God continues to impress the concept of union life upon my mind. Paul wrote extensively on union life in Romans and modeled it in his epistles. Another New Testament writer, John, captures the notion of being united with Christ with some dynamic word pictures.
I was reading John 6 recently and gained some new insight into the "feeding of the 5,000" narrative. All four gospels contain this important event in the earthly life and ministry of Christ. What always caught my attention in this event was Christ's compassion for the masses, and Christ's miracle working power. What I missed was the post-script to the story. This post-script is captured only in John's gospel.
Here is the condensed recap of the events. Jesus feeds the 5,000 with the boy's bread and fish. The people witness the miracle and are awe struck.
14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
The people rightly identify Christ as the Messiah. Nothing wrong with that. I am sure I would have done the same. Then it gets interesting.
John records:
15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
Jesus retreats. The disciples get in a boat without Jesus and push off and a storm ensues that night. Jesus walks on the water that night. The next day, Jesus and the disciples are in Capernaum. The crowds who had been fed the day before catch up to Jesus and the disciples near Capernaum.
What does Jesus do?
He rebukes the crowd.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
Huh? What is going on here?
To put it simply, the crowd doesn't get it. They want to follow Jesus, but the question is why? The answer is because of what Jesus can do for them. Jesus has the power to make things happen and the people quickly realize just how powerful he is: power over hunger, disease, illness, demons, and even perhaps over the Roman occupiers. They start off saying the right things "He is the Prophet (capital P)". They believe in him. They follow him. These people look like Christians ... the kind of people who fill today's churches.
Jesus knows the heart, however. These people don't get it.
We don't follow Jesus because of what he can do for us. We don't follow Jesus because he blesses our dreams. We don't follow Jesus because he can fill us with physical bread (i.e. blessings, a job, security, peace, healthy relationships, a happy marriage, obedient children, relief from guilt, escape from hell, purpose in life etc).
Christ bids us to follow him because he is the bread.
We follow Christ because the whole of the Christian life is Christ. Our goal is to be united with Christ. That is why Christ makes those bizarre statements about eating him and drinking his blood. He is not advocating cannibalism. Christ is giving a word picture about union life. Christ is to enter so deeply into our hearts and being that it is almost like consuming him. Union life is that mystical communion with Christ. It is the process of being conformed into the image of Christ. It is the process of being sanctified by Christ. It is the process of being remade ... reidentified ... getting new spiritual DNA ... it includes a mystical component that I am only beginning to understand.
Jesus uses a different image in John 15. He talks about the vine and the branches. Paul talks about the same thing Romans 6 through 8 in terms of dying with Christ and being resurrected with Christ. It is the part and parcel of being made new in Christ (Gal 2:20).
The goal of the Christian life is not simply obedience to Christ. It is not simply serving Christ. It is not simply living a life pleasing to Christ. The goal of the Christian life is Christ. That is why Paul insists that for him to live is Christ. It is being united with Christ. It is union life.
The challenge to those who follow Christ is: why are you following Christ? Is it because of what Christ can do for you? Are you different than the crowd who enjoyed a good meal and followed along for more? They were after the wrong bread. Are you?
Or, do you follow Christ to enter into deeper union life with him, and take everything that life brings you as part of God's plan to make you into the image of His son?
In Him we live, and breath, and have our being...we can't follow except by Him. And He will be sure we do, bringing the works He started to completion on His Day. We are on the journey in Him, His body, His Bride not following as hopeful wanna-bees, but as those already arrived.
Posted by: PDM | July 10, 2006 at 22:29
Very poignant post! I like the John 6 insight.
I beieve I fluctuate between following Christ for the Bread He can give me and following Christ for the Bread He is. I would like to think that most of the time I am striving soley for the deeper union life. But I am not sure if the Lord would agree. ;-)
Another thought I had about the John 6 passage (which I am sure others have thought of before now) is that it was when the disciples decided to travel without Jesus that the storms came.
I wonder if they should have followed Jesus to the mountian so that they might have had a "Mountain-top" experience, instead of a stormy one. It just says that Jesus went to the mountain by himself, not that He told the disciples to leave Him alone. Could they have followed? Could we?
Just a thought.
Posted by: Danny Kaye | July 11, 2006 at 11:05