The Word Is Very Near You

James Walters
  • 5.0 (6)
  • CHRISTIANITY
The Word Is Very Near You

God is closer than we realize. And his help is nearer than we think. I offer these brief reflections on the relevance and power of God's written Word, the Bible, and God's living Word, the Holy Spirit, in our everyday lives.

  1. 04/02/2021

    Rescuer

    We like stories where the mighty hero vanquishes the enemy through force and strength of arms.  Evil is defeated as he flexes his muscles, fires his weapon, and saves the day.  Something inside us loves the idea of a rescuer, a deliverer, coming to set everything right. Many of the prophecies surrounding the Jewish deliverer, or Messiah, referred to him as "the son of David."  This stirred national hopes of a king like David, a military leader who would make Israel great again by winning battles and restoring her tarnished glory.   However, when the Messiah did come, he couldn't have been more different.  Born in a barn to a peasant family in a tiny village, he spent most of his life in obscurity.  And in the three years he lived in the public eye, he didn't follow the script of cultivating friendships with the rich and powerful and politically connected, but rather wandered the countryside with the riff-raff, telling strange stories and healing the sick.  Rather than occupying an opulent palace and commanding a powerful army, he was poor and homeless.   By society's standards, he was a loser. Yet there was one prophecy that saw all of this coming.  Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12 describes a mysterious figure, a suffering servant who would vicariously die for the sins of his people.  Isaiah writes, "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain." (53:2-3) Even though Jesus didn't fit his people's understanding of what Messiah should be, Isaiah is clear that he came for them nonetheless.  And that through his suffering and apparent defeat, he would bear their sin, carry it away, if you will: "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed." (53:5) So maybe rescue doesn't always look like we think it will or want it to.  Even today, Jesus doesn't come into our lives and make all of our problems magically go away.  Rather, he comes to be with us in those struggles, offering to take those sins on himself, offering us healing. Happy Easter!

    18 min

  2. 03/31/2021

    Last Words

    When someone is about to leave us -- whether they're going on a long trip or whether they're about to die -- the last things they say and do carry special meaning.  They are fraught with significance, given the possibility that we may never see them again.  This was certainly the case on Jesus's last night on earth. At the meal we now refer to as the Last Supper, Jesus reinterpreted a feast that was central to Israel's identity and salvation history -- the Passover meal.  The Passover was their last supper -- the last one they would eat in Egypt before God released them from years of slavery and oppression.  The centerpiece of the meal was the sacrifice of a pure, innocent lamb, a symbol of God's rescue and deliverance.   It's no coincidence that Jesus's own suffering and death coincided with the timing of Passover.  During this last meal with his friends, Jesus tells them how his body is about to broken and his blood is about to be spilled -- just like the Passover lamb -- as a sacrifice for them.  In this new telling of the Passover story, Jesus himself IS the lamb. And the new covenant he initiates inaugurates a new Passover story, the story of God rescuing his people -- and ALL peoples -- from the power of sin and death through the blood of the Lamb.  In this new arrangement, God rescues people not because of their own goodness, but because of his. With John the Baptist we say, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29)

    13 min

  3. 03/29/2021

    No Regrets?

    "No regrets!" is a common refrain in high-school graduation speeches and wedding toasts.  While it's a nice thought, if we're honest we know that to live very long or deeply in this world is to experience regret, the painful feeling of having to live with a mistake that cannot be fixed.  Some actions, once done, cannot be undone.  Some words, once spoken, are irrevocable.   I can only imagine the tremendous regret Adam and Eve experienced after making their fateful choice to eat the forbidden fruit.  Little did they realize the cosmic, far-reaching consequences of their choice.  Yet what they immediately experienced was painful enough -- guilt, shame, hiding, blaming each other, and expulsion from Eden.   The question God asks Eve, "What is this you have done?," is one that asks her to speak the truth and accept responsibility for her actions.  But instead, she chooses to follow Adam's example of shifting the blame.   In the curses that follow, we see the cosmic, trickle-down effect of our first parents' sin: a never-ending struggle between good and evil, pain in childbearing, strained relationships, work that is frustrating and backbreaking. And yet even in the curse, there is mercy.  God clothes Adam and Eve with animal skins to replace their sorry fig leaves.  It seems some innocent animal had to die as a result of their sin.  Surely this points to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. In Romans 5:19 Paul writes, "For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the one man the many will be made righteous."  Through the first Adam, sin and death spread to all people, but through the last Adam, Jesus, the effects of the curse are reversed as we experience his forgiveness and new life.  He is the seed of the woman who will finally crush the serpent's head. (Genesis 3:15) Although I would love to live a life with no regrets, I have come to see that this is rather impossible this side of heaven.  I have rather come to embrace Thoreau's maxim that "to regret deeply is to live afresh."  May we experience renewal and fresh strength this week as honestly face the pain of our past mistakes and embrace the forgiveness and healing of the Cross.

    17 min

  4. 03/26/2021

    Two Trees

    More often than not, we don't particularly like the idea of someone telling us what to do, of there being limits or boundaries to our lives.  And yet, this is the very nature of our entire existence.  From the moment we're born, we are under the supervision and direction of our parents.  As we grow older, teachers and coaches set parameters for us.  Later on, employers and spouses have a thing or two to say about what we can and cannot do.  Yet something in us chafes at the idea of being told what to do, and especially, being told what NOT to do.   We certainly see this in the Bible's opening chapters, where Adam and Eve are presented with incredible freedom and an array of amazing choices.  They are free to enjoy and work in a beautiful garden God has planted.  They can eat from any tree in it...except one.  Because we know how the story ends, this almost feels like a set up.  Why would God say something like this and seemingly set them up to fail?   It seems that God is saying something here about the moral universe he has created, that to be a creature entails having some limits, boundaries, that our growth involves developing moral discernment so we can learn to make good choices. We all know that Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command and chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  We live with the results of their fateful choice every single day.  And we also often re-enact that choice, don't we?  We extend our hand for the forbidden fruit, trying to seize a measure of happiness or fulfillment NOW.   So what are we to do?  How do we go on in this fallen, broken world, especially with our tendency to sometimes do the very thing that God has told us NOT to do?   Our human failure points us to the need for something or Someone outside of ourselves to help us, Someone who can give us life, Someone who IS life.  In Revelation 22, we see this Someone's new creation, his new Eden, where the tree of life reappears to bring "healing to the nations" (Revelation 22:2).   As we consider the many ways we reach for the forbidden fruit, may we turn to the One who offers us life to find healing.

    20 min

  5. 03/24/2021

    Naked and Afraid

    There is a simple, innocent freedom about being naked in an appropriate setting, whether it's showering, sleeping, or enjoying quality time with your spouse.  However, in other settings, to be naked is to be humiliated, embarrassed, or ashamed.  I still have that recurring dream about showing up for some final exam completely naked.  What is THAT about?   Before they sinned, Adam and Eve "were both naked, and they felt no shame." (Genesis 2:25). However, after they made the catastrophic choice to eat from the tree God had commanded them not to eat from, they are now hiding behind trees, afraid and ashamed.  As God comes looking for them in this tragic game of hide-and-seek, he asks them a haunting question: "Who told you that you were naked?" (3:11) It's a piercing question that bespeaks the loss of innocence, the doing of something that cannot be undone.  It's a quasi-rhetorical question, because the answer of course, is "No one."  No one had to tell Adam that he was naked, it was the consequence of eating the forbidden fruit.  Contrary to the serpent's promise of it offering life, power, and freedom to them, it only brought guilt, shame, and alienation. Adam and Eve's solution to their nakedness is sewing together fig leaves to cover their private parts.  In much the same way, we futilely attempt to cover ourselves through our human striving -- through our accomplishments, possessions, appearance, and status.   Yet God offers them (and us!) a better way.  The most moving part of this story is at the end, when God clothes them in "garments of skin" (3:21) and sends them on their way out of the garden.  Presumably, some innocent animal had to die as a consequence for their sin.   Yet this tragic ending points to God's future, hopeful provision for his people through the substitutionary atonement of the sacrificial system (I sin and a lamb dies in my place), which would eventually find its ultimate fulfillment in the coming of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, the One who was crucified naked that we might be clothed in the garments of salvation.

    17 min

  6. 03/22/2021

    Where Are You?

    Although many have relegated the story of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit to the level of a fairy tale on the order of Hansel and Gretel, there are profound truths here about both human nature and God's. A significant feature of this story is God seeking out Adam and Eve after they have sinned and asking them a series of questions.  Rather than blasting them with his anger and disappointment, God invites them to confess, to take responsibility, to come clean about their actions.  To be sure, there are harsh consequences for them, but the first step is for them to face reality.  Like a loving parent who already knows what their child has done wrong, he knows it's important that they say it out loud and take ownership. Perhaps the most haunting question God asks Adam is "Where are you?".  It's not as if he didn't know where Adam was, or that they were playing a game of hide-and-seek.  Rather, the question is designed to get Adam to own up to his fateful choice.  His response is telling, "...I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid." (Genesis 3:10) And ever since then, we humans have been hiding from God and one another, carefully arranging and rearranging our carefully sewn fig leaves to cover our nakedness.  We suspect that if others saw the real us, they would not like what they see.  And like our first parents, we attempt to hide from God due to our guilt and shame over breaking his commandments.   Yet God doesn't leave them alone to wallow in their guilt and shame.  Not only does he seek them out, but he provides "garments of skin" -- presumably an innocent animal was sacrificed -- to cover their nakedness.  In spite of what Adam and Eve have done, their sin doesn't get the last word in this story, God's mercy does.   I'm thankful we have a God who seeks us out, who comes looking for us no matter what we've done, and who provides to cover our nakedness.

    20 min

  7. 03/19/2021

    Shadowlands

    Sometimes we feel as though we live in the shadowlands, a place that C.S. Lewis described as being forever in shadow: "The sun shone somewhere else, but not here."  The last year has certainly felt like the shadowlands for many of us, hasn't it?   As difficult as the last year has been, perhaps it has awakened in us a desire for something better.  Because the subtle pull of comfortable, middle-class life is to lull us into thinking that this life is all there is, and that therefore, we must do whatever it takes to be happy NOW.   God's people also knew a thing or two about difficult circumstances.  Imagine most of our population being carted off to a foreign country by a conquering army and not permitted to return.  Imagine other people living in our houses and using our stuff and enjoying all the benefits of our hard work. Certainly their ears must have perked up a bit when Isaiah spoke of a vision of "new heavens and a new earth," (Isaiah 65:17) a place where "the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard no more." (65:19)   In spite of the Israelites' complete rebellion against God, in his mercy God promises a new beginning for those willing to change their ways.  It's good news for us also as we journey through the shadowlands towards New Jerusalem, the place that God is creating "to be a delight and a joy." (65:18)

    15 min

  8. 03/17/2021

    Crack the Sky

    Sometimes we get stuck in ways of living that are destructive to ourselves and others.  Sin has a stickiness to it that can make it difficult to extricate ourselves from a bad habit that we've started.  Over time, our conscience can become so dulled that we're no longer sure that we're doing is even wrong, so we no longer see the need to be rescued.   The only hope of deliverance from such a situation is the presence of God himself.  Isaiah prays for just this in 64:1, "Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down!"  Drawing hope from examples of how God has rescued his people in the past, he asks for deliverance once again, even though he acknowledges they surely deserve judgment.   Because his people have wandered so far from God's ways that they are no longer capable of turning to him on their own, his merciful intervention is needed.  His presence is needed. And God did finally come to rescue his people from exile in Babylon and bring them home.  And God did crack the sky and come to earth in Jesus to lovingly and finally deal with the sin in our lives and offer us a way home.  This is the hope we celebrate at Easter.

    21 min
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About

God is closer than we realize. And his help is nearer than we think. I offer these brief reflections on the relevance and power of God's written Word, the Bible, and God's living Word, the Holy Spirit, in our everyday lives.

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