Wednesday 25 February, 2015
1 John 1:1-4
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our[a] joy complete.
In this passage there is a beautiful sense of remembering Jesus, the flesh and blood Jesus the disciples knew and physically followed while He was on earth. Unlike the remembering of things that have ended, things from the past, this remembering is about stirring faith for the present and rejoicing in the goodness of God. This is not an intellectual exercise, these believers saw Jesus, touched Jesus and heard Jesus, they encountered Him physically and could remember these interactions.
What did their eyes see? Remember the miracles; the dead raised, the sick healed, the sinners saved, the condemned forgiven, the possessed set free… The peace of His countenance… The gentle eyes full of love and caring, eyes that could also glow with fierce anger in the face of injustice…
What did their ears hear? Remember the words of truth burning inside our hearts, words that stirred hope and joy, words that rung with authority, words that spoke life… The laughter… The voice commanding the wind and the waves to fall silent…
What did their hands touch? Remember His outstretched hand, clasping ours, the assurance of His grip… The hands always reaching out to others to bless or pray or raise up… Remember the scars, we could put our fingers through the pierced flesh, where once we had grasped whole hands…
My God, I was not there and I do not have the personal experience of seeing, hearing and touching Jesus in the flesh, but God I have an imagination and as I think what it would have been like for those disciples I am encouraged and reminded. He is the same Jesus I serve. The same Jesus who calls me His friend. God, please help me walk each day with an awareness of how amazing my Jesus is, and help me share that authentically with others. Thank you Jesus that you are the most loyal and faithful friend that we could ever hope to have. Amen.
Written by Beth Waugh
The eyewitness accounts of Jesus are very heartening. He was no apparition, He was no conjuring of a single imagination – Jesus was a flesh and blood man that walked the earth.
This screams at us that His life, His extraordinary life is one to follow because He is not a Superhero, the dream of a creative writer even with the amazing events of His life. In our day of Superheros there is a temptation to dismiss Jesus into their genre. But you cannot touch, hear and see Superheros. Jesus, the real flesh and blood Jesus, lived on earth, died on the cross and rose from the grave to live evermore.
So what… this extraordinary man therefore bears following. He bears listening to today. He bears honouring as our Lord and Saviour. This real Jesus, the flesh and blood Jesus did all that is claimed of Him in the Gospels and is all that He claims to be. This should result in joy for us – because to find Jesus is to find life, to follow Jesus is to experience the destiny He has chosen for us.
Father, help me always to honour and obey you in your reality not in my imagining!
What is it that will make my joy complete? Certainly, I know some of the things that make me happy: Things like spending time with my loved ones, sharing stories with mates, playing with my young kids, starting new projects or hobbies, listening to great music or watching a good movie. Then there are the things that are satifying: Seeing a challenging task through to completion, deepening my knowledge and understanding of a topic, writing a song that really expresses something deep, fixing something up that was broken or finally finishing a long-term project.
But finding true joy that is not fleeting and not dependent on continually re-achieving goals or re-experiencing moments- that is something I really need.
This verse makes it clear to me that I can have this true joy simply by sharing my fellowship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and being a witness to the life and divinity of Jesus, who was with God since the beginning of time.
Lord, thank you that your word is plain regarding where I need to go to find true joy. God, help me to not only seek that joy but to hold on to it amidst the business of life, so that it will not be drowned out by all the distractions and temptations that I face day to day.