Dear Trekker,
As I write, we are about a month away from another Easter celebration. And I have before me a couple of Easter devotional books sent yearly to me by some entity to help me prepare for Easter. You no doubt get them too, in the mail. So view this month’s MEN as a similar challenge, only from God’s perspective, not ours.
Once again, I am indebted to the late Eugene Peterson’s writings (Run With the Horses, 1983)) for directing me along this path. “Anytime that we move from personal names to abstract labels or graphs or statistics, we are less in touch with reality and diminished in our capacity to deal with what is best and at the center of life.” He adds: “Every time that we go along with the movement from the personal to the impersonal, from the immediate (present) to the remote (past or future), from the concrete to the abstract, we are diminished, we are less [of a person].” Brackets are mine.
As I pondered, I could not help but affirm Peterson’s thoughts! Yes, that is the way of the world, to de-personalize us, to destroy the divine originality in each of us, to lump us all together. E.g., today when one labels another a racist, we are de-personalizing and lumping people together, cutting off getting to know them or allowing them to know us, etc. Yes, the human race has trouble playing the “grace card” with one another. It is easier to write people “off or out” than “in.”
But then I conjured up in my mind…if personhood is so hard to maintain for us, and depersonalization is so easy to do to one another…is not this a greater challenge for God? He is totally Spirit! He has substance, supposedly. But we can’t see Him, or hear Him, etc. He is First Cause, perhaps, or The Force! But is he a her, or simply an it? I thought…the Divine communication of personhood is a much more formidable task (likely) than the preservation of a human being made in the image of God… or so it seemed to me. If you question this, review the history books of the perceived “nature” of the God(s), man has made ! Down through the centuries of civilization, man, left to himself, has struck out completely! John the apostle is so right when he writes, “No one has ever seen God, but God, the One and Only, who is at the Father’s (God) side, has made him known” (John 1:18). Yes, yes it bears repeating –“The greatest form of communication known to man is incarnation!” God is an eternal Spirit, but when He wanted to reveal Himself completely to us, convincingly, with no holds barred, He became human! And we just don’t get it!
This was a stumbling block to the Jews then and has been to many down through the ages. I had a good friend, another Army colonel, (now in heaven) who just couldn’t get the “100 percent God and 100 percent man” concept. One day I walked into his room at Walter Reed Army Hospital, years ago, and he had a huge smile on his face. His first words were, “I got it Jim.” His acceptance of incarnation, literally God in the flesh, changed his life, and is a beautiful memory for me. I’ll have a wonderful reunion with Mike in heaven.
Now trekker, let’s place “The Good Shepherd Story” of John 10 in this context. Notice how all things “come alive” when wonder and awe (or doubt) are replaced with Personhood. The word “shepherd” connotes responsibility for protecting and providing for the sheep…leading them to green pastures and still waters (Psalm 23). All sheep, every one, is known by name and is important (Matthew 18:12 and Luke 15:4). The shepherd has pity upon the “dumb” sheep. (Matthew 9:36, Mark 6:34). Yes, Jesus reveals God as the great shepherd of the sheep (Hebrews 13:20)!
A closer look at John 10 is in order. First, there have always been false gods, false claimants to ownership of the sheep! All supposed shepherds (and gods then and today) are not the same. If a predator or false shepherd wants to enter the sheep pen in any way except through the gate, he (or she) is an imposter! (Not all Gods are the One true God is quite applicable in world religious pluralism today.) There are a lot of sheep rustlers out and about! Second, note the gatekeeper recognizes the shepherd, and so do the sheep! God gives us the capacity to recognize genuine, authentic personhood. We find ourselves in Christ when we recognize He is the genuine Gatekeeper and the great and good Shepherd rolled into One! The disciples were slow to get this story…Jesus is talking quite often about Himself, to reveal who he really is, his unique God/man personhood. I love John 10:10… “I came so they (the sheep, the “people”) can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” (The Message).
When Jesus said I am the door (gate) v.7, he was revealing God’s undying love, his divine initiative, and his forever provision. Jesus is God’s answer to a restored and eternal relationship to Himself. This is the central theme of the New Testament. Through Jesus and Him alone, men find access back to God (Ephesians 2:18). He (Jesus) is the one living way (Hebrews 10:20). Before Jesus, God was unknown to all but the Hebrews, a stranger far off, at best, and at worst, a stern judge and/or enemy. But when the time had fully come (Galations 4:4) God became a man.
Now trekker, is this not a prep for Easter? Easter is the final act of Advent, Life, death and… Resurrection of Jesus. We see these events sequentially! For God, they are all One for revealing Himself and His plan of redemption for created man. They will always be together THE blip on the screen of eternity past, present and endless future! God revealed Himself! God accomplished the work for man – reconciliation – only He could do.
Apart from God, Trekker, we are at best a statistic on the canvas of life. Our tombstones say when we were born and when we die. The dash (-) in between birth and death is what really defines our personhood, but is known only and completely by God. He knows our name and every hair on our head. The relationship He desires with each of us is personal, passionate, and permanent. We are His forever! The only relationship that counts in this life and the next is the one we forge with Jesus!
Here I must close with one of my favorite Bible verses. It really preps us for the Easter celebration to come and until we see Him face-to-face in all of His glory. Romans 8:11, “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.” Yes, trekker, we are more than a statistic…we are a person, as is He, forever with Him!
Looking forward to another Easter on earth and a time of rejoicing in Jesus,
Jim Meredith
