Easter 19 Resurrection, Realization and Reality---"I am in you."

[HKHaugan]

Easter 19 Resurrection, Realization and Reality---”I am in you!”

Continuing our look at the way the Resurrection affects how we think we need to look at one of the “Greats” not usually described in that way. There's the Great Commission to go and make disciples (Matt. 28:19-20), the Greatest Comandment to love God with all our mind, heart and strength (Matt.22:37) and the Great one just like it to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matt.22:39). What we have here in John 14:19-20 is the Great Realization, “Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” What we have been given because of Jesus' Resurrection is eternal life. What we have been given because of Pentecost is the inner realization that God lives in us through faith. Notice the word 'realization.' It means to be aware that what has happened is real and it is like a surprise, an awakening, an inner eye-opener. It's like when you say, “Oh, now I get it.” “I see what you mean.” “It hits home.” “That makes sense.” For some realization is a lightning bolt. For others it's a door opener that starts you on a path to a deeper experience. Every individual will have a different spin on how it happens and that is the proof of how personal the Lord God is.

Realization is a process of growth. Just when you realize one aspect of what it means to have a relationship with God, another new insight pops up. Realization expands like when Jesus says obeying His teaching guarantees the Father's love and further that the Father Himself lives in us. Then add to that everything Jesus has said and all of it is a work of the Holy Spirit in each of us. Talk about a personal God, there you have it.

Then I realize something else. I'm not worthy to receive such a reality. God's Word slams the door on that thought when Isaiah reacts the same way (Is.6:1-7). What happened to Isaiah was why Jesus went to the Cross and through the Cross the angel's words to Isaiah ring clear, “Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” God knew Isaiah's problem and ours. Sin, it's isolating aloneness, fear, pride and guilt. Jesus took the fiery coal of God's wrath against sin, defeated it and rose from the dead. He gave us a manual to identify the nature and produce of sin and its reduction through a conscious growing relationship with God through Jesus. The Bible has everything in it necessary to realize and identify the problem and the solution.

Realization leads down a path of inner exposure. Because of Jesus I begin to see a lot of stuff we call weakness and the inability to control how those weaknesses influence my mind, my heart, my behavior and my relationships. Whenever those things surface I find it is the Holy Spirit getting my attention directed toward Jesus as the One who can redirect me on His path. In fact I realize when He does that He isn't condemning me but getting me closer to Him, forgiving me and raising a hunger for His Word in me. I need His insights and He is always ready to let the right ones in at the moment of need. Do I always accept them? No, but His patience prevails in the long run. It's called mercy, which He is full of. He's drawing me out from a world of self-centered darkness into His light.

Realization doesn't just stop there at the 'inner exposure clinic.' That has a purpose. It's to free us from the things that hold us back from being outgoing, caring about others, willing to listen to the same aloneness issues others have. It's to share their pain and their dreams and hopes with the ultimate goal of helping them to see Jesus as the only One who can save people from themselves. The measure of that freedom is the desire to relate openly and honestly with others, to look for opportunities that take us out of ourselves. It's focusing on Jesus that begins our release and evacuation from the prison of self. Anything less than a relationship with Jesus is escaping reality, crawling back into self and denying what we were created and designed to be.

Realization is a work of the Holy Spirit. Realization therefore is a spiritual process. Even if people around us who don't believe anything use the word 'realize,' it is still a spiritual process working within them whether they know it or not or whether they like it or not or whether or not they accept it. It is part of our created humanity, part of the image of God in us. Isaiah 45:3 says it so well, “I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.” Personal, isn't it?

Realization is recognizing reality, ultimate reality, as spiritual, personal and relational. It's the light bulb that goes on when you are open to what lies in the unseen dimension. Discerning between good and evil, the moral and the immoral, life and death, love and hate, faith and fear and making choices and decisions that determine your future.

The reality of Jesus as an imposing historical figure whose teachings and presence have impacted people for centuries calls for serious consideration. What makes Him so confronting is the inner challenge He presents to the mind because He doesn't let you rest in your intellect. He says and does things that dig at the foundation of your heart, your ego, your pride and your fears. You can't dismiss Him as some kind of spiritual vagabond drifting in a sea of charisma. He won't let you do that. You can't make judgments about Him based on what you like or don't like about His followers. All of them, every one of them is broken and quick to admit it if pressed to do so. That's why they come to Him.

While He stands firmly on the pages of history, He, at the same time, stands above them. He is the kind of reality that evokes a response which is in itself reality breaking through into a world that is running away from reality. While the unbeliever makes choices based on temporary concerns, a believer makes choices that have eternal consequences. Either it's just about what is happening to me now in the world I can see or it's about what my purpose is in the context of an eternal God and Savior. When we realize these are the only two options open to us our decision will be the framework for how we approach our answer and how we live our lives from day to day. And it is the Lord God who has built into us, as His images, the free will to make that choice. Pray that all will realize that.