Easter 4

Easter 4 (John 10:1-10)
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

Jesus Christ is the plan, the pattern and the purpose for life.

In a series of startling “I am” statements Jesus reveals that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the logos, the co-eternal Word of God. As the logos he is the creative, dynamic and rational pattern of the universe.

People wanted Jesus to reveal and endorse the right religion that would produce right behavior and allow its followers to earn the rewards of righteousness. People were looking for the right laws, the right program and the one right way to acquire God’s favor and to avoid God’s wrath.

Jesus reveals that righteousness cannot be expressed in religious or political categories. Jesus reveals that righteousness is right relationship. Jesus reveals that all people everywhere already have God’s favor. God just doesn’t have love God is love. God loves all people unconditionally.

What Jesus reveals about God is very difficult for people to accept. The Bible is a record of the reason why the revelation Jesus brings is difficult for people to accept. Most people believe the Bible is a record of one of many ways people seek God. Moses and the Prophets record their observations of the many ways people reject God and hide from God.

Jesus is the Way God seeks us. God seeks us out in all of our confusion, fear, self will and pride. He seeks us out in person. He comes to us with an offer of unconditional love and eternal friendship. And in fact, the Bible records how most people most of the time really aren’t interested in what God is offering in Jesus Christ.

Even those who followed Jesus as his disciples, his students, looked through Jesus and past Jesus to what they really valued and really wanted. It is what a fallen and lost humanity seeks. And it is what keeps us lost and broken. It is pleasure, prestige, position and above all else: power.

A separated and lost humanity seeks meaning, purpose and diversion in the externals of life. We define ourselves by what we have and how we can assert our will to get what we want. We divert our awareness of our condition through pleasure and entertainment. These things have their place. These things can never satisfy the deepest longing of the soul.

Jesus offers us who God is. God is steadfast, holy, unconditional love. The disciples heard that message, observed that message, experienced the reality of that message and looked past it. They essentially said: love and compassion. Very nice, Jesus. But, when do we get to the real stuff? When do we get the reward? When do you defeat our enemies, form a new government, purify our religion and give us what we really want? They focused on the externals. They focused on the transitory. They missed the eternal reality Jesus came to give them.

People then, and people now, saw Jesus as a means to an end. Jesus presents himself as the pattern, the plan and the purpose for life. The life Jesus offers is creative, spontaneous, active, dynamic, joyful and self giving. That life is a well of living waters that immerses our soul and pours forth from our soul regardless of the external circumstances our lives.

Jesus is not a means to an end. Jesus is not a bullet point on a resume. Jesus is life, abundant life.

Belief in Jesus does not earn for us an external reward. Jesus is himself the reward. Jesus is the very gate of life. Friendship with Jesus is a new life and a new way of living. Jesus very firmly warns us that he is the only gate, the only way, to reunification with God the Father and transformation in God the Holy Spirit. All other ways are detours and dead ends.

In those detours and dead ends we will meet many who offer to sell us a program and a pathway to satisfy our desires. Jesus warns us that they will also steal our joy and destroy our ability to live the abundant life.

Jesus is the door. Jesus is the way. He actively seeks us in the various detours and dead ends we pursue. He actively invites us into a new life and a new way of living.
The new way of living is neither self indulgence nor self denial. It is the middle way of steadfast holy unconditional love. It is the way of worship, discipleship, evangelism, service to others and fellowship with other believers.

It is no wonder the disciples could not understand this teaching. The new life is inner directed. It emerges in the depth of the soul as the soul immerses itself in the steadfast holy unconditional love of God through worship and service. The new life sets us free from the external circumstance of our society and our world.

The disciples lived lives that were outer directed. They looked at life, they looked at Jesus, and asked: what’s in it for me? How does Jesus help me get and keep the pleasure, possession, prestige and power that I demand? What program does Jesus offer me to meet my needs and my desires? In that pursuit they knew insecurity and fear.

The new life in Jesus Christ sets us free from fear. The new life in Christ transforms fear into compassion, compassion for other people and compassion for ourselves. The new life redefines who we are and how we can best live our lives.
Jesus reveals that we are each a unique manifestation of one aspect of his infinite and eternal love. Jesus reveals the best way to be human and to live in this world is to set our first priority as worship, our second priority in our service to others and our third priority in our own personal transformation.

Jesus calls us to reset our priorities by pledging our life and love and loyalty to him. It is as we make a real choice to immerse our mind, heart and will in the real presence of Jesus Christ that we meet the living Lord in the daily events of our lives and discover how Jesus is the abundant life of God who makes all things new.