Editor’s note: This is a reprinted column from Jack Purcell’s “On the Journey” archives. It originally appeared in The Star in 2013.
Have you ever wondered why there are occasional times when you just don’t grasp something that relates to the Christian life? Maybe you have wondered why other Christians don’t get it.
One of the more dangerous places to be on this issue would be thinking that you do get it. In John Chapter 14 Jesus is attempting to prepare his disciples for his impending physical departure. They, of course, didn’t get it, but let’s cut them a little slack. They were missing a few pieces of the puzzle.
They didn’t own four versions of the New Testament, hadn’t been raised in Sunday school, didn’t know about the pending death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, did not yet have the indwelling Holy Spirit, and they didn’t even have access to Christian jewelry or a Jesus T-shirt.
“Yes,” you say, “but they had Jesus himself.” True, but how often do you and I have difficulty understanding the meaning of things that Jesus said? And let’s not forget, they were hearing it for the first time.
Jesus said to Philip, “You’ve been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don’t understand?” What was it that Philip didn’t understand?
Among other things he didn’t understand the concept of the Trinity - a triune God. The issue for Philip, and his friends, is exactly the same problem that you and I have when it comes to understanding spiritual things.
It’s an incomplete and often vague understanding of the person of Jesus Christ.
Right on the heels of his perplexing question to Philip Jesus makes a telling statement. “The words that I speak to you aren’t mere words.”
I would submit to you that most of the time you and I take the things that Jesus said as “mere words.” This can be recognized by the way we respond to them, much the same as we would the words of anyone else.
“Hey, great talking to you, see you later.”
When, in our minds, we cannot comprehend the real significance of God himself coming in human form, to identify with us and love us as no other could, we treat him as though he were just any other, with just a little more reverence, of course.
If you can own up to the fact that you really don’t get it, you might try a little experiment. Spend the next month meditating on “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6). asking God to give you a deeper understanding of what that could mean to you.
Our lives are filled with words - many of them meaningless. I send and receive hundreds of emails per week, hopefully less now that the election is behind us.
Most of those emails, my own included, are of absolutely no eternal value. I ask myself, and invite you to do the same, how would my life be different if I gave more value to the words of Jesus?
The more we come to know and understand the person of Christm the more his words will have meaning for us and the more we will begin to see beyond just “mere words.”
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