POST-RESURRECTION OBSERVATIONS 2012

It is interesting to me that Jesus popped in and out of the disciples' lives during the 40 days before His final appearance on earth - - but He didn't hang out with them all the time, as He had before. It seems He was giving them a little time to adapt to the truth of His resurrection without being totally present to walk them through how they would process....but He had already given them the Holy Spirit, so He was with them, just not always physically present. It was a new way of knowing Him.

In the midst of the changes, we find them going back to what was familiar.... Seven of the eleven disciples were together by the Sea of Galilee (aka Tiberias, Genessaret, Kinneret). Peter, who was a doer, not a sitter, needed something to do, so he impulsively announced, "I am going fishing." The others volunteered to go along. They fished all night, but caught nothing - and just as dawn was breaking, they came toward shore, tired and empty-handed. A man on the shore called out to them, "Do you have any fish?" After they answered 'No' the man told them to cast their net on the other side of the boat and they would find some.

Amazingly, without argument, they obeyed. I would have thought it a ludicrous command. Some complete stranger standing on the beach tells them to throw the net on the other side of the boat - - only a matter of 10 or 12 feet difference - - and they did it.... And now, after fishing all night, in just one cast only 100 yards from shore, they get 153 large fish.... And in spite of the large catch, the net was not torn.

On this third occasion of appearing to His disciples following His resurrection, He invited them to a breakfast He had cooked. After breakfast He took Peter aside, but John followed closely enough to hear what was said.

And so unfolds another of my absolutely favorite Bible accounts.... It is a story that loses something in translation, because there are many words for 'love' in the original language - and we get all of them funneled to just that one word: love. Knowing that matters in this story!

Another thing to note is that Jesus calls Peter by his given name while talking to him....

"Simon, son of John, do you love (agape) me more than these?" Jesus asked.

"Yes, Lord, You know that I love (phileo) you." Peter responded.

"Feed my lambs." Jesus instructed.

And again Jesus inquired, "Simon, do you love (agape) me?"

To which Peter replied, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love (phileo) you."

This time Jesus told him, "Tend my sheep."

A third time Jesus asked His question, but this time He changed the word to the one Peter had responded with: "Simon, son of John, do you love (phileo) me?"

And Peter affirmed, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love (phileo) you."

Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep."

Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep. Peter was commissioned!

Jesus also let Peter know that the path wasn't going to be smooth - and then ended his conversation with Peter by commanding, "Follow me."

John's observation was that Peter was grieved because Jesus asked him three times if he loved Him - but I see it very differently.

This was a pivotal touchstone moment for Peter.

He had denied even knowing Jesus during the night Jesus was betrayed and illegally tried. Jesus forewarned while they were in the garden before Judas Iscariot brought the guards, that before the rooster crowed in the morning of that fateful Friday, Peter would deny Jesus three times - - and he did. Now, Jesus gives Peter His redemption. He had denied Jesus three times, now he affirms his love for Him three times - but in the intervening period Peter has learned something crucial - that he is not capable of agape love. That love is left alone to God, and though sometimes displayed in brief moments through God's infusion of love through man, the best that we are capable of is phileo love - - better known as brotherly love.

So, when Jesus asked Peter, Do you agape me? Peter knew better than to attest something he knew he was not capable of, so he answered each time with, "I phileo you."

God's agape love hung between heaven and earth on a cruel cross. His agape love made Jesus, God's only birthed offspring suffer and die the cruelest kind of criminal's death. Even though He was without sin, He bore all of our sins in His body on that tree so we could be forgiven and free. Forsaken. Rejected. Alone. That was agape love.

It's imperative to know our limitations - and recognize when God infuses us with His Spirit for purposes beyond our capacity. He does. But He is the one who deserves the glory - not us! Peter figured that out.

Peter was going to be mightily used by God. He did follow. He definitely faltered back in the courtyard when he denied Jesus after so pridefully purporting he would even go die with Him....but Jesus let him know in advance He would fail - then gave Peter a second chance.... It was all part of his growth and development.

Each of the disciples had a purpose to fulfill. So do we.

Lord, grant me wisdom for how to cast the seeds so those whose hearts are hungry can and will hear....

................

Just a little postscript on John: In John's writing of his gospel account, he repeatedly refers to himself as 'the disciple Jesus loved.' I suspect Jesus had a way of making each disciple feel that he was the most loved.... And we know He loved others conspicuously as well....

John ends his gospel with the following statement: Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

POST-RESURRECTION OBSERVATIONS 2012

First, a little postscript to yesterday's entry: I have been using the English Standard Version for my Lent study of John; however, yesterday I was reading in the NIV, and it fails to state that the napkin was folded. That's unfortunate. Whomever was working on that translation back in the early 1980's obviously didn't know the significance, so didn't make that point clear.

But one thing is clear in both the NIV and the ESV which I have overlooked in previous readings.... I was shocked to take note of it this morning. In that very first meeting on Sunday evening, when Jesus appeared to those gathered behind a locked door, verse 22 states that Jesus breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." I had never noticed that before. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost didn't occur until 50 days after His resurrection - - but they were given His Holy Spirit and the power that accompanied the gift later the same day that He arose from the grave!

Thomas didn't happen to be there that day - and when the other disciples told him they had seen the Lord, he proclaimed he wouldn't believe Jesus had risen from the dead until he could see and touch the nail marks in His hands and put his hand into the pierced wound in Jesus' side. It was 7 long days later before that happened. Again, the disciples were together secured behind a locked door when Jesus appeared and stood among them. The first item He attended to was to address Thomas' stated conditions for belief. He said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

Thank you, Thomas. You've gotten a bum rap over the years, but who is to say any other disciple would have believed had they not seen with their own eyes? It just happened to be Thomas! And, the proof Jesus provided is a witness to us. Thomas did believe because he saw for himself, and we believe because of the legacy the disciples' accounts provide for us - which is attested to us through the affirmation of the Holy Spirit.

In fact, John 20 ends with a couple of pretty cool statements! In verse 29, Jesus says to Thomas, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." That's us! In all fairness, Thomas didn't have the Holy Spirit as his ally yet, and he experienced the devastation of Jesus' death and the end of the hope he thought was to be.

Fortunately for us, we have that great cloud of witnesses and what they witnessed as a record, which is the subject of the last cool thing stated in John 20. John states that Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples which have not been written down for us, 'But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.'

Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. i.e., I don't always live up to my beliefs, but I want to. It takes being intentional and it requires discipline that I sometimes don't want to invest....

POST-RESURRECTION OBSERVATIONS 2012 (revised)

My blog entries for Lent 2012 got me very near the end of the book of John - - and I feel compelled to finish the book.... It seems like unfinished business....

Chapter 20 reports Jesus' first appearances to His followers and disciples following His resurrection on Resurrection Sunday morning +- 33 A D.

John tells us Mary Magdalene went out to the tomb while it was still dark. Sabbath was over at dusk on Saturday, and Mary likely walked a couple of miles in the early hours of Sunday morning before daylight crept over the surrounding hills. Even in the near-dark, she could tell that the stone had been rolled away.

She ran in panic to Peter and John and declared, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have laid him."

John makes a point of letting us know that in their foot race to the tomb, he outran his older colleague - but John stopped at the entrance. Not Peter. No such reservation for him! Peter barged right past John and entered the tomb - and saw the strips of linen lying there, noting that the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head was still lying in its place, folded and separate from the linen.

One of my favorite stories involves the napkin that was carefully folded and set aside separate from the other strips of burial cloth. A few years ago I was told that this would have been an object lesson message to His followers, as the napkin they used was synonymous with a dinner napkin used during meals. In their culture, there was an understood message in the placement of the napkin at the dinner table. If the Master of the house was finished with his dinner, he would wad his napkin and leave it at his place, which was the clue for the wait staff to clear away the dishes; however, when the Master folded his napkin and left it beside his plate at the dinner table, it meant he was coming back. In this smallest of details Jesus left them a message: I am returning! The napkin that had covered his face was folded neatly and laid apart from the other burial linens as a statement that He would return.

And He is! He's coming back - and it could be very soon! Apparently the Mayans zeroed in years ago on December 21, 2012 as the final date in history. I doubt that will be the day - since no man knows the day or hour - - besides, it would be living foolishly to assume we have that much time.... We need to live every day with the awareness that Jesus could return for His own any day!

But - back to John 20! After Peter and John looked inside and saw that Jesus was indeed missing, they went back to where Mary had found them at the place where they were staying.

Mary had followed them to the tomb, and after they left, she went to peek inside.

Amazingly, what she saw was two angels in white, seated where Jesus body had been placed on Friday afternoon by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. But Jesus' body was not there....

The angels asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" As soon as she replied to their query, she turned and saw a man standing there in the pre-dawn darkness. She didn't realize the man was Jesus. He spoke to her, asking the same question the angels asked: "Woman, why are you crying?" Then added, "Who are you looking for?"

John tells us that at first she thought the man was the gardener, until he spoke her name. "Mary," He said, and immediately she knew Him. He told her He had not yet ascended to the Father, something He was about to do.... He instructed her to go tell his brothers....

Her first early morning walk to the tomb had been with a heavy, heavy heart. In her second walk to the tomb, when she followed Peter and John, she was filled with anguish and dismay. Now, with exultant joy she ran to tell His disciples (and likely his siblings) that she had seen the Lord, and gave them the full details of her report.

Palm Sunday - just a week before - led from joy to sorrow. This Sunday, sorrow led to joy!