A Bell Curve

As I was meditating again this morning on this interchange in John 5 between Jesus and these unbelieving Jews who had such distorted ideas about God that they ended up hating Jesus Himself, I began to notice a familiar structure in the text that is very common throughout the Bible, particularly in the Greek New Testament portion. This structure is well known to Bible scholars and is called a chiasm which can be visually represented something like a pyramid or a bell curve.

This structure when observed in a passage can bring new understanding and light on the intentions and purpose of the writer and can enlighten a passage significantly. Although as read in the English translation, part of this curve seems to be out of place, it may be possible that in the original language it might be even more clear. But there are enough clues here to indicate at least to me that this may be how John wanted to show us something important here.

Chiastic writing is all throughout the Scriptures and is a very powerful tool to highlight the most important part of a passage. Unlike our style of writing where we often tend to reserve the most important things we want to say to the very end of what we are writing, chiastic structure puts the most important item right at the center or the highest peak of the curve and then arranges all the other supporting items in pairs that complement or contrast with each other. These pairs are thus related to each other by their relative position on the curve with one half of the pair on each side of the structure.

After thinking carefully about how this shape of writing might apply to this particular passage I came up with the following proposal which to me really helps to amplify just what John may be trying to highlight in this passage.

For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus,

because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.

But He answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working."

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.

Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself,

unless it is something He sees the Father doing;

for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

For the Father loves the Son,

and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these,

so that you will marvel. (John 5:16-20)

As I see this curve structure more clearly when arranged in this manner, it becomes evident to me that the main point of what John is trying to get across here is that the example of Jesus to us is to emphasize the fact that we cannot do anything of ourselves even though we are supposed to indeed seek to be just like God. Everything else that supports this main point is arranged in pairs split on each side of this central theme as I see it arranged here. So if the main words of each section were put in descending order for the pairs that they come in as written in this passage, it might look like the following list.

Instead of trying to make Himself equal with God through His own efforts, Jesus emphasizes that in actuality He is completely helpless. According to Paul's amplification of this theme in Philippians 2 this is by His own choice.

Then the supporting pairs follow this main point:

Jesus was simply imitating what He saw His Father doing on the Sabbath, which to the religious people appeared to be a violation of Sabbath laws according to their version of what was right and wrong.

Like Father, like Son in essence. This actually is the main point of two sets of the pairs.

In contrast to the Jews wishing they could kill Him, Jesus lived in a higher relationship with His Father in heaven who loved Him. That consciousness of love kept Him from becoming intimidated by the animosity of others. This motivation from living in the love of the Father is sandwiched securely in between multiple references to imitating the Father in everything Jesus did.

And lastly, even though the Jews were at that moment persecuting Jesus, He was stating that sooner or later they would find themselves marveling at Him whether or not they ever came to believe in or accept Him personally.

This whole supporting chiastic structure highlighting the kind of vital, intimate, dependent relationship that Jesus demonstrated in His life as the example we are to follow fits in perfectly with the main themes of the book of John. As I see it the main issue being addressed all throughout this book is that of belief and how we are to do it and what it might look like. This shows me what a relationship of belief can look like in the face of fierce opposition from people who insist that their views of God are more accurate than what God has revealed to my own heart and mind through the Scriptures and His Spirit.

In addition, this shows me even more clearly how vital it is to live in total trust and submission to the will of the Father so that no one around me and no circumstances can destabilize me and pull me away from a total dependence on God every moment of my life.

Heart Religion

Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner." (John 5:19)

Jesus had just been accused of both breaking the holy Sabbath day and of attempting to make Himself equal with God by calling God His Father. I have been trying to grasp what was possibly going on in the minds of these Jews that would cause them to have such a problem with calling God a Father. We are so used to referring to God as our Father in our Christian oriented culture that it seems almost bizarre to think that would be a problem to someone.

But this verse begins to unlock this mystery a little better for me. Evidently as implied by these words of Jesus, the Jews assumed that Jesus was trying to make Himself more important by His own efforts the same way they had been trying to do all of their life. They, just like us today, were trying to compare themselves and their lives with each other based on their professions of belief, their external achievements and any other number of criteria that would help them believe they had value and status with God.

Because of these innate assumptions that are a result of the false ideas we all inherit through sin, the Jews were using their standard ideas of life and godliness to measure Jesus the same way they measured themselves. They believed that God was carefully scrutinizing them to catch them messing up on the Sabbath, violating any of the meticulous laws or regulations they had put in place to keep God from getting upset about any infractions. They also could not fathom anyone daring to imply that God would ever want to have a close relationship with humans because of their deeply entrenched ideas about God being a stern Master more interested in punishments and intimidation than in anything else. Thus the notion that God might be a loving, caring, forgiving Father had become foreign to them.

We may think that we are now much more advanced in our views of God than were the Jews in Jesus' day, and in some ways I believe we might be. But we are certainly not exempt from clinging to equally pernicious lies about God that are suited to our particular culture or system of beliefs about religion. Our blind spots may be at times a little different than those of these Jews I am reading about but they are no less dangerous to distort and obscure the real message that Jesus came to reveal about the heart of the Father and how He feels toward each one of us.

Later in this book John goes much deeper into the words of Jesus regarding the kind of relationship that He wants us to have with Him. But at this point he begins to introduce us a little more to the radical idea that Jesus wants us to have a totally dependent connection with Him and with His Father that is very different than most of us have ever imagined.

Jesus came to this earth to demonstrate a number of things in human life. One of those was to show us what it looks like to live life like we were designed to live it – in total, joyful, humble submission to the only Source of life in the universe. Jesus never once depended on His own divinity to live a single moment of His life here on earth. He never performed a miracle on His own initiative in spite of what most people assume. Everything He did was initiated by His Father as was prompted by the Spirit of God dwelling in Jesus just the same way He wants us to live in total dependence on that very same Spirit to lead each one of us.

In addition to this important truth, Jesus also reveals here a vital concept that needs to be understood for us to be able to live the kind of life Jesus demonstrated. He spoke of seeing what the Father was doing instead of learning or knowing or some other means of communication. This clearly reveals and synchronizes with the fact that the control center of our brain is the right hemisphere. This is the part of the brain that does not deal in pragmatic, logical concepts but in emotions, creativity, intuition and our sense of identity.

This part of the brain does not learn from intellectual instruction but by imitation. Our right brain absorbs the attitudes and observes the spirit that motivates the people who have the most significant influence in our life. It learns to copy how others react under pressure or intense situations and falls back on emotional memories when under stress. A well matured right brain has also learned to respect the truths and facts stored in the left brain and allows the emotions to be regulated and guided by principles during times of stress, not suppressed by dogmatic rules and belief systems or given free reign to follow whatever our emotions impress us to do in moments of passion.

When Jesus speaks of seeing what His Father is doing, clearly He is not talking so much about physically seeing His Father as He is about staying in such close intimacy with His heavenly Father that His imagination and spirit can be instantly influenced by visual concepts stimulated at any given moment to know just how to respond during intense situations. Instead of depending on memorizing myriads of rules to know how to act in stressful circumstances, Jesus is stating here that a close relationship with God is the only safe protection against temptation and is the only reliable guide to keep one in harmony with God's will.

This in no way precludes our need to be very familiar with the Scriptures as a guide for our lives. Jesus had been brought up by His mother deeply immersed in the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit had employed that knowledge to reveal to Him His true identity over time. But the real power of Jesus life was that intimate connection that He had to maintain every day of His life staying very close to His heavenly Father so that nothing could interpose in His imagination and affections between Jesus and His Father. He allowed His imagination to be infused every morning with the presence of His loving Father and to flush out all the confusion of the world around Him so that He could start clean everyday in His ministry for fallen humanity.

This is one of the most neglected aspects of what it means to be a true Christian today. Many believe that if they study very hard and learn as many religious things as they can cram into their mind that they will somehow become right with God. But they miss the most important thing that makes them a true follower of Jesus – that daily, intimate heart connection with their loving, protecting, guiding Father in heaven. They fail to allow God into the heart area of their life, the right brain where their emotions are seated.

Many are terrified of allowing God into the emotional and vulnerable parts of their makeup because they have become convinced that God is more concerned with performance and doctrines than He is in intimate relationship. Many even believe that emotions should be ignored or even suppressed in order to please God and be a good Christian. But nothing could be further from the truth and they fall into one of the most subtle deceptions of the enemy. God is not against our emotions but wants to be the center of all of our emotions and affections. He does not want us to be controlled or guided by our emotions but neither does He intend for us to suppress or deny them.

Our emotions are very much like the gauges and indicators on the dashboard of any sort of vehicle. If a pilot were to ignore – or worse yet, to cover over – the dials and gauges on his panel, we would consider that pilot out of his mind and not qualified to operate an aircraft. We would be absolutely right in our assessment. But how often do we try to do the very same thing in our own relationship with God. Our emotions are God-given indicators that tell us about the condition of our spirit and it is extremely dangerous to ignore them.

Of course, it makes no sense in an aircraft to respond to warning lights or alarm messages from other gauges by trying to change the indicators themselves. That is simply absurd and is equally dangerous in our own experience relative to our emotions. We are not supposed to try to fix or suppress the symptoms by forcing our emotions to appear 'nice'. We need to learn what those indicators are trying to convey to us about the condition of our spirit and then develop the maturity to know what the real problems are that those indicators are revealing to us.

If we are learning to listen and respond to the promptings of the Spirit of God speaking to our spirit each moment, we will see that it is given to reveal to us the real roots that cause us to malfunction and cause our emotional indicators to mess up so often. Instead of ignoring or trying to suppress our God-given indicators we must learn to relate to them respectfully and know what the deeper issues are that lie below the surface. As we learn to relate to our right brain signals more effectively we will also find ourselves better able to hear the Spirit of God speaking to our souls. For I am convinced that the Spirit of God primarily touches the right side of our brain most of the time rather than speaking to our intellectual side.

One compelling reason I believe this is because the Bible speaks so often of our heart in relation to what God desires from us. And knowledge of anatomy has revealed that our literal heart is primarily connected to the right side of our brain far more than the left. I don't believe this is a coincidence at all. When God says He wants our hearts He is referring to both our heart and the emotional side of our makeup which is all inextricably linked together.

I can do nothing of myself. When we come to appreciate the real depth of meaning implied in these words we can come into much closer intimacy with God like that that Jesus enjoyed.

Confusion and Sabbath

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 keep coming back to this verse seeking to get deeper into the real issues that are found here. There are so many of them that it is difficult for me to move on past this without spending much more time here excavating and learning the many things about the real truth of God and of reality that can be discovered in this passage. I also see exposed some of the deep areas of deception that have become embedded in religion and that still remain firmly entrenched even in my own thinking that really need to be seen, challenged and expelled from my heart.

In these verses it becomes very clear that these Jews were deeply offended by Jesus and what He stood for as far as their beliefs about God were concerned. They were so offended that John states unequivocally that they wanted to kill Him. That is a pretty deep offense. They also quite clearly believed some things about Jesus' motives that were not true but that they were basing their opinions on, things that they refused to check out or ask Him about His side of the story before they jumped to such violent-prone conclusions.

It says here that they believed that Jesus was breaking the Sabbath and that Jesus was making Himself equal with God because He called God His Father or Daddy. Both of these things evidently were clearly wrong according to their version of religion and were so terribly that they felt anyone who clung to such 'heresies' deserved nothing less than death.

But as I have been noticing over the past few weeks, the real problems lay in their own version of what the Sabbath really means and their picture of God and how He wants His children to relate to Him. The more I think about these things the more I realize that they are actually much more intertwined that we might suppose at first.

When properly understood and appreciated the Sabbath and our relationship with God are really very close to one and the same thing. The Sabbath was given as one of the key elements of protecting and maintaining an intimacy with God that is vital to delivering us from the power of sin in our lives. When we fail to grasp the reality of what sin really is – a breakdown in our vital connection with the only Source of life in the whole universe, then we are set up to miserably mess up our conceptions of what the Sabbath is all about. We can easily slip into very defensive arguments about which day is the right one for the Sabbath or which church is the right one to attend on the Sabbath or what activities are allowed or disallowed on the Sabbath or any number of other fights we might like to engage in to defend our opnions about the Sabbath.

But all of these fall far short of the real purpose and meaning of the Sabbath day as designed by God from the very Creation of this world. As important and vital as it is to align ourselves properly on the right day that God wants to spend His most intimate time with us called the Sabbath, an obsession with arguing about the proper day that eclipses the relationship and intimacy that must take place during that day can actually cause more harm than good. Getting the timing right but missing the experience will do nothing to improve or strengthen a relationship that is nearly non-existent to start with.

These Jews found themselves in just that very trap. They had come to see the Sabbath as an external regulation that had to be 'kept' in very meticulous ways to appease the demands of a God who was ready to punish anyone who failed to live up to all of His demands for perfect outward performance. But as any person could tell you who has found themselves trapped in a marriage with someone more intent on using fear and force to get their spouse to satisfy their every whim but with little interest in sharing love and life together in humility and thriving in each other's love, relationship without intimate love and selfless expressions and actions is hardly worth the term if that relationship is only for external appearances.

People may be able to force themselves to put on appearances of a good marriage so that others will believe everything is wonderful in their home, but if the reality is not deep inside and their hearts are not experiencing genuine love and nurture and care for each other, the whole charade is worse than a sham, it can be outright hell on earth. Whether or not there is open violence in the home or whether the abuse is simply neglect of the needs and heart longings of the spouse, a supposed relationship without the intimacy of caring, compassion, humility and tender regard for the needs of the other above one's own needs is just a living arrangement hardly worth the name.

The very same applies to our attempts to 'keep' the Sabbath day holy when we resist the love and compassion and desire for intimacy that God longs for us to share with His heart as our loving Father. When our picture of God is skewed (and everyone of us has this problem), then our perception of what the Sabbath is all about is going to reflect those distortions to the same extent. Our ideas about Sabbath-keeping are going to reflect our concepts of God and how He feels about us and how He wants us to relate to Him.

This is the core reason why we are so similar to those Jews so long ago. We not only fail to grasp the true meaning and significance of the Sabbath as God gave it in Eden and again on Mt. Sinai but we all have been seriously tainted with the many lies about our loving Father that sin has infected all of humanity with over the centuries. Our lies about God infect our concepts of the Sabbath and all of it becomes intermingled. The Jews were deeply mired in confused thinking about God and the Sabbath and as a result when they encountered the very Author of the Sabbath day they could not recognize in Him anything familiar to what they believed about God in their version of Sabbath observance.

They, just like all of us tend to do, were judging Jesus and His radical ideas about God by their own entrenched beliefs about what God had to be like or how He treated sinners and 'good' people. They refused to let go of their firmly cherished beliefs that God was looking for good performance instead of a deep relationship. They could not tolerate any notion that God was desirous of an intimate, interactive, caring relationship of love and respect and creative interaction between Himself and His children designed in His own image. Instead they insisted that God was more interested in control like they wanted for themselves than in joyful interactions of love in perfect freedom.

Because their ideas about what the Sabbath was all about were so deeply distorted, it lead to the exposure of the related problems of their terribly distorted views of God that were directly linked to those beliefs. Since their version of God was all about control, fear, demands and performance, they felt it an insult to see anyone insinuating that God might want to share intimacy and openness with humans much like a genuinely happy and healthy marriage relationship would involve. Such ideas were totally scandalous to their way of thinking – and nothing has changed in the years since that time. Jesus' inferences that He treated God like His close friend and Daddy challenged their opinions – and ours – about how we are supposed to feel toward God and they could not stand such threats to their thirst for power and control over those under their religious dominance.

Radical Religion

For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. (John 5:20)

I have been listening to an audio version of a book the last few days that is having a profound impact on my thinking and perceptions. Much of what I am learning is not necessarily new to me; much of it has been coming more clearly into my consciousness over the past few years. But this author is putting many things together into one place that allows me to see how much of this all fits together so much more clearly than I have been able to perceive before.

The book is called So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore by Jake Colsen. I don't know how many may have heard of this book, but if you have read it I suspect it probably either makes you very compelled to rethink a great deal of assumptions about your relationship with God or it may well have made you very upset. Either way, I doubt you could ever think quite the same about religion as how you thought before being exposed to this book.

The author's perceptions about God and his insights about God's character and desires for His children is refreshingly advanced from what nearly everyone else projects that I am aware of. His picture of God challenges many of the dark assumptions that religions teach and instill in the hearts of billions of people today. But I am seeing a growing movement everywhere that is being inspired by the Spirit of God that is going to ultimately expose the incredible glory of the real truth about God to the whole earth that is foretold in the first few verses of Revelation 18.

Jesus was in the business of doing that very same thing. He came to this earth to reveal the truth about how God relates to us in sharp contrast to the terribly distorted notions and teachings of the religious elite and those in power. As a result of this distinct difference in Jesus' view of God and that of the religious leaders, He found Himself in ever increasing conflict and tension with those who resisted His clear messages of love and life. This passage is one of the clear examples of the stark difference between the dark views of God cherished by most religions and the almost unbelievable message of God's goodness and desire for close intimacy with His children as taught by the very Son of the Highest.

Earth-bound religions generally view God as rather distant and ineffective or possibly very close but angry and vengeful when disobeyed. Either way, the whole notion of having a healthy, loving relationship with a caring Father as Jesus portrayed in these verses struck the religious people of His day as totally out of line with nearly everything they believed about God. And because they were more keen on justifying and clinging to their own beliefs about how God should relate to people through power, threats, inducements and favoritism instead of the way Jesus related to people, they refused to embrace the very love and grace that is so necessary for a sinner to come close to God to be transformed by His love deep in their hearts.

The reason that the Jews had such a hard time accepting most everything that Jesus had to say or reveal about the Father was because of their deeply entrenched views of God that they would not question in their own hearts. As a result they had lost sight completely of the whole reason that God gave the Sabbath to humanity in the first place and had substituted God's intention of spending that time together to enhance the intimacy of a personal relationship with strict external regulations that tended to suffocate all possibility of any such intimacy every happening. Likewise, their pictures of God as a stern judge and punisher of those who sinned or strayed from the straight and narrow precluded any view of God as a loving parent eager to nurture and mature His children into healthy adulthood and close friendship with their heavenly Parents. Any such notions were viewed as threats that would likely undermine their whole system of religious dominance over many other people and would expose their own thirst for power and the pride that filled their own lives.

But Jesus refused to soften His purpose to bring light into the gross darkness of this world's ignorance about the true God, our Father in heaven. He refused to accommodate our confused teachings and control mechanisms that keep people in fear of Father God but instead openly spoke of a loving, caring, passionate Father who is so different than what most people have ever considered that it appeared downright scandalous to most. That is the very same message that I am getting from this book we have been listening to as well. And just like the reactions that came from the religious enforcers of Jesus' day I suspect that many today will react with anger and view this book as a threat that will undermine much of the systems in place today if it gets into the hands of too many people.

But God will not be kept inside our little boxes for very long. The glory of God and the truth about His goodness and unconditional love for us will overwhelm every obstacle and every teaching set up against it and will ultimately triumph over all the lies of the enemy that permeates all of our hearts still today. Jesus is the only true representation of how God feels about lost sinners and as I carefully meditate on His example and teachings in these passages I continue to marvel at how different His message is from what religion has taught me all of my life.

From these words of Jesus I can see that even though people may resist the truths that Jesus reveals about God that those very truths will inevitably cause all of us to marvel sooner or later. Love will overcome in the end no matter how many millions of lies the enemy piles up against Him. The false representations of God promoted by every religious organization on earth cannot suppress the living fact that God is passionately pursuing a close, personal and intimate connection with each one of our hearts. He is deeply desirous that we allow His Holy Spirit to be the steering force from deep inside and that we will allow that Spirit to transform us more and more so that others will become attracted to experience the same kind of joy that they sense in our lives. I want to have that experience of joy much more comprehensively myself so that others will be drawn to want to get to know God for themselves and enter into a deeper trust relationship with the One who loves them and wants to satisfy them like no one else could ever do.