Monday, April 6, 2020
699 - I Am ... Sure
Spirituality Column #699
April 7, 2020
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
I Am … Sure
By Bob Walters
“… on earth as it is in heaven …”
Matthew 6:10, words of Jesus in The Lord’s Prayer
The
surface-scratching Christians, in other years, head to church on Easter.
They know a
little. God reigns in heaven and Jesus judges
our sins on earth. We celebrate the
forgiveness of our sins by Jesus’s death on the Cross of Good Friday and we
praise salvation into heaven’s eternal life by His empty tomb on Easter
morning.
And then the
barely-clinging, slightly faithful let loose with a shallow cry of “Amen! Great!
We are done with church for another year!” Their distancing murmur upon exit echoes a
self-cleansing sentiment akin to, “I’ll be back to church next spring. Until then, please don’t bother me with any
of this Jesus or church ‘stuff.’ I’m a
good person and don’t need religion or church for God to know it. Like the
Bible says, ‘Don’t judge.’ Bye.”
That’s what the
outside world seems to think of Easter.
It’s roughly what the media and the domestic left – particularly the
academics – promote as Easter. It’s this
religious “thing” about sin, forgiveness, salvation (whatever that is) and
getting into heaven. Its real purpose is
to quiet the irrational fears of the superstitious masses.
But this year,
nobody will be going to church. Easter
without church will be like Christmas without presents. And yet like the Whoville “Whos” who found
the true meaning of Christmas when the Grinch tried to steal it; this year I
pray outsiders and Christians will know the true meaning of Easter because of
the virus that couldn’t kill it.
It’s nothing new for
most of the world to look the other way at the coming of Christ. The Apostle Paul was among the first to fully
realize and proclaim that God fulfilled His ancient promise by sending to
Israel the Messiah Christ, and for the most part, Israel looked away. God identified himself to Abraham as “I AM”,
Jesus frequently used the telling construction “I am…”, and Israel utterly missed
the divine connection.
Israel sought
deliverance from the Romans, not from themselves. Hence Israel refused to see Jesus for who He
was/is: Israel’s true God in the flesh.
As God has His Kingdom in heaven, so the Messiah Jesus delivered God’s promised
Kingdom on Earth.
In Jesus’s most extensive
teachings – the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-6-7), the “Olivet Discourse”
(Matthew 24-25, Mark 13, Luke 21), and the lengthy section of John 15-16-17 as Jesus
led the disciples from the Last Supper to the Garden of Gethsemane – do you notice
what’s all but left unmentioned in these major, even final teachings? Sin, forgiveness, sacrifice, wrath, payment, punishment,
and salvation – themes that create focus on ourselves. Jesus focused
solely on God’s glory.
Jesus taught about
identifying who He, Jesus, was; about his infinite faith and obedience, God’s
glory, the true Messiah inaugurating God’s Kingdom on Earth, and what the
Disciples and believers were to expect and to do after His death. Jesus spoke of God’s love, the power of divine
truth, the reality of hope, the assuredness of faith, and that He’d be back.
Jesus’s message was “Identify God with love,” not, “Do this or else!”
Easter is about God’s love and faithfulness, and about Jesus’s
identity and obedience. Many want Easter
to be about “me,” even if it is my fear, guilt, and sin; it’s a common blunder.
No, Easter is about God’s truth, Jesus’s obedience, and our faith.
No, Easter is about God’s truth, Jesus’s obedience, and our faith.
I am sure of it.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes: sin is all about me, not about God’s glory.
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