Waking Up is Hard to Do

Unless you are a.) Rip Van Winkle and asleep for years, or b.) dead, or, you know, c.) completely sealed off from any source of media, you know that the world has been a little crazy for a while. This is really nothing new; there's always drama, and has been since someone plucked tempting fruit from a forbidden tree in a beautiful garden that is no longer accessible to us, because of that act.

In my reading today from John 16:17-33, Jesus removes all trappings, all metaphors, and he gets raw and down-to-facts with the disciples, who need the veil stripped away. They've been asking Jesus: "Where are you going?" And He's told them, but they haven't gotten it. So He tells them again, and they still don't get it.

Finally, He says: "I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father" (John 16:28).

Lightbulb! Ooooohhhhh. You're leaving the world and going back to the Father. The disciples nod sagely at one another. We get it. We understand now.

"Then Jesus' disciples said, 'Now You are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that You know all things and that You do not even need to have anyone ask You questions. This makes us believe that You came from God'" (John 16:29-30).

I picture a small sigh on Jesus' part. Finally. "You believe at last!" He says. "But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with Me" (John 16:31-32).

Sounds depressing. Where is the fellowship, Jesus? Where is the unity You've talked about? Scattered? (Does any of this sound familiar in the year of the pandemic, 2020-2021?)

Here's the hope, though. "I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

There's something about hope in the darkness, right? Hope when all is right just doesn't have the same effect. As the Apostle Paul says: "But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?" (Romans 8:24). Hope in the midst of the darkness is a shining beacon that overcomes it, and so we strain towards it!

Jesus brings that hope! He has overcome the world, He says. He stands up in a synagogue, takes a scroll in His hands, unrolls it, and reads Isaiah's words: "The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:18-19). 

Then He rolls the scroll shut, sits down, and drops this bombshell: "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

Wow. Jesus makes the statement: I am the prophecy fulfilled. The audacity! His claim is extremely bold. It immediately paints a target on His chest. For sure, the teachers of the law and the chief priests are going to jump all over this. It might also lead to censure and claims of treason. How would He dare? Unless... He's speaking the truth?

Isaiah's writings are law. And Jesus announces that He is the fulfillment of that law. That He is the Hope in the darkness, and that because of Him, we can have hope.

In Ephesians, Paul quotes from what is likely an early-church hymn: "Wake up, oh sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." He brings the picture of resurrection, and assigns it -- not to Jesus (who is the Resurrection and the Life) -- but to the church. The body of Christ. The Bride.

You can't be resurrected if you haven't died first, which is why Jesus allows Himself to die, so that He can conquer death -- not just for Him, but for us, too. So... "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). While we were still in darkness, we see His light.

"Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise -- the fruit of lips that confess His name" (Hebrews 13:15).

But... doesn't praise spring out of a full heart of gratitude? I know those are the times I praise Him. When my dreams come true, when my prayers are answered, when the lost has been found, when the sickness has been healed, when my sorrows have turned to dancing... that's praise!

So what's this sacrifice of praise?

The sacrifice of praise is Hope in the mourning, Vision in the blackness, Trust in the despair, Declaration in the face of unbelief.

It's when the world is hurting and dying in a pandemic, and we praise Him because He is walking with us through it. 

It's when the church is shattered into a pit of tantrum-throwing, finger-pointing children who have forgotten what a unified body looks like, and He disciplines and refines, and then brings us together in communion.

It's when we wonder how much longer unbelief and sin and violence can go on... and on... and He says: "Look at the nations and watch, and be utterly amazed, for I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told" (Habakkuk 1:5).

Hope in the darkness is His Name, and Beauty from ashes is His claim. "Take heart! I have overcome the world!"

Wake up, oh sleeper! Wake up, oh Bride of Christ. Rise from the dead. Rise from the blackness of despair, and Christ will shine on you.