Invisibility

[HKHaugan]

Invisibility

“In Him was life and that life was the light of men (Jn.1:4).”

What kind of life light was that? The main idea is that the life Jesus lived was something new, a light that was seen in a different way. It had three very clear yet blended beams: spiritual, personal and relational. So there is a way to experience the spiritual, personal and relational dimensions, to see them in a new way, to see them with the mind, heart and spirit awareness of the same in others. Instead of sight we have insight. Instead of physical abilities we have spiritual sensitivities. Instead of viewing people by their external appearance and social identity we see them as images of God who, like us, see one another as something more than the physical and social identities. We see them as spiritual beings. What you can’t see with the eyes, hear with the ears, touch with hands, is where this new life opens up who and what we really are. We are all images of God but born separated from God by sin. We are spiritually empty until we receive Jesus by belief. Before Jesus we are light bulbs without electricity, cars without gas, glasses without water and bodies without blood. We have the equipment but not what makes it work.

We are all born into a physical humanity separated from God by sin, but, in Christ, reborn spiritually to live a spiritual life.

The perfect example of this reality is Jesus. But unlike us, Jesus was born spiritually conceived by the Holy Spirit. He lived a spiritually oriented life from birth. His sensing was His Spirit, the person of the Holy Spirit. His motivation was His Spirit. He lived with one person in His mind and that was His Father who made Himself known in Scripture. Scripture was the mind and will of His Father. The way He lived was by faith in His Father, faith in the Word and faith through the leading of the Spirit.

So there are three things that Jesus showed as the new life that would replace the old life of self centered sin. He said that He was the way, the truth and the life. His way was relational faith in His Father in every next moment. His truth was the Word of His Father guiding His mind in those moments. His life was the Holy Spirit motivating him to live for His Father in every next moment. It was at these three points He revealed the nature of God in the three persons who made up the One God. His death proved the worth of His life. His Resurrection proved the eternity of His life.

Now what makes Jesus an even more volcanic historic event was the where, when, who, why and how the arrival of Jesus dramatically confronted the established world order. That world order was dominated by fear, pride, wealth, power, status, manipulation, conspiracy, self-centeredness and ego appeal. That was part of what Jesus exposed in three very short years. Also what was exposed was the spiritual darkness behind it. The devil and evil spirits, the dynamics coming from this kingdom of darkness, was and is the reason mankind was held in captivity by sin and evil and not even knowing it. Jesus brought the kind of sight and life that comprehended the darkness, gave us the ability to sense it and the power to stand against it. It explains Jesus’ last words on the Cross when He prayed for His persecutors “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Jesus exposed the common dynamics of fear fueling human disorder that every new born person will experience. That being spiritually born again through Him overcomes that fear induced aloneness in every next moment. He brings eternity in the present. He is the present. He is our spiritual, personal and relational reality, our companion in the struggle, our shepherd in the wilderness, our Savior in the storm and our Lord on the way in every next moment.

Jesus’ simple words answer the question posed by those who would follow, “Where are you going?” He replies, “Come and you will see (Jn.1:38-39).”

It is precisely after this that Jesus shows a new kind of awareness, spiritual awareness. It’s not guesswork. He changes Simon’s name to Peter (Cephas-Aramaic and Petros-Greek for rock) and He identifies the internal nature of Nathanael (Hebrew, God has given). The calling of the disciples, John 1:35-51, shows a spiritual discernment that carried the spiritual, personal and relational nature of God in Jesus. The whole of John’s Gospel is a revelation of this engaging new spirituality. 7 signs starting with the changing of water to wine, Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well, the healing at the pool, the third of seven.

Thinking spiritually, relating spiritually and acting spiritually are the hallmarks of Jesus’ ministry to His disciples and His mission in the unbelieving world. Salvation is a recovery program that came at just the right time, the right place among the right people. God’s timing is perfect and meets every person right where they are no matter the culture, the ethnic background or the moment of their personal existence in history. Zechariah proclaimed it for the people then and now (Lk.1:67-80). He summed up the prophets of the Old Testament. Luke 2 gives us Jesus’ invasion of history in detail. The Gospels as a whole deliver the kind of message that captures Jesus’ universal appeal to the local heart. They cut to the chase and tell us that Jesus is the true definition of what God had intended for each of us to become. They paint the picture of God redeeming the broken image of God and proving it by His death and Resurrection.

Here’s the final touch. What Jesus did was to change the world’s way of identifying people. People were categorized by their status, wealth, power, position, strength, appearance, tribe, family, possessions, heritage, cunning, emotions, youth, elders, male, female, slave, freeman, to name some. In other words people as persons were basically invisible, their uniqueness as individuals hidden in the ignorance about their Creator. Nameless masses of humanity viewed only through the existing power culture of the moment. God was rather brilliant in the way He exposed it all. He chose a virgin woman to bear a child. The family was unknown outside their neighborhood. They were members of a strange religious cult and tribe. They were considered less human when being compared to Roman citizens. They lived in a rather barren area that Roman soldiers thought of as a last frontier. Simply put Jesus was born as low as their surrounding culture could get. He was seen by human standards at that time to be destined to be invisible, someone to avoid in polite company, a drifter with no more meaning than what he could function as in some trade. Invisible as a foreigner, an outsider, a loner, an alien to Rome, a potential enemy if He chose to be a rebel, low class in a low class land from a low class people, a low class religion in a low class culture. Isn’t this what makes people invisible?

But God chose to send His Son into this personal situation because all of us are invisible to the world around us. But none of us are invisible to God. He has made us visible by giving us His Son as our leader and daily guide. We have a citizenship in Heaven and are His images and children because He died to save us from the invisibility sin put us in. That identity given us is eternal and our mission is to help others who are invisible to know their true destiny is the Lord God’s vision of them in His presence. Here’s how Peter put it, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God, once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1Pet.2:9-10).”