Easter 35 The Resurrection; Time to Get Real

[HKHaugan]

Get Real! That's the call coming from those who can sense something false is going on in another person. Get a grip! That's another phrase that gets the same point across. Then there's always “Get a life!” That tops off the other two.

The first, 'Get real!' is a call to be honest. The second, 'Get a grip!' is a challenge to start trusting. The third, 'Get a life!' is a final charge to shuck all your past attempts at controlling your life, drop all pretense and take a totally different approach to being a person.

You're on the phone with a friend and they are at their wit's end about what to do with a problem. Phones are impersonal and approximate. You need to see the friend as they are in person so you say, “Drop everything, I'll be right over.” Now add up the first three phrases above and the one thing that stands out is proximity, the place you are in, where your whole person, mind, heart and spirit, are in direct proximity to the other person.

Neither you nor the other person are anonymous nor approximate. You are face to face real persons trusting one another in a real way and real life is taking place in a relational way. You're two people whose minds, hearts and spirits are connecting. That's what it means to be in proximity to one another. Our digitalized electronic Facebook, Twitter world is void of that experience for which we were created. Facebook and the telephone are approximate. Facebook is exactly what it says, it's a book with a face but not a presence. A telephone is only a telling by electronic impulses through an impersonal device. Only face to face connection is proximate.

The Lord Jesus was and is all about proximity. He didn't set out a list of approximate directions and teachings that might put us on some right road. He didn't preach the Sermon on the Mount to pontificate. He was personal and direct. He taught in face-to-face proximity with His disciples and in all His personal encounters. He demonstrated that one-on-one connection is being real, is trusting and sharing Himself was and is the way to live. That's what Scripture is about, Jesus and the personal connection of the mind, heart and Spirit of God being in direct contact with every person by His grace that comes through faith. Faith is the anti-impersonal, the anti-escapist, the anti-dishonest, the antidote to the toxic temptation to avoid whole and direct personal contact with others. Faith is the spiritual anti-fear serum wherever we are and whenever we might feel the need to withdraw and avoid confrontation and the needs of those around us. Faith is all about entering the proximity of every person we meet. Scripture is the sole means for proximity; a face-to-face encounter with God and others.

Faith is not a lonely 'walk-about' hoping for the best. It is direct faith in a direct Lord in His direct presence in every next event (moment) we are here on this planet. It's not approximate, that is, near or close by. He chose my internal proximity and your internal proximity; the mind, heart and spirit in each of us. It's an interpersonal exchange of mind, heart and spirit; belief for the mind, trust for the heart and faith for the spirit. This the why, what, when, where and how Scripture is given us. Scripture is our proximity guide. Scripture is not an approximate estimate, a kind of guesswork as to what God might be thinking or might have done. He willed it, He said it and He did it. It is the proximate detailed way to gain the experience, the reality and the glory of His presence and His presence acting as you 'Get real,' as you 'Get a grip,' and 'Get a life,'---His life.

It seems the question for each of us is an honest self-appraisal one. “Is Jesus an approximate Lord who we rely in from time to time or is He a proximate 'in-our-heart' Lord in whom our every next moment (event) is centered?”

There is an interesting five verses in the Gospel of Matthew that embodies this question. It goes like this, “When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead (Mt.8:18-22).”

Jesus saw the crowd and gave orders to go to the other side of the lake. The crowd is the external culture we live in. That is not Jesus' target and certainly not ours. He was not a 'crowd-pleaser' or a notoriety seeker or power hungry. He was a heart seeker. He wants us to cross over the lake of choices from our cultural conditioning to His side, the heart side, the spiritual side.

What happens next in this passage is our clue.

A teacher of the Law comes to Him and says that he will follow Him wherever. Now it's important to focus on Jesus closely here. He senses something in this teacher that needs a personal in-depth heart touch. This is typical of Jesus. It's His one-on-one principle at work. Jesus tells him that foxes and birds have places to call home but He doesn't even have a place to lay His head. Is Jesus not saying to this teacher of the Law that He would love to lay His head in that man's head, that man's heart and that man's spirit? Life is not about the Law, cultural rules and religious practices. Where does Jesus lay His head? In the will of His Father! It's all about faith. Jesus is not looking for admirers, 'tag-alongs' or hero worshipers. He is looking for believers whose hearts are always open to where He is proximate and direct, not an approximate or an indirect influence to make us feel good about ourselves. Jesus wants to restore the heart, to make the heart His home base in this world, to “lay His head” in each heart, to become like Him..

In the same context another disciple indicates his desire to follow Jesus but asks Him to let him first bury his father. What seems a rather insensitive and curt reply, that to let the dead bury the dead, must have left that disciple in a quandary. But the reality of following Jesus is to put Him first in every next event one of which is to not let cultural conditioning or anything else get in the way of His personal influence in every life situation. What would happen if this disciple just dropped everything and went away with Jesus? His family and friends would be horrified, his reputation ruined and his name dropped as a 'no-no' in his community. Precisely. Here Jesus exposes the great fear; what others think, feel and say and how they motivate so much of our behavior. Culture, religion and fear is that disciple's focus, not Jesus. That's the point. “He who seeks to save His life will lose it but He who loses His life for my sake will find it (Matt.16:25).”

Consider another example, “Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple (Lk.14:25-27).” Talk about extreme, that is it.

What I am about to say now is not in anyway an attempt to soften or rationalize Jesus' words here. Rather it is to see the whole context of the truth, love and grace of the Father in Jesus.

Jesus' goal is the salvation of the whole person in each of us; our restoration to Him and to others. Unless He is the center of our heart's deliberations we will never be able to truly love our parents, our spouses, our brothers and sisters or friends and strangers for that matter.

For both the teacher of the Law and the disciple their need was to let Jesus be their focus. It takes the Lord Jesus to help us know how to approach death and bury our fathers as they need to be buried, to love our families as Jesus loved His family and to love others as Jesus first loved us. Any principles less than those of Jesus deprive them (and us) of the dignity with which they are due by having them experience Him through how we are obedient to Him in the presence of those outside ourselves. The best of cultural standards fall far beneath what He can do when He is allowed to be both Savior and Lord in the midst of every next relational event. “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Col.3:17).”

But what about 'the dead' specifically. Who are they? The dead are those whose lives are compromised by the world, living every next relational event in the fear of what others think, say and do based on cultural and secular values, aka, 'the fallen world.'

Again, as we have already mentioned previously, think about the way Jesus dealt with the death of His close friend Lazarus and the reactions of Lazarus' family and local officialdom when He didn't show up right away (John 11). That's the picture you want and His promise realized when we follow Him into every next moment, every next relational event, every next issue of life and death. He has it under control. Every next moment offers a piece of the Resurrection event as we trust Him in it.

Only Jesus knows what is best for each person, each relationship and each moment of each experience. His Cross is the example of the way to live like Him in this world. If we carry every next event of our lives to the foot of the Cross, which is what it means to take up our cross, then we discover what eternal life is all about; to think spiritually, to trust spiritually and to walk in faith spiritually. His life emerges in that way, the way of the Cross to the Resurrection. That's what real sacrifice is all about. It is who we believe, who we ultimately trust with our lives and how to be real disciples bringing grace and love to others. With Jesus as our proximity there is no longer any approximate adjustment. He's always proximate. He's the adjuster and His Resurrection and ours has already been accomplished. Let Him happen. Get real! Get a grip! Get a life!