Terri Schiavo and Dependence on Jesus
A lot of people are angry about Terri's fight. They are angry that she is not allowed to be fed. They're angry that she is basically being forced to starve to death. Other people aren't angry. They're indifferent. Or they think it's right or good for her to die.
What most people wouldn't realize about the Terri Schiavo case is that everyone in the whole world is like Terri. See, Terri is looked at as special because she can't feed herself but rather needs someone to feed her. But we're no different. People think they aren't like Terri. They think that they feed themselves and have self-purposing power over their lives. People think that they can depend on themselves, or a world system, or something else that is human or made by humans to get by. But this is arrogance against Jesus the Lord who makes all of life. We are all totally dependent on Jesus for life and breath and everything. Therefore we are all on feeding tubes like Terri though we may not see them or feel them or know them and thus become arrogant against Jesus in our own conceit.
A lot of people are calling the end of Terri's fight an execution. Some are drawing a parallel between Terri's execution and the most famous execution ever, the crucifixion of Jesus. There are men who sit in judgment wearing black robes (pharisees and judges), impotent governors (Pontius Pilate and the nonjudicial branches), and innocent victims (Jesus who committed no sin at any time in his entire life and Terri who is not guilty of any criminal offense).
The big difference between Jesus and Terri is that the blood of Jesus shed on the cross bought every good part of any part of your life. Every breath and waking moment, every sunrise, every day, was bought by the blood of Jesus. But that's just this life. What is so much more important than this life are the lives to come that Jesus purchased on the cross. This weekend we celebrate the Easter holiday. Easter serves to remind us that Jesus came back to life after he was crucified and sealed up in a tomb for parts of three days. Because Jesus was resurrected we know that we too face the future of a resurrection. We will all be raised again and judged. And on that day, how you live today will matter. Whether you are living a life with all dependence on Jesus and for him or if you are living a life independent of Jesus and for something else will build a case for or against you, whether Jesus was the first love of your life or if he was nothing.
Terri's suffering serves to remind some people that we are all dependent on Jesus because she is dependent on us. These people humbly thank Jesus for His mercy and grace and ask Him to continue to provide for them so that they may live for Him. For others, Terri's suffering serves to put their independent arrogance against Jesus on display. Arrogance against Jesus is an infinite crime. When we say we don't need Him for anything, the independent sinful rebellious nature of the human heart is exposed. All hearts need to be transformed by Jesus and forgiven. Because Jesus was not just a man but the fullness of God in a human body, he could take the place of sinners and bear the wrath due to them for sin. Jesus is God the Son. He brings forgivenss to our lives according to the design and plan of God the Father. God the Holy Spirit makes new hearts and we receive the new life now in this life through Him. These three--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are together the one God of all things.
So where are you right now? Are you being transformed by the Holy Spirit or are you arrogantly living your life your own way? For life, recognize with new eyes from God the Father that you are fed from a tube. Feel with a new heart new affections for Jesus that change your life. Know that you are terminally dependent on Jesus and that you may only see or feel or know anything because of His amazing grace. Turn from all dependence on your own mind, own thoughts, own emotions, and own strength. Give everything of who you are over to Jesus and live with Him. He is bigger; He is closer; He is better; He is more merciful; He is more gracious than any earthly savior. Pray for Terri and worship Jesus.
Intimacy With The Lord
The best explanation for the varying degrees of intimacy we experience with the Lord in this life is that it is like a wedding engagement.
The Bible describes Jesus Christ as our wonderful bridegroom. We, the church, are His bride (-to-be).
This life is the engagement. The wedding, (Rev. 19), comes only after everything in this age, on this version of Earth is over. Until then, we will have moments, touches, 'kisses', and 'hugs' but not true consummation, whatever it will be like.
Just like in an engagement, we have tastes of what the marriage will be like but until the wedding day we do not receive it. We feel things, emotional things, physical things, a closeness, that is a hint of substance but not the reality.
The Biblical pattern for entering the intimacy of marriage is to first have a wedding ceremony and then be occupied with your lover alone (leave) and receive the gift of sex (cleave).
But we all know that before the wedding, there is definitely a sense of intimacy in the Godly couple. There has to be. Their passions should be strong.(
1 Cor. 7:36) And there are allowed expressions of that passion and intimacy.
I believe that embracing and kissing are Biblically precedented acts for sustaining two lovers through their engagement periods. I gather this from the Bible in the Song of Solomon with the help of C.J. Mahaney in his book "Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God," and Tommy Nelson’s Song of Solomon conference.
Song of Solomon 2:4-6 -
4 He brought me to the banqueting house,
and his banner over me was love.
5 Sustain me with raisins;
refresh me with apples,
for I am sick with love.
6 His left hand is under my head,
and his right hand embraces me!
To me, embracing ('his left hand and his right hand') and kissing ('raisins and apples', see Mahaney and Nelson), are only advisable at the point of commitment to be married ('he brought me to the house evidently in love', my position).*
And though the Bible never describes our relationship with Christ in erotic terms, those martital expressions of increasing-intimacy are what many theologians have said are the best pointers we have to the grander intimacy we should look forward to in eternity with God. I tend to agree.
The Christian life is, in one simple term, a commitment. It is like the commitment of marriage that should, for the Christian, begin before the engagement. We know that commitment is much more than experiences of intimacy. It is not founded on, based on, or sustained by intimate, or erotic, experiences alone.
We should be so grateful for and rightfully enjoy the times in our lives that we can say we have experienced true intimacy with the Lord. Some of these times can almost be described as pure ecstasy. And if we have had those times, we should know that we could not live our whole lives in that way or some purposes of Christianity, such as evangelizing every nation, would not be accomplished. It's a bad analogy but it's the same way you can't eat sweets all the time and expect your body to grow in nourishment.
I said that the word 'commitment' described the Christian life, but don't let it mislead you. A true Christian is truly a slave of Christ. The regenerated nature of the true Christian never dies, nor is choked out, nor slips from the Father's hand. Don't be misled either by the name of our website--to use the modifier "disposable" in front of "Christian" is only to be redundant with a special emphasis. A true Christian is utterly at the disposal of Christ. So 'commitment' is perhaps too simple but it helps us see the Christian life like a human engagement.
How do we apply this message? I often hear the Christian's complaint that they don't hear from God all the time and don't 'know' that He is listening all the time or don't feel His presence with them. And the answers most often given to the Christian from his brother or sister are unsatisfying to me. Yes, it's so true that the Christian life is more than indescribable highs and feelings from out of this world, and it has to be more than that, but we need to see those highs and the times of silence in the bigger picture of a coming consummation. So, open your eyes to see the big picture, to know where you've come from and where you are headed. Remember that the bride will be presented to her groom in absolute purity--without spot,wrinkle or blemish--and you, forgiven righteous sinner Christian, are far from that at this fleshly living moment. Know that you will receive the intimacy you long for, and He will receive you rightly, like the bridegroom who pursues passionately and waits for his bride. Also, some people put a lot of stock into their own concepts of intimacy, making it the marker of all Godliness, causing debates, and resulting in overemphasis and also marginalization of the role of intimacy in the Christian life.
Growing in intimacy with God is a goal of the Christian life. But it is not the only goal. And, like final sanctification, the ultimate intimacy is unattainable on this Earth.
*We see from the verses that the purpose of this interaction is for sustainment and should be minimized, not maximized, lest the foxes from verse 15 run loose. There is freedom but seek the center of God's will, not its outer fringes, passionately.