Monday, January 21, 2019
636 - Finding a Foothold
Spirituality Column #636
January 22, 2019
Common Christianity / Uncommon Christianity
Finding a Foothold
By Bob Walters
“Peace I leave with
you; my peace I give you. I do not give
to you as the world gives. Do not let
your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” – Jesus, John 14:27
Any time
you need Jesus to “talk you down” – to calm you, restore you, encourage you,
distract you – you can do a lot worse than read John 14, all of it.
At the Last
Supper after washing their feet, Jesus in Chapter 13 has just told the
disciples, basically, that He will be betrayed and denied by them, is leaving
them and going to a place they cannot go, commands them to love one another,
and expresses doubt whether they will “really” lay down their lives for Him. How did they feel?
Scared,
perplexed, perhaps angry, it had already been a wild week: Jesus arriving in
Jerusalem to hosannas followed by teaching, trouble, turmoil, and looming
disaster. The disciples knew of the mobs turned against Jesus, certainly sensed
“something up” with the Pharisees’ plot to have Him killed, and are now,
evidently, being both dissed and soon-deserted by their teacher they still
don’t entirely understand.
Nothing made
sense. I’d surmise that all of us have
had those life moments-and-seasons of struggling to find a foothold and catch a
breath of calming air. What was
different for the disciples was that they were having dinner with the guy and
had been physically with him for nearly three years. They knew Him, saw His miracles, watched his
interactions, heard His teaching … and nearing the end - crucifixion awaits - they still didn’t get
Him.
Fast-forward
to our experience today. Thank God for
the Bible, churches, preachers, Christian fellowship, and the Holy Spirit, so
that the knowledge, faith, and hope the disciples had so much difficulty
discerning is explained to us in pretty plain language. Jesus is the Son of
God, He is God, He came in truth to fulfill the Law and the words of the
prophets, and to redeem all humanity, in freedom and love, back to God.
It still doesn’t make sense to a
lot of people but when it does make sense – when we do live our lives in relationship
with, with faith in, and in the truth of Jesus Christ – our hope can be renewed
every morning because our walk with Jesus is renewed every morning. The person of Jesus is our Sabbath, and His
peace is with us always if we’ll sincerely connect to it in faith. We must rest in our trust rather than squirm
in our doubt.
That, to me, is where John 14 comes
in. It begins, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in
me.” Jesus was saying this to people
who knew Him, not to people who didn’t know Him. As Christians today we know Jesus in faith,
we know Him in mystical but sure ways we cannot fully describe to others –
though we try – and when we ourselves need a foothold to remind us of who Jesus
is and what He is doing, John 14 in the light of the Holy Spirit provides solid
pavement.
What we forget, and what Satan
obviously prefers we would forget, is that God is righteous all the time, Jesus
is truth all the time, and the Spirit is with us all the time. John 14 is a
gracious, calming, and true reminder that amid the chaos, uncertainty, and
dissension of a fallen world, our hearts can find peace all the time, any time
… in Jesus.