Jesus died for us, but He also lived for us. He devoted every stage and element of His life to restoring us to the kingdom of heaven. He indefatigably served God and He turned every instant into a lesson, a healing, an example, a reassurance, an expression of love. These are seven pieces of scripture in which that is evident. While His death cemented our communion with God, it was His life that initiated it.
John 9:2-12
Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.
In a move of dynamite refinement, Jesus blasted away the aversion that society had placed on the downtrodden; He revealed their true value and strategic purpose in the kingdom of God. Our tears, tribulations and infirmities are no less than these blessed chances for the goodness of God to be revealed to the land of the living.* We shatter shrouding darkness with the light of the Lord when we respond to the circumstances of our life with faith. Our resilience speaks of the strength and the glory of our God, of His ability to hold and heal.
Luke 22:49-51
When those around Him saw what was going to happen, they said to Him, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus answered and said, “Permit even this.” And He touched his ear and healed him.
Despite the solemnity of their teacher, Jesus' disciples were compelled by indignation to strike His enemies. Yet not only did Jesus prohibit the act of violence, He also repaired the damage His disciple had caused to a man who meant him harm. The depth of Jesus' compassion was most apparent in the way that he loved the people who least seemed to deserve it. The small gesture was a massive declaration of the ultimate purpose of the outreach of the kingdom of God: to heal broken people, things and spirits. Jesus cupped the wound and healed it because the nature of God is as harmless as a dove.**
John 13:3-5; John 13:13-17
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
In a heartfelt expression of humility, Jesus physically exemplified His ultimate, spiritual mission on earth: to serve. The disciples were abashed to have Jesus wash their feet; and yet all along He had been serving and cleansing them, and more intimately. Jesus selflessly chose to channel His authority into the act of sincerely ardent servitude. We experience a breakthrough of intimate faith when we realize God within the raw details of our life. Our faith, outwardly projected, adopts the manner of our creator and by Him we heal the earth.
Matthew 26:53
Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?
Jesus was unfazed by fear and undaunted by enemy because He placed full confidence in God's authority. Every other person believed that Jesus had been caught, thwarted. Jesus alone understood that God had orchestrated the events of His "capture" in order to perpetuate the specific outcome of His resurrection.
Jesus deftly humbled the arrogance of His captors by simply stating that God could instantaneously provide Him the defense of twelve legions of angels! In this Jesus professed the power and immediacy of prayer. We are never caught by happenstance or by the craft our enemies; in all positions, we have been placed expertly by God for purpose. Jesus was not afraid to be in the position, He was honored to be in the position. He was calm and centered, focused and determined. Jesus taught us that a life lived in alignment with the commandments of God is a life lived under the commanding control of God. Through it seemed otherwise to the people around Jesus, the situation was so entirely, cleverly and meticulously under control and thus Jesus remained collected.
Jesus unveiled God's unseen angel-army, poised and ready to act; and based on His nature, He had likely done so more to comfort His followers than to frighten His enemies. For those who take up the cross*** need and receive all of the support they can get.
Jesus deftly humbled the arrogance of His captors by simply stating that God could instantaneously provide Him the defense of twelve legions of angels! In this Jesus professed the power and immediacy of prayer. We are never caught by happenstance or by the craft our enemies; in all positions, we have been placed expertly by God for purpose. Jesus was not afraid to be in the position, He was honored to be in the position. He was calm and centered, focused and determined. Jesus taught us that a life lived in alignment with the commandments of God is a life lived under the commanding control of God. Through it seemed otherwise to the people around Jesus, the situation was so entirely, cleverly and meticulously under control and thus Jesus remained collected.
Jesus unveiled God's unseen angel-army, poised and ready to act; and based on His nature, He had likely done so more to comfort His followers than to frighten His enemies. For those who take up the cross*** need and receive all of the support they can get.
Luke 6:12
Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
Of the most beneficial acts of Jesus, our messiah demonstrated how a personal connection with God can be attained and maintained. Jesus consistently retreated to a private and natural location to hear and be heard by our Father. In a humble and noiseless place, Jesus delved into the solemnity of our Father. A place to hear and be heard. As we pray, we build a noiseless, impenetrable fortress which includes only ourselves and God. We delve and seal ourselves in a place of His solemnity in order to express and relieve our souls, and to be understood and restored by His.
Jesus' days were an absolute ruckus as He contemporaneously built both the offense and defense of Christianity from scratch. Without His precious moments of withdrawal to God in the quiet hours, the interminable chaos and celebration of the day might have wearied Him at best and distracted Him at worse. Jesus demonstrated that our ability to serve God publicly is entirely reliant upon our consistent willingness to know Him privately. Jesus received His purpose, strength and instruction from God and so do we. Jesus knew what to do when the sun rose because He allowed God to direct Him in the hours that preceded it.
It is not insignificant that Jesus chose natural settings to pray. For all of the world's opulent cathedrals and multi-million dollar churches, Jesus prayed in the mountains and beside the seas. To be in the midst of nature is to be surrounded by that which God created with His own hands. In a world congested with man-made structures and products, it is in nature that we are most connected to home.
Jesus' days were an absolute ruckus as He contemporaneously built both the offense and defense of Christianity from scratch. Without His precious moments of withdrawal to God in the quiet hours, the interminable chaos and celebration of the day might have wearied Him at best and distracted Him at worse. Jesus demonstrated that our ability to serve God publicly is entirely reliant upon our consistent willingness to know Him privately. Jesus received His purpose, strength and instruction from God and so do we. Jesus knew what to do when the sun rose because He allowed God to direct Him in the hours that preceded it.
It is not insignificant that Jesus chose natural settings to pray. For all of the world's opulent cathedrals and multi-million dollar churches, Jesus prayed in the mountains and beside the seas. To be in the midst of nature is to be surrounded by that which God created with His own hands. In a world congested with man-made structures and products, it is in nature that we are most connected to home.
Matthew 14:29
“Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
Jesus extended a lifelong invitation into the kingdom of God. No matter what figurative sea, mountain or desert is between us and God, we have been made able to cross it. We have been invited and enabled to defy the figurative and physical properties of all barrier to ascend into our Father's arms. In the single word, come, Jesus invited and enabled us to cross all boundaries unaffected by the gravitational pull of the people, forces and circumstances which try to hold us down.
Matthew 28:20
I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
A departing gift from Jesus: His perpetual presence. Long after the age of the first disciples, He remains as intimately and vigilantly near as He has always been. Jesus departed from earth and was reborn in the Spirit of God within us****; nearer now even than ever before, but still precisely Him. Every aforementioned act above is something He is doing this moment for and within you.
* Psalm 27:13
** Matthew 10:16
*** Matthew 16:24-25
****1 Corinthians 3:16
Ephesians 4:9-10 Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.