Silent Exposition (Easter - Day 6)

Jesus tells his disciples that rough times are ahead. People are going to try to kill them, and people will kill them. He says that they will do this because they will think they are doing God a favor. And then, he talks about the Friend. 

Jesus says the Friend will come when Jesus leaves the scene, when he leaves the earth. Jesus describes this group of folks who are going to kill off his disciples as the "godless world." In essence with his views on nonviolent resistance, the Friend will come to assist the disciples in dealing with the godless world by:

• exposing the error in their view of sin
• exposing the error in their view of righteousness
• exposing the error in their view of judgment
• showing them that their refusal to believe in Jesus was their basic sin
• showing them that righteousness comes from above
• showing them that righteousness is out of their sight and control
• showing them that judgment takes place when their "ruler" (the principle of evil, aka Satan) is brought to trial and convicted
• taking the disciples by the hand
• guiding the disciples into all the truth there is
• being a mediator between the disciples and God

I was talking to my next door neighbor last night about how his new job was going. He wasn't doing too well. He was talking about how his supervisor has a big head and is lazy. He talks to my neighbor  like he's ignorant and doesn't know how to work. Essentially, my neighbor feels like he's being taken advantage of, because while he's out working his boss is in the truck sleeping. He has evidence too because he's been taking pictures on his I-Phone and recording conversations for backup. 

He was telling me these things, and I told him that this can't last long because he will be exposed for who he really is eventually, and that sometimes we just have to "eat crow" until something different happens. 

Maybe we aren't running from people who are trying to kill us like what was eventually going to happen to Christians in the time of the Roman Empire, but isn't there this since that we are being seriously mistaken by a majority of the world?

One of the bravest things I think we can do as humans is to share our most intimate beliefs with someone who has made it clear that they know how God works. We share, and then we're laughed at, or told that we're wrong. Jesus says that our job is not to expose errors in other people's belief systems, even if they're at the point of burning us at the stake, or, writing long, drawn out Facebook notes about why we are wrong about God and judgment.

Jesus calls the Friend the spirt of truth. Other people call this "inside knowledge" the human spirit, or the soul, or intuition. It's this guiding force inside of us that is prompting us to seek truth, and letting us know that everything is going to be okay, and revealing things to us that we just can't put into words. Three things that Jesus says about the "godless world" are: they will kill, they are erred in their views on sin, judgment, and righteousness, and they think they create righteousness.

The spirit, or friend, or human spirit, or soul, guides us and shows us what to do in circumstances where it just feels like we are not getting anywhere. When it feels like our beliefs are on the fringes of the mainstream, or discounted by other people, or flat out disregarded and rejected by people, that small still voice inside comforts us and continues leading us where we're supposed to go. The spirit communicates with each of us in unique, autonomous ways. We can't generalize these things. 

The problem of the "godless world (or, the ones who seek to kill the disciples)" is they snuff out the spirit and take it on themselves to determine who's right and who's wrong. They think they're doing God a favor, but are only stroking their own egos and quieting anyone who disagrees. Does any of this sound familiar at all? 

Our job is to let the spirit lead. I think it's safe to say that if we are trying to snuff out the voices of disagreement around us, we are probably not following the lead of our soul but rather the lead of our offended-ness. When we put big, substantial words like sin, righteousness, and judgment into a box and label them, we are headed for trouble. When we think that we have a copyright on what these things mean and convey our definitions of them as infallible, we are headed for trouble.

Part of being open-minded is following the spirit in the formation of truth in our own lives. Being open-minded enough to listen to someone else's claims, even when they claim them as undeniably true, is one of the characteristics of someone who follows the rhythm of the spirit. Deep inside, they know there is error in all of our belief systems, and that fighting and seeking revenge over disagreements is futile. Instead, they let the spirit expose the errors and learn from them. 

Today's Action: Share our beliefs with someone today, but keep it in first person. Have the other person share their beliefs. Do we find ourselves trying to "expose their errors," or are we letting the spirit do the exposing?