gap many of us know. We don’t question the facts of Jesus’ resurrection; we only question whether the forgiveness it brings is really for us. Even witnessing the undeniable reality of the resurrection of Jesus did not break through the deep shame Peter felt for disowning Jesus. Only an after-breakfast, face-to-face conversation with Jesus on a beach, in which Jesus graciously allows Peter to own his love for him, provides the catalyst for the truth Peter seeks. The truth of God is revealed to him because the grace of God is released to him.
More to come...
John sets the tone to the true relationship Jesus offers by beginning with a prologue of grace and truth, characterized by God taking the first step to bridge the gap between what’s true and what’s not true about God (John 1:1-18).
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' "From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known (John 1:14-18, emphasis mine).
John ends his gospel with an event of full grace released and full truth revealed—the restoration of Peter. Peter finds himself in the gap of truth, a gap many of us know. We don’t question the facts of Jesus’ resurrection; we only question whether the forgiveness it brings is really for us. Even witnessing the undeniable reality of the resurrection of Jesus did not break through the deep shame Peter felt for disowning Jesus. Only an after-breakfast, face-to-face conversation with Jesus on a beach, in which Jesus graciously allows Peter to own his love for him, provides the catalyst for the truth Peter seeks. The truth of God is revealed to him because the grace of God is released to him.
More to come...
Monday, October 15, 2007
Is this a love thing?
Bottom line: Love God with all of who you are. Love all others as you love yourself (Matthew 22:34-40).
Sometimes I think I tend to make it too complicated, trying to wrap my head around theological shades and nuances. What if this? What if that? But it’s really pretty simple. Love God, love others. Jesus embodies this whole-hearted devotion and invites us to live in it with him. When we follow him, we follow this relationship of simplicity.
Loving is not about having all my questions answered or having my life all figured out. I can love without all the information and without knowing how the future unfolds. In fact, love requires that I do so. The last thing produced by information and knowledge is love.
Loving is not about feeling like loving. It’s really more of a choice, an act of the will, whether I feel like it or not.
Loving is not selective. I don’t get to choose when I love God. I don’t get to choose whom I love. I don’t get to make judgment on who deserves love. That’s already been decided.
Loving is total. The equation of love: Heart + Mind + Soul + Strength. That’s pretty much all of who I am.
To love God is to love others. I can’t conveniently turn the love switch on and off, depending on the people I’m around. If I don’t love others, I’ve pretty much told you by my behavior that I don’t love God.
Loving others is not always easy. Jesus quotes part of Leviticus 19:18 as the flip-side of the same coin of the love commandment. The entire Leviticus verse says this: “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” To love is to forgive because God forgives—not always easy.
I wonder what life would like if we laid aside our conjured complexities and simply followed Jesus and followed him simply.
Sometimes I think I tend to make it too complicated, trying to wrap my head around theological shades and nuances. What if this? What if that? But it’s really pretty simple. Love God, love others. Jesus embodies this whole-hearted devotion and invites us to live in it with him. When we follow him, we follow this relationship of simplicity.
Loving is not about having all my questions answered or having my life all figured out. I can love without all the information and without knowing how the future unfolds. In fact, love requires that I do so. The last thing produced by information and knowledge is love.
Loving is not about feeling like loving. It’s really more of a choice, an act of the will, whether I feel like it or not.
Loving is not selective. I don’t get to choose when I love God. I don’t get to choose whom I love. I don’t get to make judgment on who deserves love. That’s already been decided.
Loving is total. The equation of love: Heart + Mind + Soul + Strength. That’s pretty much all of who I am.
To love God is to love others. I can’t conveniently turn the love switch on and off, depending on the people I’m around. If I don’t love others, I’ve pretty much told you by my behavior that I don’t love God.
Loving others is not always easy. Jesus quotes part of Leviticus 19:18 as the flip-side of the same coin of the love commandment. The entire Leviticus verse says this: “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” To love is to forgive because God forgives—not always easy.
I wonder what life would like if we laid aside our conjured complexities and simply followed Jesus and followed him simply.
Monday, October 1, 2007
KingdomTide: Mercy & Justice
This past Thursday night our Catalyst speaker, Bill Mefford, challenged us to consider what is mercy and what is justice. His basic breakdown went something like this:
If we are eating at the table, and we know there are starving children in another country, what is mercy and what is justice? Mercy is sending them money or food. Justice is inviting them to our table and working to bring an end to the systems that cause them to starve.
Mercy and justice was at the heart of God’s judgment of his people in the book of Isaiah. They worshiped idols that were all about their own security and prosperity, while all the while forgetting their mandate to be light of mercy and justice to the nations.
Mercy and justice is at the heart of Christ’s incarnation, as we have seen from our readings this past week when Matthew quotes Isaiah 42:
And now we, like the Israelites in the Old Testament, are called to be the light of Christ’s mercy and justice in the world. The pressing question for us right now is what does that look like where we live and work?
There is a long forgotten season in the Church calendar called Kingdomtide. It arose in the early 20th century as an effort to focus on the mercy and justice aspects of the Gospel, and to embrace the poor and marginalized with mercy and justice in Jesus’ name.
Last year at Asbury Seminary we created this video as a visual prayer for our Kingdomtide Communion service. I invite you to watch it while praying Open the eyes of our hearts…
You can read more about KingdomTide by going here and then clicking the link on the left.
The written text in the beginning is from Isaiah 43, and at the end is from Isaiah 1. The music is Isaiah 61, performed by our friend Matt Maher (which you can find on iTunes). The painting of Jesus is by Kevin Sparks. It's a little trickier with the news footage. We’re claiming educational usage exception to the copyright laws. We're not selling this resource - simply using it to feature the news in a the more hopeful frame of the Kingdom of God
If we are eating at the table, and we know there are starving children in another country, what is mercy and what is justice? Mercy is sending them money or food. Justice is inviting them to our table and working to bring an end to the systems that cause them to starve.
Mercy and justice was at the heart of God’s judgment of his people in the book of Isaiah. They worshiped idols that were all about their own security and prosperity, while all the while forgetting their mandate to be light of mercy and justice to the nations.
Mercy and justice is at the heart of Christ’s incarnation, as we have seen from our readings this past week when Matthew quotes Isaiah 42:
“Look at my Servant, whom I have chosen. He is my Beloved, who pleases me. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not fight or shout or raise his voice in public. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally he will cause justice to be victorious. And his name will be the hope of all the world.”Mercy and justice is at the heart of the Cross: The death of Christ to fulfill the broken covenant of the sin of humanity was an act of justice. That Christ died in place of and to rescue humanity was an act of mercy.
Matthew 12:18-21 (NLT)
And now we, like the Israelites in the Old Testament, are called to be the light of Christ’s mercy and justice in the world. The pressing question for us right now is what does that look like where we live and work?
There is a long forgotten season in the Church calendar called Kingdomtide. It arose in the early 20th century as an effort to focus on the mercy and justice aspects of the Gospel, and to embrace the poor and marginalized with mercy and justice in Jesus’ name.
Last year at Asbury Seminary we created this video as a visual prayer for our Kingdomtide Communion service. I invite you to watch it while praying Open the eyes of our hearts…
The written text in the beginning is from Isaiah 43, and at the end is from Isaiah 1. The music is Isaiah 61, performed by our friend Matt Maher (which you can find on iTunes). The painting of Jesus is by Kevin Sparks. It's a little trickier with the news footage. We’re claiming educational usage exception to the copyright laws. We're not selling this resource - simply using it to feature the news in a the more hopeful frame of the Kingdom of God
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Matthew 11: Great Question
Are you the One we’ve been expecting to come, or should we keep our options open (11:3)?
Asked by John the Baptist’s disciples, who had been actively waiting and preparing themselves to be ready for God’s Messiah, it’s a question pondered by all of us at the depths of our human experience.
We ask it in different ways, but the depth of our longing is the same. God, when are you going to show yourself to me? How long do I have to wait? How do I know that you’re for real? Some of the things I’ve seen in my life look like you, but how can I be sure? Are you really the one who gives us hope? If not, please tell me because I’m getting weary of waiting.
I find it interesting that Jesus didn’t respond to them by giving them some sort of intellectual argument, trying to prove that he in fact was the One. He didn’t placate their expectations by telling them, “I know you’ve been waiting a long time, and I know things aren’t exactly what you expected, and things are hard, but just hold on a little longer and you’ll see.”
Jesus simply said, What do you hear, what do you see? “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of me” (11:4-6).
In other words, you see the evidence of God’s kingdom at work. You tell me.
Take a look at Isaiah 35, especially verses 5-6, and you’ll understand that Jesus answered them by referring them to Jewish expectations of the Messiah that they knew, but perhaps had forgotten. Maybe that’s why Jesus says, “Blessed is the one who doesn’t not fall away on account of me.” Some turn away from Jesus because he doesn't meet their expectations.
It’s not just the question we ask— “Are you the One?” It’s having “ears to hear” the answer that God is giving. “Wisdom is proved right by her actions” (11:15, 19).
Asked by John the Baptist’s disciples, who had been actively waiting and preparing themselves to be ready for God’s Messiah, it’s a question pondered by all of us at the depths of our human experience.
We ask it in different ways, but the depth of our longing is the same. God, when are you going to show yourself to me? How long do I have to wait? How do I know that you’re for real? Some of the things I’ve seen in my life look like you, but how can I be sure? Are you really the one who gives us hope? If not, please tell me because I’m getting weary of waiting.
I find it interesting that Jesus didn’t respond to them by giving them some sort of intellectual argument, trying to prove that he in fact was the One. He didn’t placate their expectations by telling them, “I know you’ve been waiting a long time, and I know things aren’t exactly what you expected, and things are hard, but just hold on a little longer and you’ll see.”
Jesus simply said, What do you hear, what do you see? “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of me” (11:4-6).
In other words, you see the evidence of God’s kingdom at work. You tell me.
Take a look at Isaiah 35, especially verses 5-6, and you’ll understand that Jesus answered them by referring them to Jewish expectations of the Messiah that they knew, but perhaps had forgotten. Maybe that’s why Jesus says, “Blessed is the one who doesn’t not fall away on account of me.” Some turn away from Jesus because he doesn't meet their expectations.
It’s not just the question we ask— “Are you the One?” It’s having “ears to hear” the answer that God is giving. “Wisdom is proved right by her actions” (11:15, 19).
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