Meditations in the Time of the Virus

How Does Jesus Look at Us?

It's a good question to ask. What is our relationship from Jesus' perspective?

A lot of people outside the Church might figure it is a matter of us needing to be obedient followers, His people, servants of an almighty God. Even within the Church many Christians simply live with the ideas of obedience, repentance, service, worship and more obedience.

So it is tremendously when we have words and language from Jesus that points to different and much fuller ideas. There are a few wonderful ones.

It was Thursday of Holy Week, getting ready to go to the Garden and be arrested, and Jesus was talking with His disciples. He said, "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing: but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you." (John 15:15) Friends spend time together, and it is not because they have to. They enjoy each other's company. Jesus came to call and to make us His friends. When He was praying before being arrested, He said, "Father, I want them (those You have given Me) to be with Me ..." (John 17:24)

What was it like to be with Jesus, in between the miracles and healings? We know that crowds gathered around, and that children were drawn to Jesus. Peter got to walk on water. Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding at Cana. And he described the Father's house using the words "music and dancing".

There is another phrase from Jesus -- "My brothers". On the first Easter Jesus told Mary Magdalene to "go to My brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father ..." (John 20:17) But that was not the first time the language and idea "My brothers" had come around.

The most vivid actually is connected with the cross, woven into the 4th word. You might remember, the 4th word is the beginning of Psalm 22, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" In a previous devotion I shared about the later verses from the Psalm, Jesus believing the promises and looking forward to the victory. Verse 22 says, "In the midst of the congregation I will praise You."

But notice how Psalm 22:22 starts out! "I will tell of Your name to My brothers." There it is! Right in the middle of the hours on the cross Jesus was thinking about us as "My brothers." It isn't language of "lording it over" others. It's family language, where at least in one way Jesus sees Himself as one of us and sees us as a huge family of brothers. Could it be that God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, has so far stooped down that He in certain ways walks among us as just one of us?

There are other places where the Bible says this. "Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect." (Hebrews 2:17) "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14) "When the fullness of time had come God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." (Galatians 4:4-5) And Romans 8 talks about God the Father intending that we should be "conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn of many brothers." (Romans 8:29)

There is a question we sometimes ask and answer in Church. Is Jesus the one we worship, or the one who leads our worship? The answer is "Yes! Because He is both! He is both God and man, our God and Savior, and one of us."

What will it be like to have eternity to be with "God-who-is-one-of-us"? With Jesus who is truly our brother and our friend? Good and sweet. It will be even better than walking with Him all over the holy land and even (cough, Peter, cough) on the sea of Galilee.

Lord Jesus, thank You for calling me your friend and brother, and for Your wonderful desire to have me be with You in Your kingdom, doing all the cool things that happen when God is my BFF, and having all of that actually and really be forever. Thank You for paying the price to make that happen. Amen.
​

---