The author of the book I’m currently reading made a really interesting point. As Christ followers we often talk about having a “relationship with” Jesus. Antonucci (the author) points out that Jesus wants much more than this. He gives the example of having a best friend who moves away – we miss them, we wish they were still close by but all in all their leaving doesn’t really change our lives in a significant way.
The same can be true in our relationship with Jesus. When we don’t spend time in prayer or in the Bible – we miss him, we may wish we were closer to him, but all in all our time away doesn’t really change our lives – if all we have is a relationship with Jesus.
What Jesus describes in John 15 is much deeper than just a relationship. He talks about us being “in him”. Antonucci uses the analogy of a baby still in his/her mother’s womb. You could say they have a “relationship”, but it’s really much more. That baby is fully dependent on mom for everything.
This is how Jesus wants us to be - in him – fully dependent on him for life itself.
I’m far from living this way, but it’s a great encouragement to know that that is where Jesus wants me and each day I learn a little better how to rely on God for real life.
/D
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2 comments:
Hey Dave,
Our relationship with Jesus seems to be opposite than what we would think of when it comes to growth. Like the analogy of the baby you talked about, we would concider it to be healthy to become more and more independent. But that really isn't what Jesus wants. We do need to become mature, but our maturity actually involvrs us learnig how to be more functional in our dependence to Christ.
It doesn't seem natural, maybe that's why we struggle.
Hey Justin,
Yeah, God's way of doing things often seems to buck the "norm". Of course, that's because we humans have attempted to define the "norm".
As with all analogies you can only take them so far. The authors point is without mom the baby dies. There is absolute dependence on mom for life. The same could/should be true for our interaction with Jesus. He's the one who told us that he came to give us real life (John 10:10) and apart from him we may exist, but we're not truly experiencing life as God intended.
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