Once upon a time, there was a light that shone so brightly, a fire that burned so pure and true. It illuminated all things, turning night into day and opening eyes so they could see. Everyone was amazed that this should be. “Is this light real?” they asked. “How can the light brighten our darkness, when the light cannot brighten itself?”
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It is very common to hear about Jesus’ life through his three and a half years of ministry, and it is sometimes difficult for us to identify with his milestones in a meaningful way. Not many of us have had to stand up against the religious and political leaders of the day with a completely new message. In a similar way, it is easier to see ourselves receiving miracles instead of performing miracles as Jesus did for others.
Jesus’ life was set apart to be totally different but, when we take a closer look, we find that it also very much like yours and mine. He was a refugee. As a babe, he had to flee from his homeland because of the ambitions of King Herod against him. As a child refugee, he grew up in the land of Egypt, whose pharaohs once enslaved his people. He had to wait until the death of Herod before his family returned to the land of his birth. He lived under occupation. He returned from Egypt to a land under occupation by a foreign power. The land of his forefathers had become the Judaea Province of Rome. A Jewish child, he grew up in the faith and traditions of his people, “like a tender plant, a root from dry ground”- Isaiah’s imagery. He had an inquisitive and sharp mind and amazed teachers in the Temple at Jerusalem at the age of twelve. He was a carpenter, a tradesman by occupation. However, he had a rather nondescript appearance and physique. Isaiah spoke of him as having “no form nor comeliness… there is no beauty that we should desire him”. He was familiar with discrimination in many situations. He knew what it felt to be at the receiving end of contempt and rejection by others. Sorrow was a frequent companion, grief a regular acquaintance. He was also familiar with Zealots openly inciting the local populace to rebel against Roman authority. He saw and felt the yoke of the Law that the Teachers of the Law imposed on the general populace. They had retained its forms but lost its substance. It was this man, living with the challenges and concerns common to the day, who professed to be equal to God. Quite a number found his claim to be blasphemous. How can this man be God? A new beginning gives us an opportunity to start afresh without prejudice or baggage. The old life and relationships have passed and are no more. From death and ashes, we are reborn, like the legendary Phoenix, to live life anew, to start on a clean sheet.
Slightly more than two thousand years ago, humanity was given a new beginning. Humanity was born from above. God become a human being. In God becoming human in the person of Christ Jesus, an entirely new relationship between God and man came into being. The old relationship between God and man was replaced totally. At the birth of Jesus, the angel’s proclamation to the shepherds was: “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.…..” Then, multitudes of the heavenly hosts praised God saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace in human beings of goodwill.” In a new beginning for the great I AM, GOD, a Saviour, Christ the Lord was born. To understand and appreciate the significance and impact of this new beginning, we have to start at the very beginning of creation. The cross on Calvary has been a symbol of hope for Christians through the ages. How remarkable it is that the love of God transformed a gruesome crucifixion into good news of how He has saved us and will never forsake us.
When I first went to church, this was the gospel of Jesus presented to me. God loved me so much that He sent Jesus, His only begotten Son, to die on the cross to forgive my sins. If I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, I would go to heaven and have eternal life with Him. Otherwise, I would go to hell and suffer eternal punishment. My choice as an eight year old was obvious. I wanted to go to heaven and be certain of my salvation. From that moment, Jesus’ death on the cross (and his resurrection) became the core foundation of my Christian belief. Interestingly, Jesus’ death is not where the story of the cross begins. Jesus was carrying his cross long before he was crucified. My short stint with Professor James Torrance in Aberdeen started me on my journey to this realization. Professor Torrance described Jesus like this: “He, who was Son of God by nature, became son of man by nature, that we, who are sons of man by nature, may become sons of God by grace!” And that is exactly where the story of Jesus’ cross begins… People asked Jesus in John 6, “What sign (distinguishing thing) will you do, that we may see and believe you? What (thing or action) will you do (as proof)?” We still do today. Many still nurse thoughts that only by Jesus performing a spectacular and defining miracle for them can they believe that Jesus is who he says he is. And they are not wrong.
But belief in someone does not necessarily mean that you are in a love relationship with that person. Here lies the crux of the matter. What is God’s purpose in sending Jesus? Is it only to believe in Him? If so, all that is needed is for God to perform a spectacular and defining miracle to show that God has sent him. It must be more than that. For even the devils believe in him. Jesus had made a statement prior to the people asking. He said; This is the work (purpose) of God, that you believe into him whom He has sent. There is a difference when we say that we are in a relationship with someone or we are into a relationship with someone. ‘In’ speaks of a state of where you are at, expressing the situation of being enclosed or surrounded by something. ‘Into’ is all about movement and progression deeper within the state of where you are. In common speech, it’s the difference between “I’m with someone” and “I’m into someone.” You are in a circle of relationships, even if you are on the outer fringes of the relationships. Where you are, there is room and space to move deeper into the center of the circle. Miracles are meant to place you within the new circle of an experiential love relationship with Him. To grow and mature in this new relationship you need more than that. The people needed to see and understand this. So, how did Jesus respond? There are still many moments in my life when I feel alone.
Some of these moments are when ‘nerve attacks’ arising from my spinal injury hit me intensely and last for days. They feel like random electric current spasming from my spine to my toes. Many times I just lie in bed and try to sleep it off. When it becomes unbearable, I must confess I wish my life would end. Many tell me that by Jesus’ stripes, I should be healed. They pray for me in earnest, yet nothing happens. Some share how God has told them specifically I would be healed. They too lay hands on me for healing but, once again, nothing happens. Others come to me saying I have not found healing because I have not received the grace to believe that God will do what he has said in the Scriptures. Perhaps I haven’t been waiting enough for this grace, they feel. But I have, and am still waiting for complete and total healing for over thirty years. I have been told that God wishes us to prosper at all times and that He has given us the grace to do just that in Christ Jesus.Yet, in my years as a lawyer, I have gone through three years when my practice suffered heavy losses. I have also lost much in investments and ventures that I have entered into to generate income to plough back into worthwhile ventures for God but many ended in substantial financial losses. Throughout these years, I have been encouraged by well-meaning souls to hold on to verses of Scripture that emphasize God’s overflowing grace and favour, especially: “My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness”, “I have come to give you life; life in all abundance”, “Of his fullness we all receive and grace upon grace.” These souls spur me to hang on for the day God fulfills his word. For me, and for many others facing hardship or pain, that day still hasn’t come. And it gets a little bit harder to believe that it was God’s word that was spoken. Where is God and His grace in all of this? I wonder. What is He working out in my life? Then I remember. Is abortion right or wrong? Is homosexuality good or evil? Is turning refugees from your shores the right thing to do? When is war ever justifiable?
Everyone has his own opinion. Today, what is good or evil has become vague, and what is right or wrong, unclear. Instinctively, we feel the need to reach out for answers, believing that experience, expertise and education would give us the wisdom we need. And so it has been with Man right from the beginning. In the story of Genesis, Adam and Eve sought wisdom by eating the fruit from the tree of ‘knowledge of good and evil’ and indeed became like God. The common understanding is that consuming the fruit gave Adam and Eve the knowledge of good and evil, but how does the humble fruit actually achieve this? For most of us, God is the supreme being of absolute perfection, all-powerful, all-present and all-knowing.
Being perfect, God must be unchanging, for only imperfection would require him to change, to become perfect. Perfect in all ways and all things, God makes no mistakes, has no regrets and is without any flaw. An Unchanging God gives our lives certainty. What God promises or pronounces, God will do. We can trust God to be faithful, to keep His word to us, to not change his mind and renege. As such, we have no reason to doubt God’s faithfulness and love; God is faithful and God is love. As a child and through my teenage years, when my prayers were answered or when things happened in my favour, I considered myself to be in the perfect will of God. Any wrongs and imperfections were always due to my failings and rested with me. My relationship with God was expressed as an imperfect me, walking along a straight and narrow path with a Perfect God. It made perfect sense. Why should I ever think otherwise? Who is this God who believes in me, whom I believe in, and who helps my unbelief?
How do I know God is real? And what kind of humanity does the man Jesus have? Two experiences profoundly changed my life, confirming to me that God, the Christian God, is who he says he is and that Jesus is truly a man, one of us, in all ways. The Clock Tower On 27 June 1972, at the Anglo-Chinese School Clock Tower, I decided to pray to the Christian God, asking Him to ‘fill’ me with His Spirit. I expected Him to do so, if Jesus was truly His only begotten Son. As I was uncertain whether the Christian God was truly God, I uttered another prayer. This prayer was to God, if he existed and whoever he might be. I prayed that if the Christian God is not the Supreme Being, and if the Christian confession that Jesus is the Son of God is but a hoax, then nothing would happen. I felt that I had nothing to lose. I longed for truth. The challenge that I threw to the Christian God, in my mind was quite simple: If he does not deliver, He is not God. If he is truly God, He will deliver. I had just bought my favourite Teochew-style fish carpaccio and mince pork congee from Maxwell Food Centre and was driving home when Jesus spoke.
Who is the ‘you’ in the passage ‘If you can, all things are possible to him who believes’? What kind of question was this, I wondered. “You, Lord?” I answered. “Correct”, Jesus replied. And the ‘him’ in ‘to him who believes’? “You again, Lord?” I replied, and I felt him smile. All this while I had the impression that my belief was crucial for God’s work to happen, but Jesus turned this right on its head. I was excited for, if what I was hearing was true, this would count as another encounter with Jesus, a new revelation. However, I feared these thoughts could also be mere figments of my imagination. I raced to check the Bible when I got home. I had read Mark 9:23 and heard it preached many times. I always understood ‘you’ and ‘him’ to refer to Man. Consequently, ‘you’ and ‘him’ also referred to me: all things are possible to me so long as I believe. But was this really what Jesus meant? |
WILFRED YEO
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