Example of Facing Resistance

For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. (John 5:18)

I am starting to see even more in this text each time I come back to look at it. I see three accusations embedded in this verse that sometimes show up in the lives of those who choose to follow Jesus in their own experience and that have the potential to create confusion at times.

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  Jesus was accused of breaking the Sabbath, even though in reality He did not ever do that.
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  Implied in the next accusation was that it is wrong to call God your Father for some reason. In Jesus' case they wanted to amplify the questionable circumstances surrounding His birth supposedly proving that He was an illegitimate child born out of wedlock and therefore should be viewed with great shame.
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  Implied in the last accusation is that if we call God our Father that we are somehow trying making ourselves equal with God, grasping for power and greatness for ourselves.

Whether or not any of these things can be proven to be true or not, the real issue is more the attitude and assumptions of the accusers, not whether or not their statements may be factually correct. Also, more importantly is the attitude and reaction of the person being thus accused. For though it is impossible to avoid being accused of things based on circumstances that may be used by someone eager to discredit us, our reaction to those accusations and innuendos is the only thing we have control over and are responsible for in the long run.

Just this morning I read some very relevant counsel along these lines in both of the devotional books that I am currently reading. This one from Oswald Chambers was so powerful and relevant for what is going on in my life right now that I had to read it two times to try to let it sink deeper into my own heart.

The only way a worker can keep true to God is by being ready for the Lord’s surprise visits. It is not service that matters, but intense spiritual reality, expecting Jesus Christ at every turn. This will give our life the attitude of child-wonder which He wants it to have. If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious (that is, using religion as a higher kind of culture) and be spiritually real.

If you are looking off unto Jesus, avoiding the call of the religious age you live in, and setting your heart on what He wants, on thinking on His line, you will be called unpractical and dreamy; but when He appears in the burden and the heat of the day, you will be the only one who is ready. Trust no one, not even the finest saint who ever walked this earth, ignore him, if he hinders your sight of Jesus Christ. (My Utmost for His Highest, March 29 emphasis mine)

In both my current circumstances in my local church and also in the intensity of what is taking place in my new business, I am faced with an urgency to keep my mind and heart free of anything that will draw me away from the presence of Jesus or leave me unprepared to encounter Him when He might show up unexpectedly. I have been making repeated choices to make God the center of my business activities and also my relationship with the church. This has at times set me on a collision course with others who consider being religious more important than being spiritually real. The conflicts are far from over but they do create enormous pressure many times to conform to what is considered norm instead of living life as what many consider to be impractical or even dreamy.

I can see each of these accusations that were directed at Jesus showing up in various ways again in my own life as I try to follow His example of focusing more on His Father than on conforming to religious expectations. I may or may not be accused of breaking the Sabbath, but my whole view of what it really means to be a Christian is very much a controversial issue in the eyes of many around me.

Likewise, the growing emphasis in my own life of focusing more on developing an intimate relationship with God as the most important thing a person should do as a Christian is eliciting resentment in the hearts of some people who believe that I am getting distracted from what they consider more important topics. And the last accusation leveled against Jesus in this verse though totally baseless was rooted in plain jealousy and evil surmising springing up in hearts that wanted to avoid feeling conviction because they felt exposed and threatened themselves.

It is in those times that there is great temptation to back away and try to soften the testimony of what I have been convicted of in my own heart by the Spirit of God who has been drawing me deeper into God's presence over the past few years. I sense that maybe my emphasis of being more accountable to God personally than trying to conform to traditions and dogmas of a church body is raising fears and resistance in the hearts of some who feel they are losing control over people that I am influencing by my testimony. It is at this point that I need to be reminded of who I am going to consider the most reliable authority of what is real and true in my own life.

Jesus stated that it is impossible that offenses will not come into our lives. I suppose that it should not be a surprise then that offenses are occurring in my relationship with the local church or even in my business relationships, but I also am forced to take a very hard look to examine my own motives to see if some of that offense might be caused by real faults and weaknesses in my own character. I don't want to fall into the trap of believing that my own belligerence is somehow a badge of godliness like I have observed too often in other people's experience. I want to keep myself in the presence of God and to maintain an attitude of humility while at the same time knowing that this example of Jesus in the face of intense criticism is the example of how I am to relate to similar circumstances in my own experience.