Watch it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2JfwueN84o
Fourth Sunday of Easter, May 3, 2020
*This message will be broadcast by Facebook and Instagram Live
and posted to Youtube, but will not be preached to a live audience. We – America, the world – are in the midst of
the COVID-19 crisis which is causing people all over the world to avoid gathering
in groups of larger than 10, and diligently maintain “social distance.” It’s an effort to curb the rapid, worldwide
spread of the Corona virus which can be deadly.
Do you have something you’ve always wanted
to do, but most likely never will? I
have several. If I had to pick one, it
would be surfing, the ocean not the web.
Surfing looks so beautiful, so
athletic, and free. The best of poets
cannot adequately describe the vastness of the ocean. To ride balanced atop a board as waves throw you
forward violently; to turn that furious fight into a graceful dance; that is
life. It is one thing to say, ‘I am
alive,’ and another to say, ‘I am really living.’ When I imagine surfing at its very best, I
think to myself, “That’s living life to the fullest.” Sighing, I wistfully muse that it is
something I’ll never experience.
You might say to me, ‘Rob, if you
really wanted that, you could have it.
First, you have to travel to a beach where there are waves. Second, you have to research surfing classes
taught at that particular beach. Third,
you have to enroll in those classes.
Fourth, you have to practice until you are really good.’
I might respond, ‘That all sounds
well and good. But what you suggest
requires a lot of money and a lot of time.
All my money and time mostly belongs to my family and my job.’
You say back, ‘Yeah, you have
responsibilities. But, when you were
younger, before the family, you didn’t choose to do what you needed to do to be
in a position to learn to surf. Now that
you’re older, you could still learn to do it.
There are ways.’
At this point, I come back with,
‘But, I just had this major ankle surgery.
And even before that, my knees were kind of shot. I see surfer in a kind of squat as they
balance on that board. I don’t know if I
can do that.’
You respond, ‘O come on! Your knees aren’t that bad. You can do it. There are one-legged surfers. They get dogs up on surfboards. Quit the sorry excuses.’
‘But,’ I say back, ‘I am kind of
scared of sharks. And, in recent years,
I have become quite fearful of drowning.’
You roll your eyes and remind me of
how infinitesimally small are the odds I would be attacked by a shark, much
less die in a shark attack. Then you
remind me of how I am always challenging people to face their fears.
We go back and forth, and maybe you
eventually convince me to get myself to the coast and get on a board. Maybe I resist your persuasions and pressure
but deep down feel disappointed in myself.
Either way, it’s the wrong conversation.
I’d love to ride a wave or stand atop
Mount Everest. Do I need those things to be able to say I am really living? If I say ‘yes,’ then the thrill, the
experience has become ultimate in my life.
If something other than Jesus is ultimate in life, it becomes an idol. It occupies that space that Jesus ought to
hold in your life. And it can’t give you
the fulfillment He can give.
She wants to get married, but is
still single. Life won’t be fulfilled
for her unless she gets married. Jesus
ought to be our fulfillment. If she’s
sure her happiness will only be complete with a husband, marriage become the
ultimate thing in her life. It becomes
an idol. The same could be said about
academic achievement or parenting or career success. Becoming a parent, getting married, being
named company president, receiving your doctorate, climbing Everest, making it
onto an NFL roster, mastering the piano – these are wonderful things that bring
happiness and can point to God’s glory.
If achieving one of these or something else is your life’s goal and you
don’t make it, disappointment will come.
That’s natural. Feel your
disappointment. It’s Okay.
Understand this. Jesus came for specific reasons. In church we talk a lot about Jesus’ death
and resurrection; we talk about his birth; we talk about his call upon the
church, his teachings, and his promise to return at the end of history. We need
to devote attentions to his coming and what it means.
In
Mark chapter 1 Jesus frees people from demon possession and physical disease and
disability. The result of Jesus’ miracles
is that evil and illness no longer prevented people from living good, full,
enriched lives. They were free to
thrive. In Mark 1:38 Jesus says that
proclaiming the message is why he came.
In
John 10:10, he reiterates this purpose. “I
have come that they might have life and have it abundantly.” This verse falls in a narrative flow that
goes all the way back to the beginning of John 9 where the disciples meet a blind man. They want Jesus to tell them whose fault it
is that this poor soul cannot see. Was
it his sin or his parents’ sin (9:2)?
Jesus blows their minds when he tells them that this blindness shouldn’t
reveal sin, not while he’s around.
Rather, blindness will reveal God at work. Then, he heals the man’s blindness. A great controversy ensues. This miracle endows Jesus with authority the
formal authorities, the Pharisees, lack.
They
have to affirm the man is healed so he can be re-instated at the synagogue, but
doing so reveals their impotence in the face of sin and blindness. By acknowledging what Jesus did, they
acknowledge their own blindness and inadvertently forfeit the power they so
dearly held. For those Pharisees, being
religious authorities is the ultimate.
Instead of serving the worshiping community in their role as Bible
teachers, the role itself has become an idol they serve.
John
9 ends with the healed man worshipping Jesus (9:38) and the religious
authorities angry at him. Chapter 10
continues the pattern of John’s gospel.
After a miracle or an encounter, Jesus then teaches. The heart of the lesson is that Jesus is the
true teacher, the real shepherd. The
point is made that he knows his sheep, his followers, and they know him. The aforementioned religious leaders are
strangers the sheep don’t recognize (John 10:5) and thieves the sheep ignore
(John 10:8).
Jesus
is the one who leads the sheep to pasture, which is what the sheep need for a
healthy life. Jesus gives us what we
need. Beyond necessity, Jesus gives
abundance. Surfing is thrilling. Climbing a mountain or the corporate ladder
is a rush. But only with Jesus are we really
living, and truly thriving in a full life.
When
I was in high school, I had a faith mission.
I had turned my life over to Jesus at age 11. By the time I was 16, I was fully invested in
Jesus. As a Baptist that also meant I
needed to share Christ with friends who did not have faith. Something troubled me about this. It seemed that the commonly held perception
was Christian kids are well-behaved, but non-Christian party animals have all
the fun. My mission was to debunk this
myth and show that Christians have even more fun because we’re part of a better
story. I don’t know how successful I was
in my mission to let people know that being a follower of Jesus is
awesome. I do know I was on the right
track.
Jesus
give fullness of life to all who follow him.
Earlier this week, I told my friend Phil I was going to be talking about
the second half of John 10:10. He
immediately asked, “What does it mean in the Greek?” When I hemmed and hawed, he said you better
look it up. I’m glad I did.
“I
have come that they might have life and have it abundantly.” ‘Perissos’ literally means superabundance,
more than enough, ‘more than we could ask or imagine.’[i] This word, in verb form, is used in Romans
5:20. “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” The grace we have through the life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus, doesn’t just keep up with our blunders or account
for our mistakes or cover our sins. The
grace of God is so plentiful it ‘superabundantly’ washes away our sins.[ii]
We
surely have the promise of a blessed eternal life in resurrected bodies lived
with Jesus in the New Earth promised in Revelation 21. That eternal hope, which we realize later,
after death, matters. The promise for our
life, right now, matters just as much.
Following Jesus doesn’t make life easier, but it does make the struggle
worth it and we even have joy in our striving.
Walking with Christ doesn’t solve every problem, but it does mean we’re
in a community of the people – the church – who walk with us through each
trial. Abundant life is the best life we
can hope to have by any description. You
can have abundant life. Jesus came that
you might be free from sin, injury, and any other obstacle that blocks your
path to joy. He makes your joy complete.
I’d
still love to go surfing! I have a few
other bucket list items too. What I
really want is for people to see that the life of a Jesus follower is fun, full
of laughs and frequent happy times, and meaningful. I want to share that. Whether or not I am successful, either in
crossing off bucket list items or leading people to Jesus, I know I already
have abundant life. I know this because
it is not up to me or anyone around me.
It is not up to destiny, effort, or luck. Life beyond life is something Jesus
secures. And he has secured it.
He
has risen from the grave. He is
Lord. We have abundant life because he
gives it; he gives superabundantly.
AMEN
[ii]
Bromiley, Geoffrey W. (1985), Theological Dictionary of the New Testament:
Abridged in one Volume, edited by Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich,
translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Grand Rapids (William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company), p.828-829.
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