God's Good Life
This blog post was originally published by the Rev. Cn. Tad de Bordenave on December 8, 2023 and is reposted with permission.
Image credit: James Tissot, The Scribe Stood to Tempt Jesus (Le scribe se leva pour tenter Jésus), 1886-1894. Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2007, www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4523.
We enter the story of the Good Samaritan with the dialogue of Jesus and the lawyer. This well-educated lawyer was steeped in Jewish law, but he had never met anyone like Jesus. This rabbi had done miracles, drew crowds, and alienated the religious establishment. The lawyer wanted to test him. Should he pay attention to the rabbi; could he join the others who found hope and peace in him? He is determined to find out.
Tests usually present a list of questions to answer. I’ll follow that pattern. First, I will give questions that reflect common reservations and doubts. Then I will move to what we know of Jesus’ life and his teaching. We will see how Jesus would answer the test questions.
If he is the leader who wants to command our lives, then we want to know how he would handle these challenges. These are common tests, reasonable and poignant:
I gave you my trust and hope. I was in trouble and expected your help. It never came. I was deeply disillusioned and hurt. Why should I trust you again?
The hurricanes and floods and the random horrors they bring – why do you let them happen? Good people just minding their own business suddenly have their lives crushed. Why?
If your followers reflect you, then I’m opting out. They seem best at constructing decorative shells for a bourgeoise life that cuddles them and protects them from the needy.
Where is justice in your world? Corruption reigns. Evil has its day over and over. Online pornography, leaders who blatantly lie, tragic events like the holocaust and the 9/11 – all refute any claim for justice.
Frankly, I don’t care a bit about you and who you say you are. Why should I? I’ve got financial security, fun and entertainment, and good health. Jesus? Why should you bother my Sundays?
With these tests in mind, we look for how Jesus would answer them. We quickly recognize that will be difficult. Jesus did not leave a set of principles like Confucius did. We look to his life and ministry for hints how he might connect with the questions.
From birth he was pursued by the authorities. First Herod and then the lead Pharisees.
He taught great things, but his teachings were not original. He took the wisdom and perspective of the Torah and gave it in the Sermon on the Mount.
He trained twelve men to continue his ministry.
In the next three years he raised a dead man, fed 8,000+ people from two fish and five loaves, and walked on water.
When entering Jerusalem, a time and place that defined him, he chose to enter sitting on a lowly donkey.
After arrest, his twelve deserted him.
Then he was scourged with a cat-o’-nine tails and had thorns thrust into his head. On the cross his naked and exhausted body showed open wounds, bloody and tangled hair, stripes of blood across front and back.
When dying on the cross, he forgave his executors.
On the third day his friends found his tomb empty. Later, Jesus appeared to them, talked and ate fish, and then left.
We add to these events the hallmarks of his life and ministry: suffering and humility, authority and power. Maybe these will take us closer to his answers.
The night that he was arrested, he washed the feet of the disciples – including those of his betrayer, Judas.
In his last days his twelve abandoned him; he faced the temptation of death; then came the pain of crucifixion, the most severe form of execution.
He promised “Light” and “Bread” to his followers. Light enables us to see and comprehend life. Bread feeds us with full satisfaction.
He went to his Father in heaven as a full and accepted ransom and sacrifice for all sin of all people.
The quality of the love of Jesus, his humility and self-sacrifice, show us ways that enrich humanity. But do we see in them what Jesus does in response to the tests of the lawyer. Do we find connections from our questions to Jesus? I would say not.
And yet, there are people who have found answers. Not answers that could be written down, but a depth of healing power that changed them inside and entirely. Somehow, because of who Jesus was and how he lived, when these people attached themselves to him, they found new life.
A tax collector who was confronted by the love of Jesus and repaid his thefts fourfold;
A prostitute who was forgiven and charged to find a new way of life;
A Roman commander who found her daughter healed by Jesus;
A woman whose love for him was so great she poured her treasured perfume over him before his death;
The father of the bride who suddenly found gallons and gallons of the world’s best wine for his daughter’s celebration.
Through Jesus they found meaning, purpose, and love. He led them to God's Good Life.
The best promise Jesus left us is, “Anyone who comes searching for me and my kingdom, I will never turn away." Next week we see the ways and the wisdom of Jesus with the lawyer and all who look to him. He really does hold the answers, and his answers are better than we ever dreamed of.
The Rev. Canon Tad de Bordenave founded AFM in 1993 and served as the organization’s First Executive Director. He was a plenary speaker at the 2019 New Wineskins Conference.