students of jesus

Hungry? I’ve got some bread right here. It’s only a few months old. Just knock off the bugs, and don’t worry about the mold: I hear it’s the ingredient of a powerful antibiotic. How many pieces of bread would you like?

What—no takers?

And yet stale, moldy bread is the daily diet of so many believers. We seem quite content with day-old, month-old, years-old bread. When is the last time you heard a fresh word from God, or breathed in savory scent of his daily bread? The bread of life came down from heaven to us, but we thought it was a one-time event. Have we forgotten to pray “give us this day our daily bread?”

When Jesus said, ”‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’” he was quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” And the Deuteronomy passage points us back to the manna of God’s daily provision for his people, first offered in the Exodus. Each day the honey-tasting wafers testified of the glory and goodness of God. Jesus revealed he himself was the true manna, “the living bread which comes down from heaven.”

The lesson then, and the lesson now, is that God provides every day. He provides food to eat and life-giving words for our souls. Yesterday’s bread—even bread from God, will not sustain us today. Are we unaware that even heavenly bread turns bad? In our insecurities we hold on to yesterday’s bread thinking it is all God has (or ever will) give us. Kris Vallotton of Bethel Church points out that Jesus calls us to look for every word that proceeds (present tense), as opposed to those words he has already spoken: “We need the proceeding word, not the preceding word.”

In Exodus God told Moses he would show his glory by providing manna. Each day he shows his glory by sharing fresh bread, fresh insight, abundant grace, and new mercies. Embedded in this miraculous provision is the lesson that we need each of these, new every morning.

Nor should we hold back in consuming this daily dose of goodness. There will be more tomorrow, because a loving Father always supplies. Among the sayings of Jesus, perhaps this clangs strangely on our modern ears: “take therefore no thought for the morrow.” Free indeed is the soul who can lean into the Lord’s instruction secure in the thought that God provides food and forgiveness, clothing and calm.

Yesterday’s bread has no portion for today. Fortunately, the Father is up and about his business before we wake. He wants to provide for us morning by morning. 

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Every loving parent shares a child’s pain. Your child scrapes her knee. Your child falls and breaks his arm. More chilling: your child falls ill and dies. You would willingly take their place. Perhaps you have offered God that very deal.

I love my family. My marriage has been good—thirty years day-by-day with the love of my life; I’ve watched three children grow and run and laugh. Then I try to see myself as the kind of person who would willingly sacrifice any one of them on behalf of other people—and not just “others,” but on behalf of people who hate me. I try to imagine what I would feel if my children would suffer at the hands of ignorant and wicked men. Then I try to imagine it was my idea, but this is beyond imagining, that the whole affair would be my plan.

With such imagination comes discovery: I realize Jesus did not suffer alone. The Father and the Spirit shared the pain of the Lord’s betrayal, beatings, and crucifixion.

The triune God experienced the cross three-fold. We are familiar with Jesus’ suffering: his agonizing night in the garden when he offered up prayers through loud cries and tears; the betrayal of his closest friends; the shame and humiliation of arrest; the torture of beatings and lashes; and the slow death on a cross. These things we know.

But in each event the Father suffered, too. Everything Jesus endured, the Father suffered as only a loving parent can suffer. Nor did the Holy Spirit stand stoically by. At the cross the Spirit’s life force was held in check while all creation rejected the Creator.

God, the Holy Trinity, suffered three times. Each kind of suffering was unique to Father, Son, or Spirit. Each suffering was its own kind of death. Each suffering paid part of the price to liberate a captive and hostile world.

Community bears suffering together. In perfect community our sufferings are shared. Perhaps these sufferings are not lessened, but they are shared. Us, too: in our suffering we are not alone even as the Father, Son, and Spirit are never alone.

God, who is sweet community in himself, divides the suffering. He spread his suffering among himself: Father, Son, and Spirit. His empathy is great because he understands the grieving mother and the abandoned child. He has experienced these very pains.

And not just suffering—the Godhead offers at least one more lesson: community multiplies joy. The Son rose; the Father rejoiced; the Spirit was poured out. The victory of God was common property between them. They demonstrated the math of heaven: suffering is divided; joy is multiplied. The community of God knows our suffering, but in return all heaven’s joy becomes ours. Our sorrows are born by the great cloud of witnesses, chief among them the High King of Heaven. Jesus, the King, also extends his hand and says, “Enter into the Father’s joy.” The fruit of the spirit is not only individual joy, it is joy shared in community.

When we isolate ourselves in either suffering or joy, we miss the deep lesson of heaven. The earthly ideal of quiet “noble” suffering is the devil’s counsel. Nor should our rewards be a private joy. Private joy is an oxymoron.

Heaven itself has shared the bad and good. We, too, are made to share.

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Let’s embark today in an exercise on reading the scripture. It’s also an exercise in the love of God. It’s a pretty good two-fer.

When we come to the Bible part of our task includes inviting God’s word into our heart as well as our mind. The mind is concerned with understanding. The heart is concerned with our whole being (the mind included). Thomas à Kempis demonstrates this in his simple saying, “I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it.” The mind is satisfied with definitions. The mind too easily confuses knowing with being. The mind forgets that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

Love is its own way of knowing. Simone Weil instructed us, “Love is not consolation. It is light.” We need this light. I need it. So do you.

But how can we move from knowledge to being? Today, let’s explore one path.

Perhaps you’ve encountered this famous passage?

“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails . . . “ (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

We have heard this passage at so many weddings and funerals, and in so many sermons, we could be excused if we think we “know” it. If you have five minutes more, and a quiet place, let me invite you into this exercise:

First: did you read the words, or skip over them as soon as you realized it was the famous love passage?

Second: Did you read the words silently in your head, or did you speak them out loud? The path from knowledge to being begins with the engagement of our voice and ears, as well as our eyes: did you know that faith comes by hearing, and not by seeing?

Third: without doing any injustice to the sacred text, let’s personalize it. This time read the passage aloud, substituting “God’s love for me” instead of “love.” Let your ears hear your voice speaking of God’s love for you:

God’s love for me is patient, God’s love for me is kind and God’s love for me is not jealous; God’s love for me does not brag and God’s love for me is not arrogant, God’s love for me does not act unbecomingly; God’s love for me does not seek its own, God’s love for me is not provoked, God’s love for me does not take into account a wrong suffered, God’s love for me does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; God’s love for me bears all things, God’s love for me believes all things, God’s love for me hopes all things, God’s love for me endures all things. God’s love for me never fails.

And fourth, let’s invite our enemies into God’s love. Think of someone you dislike (perhaps you even hate him or her). Do not let your mind hijack this fourth and final step—think of an actual person. Bill, the guy at work who tries to subvert your work and get you fired. Susan, the girl at school who is so mean to you every day. If you are particularly daring, think of that loved one who has hurt you so deeply, betrayed you and wounded you so deeply you feel you might never recover. Speak his or her name. Bring to mind the face of this person.

Have you selected someone? Good. As our fourth step let’s speak God’s love over them. Out loud. Like this:

God’s love for _____ is patient, God’s love for _____ is kind and God’s love for _____ is not jealous; God’s love for _____ does not brag and God’s love for ______ is not arrogant, God’s love for ______ does not act unbecomingly; God’s love for ______ does not seek its own, God’s love for ______ is not provoked, God’s love for ______ does not take into account a wrong suffered, God’s love for ______ does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; God’s love for ______ bears all things, God’s love for ______ believes all things, God’s love for ______ hopes all things, God’s love for ______ endures all things. God’s love for ______ never fails.

Did you do it? I hope so, because the love of God is never complete in us until we realize it is for our enemies as well as ourselves.

My grand hope for you today is that you will begin a journey into the word of God and the love of God, and discover its four dimensions: how wide, and long, and high, and deep is the love of God—for you, and indeed for all he has made.

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