Some of the striking images of traveling in a car are the billboards you get to enjoy and laugh about along the interstate. Yet there are some signs which give me the hibbie jibbies. Along I-65, I think in Kentucky, there are two black billboards with white font… They are placed on different points for both south and north bound passengers… Hell is Real… If you died today where would you spend eternity?... Usually James and I respond to the first, “Can you imagine what some people would say, ‘Yes, I know hell is real… I am living in it!’"
The second one is like the cloud of doom descending upon us… at least upon me. First your body begins to tighten up, then you feel the knot in your gut and suddenly there is the fear that the car will crush and you will die… I am not sure if eternity enters the picture as much as the fear of death…
Scaring someone to believe in Jesus is bad discipleship, it is even worse evangelism and it will lead to pain and suffering. Fear was not how Jesus operated… Fear is not how Jesus operates…
Behold… Peace I give to you… Come and See… I am the resurrection and the life… I am the good shepherd… I am the bread of life… I am the alpha and the omega… Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest… Blessed… You are light… You are the salt… For my yoke is easy and my burden is light… Beloved…
On one hand, as followers of Christ, we are called to articulate the who and the why and the what of our faith. On the other hand, we are called to be open to where the living Christ continues to reveal himself to us in new ways.
Jesus is the bridge between heaven and earth, between divinity and humanity. Jesus is the center, the core of God’s activity on earth… The “Word became flesh and lived among us.”
Barbara Brown Taylor in her book Leaving Church writes, "The parts of the Christian story that had drawn me into the Church were not the believing parts, but the beholding parts... Behold, I stand at the door and knock... Behold the Lamb of God... Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy."
Those who are beheld by and in return behold Jesus move forward with excitement to invite others to join in the experience. Relationships, not fear, are the key in seeing and accepting Jesus. In the Scripture those who meet Jesus respond with, "Come and See"…
Our lives are a tangled mess. We are bound by time, place, our prejudices... Jesus breaks into our tangled mess and says, "under the fig tree I saw you..." (John 1:48) I recognized you... I beheld you even before you knew who I was... who I am...
As we are with Jesus now, here and now, he is also with us. God is looking at us… Teresa of Avila says: ‘Gaze at God gazing at you, lovingly and humbly’. One of the French mystics wrote: ‘Lord, you gazed on me and you smiled!’
Richard Rohr in The Naked Now writes, “It has been said many times that, after transformation, you seldom have the feeling you have found anything. It feels much more like Someone found you! You find yourself having been grabbed, being held, and being Someone’s beloved. At first, you do not even know what is going on. All you know is that it is a most wondrous undergoing, but an undergoing nevertheless. Finally, you allow yourself to stand before one mirror for your identity—you surrender to the naked now of true prayer and full presence. You become a Thou before the great I AM. Henceforward, as Teresa of Avila said, “You find God in yourself and yourself in God.”
"These things are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name" (20:31). This life, this zoe is the path of our transformation. Knowing Jesus is present in every moment, every person, every situation, invites us to beholding... deeply, carefully with wonder and amazement.
Someone once asked Mother Teresa, "What do you do all day walking the streets of Calcutta?" She said, "I behold Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God, in every face I see."
Being a disciple of Jesus is not about scaring people to eternal salvation or damnation but it is following the One who is expanding our vision of living fully here and the now.
The following poem by Frank B. Whitney of the Daily Word magazine is a wonderful invitation to beholding...
I behold the Christ in You,
Here the life of God I see;
I can see a great peace too,
I can see you whole and free.
I behold the Christ in you.
I can see this as you walk;
I see this in all you do,
I can see this as you talk.
I behold God's love expressed,
I can see you filled with power;
I can see you ever blessed,
See Christ in you hour by hour.
I behold the Christ in you,
I can see that perfect one;
Led by God in all you do,
I can see God's work is done.
Now put this on a billboard on the interstate… see what happens…
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