INCARNATION 11: A STUDY IN THE BOOK OF JOHN JOHN 17 December 6, 2015 This week a new version of an old story was released yet again. Macbeth has been shown and re- shown dozens of times. It has been reimagined and re- released countless times in its over 400 year history. Something about this story has intrigued people for centuries. The Cliffs Notes version is this: Macbeth is a general who is led to believe he will become king. This leads him on a murderous spree of violence to acquire and maintain his rule. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are in cahoots as they endeavor to acquire and maintain the kingdom at all costs. As it turns out, the costs are quite high. As the story unfolds, Macbeth and his queen s souls are chipped away as they are driven mad by their crimes and consolidation of power. As the story progresses, it becomes clear the only way to maintain this kingdom is by force. It becomes clear blood begets blood, and that blood begets madness. Overcome with guilt and madness, we find Lady Macbeth sleepwalking and struggling with their crimes when she says those iconic words, trying to literally wash away figurative blood when she says, Out damn spot. The stain of what she has done has overwhelmed her, and she is left madly scrubbing a stain that will never come clean. After all of the violence, revenge and consolidation of power, the story comes to a painful end. The queen has died, and the king finally sees what his work has wrought. In one of the most memorable speeches in the story, you see a man at the end of himself. She would have died later anyway. That news was bound to come someday. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. The days creep slowly along until the end of time. And every day that s already happened has taken fools that much closer to their deaths. Out, out, brief candle. Life is nothing more than an illusion. It s like a poor actor who struts and worries for
his hour on the stage and then is never heard from again. Life is a story told by an idiot, full of sound and fury but devoid of meaning. Macbeth looks at his stained kingdom, built upon violence, and he realizes he has become a complete nihilist. Nothing matters. Tomorrow is coming and it brings no meaning. All men die. He has seen so much violence and perpetrated so much violence that he is utterly wrecked. Stripped down to his core. Macbeth is despairing and hopeless when he looks at tomorrow. Tomorrow will be more of the same. Things won t change. The bloody stain will remain. There will be noise and fury, and it will all be for naught. If you re like me, you might be able to relate to Macbeth. Looking at 2015, in the beginning, it was filled with a promise of a lot of great tomorrows, but those tomorrows turned into yesterdays full of mass shootings and war. It turned into a year full of violence and revenge. It turned into a year with problems seemingly impossible to solve, geopolitical messes that led to more messes and the stain of terrorists foreign and domestic. The stain of systemic injustice in which many are killed based on the color of their skin. The stain of cops killing citizens and citizens killing cops. We are all left with the stain and maybe in our sleep, saying, Out damn spot. The hope of tomorrow can quickly become the dread of today. What will become of our country? Who will solve our problems? I don t know if you saw this but amidst the mess, two things especially caught my attention. In the wake of Paris, then Colorado Springs, then San Bernardino, people began to fight over what to do tomorrow. Many politicians communicated that their prayers were with those who experienced several of the recent tragedies. Then a major newspaper responded with a front- page headline, God isn t fixing this. Something is happening in our culture. People have seen calamity and an ugly world full of violent yesterdays, and they are fighting over the right way to approach tomorrow. Kingdoms are colliding, and there are no clear answers. Endless statistics are used from both sides of the aisle for reform. Then counterpoints are used from the same statistics. Our
country is at a stalemate, and we are all looking at the stain on our hands and wandering what tomorrow will look like. On the final night of his life, another king saw the stain and he looked at tomorrow. Like Macbeth, Jesus is facing the final hours of his life but unlike Macbeth he doesn t see despair but hope. He sees a solution in the tension, and it has nothing to do with policy. Jesus sees our messy world, and he prays about tomorrow for us. John 17: 14-18 Jesus sees the stain, and he knows the mess. In his short amount of time in a small region some 2,000 years ago, he saw the problem latent in all places in all times. He faced feuding religious officials, he faced corrupt government officials, he saw oppression, rejection, death and injustice on a large scale. He saw human frailty and our penchant for violence. He saw hunger and sickness. He saw loved ones die. He saw all of this wrapped up into one intractable big mess. So he prayed for us. He sees the problem with the world. He sees a problem for all of the foreseeable tomorrows, so he prayed for us. While his prayer is conceptual, it is also quite tangible. In the midst of ISIS, in the midst of climate change, in the midst of shootings, in the midst of disease and in the midst of famine, I want you to see that Jesus has a plan. A prayer and a plan for how his kingdom should look. Jesus starts with the simple prayer not that we be taken out of this world but protected from the evil one. That specific and yet vague premise will drive us forward today. In a few short hours, Jesus will be sentenced to death, and he will make a bold proclamation as a king for his kingdom. He will say that his kingdom is not of this world. That is a bizarre statement for people living in this world, and just as bizarre as the premise of staying here in this broken world and yet somehow not being corrupted by it.
Jesus sees what tomorrow holds for him, and it informs how he thinks tomorrow will look for us. The heart of his message is the idea that somehow we are in this world but not caught up in it. We are a part of this earthly realm but citizens of a heavenly kingdom. How do we do that? This last week, I got to visit a different kind of kingdom. One ruled, ostensibly, by a mouse. Yes, I took my children to the happiest place on earth, Disneyland. Our biggest conundrum of the week wasn t whether to let them ride certain rides or whether they should stuff their faces with sweet treats. Our biggest conundrum comes with a repeated question of the week, a question that comes up with every costumed character. Both of our children looked at Mickey and Chip and Dale and Goofy and asked multiple times, Dad, is he real? They see reality, and they are filtering it through what they know. Their worlds are colliding. What they have seen on TV is now in front of them, but it has a zipper down the back, and they are asking, Dad, is this real? They didn t realize it, but they were struggling with the same struggle of John 17 and 18. Jesus prays not that we leave this world but stick in it. At the same time, he says his kingdom is not of this world. That leaves Christians with the same conundrum, Dad, is this real? If heaven is all that matters, then we are sometimes left with apathy. Violence, injustice, disease are simply part of this dying world. This world is corroding from the inside out and sin is breaking it down. Conversely, we can look down further when Jesus says he is sending us into this world. Eternity matters. Now matters. Your mission is living like they both matter. When Jesus mentions this world and his otherworldly kingdom, it is not a value statement of one mattering and the other not. It is not a statement about isolating or immersing yourself in this physical world. I believe Jesus statements about this world and the world to come, about the kingdom of this world and the world that will be, he is not negating one reality over the other. He is not
advocating for one over the other, because as you know, what happens here is directly connected to what will happen there. Our faith and actions in this kingdom are directly connected to the kingdom of God. It is not a false dichotomy of this world or the world to come. It s all about living in this world like someone from another world. It s about living in this American kingdom like a citizen of the heavenly kingdom. It s about counterintuitive, countercultural lives as a resistance movement. That s why what Jesus says next is so important. John 17: 20-23 May they be one as we are one. Jesus is praying that our unity will look like the unity of the Trinity. That the appeal of the interconnectedness and interdependence of the Trinity would be manifest in us, that we would be so connected to one another and to the Father and to Jesus that our unity would point to another kingdom. This, of course, has been the driving premise for our study in the book of John. We have called this the vicarious economy of love. The way we love each other relates to our love of God. The way we love God relates to our love of each other. Jesus takes that to its furthest progression. The way we relate to one another will make us otherworldly. The way we treat sinners and saints alike will illuminate how God relates to us. We have said this time and again in this series; we are studying the Incarnation of Jesus in this world but also the overlooked premise that we are God incarnate in this world. When Jesus promises the Holy Spirit and calls us to go into the world, he is commanding us to be God s hands and feet in this world, to be Jesus with skin on to hurting and broken people. The suggestion here is bold. The number one way we can straddle these two worlds is to be in this world but not of it. It goes to our motivations and our actions. The way we love people and promote unity will be the number one indicator of God in our lives.
This is not just about not fighting. Obviously, if you have seen children fighting in the grocery story and then looked at the pained expression of their parents, you know how detrimental fighting between children can be and how poorly it reflects upon the parents. Beyond that, its not just avoiding fighting, it is proactive unity. It is proactive love in the midst of adversity. When Jesus looks at tomorrow, he is going to show them the ultimate love of God by the ultimate act of love for other men and women. Jesus will go to the cross. Unjustly and unfairly he will go to the cross for crimes he did not commit. In fact, in John 15, he says this is the ultimate act of love. He says there is no greater love. He is going to love God by loving them, and then he says to love each other, saints and sinners alike, in this way. In fact, Jesus is looking at his tomorrow and he sees that damn spot. He knows we would never get it out on our own. Back in the Garden of Eden, the stain of sin came upon all of us and from the beginning, mankind has been trying to scrub it out. From the beginning, after sinning, Adam and Eve hid and realized they were naked. They covered their nakedness with fig leaves. God said, Not like that. Your solution is temporary and flimsy. He sheds blood and covers them up with the skin of an animal. Millennia later, mankind was still offering fig leaf solutions to bloody problems, so Jesus came. He goes to the cross to show love and to fix all of our tomorrows. He says, Have unity and show love like I have shown love. People will know you are mine with that type of unity and that type of love. Offer yourself up for other people. That s why what happens after Jesus prayer is so potent. John 18:1-11 Peter picks up the sword. He sees the earthly kingdom crumbling, he sees the Rabbi being taken hostage, so he picks up the sword. He offers his own fig leaf solution, violent and forceful. Jesus says, Not like that. My kingdom is not of this world. Not that it s not for this
world, but it doesn t operate like this world does, by force and by violence. Jesus says, Not like that. Jesus says, I have a cup to drink. I can see my tomorrow and it will change all of your tomorrows. I am paving a way back for the salvation of souls and the changing of hearts. I have seen that insidious spot, and I am going to do something about it. All of your tomorrows should be changed by that. Now we come to our tomorrow. Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. Our near tomorrows will have ISIS and global coalitions to stop it, and like Al Qaeda before it, ISIS will soon fall. Just like Al Qaeda, something will come after it. Our near tomorrows will have other geopolitical messes that lead people to leave their country in search of better lives in other countries. Like the current setting, some will say no, some will say yes and there will ultimately be another country with citizens who need refuge. Our tomorrow will have human trafficking and economic injustice. Some policies will stop it, and then it will crop up in a new form. Our tomorrows on earth will be filled with an endless cycle of success and then setback. Our tomorrows on earth will be marked by great hope, then despair and then hope again. As long as broken people populate our world, our tomorrows will ultimately lead to tension- filled yesterdays. In one sense, Macbeth is right. Tomorrows keep coming. Time keeps marching on and the same patterns continue to emerge. The difference between that Shakespearean king and our messianic king is that one- day, our tomorrows will land us in his presence. Only there, will we find lasting hope and joy. Then, the battle will be over and the war will be won. When Jesus prayed for us, he knew what we would be facing. He knew what all of the tomorrows would face, and he called us to be in this world but not acting like it. Countercultural and counterintuitive, he called us to live like citizens already in the world to come. Free from fear, free from doubt, free from despair. Living like the victory is already at hand. Loving all people, saints and sinners alike. Trusting that God will bring about change. Trusting that God will bring victory.
The play, Macbeth, is often not spoken of by those who put it on. Historically, many performances of Macbeth have been seemingly cursed with bad luck, or that is how the story goes. So most theater troops will not call the play by its proper name but rather they will call it that Scottish play. They won t call him Macbeth but instead simply The Scottish King or The Scottish Lord. In a similar fashion, the idea of sin has gone out of vogue. It s a curse we don t like to talk about. We don t like to talk about it, and the unbelieving world really doesn t like to talk about it. If they don t want to talk about sin, then they definitely don t want to talk about the need for a savior, that Jewish King, that Lord from Nazareth. But without him, all we have is a Macbeth world, counting off tomorrows until the candle is snuffed out. That Jewish king gave us a whole new view on tomorrow. Tomorrow is not the end. While one world may be complete, the next has only just begun. If our ultimate tomorrow is eternity, then it should change what we do here and now. We should love all people, saints and sinners alike. We should show them counterintuitive acts of grace and mercy. We should love them like God through Jesus has loved us. Let s go out today and change someone else s tomorrow.