Issue 394
This series is being first broadcast in Autumn/Fall 2011. Some references will be made to global events of that year.
What is behind the Arab Spring and subsequent uprisings? Why has my city of London seen days of riots? Why are Indians in uproar over corruption in their economy? Why is America deeply divided politically and socially? Why are Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain facing acute financial meltdown? Why are millions in trouble and on the move in the horn of Africa?
These are huge questions and they are mirrored by your personal questions. Why are you in financial meltdown? Why are you stressed? Why do you experience an uprising in your spirit? Why do you feel like you could riot, when faced with the banking or phone systems, and regulations? Why are you a divided self and why are you on the move?
This summer has seen politicians rushing back home from holidays and vacations to address national, civic and global challenges. Law-makers and law-enforcers have been wielding their intellectual and wooden batons to encourage people to conform.
The press (remember them – the ones who hack your phone?) are pouring out editorial diagnoses and proposing answers for our troubles and strife.
Political, social, academic and religious commentators have tweeted, blogged, orated and broadcast a dazzling array of answers, while many just turn to food, drugs, alcohol, pleasure and work to attempt an easing of the mind.
At this point I want to make a suggestion. It’s seems to be rather unhelpful to simply proclaim ‘Jesus is the answer’ in the face of all these issues. It runs the risk of coming across as arrogant, patronizing or glib. It seems to me, there is an approach that Jesus himself took, which will help us explore these matters at a profound level. That approach is found in John’s gospel. Not just inside the gospel, but via the whole of the book.
Stay with me on this. To understand John’s gospel, you and I need to go back to the third saying of our Lord from the cross. Jesus said ‘Dear woman, here is your son’. And to John ‘Here is your mother’. John himself tells us that from that time on, he took Mary into his home. In that act of obedience, John is telling us that Mary, the mother of Jesus became his house guest, in honour of his best friend and in honour of her status as his mother.
Now please tell me – do you think that when John set about writing his gospel, he did not consult deeply with the one person on the planet who knew Jesus better than any other while she was under his roof? In John’s gospel we have a collaboration of Jesus’ best friend and his mother, as they tenderly honour his memory with their account. So you can be sure you have more than in any of the other three gospels, a male and female perspective on Jesus of Nazareth. We will consider this as we explore.
When they finally produce their labour of love, what are the first words they let us hear from the mouth of the central character? There are just four: ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?’
Come full circle with me, back to the Arab Spring and all our other issues. I am suggesting you will be able to understand our challenges if we bring these four words from Jesus to them. ‘What do you want?’ It is one of the most profound questions we have to answer in our entire lives. My proposition is that Jesus is the question. In the face of today’s world, I am further proposing that under the guidance of the Spirit, we collaborate with these two most intimate followers and let the words of this question illuminate his story.
In this series, we will see how the whole of John’s gospel explores that one question ‘What do you want?’ We will travel with Jesus North, South, East and West of Israel into homes, businesses, temples and individuals, seeing how that question defines the dance of life. We will explore it as the Spirit has ordered it and we will give special attention to the workplace focus. When we are done, we will have a multipart series, covering the whole of John’s gospel, using Jesus’ question to help us see.
So before we go any further, please allow Jesus (not me, not anyone else) to ask you ‘What do you want?’
John 1:37
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
John 19:25-27
25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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