Engaging with God

When I was in the third grade I got in big trouble . 

As eager as Peter was to be close to Jesus , the issue of his denial still had to be addressed. 

The separation between us and Jesus still needs to be dealt with, and Jesus loves us too much to not deal with it.

God is forgiving our sins through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Through Jesus' resurrection God is making all things new, and God is calling us to join with Jesus in his ministry of reconciliation. 

Jesus concludes his conversation with Peter with the same words that drew Peter to him in the first place: " Follow me ."

Issues of faith and doubt and who Jesus is and how we should respond to him are not new – they go back to the beginning, in fact to the first day after Jesus' resurrection.

Thomas was a somewhat dour character, from the few lines he speaks in John's gospel, and he seems to be a practical realist. When the other disciples excitedly tell him about their encounter with the risen Jesus, he is unwilling to reengage his disappointed hopes .

There is a form of doubt that seems to only seek a reason not to believe, to justify not ever making any sort of commitment of faith. But integrity calls us to engage with the truth claims of Jesus Christ, to search and to understand as best we can.

The purpose of John's entire gospel is that we would come to believe. As the final verse of this chapter goes on to say, this is "written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name."

We cannot separate being Christlike from being a Christian, we cannot divorce being like Jesus from believing in him. True belief is what the gospel is all about, because true belief means entering into a relationship with Jesus; it means proclaiming Jesus as Lord and God; and it means entrusting our lives to him – both our lives in this world as well as our eternal lives.

Their teacher, the one they had finally come to recognize as the Messiah, was dead. Their hopes, plans, expectations were not only disappointed – they were crushed . What would they do now? This may have been the longest, darkest day of their lives.

What is so memorable about it is the expressions in the eyes of the two men: in both, we sense that they have been weeping; John, the younger of the two, clasps his hands together and his eyes convey a sense of worry and continued sorrow; while Peter's care-worn face and haunting expression tell us that many thoughts are coursing through his mind.

Life triumphed over death! And now this new life of God was on the loose. Who could imagine what God would do next? The despair of the previous day was overturned, and hope was born again.

The secret of dealing with a riptide, as signs posted at the beaches will tell you, is to relax and let it carry you outward; once you're out a bit from shore, you can swim sideways, parallel to the beach, for a short distance, and the same tide will actually bring you back into shore .

The crowd that so enthusiastically welcomed Jesus into the city either melted away or turned against him. He was apparently just one more failed Messiah. 

The largest and most long-lived things in our world – think of the giant sequoias – are born from the tiniest of seeds. But the seed itself will not do anything on its own if it remains what it is, just a seed. It is only by dying to what it is that it becomes something more, what it is intended to become. It was only through death, and being "buried" like a seed, that Jesus burst forth from the tomb with the power of new life.

Numerous statements throughout Jesus' teachings challenge our natural understanding about the way that life works . "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Just as Jesus had to die in order for resurrection and life to take place, so also must we.

If we are to truly be not only believers but followers of Jesus: the servants must be like the master, loving and serving as he did, and trusting that it is in the laying down of our lives that the life of God is born within us. 

As a child, we still carry with us the thought that life isn't supposed to be interrupted or abruptly ended.

Jesus didn't delay in spite of his love – he delayed because of his love. We may wonder at times why God doesn't answer our prayers in just the way that we ask or think that he should.