Living or Existing?

Jesus said to him, "Go; your son lives." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off. As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living. (John 4:50-51)

The word that attracts my attention this morning is the word live. I decided to look up this word to find its definition and then observe a number of places where it is used to get some sense of its related meaning. Technically speaking the son of this royal official who came to Jesus could have been said to be living all the time that he was sick right up to the point of death. A skeptical mind could have easily reasoned this and made room for a little doubt about the real meaning of Jesus' words. But then by this time the royal official already saw the effect of his doubting heart on his situation and chose to turn away from that way of reasoning toward the kind of believing that would allow Jesus to do whatever Jesus wanted to do.

Maybe my own mind is far too experienced in using logic and reason to analyze words and motives behind what people say – I am sure it might be. But at the same time, without stepping into the atmosphere of a doubting spirit I sometimes find it quite affirming for my relationship with God to consider the real meaning of words and phrases from a critical perspective (logically speaking, not in a spirit of doubting criticism). As I carefully analyze and search for the true meaning of words, particularly in the Word of God and the stories of Jesus, I often uncover beautiful, rich revelations of meaning that greatly enhance and strengthen my growing appreciation of what God is really all about.

I think it is obvious that Jesus would never play mind games with someone in this sort of situation by being technically accurate in words while holding out on this man's heart and what he really yearned for Jesus to do. But at the same time Jesus saw the necessity of challenging and exposing the deceptive nature of the logic and reasoning infected by unbelief in the people all around Him who were used to living in a world full of double-talk. God does not try to use words to trick us like many of us often do with each other. The nature of the kind of belief that John is so intent on revealing to us in this book is all about transparency, honesty and revealing the real truth about God.

Jesus is intent on also bringing us into the same kind of honesty that describes how God lives. So when Jesus says to this man that his son lives, implied in these words is much more than simply that his son has not yet died. In another story of healing interestingly similar to this one, it is seen that healing and living are not necessarily assumed to be the very same thing.

One of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up, and on seeing Him, fell at His feet and implored Him earnestly, saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live." (Mark 5:22-23)

This may seem like splitting hairs to many, and maybe it is. But I find inspiration at times in some of the smallest details that contain rich insights into how God relates to us. One reason that I wanted to research this word was because I believe that God wants far more for me than just to exist, to live in the most restricted sense of the word. A prisoner may be alive but would not be very willing to say with enthusiasm that he really lives. It has become apparent that governments train people in how to torture suspects in ways to keep them living while it could hardly be said that this kind of living would qualify as the definition of being truly alive.

Technically, to live could be considered to be anywhere on a scale from enjoying total freedom filled with unspeakable joy, totally fulfilled and valuable and loved all the way down to living on the very edges of death while suffering extreme agony not only of body but also of spirit and soul, ravaged by physical pain and emotional guilt, fear, distress and terror. Given this very wide range of potential descriptions of what it might technically mean to live, I think it is reasonable to ask where on this spectrum Jesus was referring to when He said to people that someone lived?

What picture or expectation did Jesus have in His own mind that He also wanted this man to believe concerning his son when Jesus said that the son 'lives'? I am confident that He was not thinking just about the fact that he had not yet died. But on the other extreme I also don't believe that He was referring to this man's son as living in the sense of all who will enjoy life who live in heaven with Jesus after being rescued from this sinful mess of a world at the Second Coming. This son was close to the bottom of the spectrum of what we think it means to live and Jesus clearly wanted this father to trust in His word that his son lived and to believe something far better than that his son was simply not yet dead.

What I am seeking to discern here is where on this spectrum of what it means to be alive was Jesus referring to on these occasions when He asked people to believe that a loved one or friend would be O.K. and would live, not die? Since it seems evident that He was not referring to them moving into the kind of life of eternal bliss and joy that we will enjoy in heaven and He was also not referring to the minimum existence of simply having a pulse, what should we think when Jesus says that someone lives? And what effect can that belief have in our own lives right now today?

What keeps coming to my mind through all of this is the concept embodied in the word thrive. This word fascinates me, especially at the heart level. To thrive, at least in my thinking, is not just to exist or live physically but carries the connotation of feeling much of what God designed me to be, at least as much as possible while remaining in this sinful world before the Second Coming of Jesus. I don't have the privilege of being able to examine or even interrogate any of the people that Jesus healed or resurrected to life in His day, but given the evidence recorded in the Bible, whenever Jesus healed someone that healing seemed to restore them to at least what we would consider normal functioning of their body if not better.

To thrive conveys with it the idea of feeling fully alive, of having energy and alertness and alacrity. When the crippled man at the temple was healed through the ministry of Peter and John a few years after this, he was so alive that he greatly disturbed the peace of the temple by leaping around like an excited little child he was so happy. Likewise, I have to imagine that when blind people were healed by Jesus they very likely spent an inordinate amount of time feasting their eyes on everything they could see, particularly beautiful things and the faces of their loved ones. And they likely did this far more than the average person would ever likely do. The dumb were probably the loudest in shouting and even singing the praises of God. The list could go on, but what seems to be inherent in the act of healing was the potential for that person not only to have restored function but to have far more appreciation than most of the people around them for whatever it was they did not have before.

But that now exposes a new arena of thought that maybe we seldom consider. Does our lack of appreciation and enthusiasm for life, for sight, for healthy legs and arms or other body parts or capacities indicate a level of sickness that is not so evident to us because it seems so normal, so typical? Are we in fact far more sick than we ever imagine and as a result feel little need of desiring to be healed? Can it be accurately said of us that we honestly feel that we are thriving? Or does that word make us squirm a little bit and seem to be quite a stretch as an accurate definition of what might describe our life? Are we thriving in life or are we far more often just coping?

When our bodies or even our minds and hearts are obviously sick it seems much easier for most of us to realize our need of healing and our lack of a sense of thriving. But does our averageness with those around us cause us to be blinded to the fact that the kind of existence we experience is in desperate need of healing and new life for ourselves? Is this condition of assuming that everything is O.K. when actually we are not really thriving but are just deceived about our true condition – is this blindness of the soul possibly the greatest sickness that is only unmasked during times of crisis when the true condition of our hearts suddenly bursts out into the open unexpectedly?

For you say, 'I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.' You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. (Revelation 3:17-18 NRSV)