Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

How many times must a man look up

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Mark 16:9-15
When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.

After this he appeared in another form to two of them walking along on their way to the country. They returned and told the others; but they did not believe them either.

But later, as the Eleven were at table, he appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised.

And He said to them, "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature."

The disciples might not have "believed" in Jesus. They ignored what he told them before he died, they ignored the eyewitness accounts of his resurrection. But he "believed" in them: in spite of their obtuse response he chose them to receive the Great Commission. Of course, who else could he have chosen?

I'm encouraged, though. Jesus looked past their failure. He trusted them with his message even though they weren't trustworthy. He rebuked them, sure, but then acted on the usually correct assumption that those who are rebuked and show remorse learn from their mistake.

In Robert McGee's Search for Significance he lists four classic lies to live by:

I must meet certain standards in order to feel good about myself.

I must have the approval of certain others to feel good about myself.

Those who fail (including me) are unworthy of love and deserve to be punished.

I am what I am. I cannot change. I am hopeless.

Sound familiar? They work their poison into my life on a regular basis. I'm glad to see them named and brought to light, though. Jesus doesn't respond to me (or the disciples) out of these ugly false beliefs. He sees me the way I was made to be, not how I'm acting right now.

And that's not a rose-colored-glasses vision. What's more real, my mistakes or my potential? The question can be answered either way, and is. Parents choose one answer or the other. So you grow up believing in yourself, and I grow up believing I can't get anything right. Never will. Cannot change. Hopeless. Oh, drear.

The disciples shown like beacons of heavenly light into the world. They crossed the known world sharing their experience with Jesus. They performed miracles and preached sermons that moved thousands. They were the core group of a community which sold everything and shared it all with each other. Over two millennia, that beginning burgeoned into hospitals, missions for the helpless, and countless generous sacrifices by millions of men and women.

And ... there were the murders and the persecutions of Muslims in the Crusades, and the various Inquisitia, and the hypocrisy, and the self-righteous closed minds.

So which is more real?

What would Jesus say?

Your image of me, Lord, is the one I want on the back of my eyeballs. It's precious, it's pure, it's real. It's me.

Devotions Archive

How many times must a man look up

Saturday, March 29, 2008