Minds Open
The Trouble with Jesus: He left his job undone, and he did it on purpose.
Jesus, for real, we’re tired. Straight up, we don’t get you sometimes. If you had hung around maybe a few more years, two thousand years maybe, the world might not be in this hot mess now. Homicides and mass shootings like it’s some kind of sick schedule. Anxiety infects everyone. Trust? That word is dead, 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 drop a “bless y’all” and then float on up to your heaven. For all you claim to care about the world, your final exit felt like abandonment.
Pain speaks. Not just from the body and mind, but deep in the soul where it hurts the worst. Where is God in all of this? Why doesn’t God step in, do something about this? We’ve heard that “God came down as the Son”, yet what good did that do? There’s no sight of him around here now. And the world? Still spiraling down like a busted drain.
Is this the kind of God that pops in once in a while, then looks away while the same mess keeps happening? The way Jesus’ story ends, for all the talk of resurrection, it’s clear he left the job half-done.
The Kick Off
You might think so, but hold up. Look at what Jesus actually pulled off while he was here. Best way to see it is through the eyes of those who knew him.
Three years, his designated crew followed him around Galilee and Judea, convinced Jesus would take over soon. With this Messiah, the world would flip. Except it didn’t. They had the wrong idea despite how they’d witnessed some wild stuff. They’d seen crowds mob just to hear him talk like nothing they’d ever heard before. Healings were amazing to be sure, but storms shut up when he told them to chill. Food multiplying like some divine catering service. (Matthew 14:13-21). Dead folks walking out of graves. (John 11:1-44)
They knew he had power like nobody else. But those last forty days? Whole different level.
They felt privileged to be a part of this, but in one week they went from cheering crowds to hiding from murderous mobs. Their world turned upside down, and then, it kept rolling, just like the rock in front of his grave. Nothing could hold him back, not even death.
Now, Jesus was standing there alive in front of them, like, “Miss me?” 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, what they still couldn’t explain. (Luke 24:41)
The Strategy
Jesus got it. He knew they had no clue what they signed up for. They weren’t exactly the honor‑roll squad, the brightest bulbs on the street. But they were teachable. Now he connected the dots for them. Clear, yes, in what he told them but also how they were able to understand it.
Jesus spoke of the ancient, old-school Hebrew prophets and extended a line between what was their heritage into what they had seen from him. Moses turned water into blood (Exodus 4:); Jesus turned water into wine, wine which became his blood. Moses fed the multitude in the dessert with manna; Jesus fed the multitude with bread and fish. Moses split the waters of the Red Sea; Jesus walked on Lake Galilee in the middle of a storm. (Matthew 14:22-33) God had promised a prophet like Moses; Jesus was that with an upgrade. (Deuteronomy 18:18)
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 tomb. In all of this, he took on the sins of the world, that is, all the ways people break from God and each other. Centuries before he lived, Jesus’ life had been portrayed.
They had known these ancient passages well but now saw these three days lit up from the inside. Everything clicked. Each one now had a new story, understanding, interpretation, discernment about this Jesus-the-Christ, Messiah. Jesus wasn’t just a teacher. He was the whole story coming together.
All God wanted was for people 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. That changes everything.
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The Game Plan
Now it made 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 overthink it.
With a final blessing, he was gone. Yeah, Gone. To those who don’t get it, Jesus’ leaving doesn’t make sense, sure, more like abandonment. That cry of pain dissolves into lostness. God stays in the clouds, above and beyond while life keeps beating people down.
And honestly? That’s the confusing part. Jesus punched death in the gut and kicked it to the curb. With that, why didn’t he take over the world right then?
Job Undone on Purpose
Because 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. But Jesus didn’t leave to ditch us. He left so his blessing could swell and blow up bigger than one place, one time, one body. That line he’d drawn for his followers would extend into all time.
By stepping out, he stepped in deeper.
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, not limited by geography or schedules or crowds. He became present in a way physical presence can’t touch, closer than breath, closer than thought. In doing so, Jesus is closer to us in how we are known by God and know God than could be accomplished by a physical, earthly presence. Within this intimate process, Jesus is an intrinsic part of lives in a new and radical way.
And his people? They became his body on earth, an embodiment, if you will, of what Jesus showed of himself and who he is in God, his healing, his justice, his compassion, his grit. It speaks into the ages of pain a healing that centers deep in the soul.
So yeah, it looked like he left. But he didn’t.
He just got closer.
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