The Big Picture - What Is God Doing?

It Speaks Volumes

In one of the most poignant scenes in scripture, Jesus humbly washes the feet of his disciples, a simple act of service that speaks volumes about the kind of leadership and life he values. Yet above all, he underscores that it is love for one another—our care, patience, and unity—that is of paramount importance, the clearest way to show the world what the Kingdom of God truly looks like. And so we might gently ask ourselves: are we really taking Jesus seriously when it comes to this call for unity, or have we settled for something far less than what he envisioned?

Just what is Jesus' vision? What is God actually doing?

For Jesus' disciples, the three years were a roller coaster ride! Each day, they must have wondered how it would pan out. These were events they knew they were going to remember for the rest of their lives. But every day was a struggle, because everything was so hard to understand. And Jesus, of course, never gave a straight answer to their seemingly simple questions!

Like all of us, to really comprehend, they needed to see the big picture. As on that old TV programme, A Question of Sport, as the portion of photo zooms out, there is confusion and puzzlement, and then suddenly you see it. That close up the sportsman's face showed part of the moustache, not an eyebrow!

Let's start with the close-up picture of what was happening around Jesus.

God becomes incarnate in a baby. He grows up living a perfect life. He confronts the petty bureaucrats of his local community. He attracts a huge following. He causes division, confrontation, and consternation. He faces down the institutions and undermines their authority. He is persecuted, hounded, beaten up, finally executed publicly.

Then he comes back to life. He appears to different sized groups, some individuals, some large crowds. Then he disappears back to heaven.

Can you imagine that? Chris Gilbert, who lives next door, who has always seemed so kind, so wise, able somehow to help people in whatever situation they find themselves, gets hit by a bus. You accompany Chris' wife to the mortuary to identify the body. You are appalled at the horrific injuries evident on the cold unmoving corpse. You will never forget the horror of it. Then three days later there is a knock at your door. You open it.

Chris smiles gently. "I'd better come in," he says, "we need to have a chat."

I mean, your life would change wouldn't it. But this is pretty much what happened to the disciples.

Shocked. Disbelieving. Incredulous. Silenced. Traumatised. All of that.

But soon they are spending their lives talking about it. Some write books about it. They meet to discuss it, trying to thrash out what really happened in those three years. They construct a number of theories with a variety of wackiness. They argue. But through it all, more and more are attracted to the movement.

That is the close-up that we know about.

But what is the big picture?

What Is God Doing?

Why did he create all this in the first place? Why create a hugely complex massive universe, and apparently populate only one tiny planet? What is God doing in history? And can he really be interested in me? Or you? Where is it all going to end? What is his end goal? The questions are easy to ask, the answers somewhat harder to find.

Paul pondered some of these questions, as he wrote a letter to the church at Ephesus. After giving some instructions on how a man and a woman should relate to each other in marriage, he writes ...

This profound mystery–this deep enigma–is the closest Paul ever got to understanding the big picture–that God in Jesus Christ would take a bride, a wife, and the relationship between God and humanity would be consummated somehow, once individual men and women and boys and girls had become joined in an organic whole, like a body, where each part has it’s place and it’s function. Each part is individual but not independent, and destined to function in unity.

It is a deep mystery, we see it again in the Book of Revealing.

God’s big picture, his end goal, is not a wonderful individual relationship with you and me. Rather, it is a growing unity with God alongside an inner transforming that reduces our insistence on selfish independence, which consequently leads to an openness to be united with others. That unity faintly seen now, somehow consummated in the creation of the perfect bride-church, who marries the husband–the Son of God.

So if that is the end goal, we need to examine ourselves:

Do I set up barriers between myself and other Christians?

Do I consider other types of churches inferior to mine?

Do I have a tendency to separate from other Christians, and just stick with those who think like me?

Do I talk about other Christians or churches in disparaging ways?

Do I criticize them, put them down?

Is my instinct now redeemed, so I have the mind of Christ?

Do I actively try to get alongside all Christians – even the weird ones?

Do I try to bring Christians together, by focusing on what we have in common?

Do I consider that it may be possible that my church is not so correct as others?

Do I take a humble position as a servant of the whole church of Christ?

These are challenging and important questions. And we know that we must take great care that we are not dividing Christ’s bride. When we take pride in our individually correct theology, and are intolerant of others views, we are working against that interdependent unity.

That cannot be right.

The Important Questions

What's better? To hold a correct theology you can be proud of, or to be humbly aware that you're probably wrong about something?

In my reading of the gospels, both Jesus' teaching and his actions promote much more about right attitudes to others and to the Father, than they do about precisely correct theology. It is true that Jesus was evidently very concerned that his disciples figured out who he was, but his explanation of even that central cardinal fact was obscured by his humility.

He could so easily have said, “Let me save you a whole boatload of time, and let me save the church countless wasted man-years of arguments, and state a few simple things:

1. I am definitely consubstantial with my Father
2. The Holy Spirit really is a person / a breath / a life force
3. The King James / New Jerusalem / Message bible is the only proper one
4. Speaking in tongues is / is not okay but is / is not essential
:
:
996. The church organ is / is not the only sanctified instrument
997. If you have a choice, then sit in / burn the pews
998. A congregational / apostolic / elders leadership is the best church governance
999. Sunday is / isn't a special day
1000. And finally, correct eschatology is of course pre / post / amillennial."

But of course, he didn't.

So we obviously need to let go of maybe 95% of these arguments, while honouring Jesus' Gethsemane prayer, such that we prioritise this organic relational unity in everyday life within our cities, towns and villages.

At least, if we profess to take him seriously.

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