Waking Up - Magic, Miracles, Mystery & Messiah
“He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven!” (Matthew 16:15-17, NET)
As we journey with Jesus to the cross in Holy Week, we are confronted with the most important question of who Jesus is. We need to search our hearts to know who Jesus is to us. On the way to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They said, “John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets” (Mark 8:27-28 NET). It is not what others say about Jesus that is important but who Jesus is to us personally that is of paramount importance. Jesus came to wake us up to our spiritual identity as a child of God and to grow spiritually to become the person God created us to be.
After the feeding of the four thousand, the Pharisees and Sadducees demanded a sign from heaven from Jesus. Jesus rebuked them for looking for signs and wonders instead of paying attention to God’s presence in their everyday life. The disciples also failed to understand the spiritual significance of the miracles of feeding the five thousand with five loaves of bread and seven thousand with four loaves of bread. And Jesus had taught them to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
In our modern world, some see Jesus as a spiritual magical ATM to provide instant solutions to their problems. Some see Jesus as a miracle worker to heal them of their diseases. And some see Jesus as the savior to save them from hell. When our expectations and motivations are misplaced or unmet, it is so easy to turn from a welcoming crowd, shouting “Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday to a condemning crowd, crying, “Crucify him!” on Good Friday. In the gospel of Mark, we read that Peter criticized Jesus for telling them about the journey to the cross:
“Then Jesus began to teach his followers that the Son of Man must suffer many things. He taught that the Son of Man would not be accepted by the older Jewish leaders, the leading priests, and the teachers of the law. He said that the Son of Man must be killed and then rise from death after three days. Jesus told them everything that would happen. He did not keep anything secret. Peter took Jesus away from the other followers to talk to him alone. Peter criticized him for saying these things. But Jesus turned and looked at his followers. Then he criticized Peter. He said to Peter, “Get away from me, Satan ! You don’t care about the same things God does. You care only about things that people think are important.”” Mark 8:31-33 ERV
Jesus then taught the disciples the important spiritual truth:
“Then Jesus called the crowd and his followers to him. He said, “Any of you who want to be my follower must stop thinking about yourself and what you want. You must be willing to carry the cross that is given to you for following me. Any of you who try to save the life you have will lose it. But you who give up your life for me and for the Good News will save it. It is worth nothing for you to have the whole world if you yourself are lost. You could never pay enough to buy back your life. People today are so sinful. They have not been faithful to God. As you live among them, don’t be ashamed of me and my teaching. If that happens, I will be ashamed of you when I come with the glory of my Father and the holy angels.” Mark 8:34-38 ERV
Jesus is the perfect model of a human being who is totally emptied of his ego and totally filled with the Spirit of God. Easter is not the end of the journey but the wake up call - to rise from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive to God. Jesus died and rose from the dead to give us the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit:
“But the Helper will teach you everything and cause you to remember all that I told you. This Helper is the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name. “I leave you peace. It is my own peace I give you. I give you peace in a different way than the world does. So don’t be troubled. Don’t be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am leaving, but I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be happy that I am going back to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am. I have told you this now, before it happens. Then when it happens, you will believe.” John 14:26-29 ERV
Without being born again spiritually, we will not be able see life from God’s perspective nor to proclaim “Jesus is Lord” in our lives. In the gospel of Matthew, we read that Peter’s proclamation of Jesus as the Christ was revealed by our Heavenly Father and not a deduction made by the human mind.
Like the blind man, we need healing from our spiritual blindness. Jesus had to lay his hand twice on the blind man before he could see clearly. Healing is not a magical ritual but the experience of God’s healing touch. With magic, we see only what the magician wants us to see when our attention is distracted. Miracles are reminders that there is a spiritual dimension that is beyond our thoughts and beliefs. Meditation is the spiritual discipline of emptying our hearts by transforming our minds as we wait on God in silence. It is not trying to find God but to be found by God.
The Message of Easter draws us to the Mystery of the Cross - of the power of the resurrection and the love of God to overcome sin, death and evil. The miracle of Easter is seen when our lives are transformed - from a futile and desperate journey to a meaningless death into the mysterious adventure of living the magical and miraculous life as a beloved child of God. It is a journey into the depths of our being to change our beliefs about God’s blessings into a faith in God’s agape love rooted in a personal and transforming relationship with the Risen Christ. As we do so, we will grow in our trust in God’s promises and providence and we will seek His will and not our will more and more each day through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SDG
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