I Would See Jesus

John 12: 20-33 was the theme at the Breakfast Bible Study and the liturgy. The key verse is the middle portion of verse 21 where Philip asks, "Lord, I would see Jesus."  The discussion and homily (sermon) was on how to see Jesus. This topic weighed joyfully on my heart and mind so I came home to meditate on the word and write my thoughts.

The first question I need to ask is where is Jesus so I can see him?  I find the following three scriptures very applicable to answer this question:  

On the night before Jesus was crucified, he prays to the Father for the people who were with him but also for all those who would ever believe in him": :You and I are one—as You are in Me, Father, and I am in You. And may they be in Us so that the world will believe You sent Me. I have given them the glory You gave Me, so they may be one as We are one." (John 17:21-22 - NLB)

"Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 11:10)

"For in him we live, and move, and have our being." (Acts 17:28)

Those scriptures show that God is in Christ; Christ is in God; I am in Christ and Christ is in me.  It's such an easy message that even a child can understand.

In John 20:18, Mary Magdalene begins the first Easter sermon by saying, "I have seen the Lord!"  Seeing the Lord compelled her to tell others the good news and was life-changing. I don't believe she first set down, pen and paper in hand, and wrote out the four steps to come to or see the Lord or the 5 rules of how to know if your eyes are open. She didn't create doctrines on how to see the Lord and what requirements a person had to meet to be eligible to see the Lord. She saw, she was filled with so much joy she wanted to export the joy to others.

John 13:15 says, "I have set the example, and you should do for each other exactly what I have done for you." (CEV) As I read the gospels, over and over I see Jesus, our example, looking for ways to see God in others. Bible scholars say Philip was a gentile who had converted to Judaism. There were women, Roman soldiers, prostitutes, adulterers, nice people who recognized their desire for a deeper faith walk, those burned out on the legalism of their Jewish faith, those who had observed his healing and miracles and were impressed or curious or just wanted more entertainment or free dinner, those who had been healed or delivered, children who rubbed their grubby hands in his Judean beard and weren't punished for it, those who felt his warm acceptance, those who had left their family and vocation to follow him. Overall the main group who did not "see" him were the Pharisees because they were too busy following the rules and finding ways to reject him rather than accept him because he didn't follow their rules and guidelines.

It is so easy to do what the Pharisees did. To look for reasons to not see Christ in others or to even believe Christ would humble himself to live in people our self-righteous mind would point our holy fingers at while saying they are sinful, erroneous, dysfunctional and egocentric. Yet, Jesus was humble and gave up his throne in heaven to come to earth as a tiny embryo inside Mary's womb and grew until he could be born and then he lived a selfless life showing us the type of sacrificial love God loves us with.  (Philippians 5:2-11)

"It's the same way with the Son of Man. He didn't come so that others could serve him. He came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many people." (Mark 10:45)

I haven't written an evangelistic blog and I guess this is about as close as I'll ever come. Are you ready to see Jesus?  Do you already see God in others?  Do you sense God in yourself? Do you see God in the whispering breeze, in the glorious night sky, in the power of lightening, in the daffodil breaking forth in the straggling winter snow, in the cry of a newborn baby or in the soft caress of a loved one?  The Bible tells us we can see God in his creation (Romans 1:20) Whether you see God in any of the above, you can open your life to let that deep love and acceptance flow. Recognize it is Christ in you that yearns to see Christ in others and nature - to be a person who accepts the flow of love from Him to you and to pass  it on to others. The great commandment Jesus gave says, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Matthew 22: 37-39).

Note He does not give us rules on how to do that because he knows he'll be inside us and we'll be inside him and as we feel loved by him, we will have the courage to grow in living a life like his: humble and serving - full of forgiveness and compassion.  We won't need rules to see if we're achieving that because none of us will ever do it perfect.  Apostle Paul summed the above so succulently in Galatians 2:16-21.  

Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law."  But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not!  Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.