Minds Open

The Trouble with Jesus is he left his job undone, and he did it on purpose.

Jesus, we’re tired of this. We just don’t get it. If you had stuck around for maybe a few more years, two thousand years later the world might not be in the mess it is. Homicides and mass shootings every week. Anxiety infects everyone. Trust is a forgotten virtue. Politics should come with an R rating for the mental violence it inflicts. For all the advances in medicine, people just get sicker. Wars never end. But no, you wish us the best with your “blessing” and then float on up to your heaven. For all you claim to care about the world, your final exit was no more than abandonment.

Pain speaks. Not just from the body and mind, but more so from the soul. Where is God in all of this? Why doesn’t God do something about this? We’ve heard that God met humanity in the person of the Son of God, yet what good did that do? There’s no sight of him around here now, and like we said, the world just keeps spiraling down. Is this the kind of God that shows up once in a while, looking away while the story keeps repeating itself? The way Jesus’ story ends, for all the talk of resurrection, it’s clear he left the job undone.

The Kick Off

You might think so, but first review what Jesus accomplished while he was in this world. It’s seen best through the eyes of those who knew him.

For three years, his closest friends had followed him around Galilee and Judea, a designated crew that had expected Jesus to take over soon. With this Messiah, the world would change. Except it didn’t. They were misdirected in their thinking despite what they witnessed. They had seen crowds throng around to hear him speak like none other they had ever heard before. Healings were amazing to be sure, but the way he could command storms to quiet, multiply a small amount of food into feasts (Matthew 14:13-21), and even bring people back from the dead (John 11:1-44) had scared and shocked them. They saw in him authority and power like none other. But those three years were nothing like the last forty days.

They knew they were privileged to be a part of this, but it almost seemed to end that one week when they went from the middle of cheering crowds to hiding from murderous mobs. Their world turned upside down, but then, it kept rolling, just like the rock in front of his grave. Nothing could hold him back, not even death. Now, as Jesus stood in miraculous flesh in front of them, for once not one of them blurted out something dumb as they all were known to do. They knew a strange joy and wonder. Strange mostly because it was mixed with doubt in what they still couldn’t explain. (Luke 24:41)

The Strategy

Jesus understood. They’d no idea what they were getting into when he had recruited them for his purposes. Some say they weren’t the brightest bulbs on the street. The only attribute which spoke most for them was they were teachable. Now, it would be made clear, yes, in what he told them but also in how they were now able to understand it. He helped them look back so as to connect with what was ahead.

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As Jesus spoke of the ancient Hebrew prophets, he extended a line between what was part of their heritage into what they had seen from him. Moses had changed water into blood (Exodus 4:) whereas Jesus changed water into wine, wine which became his blood. (John 2:1-11) Moses fed the multitude in the dessert with manna; Jesus fed the multitude with bread and fish. Whereas Moses parted the waters of the Red Sea, Jesus walked upon the waters of Lake Galilee in the middle of a storm. (Matthew 14:22-33) God had promised a prophet like Moses; Jesus was that and more.

Showing them what was so easy to miss in the moment, Jesus referred them to a prophet whose writing read now with double meaning. The giving of one’s back to those who beat, whipped, mocked, and spit in his face was echoed in Jesus’ suffering. (Isaiah 50:6) It continued with being led as a lamb to slaughter, taken from prison to trial to execution. Though he was fully innocent, he died a criminal’s death but was buried in a rich man’s grave. In all of this, he took on the sins of the world, that is, all who would act and live in separation from God and neighbor.  (Isaiah 53:5-12) Centuries before he lived, Jesus’ life had been portrayed.

They had known these ancient passages well but now saw them in the light of what those three days of horror had fulfilled. Each one now had a new story, understanding, interpretation, discernment about this Jesus-the-Christ, Messiah. All God asked was for persons to accept what Jesus had done for each individual and for the world, so they could know a restoration of divine relationship, that is, forgiveness as only God can give and its world-changing impact.

The Game Plan

Now it was making sense. Their purpose was clear: “With my authority, take this message of repentance to all the nations…You are witnesses of all these things.” With opened minds, they were prepared to announce his story, God’s story.

To equip and accomplish this, Jesus promised them the Holy Spirit, another entity they yet had to meet.

But he didn’t give them time to think about it.

With a final blessing, he was gone. To those who don’t get it, Jesus’ leaving doesn’t make sense. That cry of pain dissolves into lostness. God stays in the clouds, above and beyond the realities of life.

Yes, that’s the part that’s perplexing! Jesus punched death in the gut and kicked it to the curb. With that, why didn’t he take on and take over the world?

Job Undone on Purpose

That’s not what Jesus came to do, not how he operates. Yes, Jesus was “taken up to heaven”, that is, from what is known in limited time and place. Yet by his leaving would his blessing swell beyond what was then. That line he’d drawn for his followers would extend into all time.

Jesus would be with them, but in a greater manifestation than the confines of earthly experience. He revealed an eternal, spiritual dimension, one where he is available universally. In doing so, Jesus is fully with any and all who call on him, closer in how they are known by God and know God than could be accomplished by a physical, earthly presence. Within this intimate process, Jesus became an intrinsic part of lives in a new and radical way.

Beyond that hill in Bethany, his followers lived out his blessing by becoming his body, an embodiment, if you will, of what Jesus showed of himself and who he is in God during his short tenure on earth. It speaks into the ages of pain a healing that centers deep in the soul.

Having seemingly left and gone away, Jesus is near.

Luke 24:44-53