Best Intentions; Deadly Consequences ...

We make plans.  We spend time considering possibilities, evaluating finances, and hoping for outcomes; and then we plan.  In my life, I cannot tell you that my plans could have ever been more considered, more wise, and yet completely unable to reach fruition.  It is not as if every conceivable impact is not considered or taken into account.  Yet somehow, some way, the unforeseen infects the reality of your execution.  What was planned is no longer possible.  Something new must occur, or perhaps nothing will occur.  Yet despite a vivid history of plans that went awry, we continue to make plans.  If this insanity were constricted to our personal lives, to our vacation planning perhaps, then perhaps the impact of our repeated attempts at forestalling the variety of life would not be so dangerous.  But the thinking, the mindset of planning, happens in our religious lives as well.

As planning collides with our spirituality, we decide we will pray for “x” amount of time, on these three days, at 5:00am before our routines begin.  But when the day arrives, the time slips by.  Or when the prayers begin, our desire to sleep overwhelms us, and we find ourselves hitting a snooze alarm rather than in deep conversation with our Lord.  So we decide to change our plans.  Morning prayers must now become evening prayers.  We forecast new days and times for prayer.  At first our new routine seems to work and then subtly, with barely a notice, something else changes.  Our ability to pray for as long as we wanted gets reduced.  For Christians who believe they are saved by the amount of time they spend on their knees, this creates a crisis.  Their continued failures either results in guilt they can scarcely live with, or an acceptance that perhaps prayer is not needed at all.  Yet through all of this, we continue to make plans.

Our ministries at church are far from immune from our desires to make plans.  We decide to raise “x” dollars, to send “x” people, to participate in “x” ministry.  And so we set out to accomplish in our corporate life what we have failed at so miserably at in our personal lives.  And similar results ensue.  Perhaps the finances we intended to raise is just not meeting the timeline we had laid out.  Perhaps the people who initially volunteered to participate in the ministry just do not show up.  Perhaps the ministry we initially envisioned is not the one truly needed for the community we wanted to serve.  What is different in our corporate spiritual lives than in our personal ones, is our ability to compromise with our compatriots.  In so doing, our plans become flexible.  And in our flexibility, God is able to work His will, most often, in spite of, and in direct conflict with, our original plans.  Yet even in church, we continue to make plans.

The most dangerous spiritual plans however, are not the ones made in response to the call of God, but are the ones made to position God with “no other choice” than support what we have planned to do.  It would be as if Noah built an ark on his own, according to his own thoughts about how big it needed to be.  Hunted and gathered only the animals Noah thought were worthy, and stocked his ark, with his crew, and his spoils.  And then begged God to send a flood to wipe out his neighbors for their lack of following God, never having preached a single sermon, to invite them to escape the disaster that was on the horizon, Noah believed would come.  This kind of presumption would not have been a story about the patience of God, or the love of God in repeatedly trying to reach a people who hated Him.  It would have been a story about Noah, who took it on himself to do what he thought should be done.  And it would have failed, even if rain had descended.

Had Abraham taken Isaac up that mountain alone, without the call of God, to sacrifice his son.  There would have been no Israel, only another dead human sacrifice, slain to the spiritual pride of a man who did what he thought was right to do.  Both Noah, and Abraham, followed the plans created by God, the calling laid out by God.  They did not invent these plans.  They did not actually want to follow these plans.  But they laid aside human desire, and did what God had called them to do, regardless of what they wanted.  This should have been the lesson for Judas to learn.  For Judas made plans as well.  Judas knew the stories of Noah, and of Abraham, and Judas knew many of the rest of scriptures as well.  Judas knew what the Messiah was supposed to do.  And Judas saw that the Messiah was clearly not living up to what scriptures had foretold, at least not according to what the Pharisees, and scribes said, that the Messiah was supposed to do.

Judas, like us, had the right religion.  Judas, like us, had the right scriptures, which he believed he interpreted correctly.  The leadership of the faith, agreed with Judas, NOT with Jesus Christ.  So what was to be done to reconcile this discrepancy between what Jesus actually did, and what Jesus (or God) was supposed to be doing?  Judas, like us, made a plan.  Those who make plans ahead of the calling of God have the very best intentions.  They are also completely blind to the idea that they have put themselves in a leadership position that belongs only to God.  God is no longer in the driver’s seat.  He is now a passenger in the planning machine of the Christian who decides what is to come, and how it will be handled. But our plans cannot foresee what only God can foresee.  And sometimes as much as we want God to do something for us, what we want, is not what is best for us, or for our world.  Judas wanted Jesus to become the King that Judas knew He could be.  If Jesus had done this, the Israelite world would have been better for a time, but our ability to be better would have been crushed by the greed-of-the-moment hatched in the plans of Judas.

No matter what, Judas had a plan.  He did not betray Jesus from a random whim.  He did it to force a reconciliation between scripture (or his interpretation of it), and the actions of Jesus.  Judas reasoned, that once the life of Jesus was truly in jeopardy, Jesus would use His true power to escape the traps set for Him, and rise to become the King He was meant to be.  No one with the power to fix something, with the power to save themselves, would ever not use it.  Nobody, who could save themselves, would choose not to, and endure what was coming.  That had never happened before Jesus, so there was no reason to think it would be any different now.  Judas thought his plan was near perfect.  Jesus would rise to become King and thank Judas for helping Him see the light and wisdom of this plan.  Judas had it all worked out in his plan and in his mind.  Just like we do, as we set out to make plans that do not follow God, but attempt to lead Him.

Peter recalls to John Mark, the boldness of Judas’ plan.  Picking up in the Gospel of Mark, chapter fourteen, beginning in verse 43 saying … “And immediately, while he yet spake, cometh Judas, one of the twelve, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.”  It was a small army sent to capture one Man.  Judas reasoned these first armed men could be converted into the first army of Christ.  It was sure to happen.  For how could Jesus allow Himself to be captured and face death, that He could easily preach His way out of?  The Temple had emptied its guard, to come to capture the owner of this building, the author of this faith, the inspiration behind every word of scripture, and the central player in every story.

John Mark continues in verse 44 saying … “And he that betrayed him had given them a token, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; take him, and lead him away safely.”  Notice the direction of Judas.  Judas will kiss Jesus just in case in the night lighting they mistake who their target is.  The kiss will be a sign of respect and of betrayal or identification.  This mini-army must not become confused in the dust up.  They must capture Jesus, and in the event they are successful, they are to lead Jesus away safely.  The safety of Jesus is still uppermost in the mind of Judas.  The plan of Judas is not actually to kill Jesus, or hurt Him in any way.  The plan of Judas is to force Jesus to do what He is supposed to do, according to scripture.  How like us.

How often do our interpretations of scripture lead us to make plans that are as far from God as night is from day.  The Westboro Baptist church comes to mind.  In a zealous effort to warn sinners of their ignorant participation in sin, they spend tedious hours creating posters and banners that carry only the words of hate and condemnation to those in need of salvation.  The members of this singular church do not sit quietly and pray for Lord of love to make changes in the hearts that need it.  No, they would rather lead the charge in the fight against evil, never for a moment recognizing the evil that infects each one of them.  Hate banners proudly displayed in times and places where love is needed even more so.  Slogans of hate and condemnation screamed at those in need of love, until their voices and the voices of demons are indistinguishable.  But they have scripture on their side, don’t they?  They have the history of the Old Testament on their side, don’t they?  They certainly have their own interpretation of it, that somehow allows them to carry out their plans.  So did Judas.  So do we, anytime our interpretations lead us to think we can lead God.

John Mark continues in verse 45 saying … “And as soon as he was come, he goeth straightway to him, and saith, Master, master; and kissed him.”  Judas executed his plan.  He did not pray over it, or at least listen for the response of the Lord.  The plan of Judas involved betrayal, it risked violence, and Judas put those risks and realities aside to execute his plan.  The plans of Christian organizations and members, who would espouse condemnation as their method of salvation are no different than the plans of Judas.  Hate in any form is still hate.  Calling attention to the pain of sin, does not redeem the sinner, it only states the reality of his pain once again.  Redemption begins with forgiveness.  Redemption begins with God loving us in spite of our denial of who He is, and His love for us, that happens in spite of the choices we have made and are making.  Love that reaches out to us, even in our state of sin, is the only love that can draw us out of our sin.  Quiet testimony of how Jesus did this for you, would do more to redeem another who is still struggling with the pain Jesus brought you out of.  Any other words are meaningless.  A lack of love is meaningless and will accomplish nothing in someone else.

John Mark continues in verse 46 saying … “And they laid their hands on him, and took him. [verse 47] And one of them that stood by drew a sword, and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.”  Peter witnesses these events from a different perspective than John, and so his recollection comes from a different perspective.  The small army sent to capture Jesus does exactly that as Jesus submits.  But while Jesus is willing to be taken, the violence Judas has started will not end with him.  Peter responds by drawing his sword and cutting off the ear of the high priest’s servant.  An inch to the left and he might have split the head of the high priest’s servant in two.  Violence has come to Jesus, and violence will be used to stop it.  Peter has not thought through the odds, or the numbers.  The guards greatly outnumber him, but he is undeterred.  Peter need only make a distraction so that Jesus can escape.  Peter is ready for blood.  At this point Peter is ready for the blood of Judas most of all.

And so Christians who incorporate violence into their planning, find that violence is ready to be used against them.  Peter could argue that others drew the sword first, that others came with violent intent first.  So do we.  We argue that the world, under the watchful eye of Satan, has drawn the sword first against us, and against our faith.  We are not wrong.  The world is not above using violence against the faith.  But what does it say, when we are willing to take violence to them, when we initiate it.  The people who Westboro protests against, did not first come and protest against them.  The women who in their desperation find themselves at an abortion clinic did not come to our churches before they were pregnant to hurl stones and accusations against the faithful for their hypocrisy and their spite.  It was before they were pregnant that our love to them might have altered the course of their lives.  It is now in their time of greatest need when ONLY our love might still have a chance to alter it, to redeem it, to provide a consistency of love no matter what course they choose.  Will they meet that love from us, or will they meet something else?

The response of Jesus to Peter is not recorded here.  Nor is the miracle of Jesus restoring to the servant of the high priest the ear that was just cut off.  Perhaps Peter did not see or hear this.  Or more likely perhaps the rebuke of Jesus to Peter for using that sword still stings in the ears of Peter as it should in ours.  Peter does however, hear the rebuke of Jesus to this small army intent on his capture as John Mark continues in verse 48 saying … “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and with staves to take me? [verse 49] I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled.”  Jesus points out that He carries no sword or spear.  Jesus has not been calling an army to Himself, He has been here to redeem all men and women instead.  Jesus points out that He was in the Temple very recently teaching, if they wanted Him, they could have taken Him there very easily.  But then, scriptures must be fulfilled.

It is with this, that the vows of men are recorded in the gospel.  John Mark states in verse 50 saying … “And they all forsook him, and fled.”  This includes John.  This includes Peter.  Even Judas may not have had the stomach to see where the best of intentions is now going to lead.  But there was another witness.  In the strangest of epitaphs, Peter recalls to John Mark beginning in verse 51 saying … “And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: [verse 52] And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.”  Who was this?  Scripture does not record, nor would it seem that Peter knew him by name.  Why was he there?  Could this person have been there all the while Jesus was in agony?  Could he have been staring through the mists watching the Son of Man become separated from the Father God?

To be naked in front of others is considered a high sin in the days of Peter.  It is clear in this exchange that the man had few clothes on to begin with and is clearly willing to leave them behind in the escape.  Perhaps this was yet another demoniac who stays in silent witness.  Perhaps this was the devil himself in human form.  Or perhaps this was a silent disciple awakened from his bed in the night, who has come to the garden in nothing but his pajamas.  We may never know until we reach that infinite kingdom of our Lord.  But what this man saw, what they all saw, was the results of a very finely crafted plan reaching its unintended fruition.  Judas crafted a plan he reasoned had only one outcome, when in reality the outcome was something completely different.

When we plan, when we consider possible outcomes, we must ask ourselves the only question that matters … do we plan in response to the call of God, or ahead of it?  It is far better to follow the plans of God, even when they make little or no sense to us, then to craft our own plans with the best of intentions and the deadliest results.  When we include violence, or the risk of violence in our planning, we step away from the path of our God, and enter ground we were never meant to tread.  For it is love alone that redeems, love alone that can change the course of a person’s life.  Violence cannot accomplish this feat, but love can.  Perhaps our best course of action is to be willing to be led, instead of constantly thinking it is our job to lead. 

The fight over sin happens in the heart of man, where only the Love of God can transform and give us hope.  Banners that state our condemnation, offer us no reason to escape this fate other than fear.  They do not picture a loving God, but only a vengeful one who delights in our time in the flames.  This is not the God I serve, nor the picture I find in these scriptures of Jesus who would rather suffer torture and death than to see us have to do it.  Perhaps the better poster to construct would look something like those old weight loss ones of a few years back … “End sin and pain now, ask me how”.

 

The Only Thing Evil Knows - Communion (part eight) ...

When once you turn away from the light, the only alternative left to you is darkness.  When once you turn away from love, hate is the destiny you embrace.  Lucifer was created in the perfection of service and love to others.  His position was once third highest in all of creation, he stood at the left hand of the Father.  He was unaware of a distinction between himself and Christ, because the love of God towards others so was full there had never been a reason to measure it before.  But within this perfection, Lucifer reasoned that perhaps existence did not require this method to maintain perfection.  Perhaps an alternative was possible that would simply result in a “different” perfection than the one God setup.  He broke trust with God, and put his trust in the power of his own intellect and will.  He continued on his path, until the point where he could not be saved, because he would not be saved.  And there was war in heaven.  When once he knew only love and harmony, he would now be willing to introduce war and death into heaven itself.  Love had turned to hate, as trust was irrevocably broken.  Evil was born into the universe, and the opposite of love was defined for all sentient life to witness in horror; hate had come.

Lucifer became Satan.  The archangel became the devil.  A universe of perfect love to others, had been corrupted into a self-absorbed, self-focused, acquire-at-all-costs emptiness that could never be filled.  To look back at the perfect peace unfallen beings maintained, and witness the perfect love of service the unfallen beings lived, elicits only one response in the fallen – hate.  It is torture to live in self-inflicted pain while witnessing the unbridled joy of another.  Their peace only fuels the passionate hatred of the one who will not let his own misery go.  That impossible focus on self, only deepens the hatred for everything, when seen against the perfection of love and service and joy that is unavoidable from living as God ordained.  So when evil encounters love, its response must be one of two – submit to love and embrace it, or resist love and respond in hate.  As love is more powerful than hate, it requires more determination to hate, more anger to maintain, more energy to resist.  It requires an unrelenting choice to keep up the hate.  But for one who will not trust to anyone other than self, it is the only choice to be made despite its difficulty.

This was the reaction of the religious leadership of the day, to the Messiah they had waited for so long to see.  This was the response of the wicked and fallen angels to the arrival of Christ, who lived His life in perfect service and love.  The only thing evil knows to do when confronted with love, is to hate.  If one lets go of hate even momentarily one may be drawn to a love that would not let you go, one that would free you from hate, so as never to return to the power of its embrace.  That kind of redemptive love is what Christ introduced into our reality.  And the Pharisees hated Him for it.  The very redemptive love He offered to all, even to them, was refused because it required submission, it required an acceptance that indeed they did not know it all.  They were not the final arbiters of truth, they were witness to truth incarnate in the humble life of this servant of all.  This they could not, and would not accept.  So they responded to love with hate.  The learned elders of the one true religion, became the biggest proponents of hate in the very name of that religion.  The Pharisees would seek to kill the author of love, rather than be remade by that love.  Are we any different?  Do we prefer ourselves the way we are, than to be remade by Him and perhaps lose parts of ourselves we hold dear?  Do we carry placards that espouse love that transforms or hate that condemns?

John records the words of Christ now in chapter 15, as they near or perhaps enter the garden of Gethsemane.  Judas is not with them as he is already leading those who intend to kill love to their target.  Time is very short.  So Christ tries to explain the mystery of iniquity and hate to His followers so that they will not be surprised by what they encounter.  In verse 18 He explains … “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. [verse 19] If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”  Evil hates love.  When we reflect the love of Christ to others, we should not expect to see love returned as it would be in perfection.  Rather we should expect to see hatred, for evil struggles to the death to hold on and resist the love of God.  When we find ourselves in disfavor with society, when we are punished for the acts of love we do on behalf of another, when our reputations are mud for the sake of our relentless love in action – it is because evil resists the power of God who loves. 

However, when the world seems to have no problem with us; when we present no threat to it; when we are every bit as angry, and hostile, and judgmental as our accuser is; we can and will be loved by the world.  Satan has no problem with our hateful speech, couched in the name of God – that is a technique he pioneered for us.  Our Pharisee forefathers killed God in an effort to keep religion pure.  So when we hold our signs and placards that condemn the world for its sins, we join with Satan in persecuting those in the deepest need of His love; so pushing them farther from it, while carrying and maligning the name of Christ, and of Christians.  This activity brings little condemnation from the world, because the world is steeped in evil and loves the hypocrisy of accusing others while being every bit as guilty in our own hearts and desires.  But, by contrast, when we love unconditionally and without reservation, to those who no-one else would dare to love – we present a real and present threat to the kingdom of evil and hate.  It is then that we are out of harmony with the kingdom of evil and hate, and must be “dealt with”.  For if left unchecked, a love without reservation or limitation, that is only consumed with the benefit of another, has the power to change lives, hearts, minds, and wills and could make converts to the kingdom of Christ.  When these converts discover the freeing power of love, the salvation Christ does to liberate and change them from their former selves into servants equipped with the power of transformative love – the kingdom of evil loses a soul forever to the power of God’s love.  Thus when we love like Christ loved, we become hated quickly by the world.

Jesus continues in verse 20 … “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.”  When we serve God we encounter those who have refused Him, and thus will refuse us as well.  Be they church leaders at the highest levels, or desperate sinners at the lowest rungs of society, those who refuse God and His love, will not accept our own any better.  But those who hear the voice of the Lord, will make themselves humble enough to hear His voice through His servants in whatever form that comes.  It is not only through a preacher that the word of God is offered.  It is offered through the mouth of the child, who can barely grasp the depth of the words they speak.  It is offered through the mouth of the downs-syndrome-afflicted who understands love so well, but intellect so little.  It is offered through the mouth of the sick and the dying as they face what we all fear, and now understand what is truly important.  If we are humble enough to hear it, we can ignore the faults and imperfections of the vessel, and instead hear only the pure word of God spoken in love regardless of its source.  It is not the denomination, or age, or gender, or sexual orientation, or known history of sin that either qualifies or disqualifies a person from speaking the truth of our God – it is instead only the content of what they say, and the love in which they say it, that either offers us the word of God, or the folly of men.  It is instead our arrogance that predetermines “who” is qualified to speak for God, and our standards lead us to miss His words, in favor of those that please our own ears.

Jesus continued in verse 21 … “But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.”  In the days of Christ as well as in ours, there will be those who refuse to accept Jesus as Lord.  To identify Christ as the Son of God, is to invite persecution – either from within the church as we transfer the attention away from traditions and self-reliance and on to Christ – or outside of the church as we identify the real meaning of love and not  the perversion of self-service the devils offers as its poor substitute.  Those who do not know God, do not know love, and evil has only one response to love.  Jesus further states in verse 22 … “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.”  In the days of the Pharisees Christ had spoken in their presence, they bore witness to His love, and therefore had no excuse to cloke their sin.  In our day, the love of the Lord is no less present.  We do not casually live our lives in blissful ignorance of the love of God, instead the love of God to redeem us is constantly offered, and we must by conscious choice ignore and disregard it.  So what was true for our Pharisee forefathers will be no less true for ourselves.

Jesus states in verse 23 … “He that hateth me hateth my Father also.”  There is no subdividing God.  There are not many pathways to God.  There are not many deities that can legitimately claim to be God.  There is only one God.  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – three who are united in purpose and one.  To hate one of them, is to hate all of them.  You cannot hate one third of God, but love another third.  To love God, is to accept God as He is.  We do not get the choice of picking and choosing which parts of God we think are real and worth loving or not.  For if Christ always did the will of His Father, who is it we truly hate – the God who performed the miracles, or the God who ordained them to be performed?  Those who offer Buddha, or Krishna, or Mohammed, or any other purported deity to augment the place of God, offer only false ideologies that cannot find truth in the reality of who God is.  The Father cannot be separated from the Son.  To deny the divinity of the Son, is to deny the divinity of the Father, for it was the Father’s own voice who proclaimed Christ as His own Son, and who empowered Christ to bend the rules of physics to heal and create, and restore all the countless broken ones he encountered during His life here on earth.  It is both Father AND Son who are united in the plans for our redemption and salvation.

Jesus offers evidence again in verse 24 … “If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.”  The miracles of Christ should have been enough to prove His divinity.  He created food where there was none.  He healed diseases and birth defects and the demon possessed.   He woke Lazarus from the grave after 4 days of decomposition.  Every act of love for another should have been more than ample evidence of His divinity.  To require more “proof” is empty words, proof and truth were already there for those who did not refuse to see.  Jesus continues in verse 25 … “But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.”  The rejection of Christ had been foretold.  It was even sadder still though, that this prophecy found fulfillment in the leadership of His own religion and faith, instead of merely in the government of Rome and the world.  I wonder if our modern Christian churches are any different.  Do we too reject Christ as the author and finisher of our salvation, choosing like Lucifer to put our trust in our own wisdom, logic, interpretation, and will power to save us from our sins?

Jesus then tells His followers, that for them even more evidence will be received in verse 26 He continues … “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: [verse 27] And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.”  The Holy Spirit will come to His followers and continue to declare in the Truth of the Father, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and source of our salvation.  The Holy Spirit does not disagree with the accounts of scripture, rather He verifies them.  The miracles the disciples would perform were not of their own strength, but done in the name of Jesus Christ, by the power of God.  If the life of Christ were a lie, if He were not our God, His name would have no effect.  We could not break the rules of physics and modern medicine by the power of our own names, or the random name of some mere historical figure, even if that figure was a “good man” or known to be a “prophet”.  But the name of Christ, and the power of love of God that He embodies, has seen the impossible become possible.  To be made free from the addiction of sin and self is in itself a miracle we will never fully understand, for it is His work in us, and none of our own, that sees it accomplished.

Jesus continues and wraps up this part of His communion on the responses the disciples should expect in chapter 16 starting in verse one … “These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. [verse 2] They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”  The worst irony, the saddest expectation, would be that the center of persecution would not be in the world, but within the church.  It would be those who favor religious zealotry, over actual love for others, who would be most willing and eager to kill in the name of God.  The Romans would hardly care less which God you worship as long as you paid your taxes and did not attempt rebellion.  In this, Christians were wholly compliant.  But the Jews believed the introduction of the doctrine of the Messiah having been fulfilled was the destruction of their faith, traditions, and powerbase, thus to kill to end this “heresy” would become a top priority within the faith.  Christ explains all of this to his disciples in advance.  He explains why they will do this in verse 3 … “And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.”

Here the message of Christ is powerful both then and now.  Those who would hate or kill in the name of God DO NOT KNOW GOD at all.  They neither know God the Father, or God the Son.  Those who respond to love with evil and hate, know only evil and hate.  God does not kill those who disagree with Him.  If that were true Satan would simply have never existed.  Instead God creates all with freedom to choose to trust and love or not.  God does not change who He is, instead He attempts to lure us back to Him with the power of His so great love.  He does not kill us all because we sin, or have sinned.  Instead He looks to free us from our sin, and offer us love and joy in its place.  He takes pain and death away from us, and offers us life and love instead.  Those who offer death for disobedience follow the doctrines of Satan alone, not of our God.  It is Satan who kills those who disagree with him, or disobey him, or fall away from his cause.  God attempts to redeem the lost.  Satan would kill any who stray from his cause of evil.  The religious zealots of the time of Christ who kill in the name of God, were doing so at the express desire of Satan himself.  The religious zealots of today who espouse hate to those still caught in sin, follow the same path of Satan, and do nothing to advance the cause of God or the redemption those sin-sick souls are in such desperate need of.  Only love will ever reach them, hate and death will accomplish nothing.

Jesus concludes his predictions by stating one last time in verse 4 … “But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.”  Everything He was telling them was prophetic, and true, and would help prepare them for the future they faced.  The message is every bit as relevant for us today as it was then.  When we are transformed by the love of Christ, we will become different people than what we were.  We will value different things, love differently, want different things.  When we begin to reflect the love of Christ through us more perfectly, we will draw the ire of the world around us.  Satan will not leave us free to love as Christ loved without making every attempt to draw us away from Christ.  He will tell us that “we” have accomplished our spiritual awakening by our own great power and intellect.  He will do everything he can to convince us that even our religious life is about us, our salvation attributable to our works and will power and understanding of scripture.  He will do anything he can to keep us from focusing on Christ.  We cannot expect a life of ease as a servant of love.  Instead we can expect a life of hardship, and of perfect peace, contentment, fulfillment, and joy.  For it is not our conditions that define our responses, it is the power of His love within us.  We will find perfection from the work He does.  We will find peace in KNOWING that it is He who saves us from the people we once were.  Our salvation is His gift to us, and the way we love is also the result of His gifts.  Nothing can take that away, whether from within our churches, or outside of them.

And communion was not over yet …