April 20, 2014

Happy Easter 2014

This season of Lent, the kids and I did a study of all the "I am" statements that Jesus made in the book of John.  Here they are:
  • I am the source of living water:  John 4:1-14, 7:37-39
  • I am the Messiah:  John 4:15-26
  • I am the Bread of Life:  John 6: 25 - 40
  • I am the Bread from Heaven:  John 6:41-59
  • I am the Light of the World:  John 8:12-18, 9:1-5
  • I am YHWH:  John 8:52-58 with references to Exodus 3:14
  • I am the Gate for the Sheep:  John 10:1-10
  • I am the Good Shepherd who lays his life down for his sheep:  John 10:11-18
  • I have authority to lay down my life for my sheep and take it up again:  John 10:11-18
  • I am one with God the Father:  John 10: 25-30,  14:8-14
  • I am the Resurrection and the Life:  john 11:12-27
  • I am the way, the truth, the life; No one gets to God the Father, except through me:  John 14:1-7
I have always thought that John wrote with a sense of humor.  In the past, I have laughed through Jesus' "Whose Your Daddy" argument with the Pharisees in John 8.  This year, my funny bone was struck in John 9.  His disciples raise a theological argument when they see a man  born blind begging in the streets (which of course, is EXACTLY what Jesus wants us to do--NOT).  They ask Jesus if he is blind because of his sins or his parents.  Jesus tells them there is another option:  a chance to see the glory of God at work.  Then he hocks a goober, makes mud with it, and smears the man's eyes with it.  Not exactly what we think of when we hear the words "The Glory of God."  And yet, the man was able to see once he washed the mud out of his eyes.  The story has both a happy and sad ending.  The sad ending is that there were people who saw this miracle, the first unique miracle that Jesus had performed, restoring a genetic defect, and still didn't believe.  They condemned Jesus for breaking their Sabbath rules (not God's) and plotted his death, thinking that God wouldn't save him because Jesus was a sinner.  When they saw Jesus hanging on the cross, thought that God's judgment against him was complete.  Proof that we will believe what we choose to believe, even with evidence for God's existence, His grace, love and mercy staring us in the face.  We see the light, but prefer darkness and blindness to really seeing and really living. But the Good News is that God's Judgement, which WAS placed on Jesus at the cross on our behalf, was replace by grace and mercy when Jesus rose again from the dead, proving once and for all that all the claims he made before the cross were true.  And Jesus still offers grace and mercy to the blind and real life to those who are the living dead.  My prayer is that today, they would see and live.

Christ is Risen!  He is risen indeed!


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