A place that has to be believed to be seen

Again the Jews were divided because of these words. Many of them were saying, "He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him?" Others were saying, "These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?" At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."

Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand. The Father and I are one." The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus replied, "I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?"

The Jews answered, "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God."

Jesus answered, "Is it not written in your law, "I said, you are gods'? If those to whom the word of God came were called "gods'—and the scripture cannot be annulled—can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, "I am God's Son'? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."

Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. Many came to him, and they were saying, "John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true." And many believed in him there.

- John 10:19-42

It must have been so frustrating for Jesus to hold out a vision of God’s love that was so liberating and watch so many people reject it. We have a very hard time believing God could love us so much! Yet, as Jesus says, nobody can snatch his sheep from his hand. In spite of everything, Jesus always held out a vision of hope. We’re nearing the end. Walk on, Jesus—walk on.

Music for Holy Week is here.

I'm free to decide

Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 – Romans 6:12-23

At first this passage may seem like a scary bit of Orwellian doublethink: slavery is freedom. But consider that Paul is constrasting two different types of slavery: slavery to that which is not God, and slavery to God. Slavery to the other is true slavery: we are controlled by our moment-to-moment urges regardless of the consequences. We might score a victory of willpower here or there, but ultimately, we can’t escape human nature. We will screw up again.

What Paul calls being “enslaved to God,” he’s not talking about slavery at all, but rather, freely chosen obligation. Am I enslaved to my family? Only if I view my lifelong commitments to them as a loathsome burden—which I may do in a moment of weakness, but certainly not over the long haul.

It’s the same with God. If I understand myself to have been forgiven for everything I’ve ever done wrong and ever will do wrong, I have a choice. I can take advantage of God’s generosity by doing whatever I feel like, regardless of how it may hurt others. But if I do, this will enslave me and strain my relationship with the all-forgiving God. On the other hand, I can do my best, knowing that my best is never perfect, and be in relationship with God and the people in my life day by day. Either way, I’m forgiven. But this way leads to happiness. What good is forgiveness without happiness?

Many Christians concern a lot of their time with how these dynamics play out in an “afterlife.” I don’t know about an afterlife, but I am counting on some sort of “outside life,” not chronologically later than my time on earth, but at a remove from it in both space and time. If we can indeed meet God face to face, I want to have been communicating with God during my time on earth. I figure I’ll find it easier to recognize and understand God when the time—er, when the not-time—comes. But in the meantime, I’m “Free to Decide.” Here are the Cranberries.