SHOW ME

SHOW ME:

They say friends help you move but great friends help you move bodies. Today that’s a joke, but it’s based in biblical reality and truth. That’s exactly what Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea did.

They were two prominent Jewish religious leaders who initially had a really tough time accepting that Jesus was the anticipated King, or Messiah, of Scripture. When faced with the truth of Jesus’ miracles, leadership, steadfastness, poise, integrity, and love - EVEN while hanging on the Cross - they were absolutely convinced. Those two men went from caring more about positions and social status to having the boldness to request and claim Jesus’ body in front of everyone - including the rest of the Jewish leaders. As Jesus’ true friends, they helped move His body.

If the claims Jesus made were unsupported lies and fantasy then history would not have recorded droves of people from every walk of life (from Jewish religious leaders, lepers, prostitutes, Roman soldiers, tax collectors, etc.) being persuaded to the point of following Him - regardless of the consequences.

When Jesus becomes culturally acceptable it is easy to call ourselves  Christians and claim to be His followers or disciples. It’s an entirely different thing to walk publicly as a Christian when there’s a real chance your front door will come crashing down, that your family will be taken away - never to be seen again, or that you’ll end up being tortured and killed. That’s when the fair weather fans pack up, turn tail, and turncoat. At that point, thirty pieces of silver sounds like a Powerball SuperLotto payoff. “But Jesus would not entrust himself to them...”

When the Holy Spirit irrupts into the life of reprobate miscreants there’s nothing left for Jesus to prove. No more arguments, miracles, or criteria are due. Life’s new orientation elucidates the gospel with intransigent resolve and ardor. Steadfastness in obedience under pressure or persecution is readily intuitive - emanating from innumerable mundane occasions of distillation in deference.

In the 13th chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus celebrates the Last Supper with His disciples and washes their feet. Then, in chapter 14, Jesus tells His disciples not to be troubled about His pending departure because “I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also.” In woefully shameful folly Philip remarks, “Show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.” To which Jesus says, “Have I been among you all this time without your knowing Me, Philip?”

Philip spent three years in the presence of God. He knew all the prophecies, had seen all the miracles, all the healings, all the compassion, and experienced rich fellowship. But for Philip, it just wasn’t satisfactory. Like many capricious Christians today, Philip’s affinity was cursory. But if Jesus could somehow produce the Father, well that would certainly be “enough.” Jesus knows that our internal deception is the most contemptible and persuasive of lies. Jesus simply responded, “The one who has seen Me has seen the Father.”

The kind of faith that comes from within demands the perpetual feeding of reassurance for it is dismally incomplete, grossly insufficient, and wholly inadequate. Contrastingly, the kind of faith emanating from God never needs, never demands, and never quits. Faith never asks for additional evidence because its profuse bounty is endlessly and exceedingly extravagant.

When Jesus said, "The one who has seen Me has seen the Father," he was not offering evidence against Trinitarianism (the understanding that God is three distinct divine persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - yet still one God). Jesus is rather rebuking Philip’s, and our, synthetic surety. This was Jesus’ gracious divulgence and annihilation of manufactured faith.

Jesus was not telling Philip that He (Jesus) and the Father are the same person. Jesus was articulating that no additional experiential, philosophical, or sensory input would lead to genuine belief. Everything Jesus had ever done was always in response to the Father’s will through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our contemporary slogan confidently heralds, “Seeing is believing.” Jesus’ divine mandate to -and through- Philip asserts that bona fide faith is never so vulgar or erratic.

Like Philip, many Christians today are content to define faith in Jesus subjectively. Like Philip, we tell Jesus that He’s great while secretly desiring more. Like Philip, we sing words like “I want more of you God,” rather than surrendering our all to God. The scope and influence of our parsimonious prayers scarcely eclipse our private bubbles of promotions, raises, financial windfalls, relational bliss, and peculiar prosperity.

Jesus’ response is unchanging: “Have I been among you all this time without your knowing Me?” Thanks be to God that He is gracious, merciful, and compassionate to us enough to make us aware of our own deception!

Fearfully and wonderfully created in the image and likeness of God, we are more than commuters, more than spectators, and certainly more than consumers. Powerful sermons are motivating, wonderful, necessary, essential, and absolutely biblical - but passive reception was never intended as the encompassing wealth of the Christian life. Christianity is intended as intimate worship of God through service within, and beyond, the Bride of Christ. Worship becomes service and service becomes worship in a gloriously sublime fandango of holy matrimony.

When commuting, spectating, and consuming are faith’s zenith - always wanting God to show, prove, and produce in the hope that it will eventually be enough - then we are tragically and fatefully deceived. If you have heard the gospel of Jesus preached then you have heard and seen the fullness of God. An endless parade of amazing experiences collected and stored in our Christian scrapbooks and trophy cases will never satisfy us. Evidence, knowledge, and satisfaction are never lacking after the advent of God’s gracious faith gift.

Like Nicodemus, when we are born again we have no concern whatsoever about external opinion, social status, political acceptance, or peer review. When authentic faith arrives we, like Joseph of Arimathea, confidently and publicly claim the body of Christ without reservation and place Him in the tomb of our hearts. Christ then truly becomes resurrected within us by the power of God Almighty for the eternal praise and glory of His name.

So what about you? Have you been with Jesus “all this time” yet still finding yourself craving - or even demanding - something more? My prayer in writing this is that today you would abandon a personally manufactured faith in exchange for His gracious gift of eternal life and sufficiency; a perpetual gift that will always prove to be more than enough.

"Lord, hear my prayer; let my cry for help come before You."

-Psalm 102:1

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

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