In my last post, I considered the parable of the marriage feast and the invitation that Christ extends to each of us. In His revelation to John, he says, “I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come into you and eat with you, and you with me.”[1] This is very much like the invitation that was extended by the King in the parable of the marriage feast. The question for us is whether we will have the desire to open the door and let him in or whether we will find his invitation to be too much the distraction from the things in life that “really matter.”
Only when we have chosen to open the door (or to attend the banquet to use Jesus’ other metaphor) can we begin to understand what it is to dine with the Lord. When we do this, we find that He has a very different idea of what it is to celebrate and to party than the view that we have grown accustomed to in this world. We often tend to think of celebration as a self-gratifying and indulgent experience. Jesus, however, encourages us to seek, as our mode of celebration, to love and to serve others as he has loved and served us. This really should not be surprising coming from a man who was born in a barn and who lived his life with a plan to die by crucifixion. Nonetheless, many times, this upside-down view of celebration becomes a stumbling block to many would-be "partiers ".
Jesus demonstrated his heart for serving us in a very profound way in John 13:1-17. He begins to wash the disciples’ feet. This is hardly something we would expect a King to do for His subjects (or followers). But, as we learn in reading the Scriptures, Jesus is not just a typical King! Ever-reluctant Simon Peter insists that he will have no part of such a thing: “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus gently reminds Peter that He is the King, who has chosen to do this thing, and “unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” [2] At this, Peter sees the light and, going from one extreme to the other, insists that Jesus ought to wash all of him.[3]
I believe that Peter’s reluctance and his exuberance can both be explained by one simple fact: Peter understood the implications of what Jesus was doing in that moment. If we are to be a part of Jesus, a citizen of the Kingdom of God, a partier at the King’s banquet, then we are called on the King’s terms, not our own.[4] In our case, we have King who prizes serving others above all other forms of celebration. The inescapable implication of this is that, if we are going to party in the King’s banquet hall, we are going to be asked to serve and love one another with complete selflessness. And, in serving, we will be blessed in ways that are now unimaginable to us.[5]
If we value the Kingdom of Heaven, like the man in the parable valued the treasure he found in the field, then we will learn to view serving as Christ did. It is a response from a grateful heart to the immeasurable sacrifice that Christ made for us. But, more importantly, it is an act of celebration and opportunity to experience the richness of God’s blessing. The more we understand this, the less we will experience serving others as something we do “if we have the time” and the more we will make it the central and most vital focus of our lives.
[1] Revelation 3:20 (All Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version unless otherwise noted).
[2] John 13:8 (emphasis mine)
[3] See John 13:9
[4] See John 13:15-16
[5] See John 13:17
2 comments:
Joel,I enjoy your heart on the topic of accepting the call to the Kingdom of God. It is so true that we decline to dine with The King of Glory in favor of feeding on our own slop in the prescence of fools. That may be strong wording, but I believe this worth strong wording and every word of it true.
Accepting the kingdom is like a dance. We may disagree on the order or assignent of the steps, but here is my conviction on it: God gives the faith (the invitation), we choose whether or not to respond, once we respond He starts the sanctification and we get to decide how cooporative we will be in the sanctification process. There is way more too it, but this is a high level overview of my belief on the process.
Thanks for the thoughtful blog!
Peace in Christ,
Josh
Thanks for your comment. My thought is that, if we our faith is earnestly placed in Christ, we will cooperate to the best of our ability in our own sanctification. Because we are imperfect, and because we all begin at different points, we will continue to fail in many respects, despite the sincerity of our faith. But, the beauty of grace is that God continues to work on us, in us, and through us, despite our repeated failures.
Post a Comment