Soren And Gravity

I believe in gravity. Therefore, I don’t leap off buildings. My son on the other hand isn’t convinced. He is still testing out the law of gravity with each piece of food he drops from his highchair. He will figure it out one day. Or he will become someone who jumps out of planes for fun. Lord, help me.

I’m still chewing on how our beliefs affect how we live. Last week we looked at how Jesus was calling people to reevaluate what they believed about reality. I then likened that idea to repentance. The heart of repentance is a turning of our hearts from believing and acting upon lies to believing and acting upon what is good, true, and beautiful in this world.

I know this all sounds very impractical. Stick with me. Jesus isn’t impractical. He is actually very practical.

If we keep reading through the book of John, we see these ideas play out in the lives of the religious leaders, who were not fans of Jesus. Many people were beginning to believe in Jesus. His followers were beginning to embrace his vision for human flourishing. This started to make the religious people very anxious. They had convinced the masses to believe specific things about God and humanity. Jesus was challenging their reality.

No one likes to be challenged.

When the religious leaders began noticing Jesus’ popularity they said,

“If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will take away both our place and our nation” (John 11:48).  

What was the worst thing these religious leaders could imagine? People believing in Jesus instead of what they had been selling.  

What were they afraid of losing? Did they have a pastoral heart? Were they afraid that their flock was being led astray?

No.

They were afraid of losing their “place and their nation”.

Now, place most likely refers to the temple. And nation referrers to the somewhat autonomous status the Roman government had granted to the Jewish people within the Roman empire.

Religious and national identity. That is what was on the table for these religious leaders.

With Jesus’ call to believe in him, he was inviting people to rethink their religious and national identity.

This was huge!

This reshaping of reality continued to play out in the life of the early church. How Jewish does one need to be to follow Jesus? What was God’s relationship with non-Jewish people post Jesus’ resurrection? These new ideas and beliefs were not ironed out quickly. Jesus’ first disciples were continually wrestling with these questions as they continued in the Jesus tradition.

The religious leaders, heck all the Jews in Jesus’ day, held specific beliefs about how they identified with God (place, i.e. the temple) and other people (nation). These beliefs caused them to interact with God and people in specific ways. Some good, some not so good.

We are no different. What we believe (or don’t believe) about God affects how we identify and interact with the Divine and other people. Some good, some not so good.

The religious leaders were afraid.

Jesus was calling these religious people to repent of their fear. Their fear had given birth to false beliefs about God and people. Their false beliefs caused them to build walls around God, separating him from people. The sad thing is that these religious people didn’t realize that their self-built walls were actually standing in the way of their relationship with God and other people.

Jesus came to knock down these walls, these false beliefs. Jesus is inviting you and me to open our hearts to a deeper, fuller, more beautiful way of living.

Are your beliefs about God and other people leading you to live a deep, beautiful, and meaningful life? Or are you trapped in the corner from your self-built walls?

Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

Grace and peace ‘til we rise in glory.