it is perverse—
who can understand it?” - Jeremiah 17:9
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“He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him,...” - Mark 3:13-14a
What’s the job of one called by Jesus (that means you and me)? Very simply, the primary activity and mark of a true disciple is to “be with” Jesus.
Often, when breaking down the meaning of the gospels into chapters, then pericopes, then verses, then individual words, we lose sight of the larger job and title while gazing at the jot and tittle. In the midst of all our preaching, teaching, and casting out demons, have we overlooked the simple-but-essential relational reality of “being with Jesus?”
We do this in our close relationships all the time, don’t we? We substitute living under the same roof with crafting a marriage. A five-minute drive to school replaces both quality and quantity time with kids. It doesn’t start out as intentional, but it does become habitual. And as any smoker can tell you, kicking a habit is hard.
For me, personally, it means, “slow down!” (and I am preaching to myself today more than anyone reading this blog post!) Walk slower through the house, and intentionally breathe more deeply. When little annoyances and frictions start to chafe me, I try (notice I said, “try”; I don’t always succeed) saying to myself, “Lord, thank you that I get to minister to my wife/son/friend/fellow-follower in this way.”
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read Luke 13:31-35
I grew up in the beautiful state of Michigan. And in Michigan, like many states, there is a rivalry between the largest state school and the largest private school. You tend to make the choice when you’re young, and it usually depends on which school your immediate family roots for. I remember having a hard time choosing when I was a small boy, not because I knew anything about the schools, but because I loved both mascots! The Michigan State mascot is the Spartan, one of the deadliest warriors in history. The University of Michigan mascot is the wolverine, an animal legendary for its strength and ferocity.
As brilliant as Jesus is about so many things, he really could use some help in the mascot department. Today he characterizes himself with a chicken analogy. And not even some kind of awesome, fierce fighting chicken. He basically calls himself a mother hen, which to me, means dinner. It’s not like there wasn’t already Scriptural precedent for better mascots. How about an eagle or a leopard? Or maybe the roaring lion of the tribe of Judah? Compared to any of those, a mother hen doesn’t inspire much confidence.1 After all, chickens aren’t exactly known for bravery. When somebody backs down from a challenge, we say they “chickened out.” If a kid gets to the top of the high dive and can’t jump, what do his friends in the pool do? They make chicken noises. Why didn’t the chicken cross the road? Because it was chicken!
Why a chicken? Especially, when Jesus has just characterized King Herod as a fox. I know that mothers are very protective of their babies, but if you want me to bet on the winner of the Fox vs. Hen Death-match, I’m laying odds on the fox 100% of the time.
In order to understand why Jesus chose the analogy, I think we have to get some perspective. The clue that I got was when Jesus says, “How often?” As Jesus weeps his chicken-tears over the city of Jerusalem, he says, “How often have I desired to gather your children together…” How often had it been?
To understand that, we have to go back in the story. All the way back, I believe, to Genesis. When God created all that is, from mice to mountain ranges, God declared it all “good.” When God formed and fashioned humans, the declaration was “very good.” God had a wonderfully intimate relationship with Adam and Eve, taking long, garden walks and having long talks. There was a “face-to-faceness” to the relationship.
When sin entered the equation, that face-to-faceness was lost. God tried everything: covenants, commandments, kings, priests, prophets, a temple. It got so bad that God declared, “No one shall see my face and live.”
In order to get back face-to-face with us, God had to go face-to-face with Sin & Death. Life had to die. The Bread of life had to be broken. The One who miraculously made the wine had to be poured out as an offering. The good shepherd had to leave the green pastures and still waters to travel further into the valley of the shadow of death than anyone ever had.
To defend his chicks, to defend us, God made himself defenseless. No lion’s roar, no eagle’s talons, no leopard’s teeth. Just a complete willingness to spread his wings wide and shield those he loved with his own body.
No longer would God stand the reality that we could not see His face and live. It took Jesus, the Blessed Mother Hen, to change that. Now, no one can really live until they see his face.
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1 http://aweirdthing.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/size-of-a-hen/
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‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you." - Jesus
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Read: Luke 11:29-32
The problem with being a sign is that there is a distinct lack of semioticians out there. At least, that’s what I used to think. Now I think differently; the signs now need to pay attention to the prospective sign readers, not the other way around.
Jesus says that Jonah (my beautiful wife’s favorite prophet) became a sign to the people of Nineveh. Jesus said that he, himself, would be a sign to his own generation. And those of us who compose and comprise the Body of Christ? We are to be signs in this generation as well. The problem, though, is the lack of sign readers (semioticians).
Jonah, apparently, was an effective sign, in spite of himself; the entire city repented. Jesus met with somewhat more resistance than Jonah in his efforts, pointing to a decline in folks’ general sign-reading abilities. And what about now?
I’d argue that, while there is more interest in signs (especially the bright, shiny, attractive, moving and blinking sort), most people have lost their ability to look at those things toward which the signs point. How can we 21st-century disciples help?
Maybe it’s time to be a sign, to point, with much more intention and attention and less flash and splash. Maybe it’s more about attention paying and less about attention getting.
A practical discipline to try today: When you look at someone and listen to them, imagine that you are looking at them with Jesus’ eyes. Actually, you don’t have to imagine that; you ARE looking at them with Jesus’ eyes. Hopefully, you’ll notice Jesus looking back.
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