A Loving Relationship with Jesus

John 14:13-15 KJV

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. [14] If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. [15] If ye love me, keep my commandments.

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Jesus believed. He believed that he was going to the Father and that he would continue to help the disciples. This statement makes it plain that Jesus believed he was going to heaven, and he believed he would have the authority to answer prayers. These verses testify to the fact that Jesus knew he was divine. He assumes he will have divine authority in heaven and that he will be able to use that authority to assist the disciples.

Jesus loved his disciples. He wanted them to be safe after he ascended to the Father. More, Jesus wanted them to be obedient based on their love for him. He shared with his disciples that he was going to help them. He revealed his love and concern for the disciples in this promise. More, he goes on to ask the disciples to return his love. The way they could do this was to keep his commandments.

These verses reveal intimate details about Jesus’ relationship with his disciples. To begin, he was modeling the right behavior to the disciples. He was teaching them the meaning of the gospels which is to love all people. Here, Jesus asks them to reciprocate the love they receive from him. As he cared for the disciples, he wanted them to care for him. So, while his statements reveal he knew he was divine, they also reveal that he was human. Jesus wanted his love reciprocated.

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Lord, please help me reciprocate your love. Teach me to honor and love you in a way that is proper. Reveal yourself to me from your Holy Word so that I might love you better. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Anointed to the Task

John 12:48-50 WEB

He who rejects me, and doesn’t receive my sayings, has one who judges him. The word that I spoke, the same will judge him in the last day. [49] For I spoke not from myself, but the Father who sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. [50] I know that his commandment is eternal life. The things therefore which I speak, even as the Father has said to me, so I speak.”

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Jesus is the exact expression of the Father. He is divine. He is also human. As a human, he did things from the weakened condition of having laid down his divinity. He laid down his life and took up a life as a human. It is not a small thing when the Lord tells us to lay down our lives. Jesus is calling us into the same behaviors that he demonstrated as he walked the earth.

If Jesus did it, so can we. If Jesus could hear and follow the Father’s commands, so can we. He was human as well as divine. Jesus was so assured that he was hearing from the Father that he claimed to speak the Father’s words. Jesus was anointed. He was righteous and holy. His behavior modeled the scriptures, and his attitudes modeled the scripture. These two things made him both righteous and holy.

Righteousness and holiness opened Jesus up for an enormous anointing. His anointing was so strong that it carried him to the cross. His anointing carried him to and through his divine purpose. This is something we can imitate. We can walk in outward righteousness of choice and behavior. We can also walk in the inner attitude of Godly motive; we can be holy. We can hear from the Father, and we can understand what he says.

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Lord, thank you for becoming a human and showing me how to live. Help me, Lord, to equip an anointing through the righteousness of behavior and the holiness of motive. I want to fulfill my divine purpose as you fulfilled yours. Help me to serve you, Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Stressed Out Jesus

John 7:3-10 WEB

His brothers therefore said to him, “Depart from here, and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see your works which you do. [4] For no one does anything in secret, and himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.” [5] For even his brothers didn’t believe in him. [6] Jesus therefore said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. [7] The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil. [8] You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled.” [9] Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee. [10] But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but as it were in secret.

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This is a little humorous. Actually, It’s amazing. The Lord Jesus had brothers and he argued with them, and it’s in the Bible. This is one of those passages that show Jesus was a human. Yes, he is divine, but Jesus is also human. And he cut his brothers down like a pro.

Of course, Jesus is much more than an irritable, stressed brother. He is God. Being God, his divinity pops out even when he is being defensive with his family. In verse 6 of the above passage, Jesus says, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.” Jesus went right to the heart of the issue. He told his brothers they were full of themselves. He did not address their jealousy or critical spirits. Instead, he names the problem.

Pride. The brothers did not trust the Lord. They did what they wanted when they wanted, regardless of God’s timing. But Jesus did something different. He refused to think more highly of himself than he should. Jesus chose to wait for the Father’s timing. He was not in a hurry to go fluff up his audience. He wasn’t in a hurry. Jesus waited on the Father.

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Lord Jesus, please forgive me for thinking too highly of myself. I repent of wanting things in my time and ask you to give me the grace to wait patiently. I trust you, Lord. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Divinely Human

John 6:66-67 WEB

At this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. [67] Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You don’t also want to go away, do you?”

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Jesus felt the sting of betrayal. In the above passage, you can see the undercurrent of pain in his words. I think about Jesus rebuking his mother at the wedding at Cana (John 2:4). I think about the temple when Jesus took a whip of cords and destroyed the market (John 2:14-16). I think about Jesus weeping for Lazarus (John 11:34-36). All these examples tell a story about the personality of Jesus. He was capable of exuberant emotional responses.

Jesus had several emotional responses recorded in the Bible. However, we are frequently so focused on his divinity, we bypass a human explanation for his recorded behavior. Yet, we know, Jesus suffered all things to purchase our freedom (Heb 2:17-18). If he didn’t experience the human dilemma of emotional turbulence, he did not suffer all things. Jesus was divine by nature. All he was flowed through his human experience.

It is easier to think of Jesus as so divine that his deeds are beyond human ability or responsibility. To think of the Lord as human places a burden of responsibility on us. If he was fully human as much as he is fully divine, his example is valid for me to imitate. The Bible tells us we will do greater works than Jesus (John 14:11). Our Lord was a conduit for others into the presence of the Father (John 5:19). He was holy (Rom 1:4-6).

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Lord Jesus, please help me discover nuances of your personality in scripture. I want to know you. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

Divinely Human

John 4:4-6 WEB

He needed to pass through Samaria. [5] So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. [6] Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

Jesus was a human with the same frailties all people have. In this passage, he is so exhausted he stops at the well while his disciples go on to get food. It is common for ministers and laypeople alike to frame Jesus as fully God and fail to give expression to his humanity. This is inaccurate and it causes the truth to be warped. We cannot bring a message of Jesus’ time on the earth and not discuss both his divinity and humanity. If we make him all human and only human, it is an error. However, if we make him all divine and only divine, this is also an error. It warps the text into something other than what it is. In the above text Jesus is about to introduce Samaritans to the gospel. In his weakness, his humanity, he experienced a circumstance that forces him to stop. At the same time, he is divine and is about to encounter a true sheep and then bring that person into the true fold (John 10:16).

We as believers are also human and divine in a sense. This is because Christ has made his home inside of each one of us. We can hear his voice (John 10:27). In our humanity we are frail. There are times when we will not be able to continue. We may need to rest by stopping and refreshing ourselves. However, the divine is alive within us and is almost certainly going to call us into service even in our rest. We are like Jesus when he was on earth. We are fully human and have the fulness of divinity living within us. To preach any message about Jesus that does not account for both the humanity and the divinity of Jesus is to make his works beyond ourselves. Jesus clearly taught that we would do greater things than he did (John 14:2). If we warp the message of the gospel by making Jesus so divine there is no humanity left, we disempower people from following his example.

Lord Jesus, please reveal the fullness of both your humanity and divinity so that I can share truthfully about your time on earth. I do not want to misuse your example. Please forgive me for excusing myself from things you taught and showed by ignoring the truth of your humanity. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

Jesus’ Family Problems

John 2:1-5 WEB

The third day, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. [2] Jesus also was invited, with his disciples, to the marriage. [3] When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine.” [4] Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with you and me? My hour has not yet come.” [5] His mother said to the servants, “Whatever he says to you, do it.”

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This is one of the saddest texts in the New Testament. It’s the day Mary lost her close relationship with Jesus. You hear very little about Mary after this episode. In fact, the next time Mary is recorded as trying to connect with Jesus, He tells her she is not his family. (Mark 3:35)

Frequently, we make Jesus so divine we deny His humanity. But in this text and the text to follow His humanity is on display. His mother upset Him. His mother used her position of honor to provoke Jesus to disobey God’s will. He says in the passage that it is not His time. Still, He performs the miracle and allows His family to save face.

Did He have to repent? Maybe. Probably. One thing you never see in the gospel accounts again is Jesus allowing people to get Him off track. We begin to hear things like, “get behind me Satan.” You begin to hear things like, “my family is those who do God’s will.” The miracle of wine was traumatic for Jesus, or at least disturbing.

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Lord Jesus, please help me not let people get me off track. Teach me to obey perfectly. Lord, I long to be counted as family. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.