Jesus is more than a distant ruler or authority in a castle. Authority is authorship. To whomever you give authority in your life, you give the ability to write your life’s story. Hebrews is clear: when we follow Jesus, Jesus becomes our author. When we allow Jesus to author our lives, we become a new creation. Consider one of many transfigurations that happen through Scripture when we submit to the authority of the Lord. Gideon said, “Forget it, unless you send me better brothers, I’m not doing anything!” But Gideon the Timid became the Gideon the greatest judge of all of Israel. This may happen to us as well, when we allow Jesus to be our author.
A new season is a new opportunity to return to first things. Let us begin with the most important thing. On what is the foundation of our faith built? On nothing less the Jesus’ blood and righteousness. On Christ the solid rock we stand. The unique claim of Christianity in world history is the person of Jesus Christ. As the apostle Paul wrote, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3). This single event — the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ — is the hinge of history.
We talk a lot about kingdoms. But you cannot have a kingdom without a king. Who is the king, not just of our private hearts, but the entire world? From the beginning, God’s design was to be the people’s King. There is no other solution; no other authority is worthy. Jesus is the King and has been given all authority over creation, in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). The authority does not solely lie within the past (tradition) or the future (progress) or a strongman leader who will save us. Rather, Jesus is the authority. Only Jesus can save us, and he has already done so through the cross. It is only when we stop looking to other authorities, and even to ourselves as authorities, and recognize Jesus as the authority of our lives, that the problems of the world abate, and we discover peace. Jesus is clear: the Kingdom of God is not found in the formation of political systems and in the exercise of human power, no matter how noble the intent. The Kingdom of God is only found in the presence of God and is only built by Jesus (Matt 16:18). Jesus is the only good, true, and beautiful source of authority.
Jesus is the source of all life. When we, as branches, are connected well to the vine, we bear fruit. When we become disconnected, we whither and die. This is one of my favorite images because it is a clear image of how Jesus is the giver of life. When we are connected, we flourish. When we become disconnected — by disease, by outside forces that harm us, etc. — we whither. Another great aspect of this image is that we can be grafted onto the vine, so even if we were connected to the wrong vine, when we become attached to the true vine, we flourish.
When Jesus said he is the bread of life, he answered the question raised in the prayer he offered to the disciples in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is the source of sustenance (Matt 6:11). But bread is more than just physiological; it is also a primary sign of fellowship and hospitality, which are core convictions to God’s people. Abraham used bread for hospitality when he shared bread with his three visitors (Gen 18). David used it as a symbol to invite Mephibosheth to his table (1 Sam 9:7). Jewish custom breaks bread at the beginning of every meal. Third, bread is a symbol of our covenant with God. It is manna (Ex 16), an image of God’s faithfulness, which Jesus carries forward in the New Covenant he makes in the Upper Room (Matt 26:26).
He is the way — a way of living, a rhythm of life, the practical decisions of daily existence. He is the truth - truth is not a proposition or a philosophy, but only found in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the life - Jesus is clear that the life abundantly lived (John 10:10) only comes through him.
1/21 - 1/22/2023 (January 21 & 22) | The Good Shepherd
Jesus also describes himself using lamb imagery, saying he is the Good Shepherd. A bad shepherd snoozes while wolves come, or allows a stray sheep to wander off. A good shepherd does his job well. He chases after the one (Luke 15:3-7). He puts his own life in danger in order to protect us. When we understand ourselves as sheep, we see that we are prone to wander. We are basically dumb. We make bad decisions. We need someone to protect us from harm. Jesus is our Shepherd.
Psalm 23 — the proactive nature of the Shepherd
1/14 - 1/15/2023 (January 14 & 15) | The Lamb of God
Jesus is the last lamb who came into Jerusalem as a lamb to be slaughtered (Ex 29:38-42), shed his blood on behalf of all humankind, and was the completion of Passover and the fulfillment and resolution (the telos) and reconciliation of people to God (1 Cor 5:7). He was perfect as lambs were required to be (Ex 12:1-6), and thus he died without deserving it. But he was no weak lamb; instead, he was a warrior lamb who, though he was one with God (Phil 2), took on the weight of the world’s sins because of his all-encompassing love for the world, and thus demonstrated once and for all that love conquers death. In this way, Jesus demonstrates for us how through our own willingness to die (to self and even unto life), we show what true love is, and thus overcome evil with good. (This is Christus Victor — in my theology of atonement, penal substitution and Christus Victor aren’t competing ideas, but sacrifice is part of the larger story of victory.)
Jesus is eternal (John 1), the agent of all creation (Col 1:16), and through his life, death, and resurrection, inaugurated the end or telos (John 19:30), now (Matt 12:28) and forever (Matt 24:44). When we follow Jesus, we can be confident that he is God and one with God.