Thursday, February 7, 2008

John 17:1-8

TEXT What does it mean that Jesus came from God and that God sent him to us? The Incarnation is a beautiful thing. God coming down to earth to walk, talk, eat, and sleep with humanity is too much for me to fully comprehend. Why would one choose to leave the splendor of heaven for the depravity of earth? For most of my life I have been taught that this world is not my home and I am just passing through. Everything was geared towards going to heaven when you die. All focus and attention of church was about leaving the depravity for the splendor. Don't get me wrong I want to go heaven and I want you to be there with me, but when I read passages like John 17:4 ("...by completing the work you gave me to do") I start to ask why did God send Jesus? Did he just send him so I could go to heaven or was there more to the plan? If the answer is just heaven then what "work" had Jesus completed, because he had yet to go to the cross? Jesus came from and was sent by God for reasons that go beyond just making sure we "go to Heaven when we die". He was sent into this depravity to teach a new way of life. Jesus came from God to be the visible form of an invisible God...a God in whose image we are made.

2 comments:

ronjohnsjr said...

Trey really liked your thoughts and expanded on them in our family discussion tonight. The idea behind Jesus being "sent" seems to be that he was on a mission. And his mission was to reveal God to people that were God's own. May God be revealed to us in this special season. And may Jesus say of us, we have obeyed.

Anonymous said...

If Jesus is God, how did he come from God? It's a paradox that makes Shane's question hard to answer.

What I do know is that I can't totally grasp the concept of God. I need Jesus for a lot of reasons, and one is so I can know God by knowing him. He came to earth not only so I can be with God in heaven some day, but also so I can know how to experience His kingdom on earth.

The best part of Lent so far is that our family sat together tonight with the tv off and read the passage, discussed the question, and prayed. If we all fall off our respective wagons tomorrow with what we've given up, it will be a wonderful season for us if we continue to do that nightly.