TRUST – the WAY and the DESTINATION
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me…” — Jesus, John 14:1
“TRUST” is the main issue on Jesus’ heart as he gives his disciples a “farewell” speech. There is such deep Trinitarian theology in these few chapters, I’m really looking forward to dwelling in the reality of the Godhead over the next few days. But truly, Jesus does not begin his final talk with his disciples by reinforcing their doctrinal beliefs, or by pop-quizzing them on their Trinitarian orthodoxy…no, to Jesus there is something far more important than anything else.
Deeper than theology, deeper than doctrine…is TRUST. It is the first developmental task a human must achieve.
Fully-formed adults all around us are still waiting for someone to teach them how to trust, and thus still function as scared, insecure little infants. The cynicism and skepticism of this age is profound, and I believe it is partly because we put our trust in things that will inevitably fail us. Politicians, love-relationships, money, our health…
But Jesus promotes an attitude of TRUST. Trust in him. He is worthy of your trust…quite possibly your most precious asset. Not only is it the avenue by which Christ can enter our hearts and we enter his, but it transforms our approach to life! If you have an ATTITUDE of TRUST, then your APPROACH to every relationship will grow out of faith, not fearfulness. Jesus, no matter what happens in this election, or relationship, or job, or doctor’s appointment…JESUS will always be trustworthy – he will never fail us.
In what, specifically, is Jesus asking us to trust him? From his words, it seems he wants us to trust that he is both the WAY and the DESTINATION.
Speaking with his disciples, Jesus begins admitting to them that he is leaving and preparing a place for them with the Father. He tells them that they “know the way,” and will come after him to get there. Thomas, thankfully, asks a clarifying question – “How will we know the way if we’ve never been there before?”
Jesus then turns the metaphor of “way” on its head and says that they know the Way because they know him – Jesus IS the Way! But he goes on to say that he is in the Father and the Father is in him. Also, he says that the place that God dwells is in Christ – the new Temple.
If we see Jesus as both destination and way, we will develop a sense of spiritual satisfaction, and continued development in our maturity as disciples. We aren’t left hungering and craving something new all the time (new ideas about God, a new church or community to meet my needs, etc) – we already have complete “arrival” in the person of Jesus – but we don’t see the Way of Jesus as a once-and-for-all list of propositions to be defended…we are always on a journey with him – he our “trailblazer” (Heb 6:20) and we are his followers! In following Jesus, we live in humility – realizing that we haven’t “arrived” yet – we are still “the Wandering People of God,” hoping and longing for the complete rest waiting for us when we know and can see with our own eyes the answers to all our questions.

jdoloris 7:16 pm on July 7, 2010 Permalink
Mark, how do you turn God’s love into something disturbing? haha. Really, I just got a bit lost in the paradox. If I had no experience of the way you like pointing out paradoxes of Jesus, I would use you as an example of all the off-their-rocker christians. But then again, Jesus taught things in disturbing ways, getting himself killed for it, to make his hearers reach deep into a relationship with him in order to understand. Even as I write this I’m not sure if I’m criticizing or enjoying your thoughts. Just as Jesus sometimes disturbs me with his violent images, so you are have disturbed me with this post. Take that however you’d like, as I’m not sure I can assign it a definite feeling.
Mark 7:54 pm on July 7, 2010 Permalink
Doloris,
Thanks for the awesome comment. I totally love falling somewhere between enjoy and criticize in my readers’ responses. The more I think about it – the more the audacity of Jesus’ message knocks the power-mongering Christians (or at least W.A.S.P. Americans) off their rockers of privilege and prestige. Maybe I am “that guy” when it comes to radicalism…and no doubt I take images/concepts to the extreme sometimes – but I feel like Jesus has been castrated and sterilized to the point of utter uselessness in our culture.
There’s a great book by a renown atheist (Richard Dawkins) called The Selfish Gene which is all about how ideas are infectious. “Memes” he called them. Essentially, the gospel is a meme – an infectious idea that cannot be stopped!