Irresistible Invitation by Maxie Dunham - Day 20
Irresistible Invitation: Responding to the Extravagant Heart of God
Day 20: What Christ Has Been and Done For Us
If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit;
apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5
What powerful words: apart from me you can do nothing.
The 15th chapter of John is about the grapevine and its branches. Visualize the imagery in your mind. A grapevine growing along the ground with little branches shooting out, clusters of grapes along those branches.
The grapevine has long been a symbol for Israel. It was carved into the temp, it was printed on coins. It was an image of “hope that the people could be something fruitful for their God.”
But it was also a reminder of failure. Branches that were not producing fruit, or were producing poor fruit, were obviously not connected to the main branch. “God’s people, by their own efforts, could not fulfill their task in the world.”
Jesus brings this imagery to light on the night before the crucifixion is to take place. Jesus was making it clear to his disciples that nothing they would do – nothing they would do – would amount to anything if ti were not grounded in Christ. Our works must be “grounded in this essential order: not I, but Christ; not me for God, but God for and through me.” Maxie challenges us with this gospel message: “being alive in Christ means that what Christ ahs been and done for us, we must be and do for others.”
What is it that Christ has been and done for us?
Maxie starts to answer that question with the Hebrew word chesed. This Old Testament word is descriptive of God, and it is meant to be the primary characteristic of all of God’s people. Chesed. In our narrow ability to translate this word, we sometimes translate it as “compassion,” or “mercy,” or “pity.” Maxie points out that our one-word translations are greatly lacking. “What is missing in every one-word translation is the dimension of action that the Hebrew language implies.” Action!!! “The Hebrew talks of ‘doing chesed with someone.” It is often connected with mishpat, “the Hebrew word we translate as ‘right’ or justice.’” So, Micah 6:8 reads, “What does the Lord require of you except to do chesed and to love mishpat…” In the NIV it reads: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
“Chesed is more than a sentiment of love and pity. It demands a ‘volitional attitude.’ That is what distinguishes biblical love from current usage of the word. Biblical love includes justice and even judgment.”
Maxie point out two explicit aspects of chesed. The first is solidarity with the poor. As Matthew Fox said, “Compassion is not knowing about the suffering and pain of others. It is, in some way, knowing that pain, entering into it, sharing it, and tasting it in so far as possible.” We are not simply called to know that others suffer: we are to feel their suffering. We are to suffer with them. And in so doing, we are truly able to act on behalf of that person’s suffering.
Maxie talks about 3 (three) ports of entry into our solidarity with the poor and oppressed. The first port is direct action.
James 2:15-17, 24: “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. . . . You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.”
The second port of entry into our solidarity with the poor and oppressed is “the stewardship of my money and other resources.” I control the way I spend my money and I make decisions as to how I will use the resources that are mine.
The third port of entry is through prayer, particularly intercessory prayer. “In a mysterious way that we can never understand, prayer allows us to not only identify with, but alos take upon ourselves the suffering of others. So rather than being private, intercession is intensely social.”
The second explicit aspect of chesed is also inherently social. Alive in Christ, we are called to be instruments of blessing for those who Jesus said would be blessed. “His beatitudes form the charter for the kingdom in which we dwell, living in him. These Beatitudes outline the core values that are to be incorporated into our lives, and for which we must contend on behalf of others.” Being Christ to others means we are instruments of blessing. This “often calls for political action and social witness that expresses outrage against systems and institutions that take no account of the needs of the poor and oppressed. We need to consider this call in a very specific way:
· As Christ has been a forgiving presence in our lives, we must be a forgiving presence in the lives of others.
· As Christ has been an affirming presence in our lives, we must be an affirming presence in the lives of others
· As Christ has comforted us and given us hope, we must comfort and give hope to others.
· As Christ ministered to the ‘least of these’ and gave his life as a ransom for many, we must be his present to the poor, marginalized, and sexually broken; to the immigrant strangers in our midst, prisoners, homeless, the forgotten, and the forsaken.
· As Christ has been present with us in the valley of the shadow of death, in the agony of personal tragedy and loss, so we must be Christ’s presence for others when they are in the valley, and when hope has gone from their lives.
This ministry is personal, like Jesus’ ministry to us. He deals with each of us one by one. He meets us at the point of our deepest need, “perhaps at a point where we are embarrassed, feeling with us our estrangement and separation, our sense of despair and futility. Christ is for the world, but he is also for me.”
Maxie invites us to put our own name in this extravagant affirmation found in John 3:16 – “For God so loved ___________________ that he gave his one and only Son.”
Let it sink in. Let it sink it. The deeper and deeper it sinks into our hearts, “the easier it is to pass it on.”
The Heart of the Matter
- On a scale of one to ten (ten being the highest), how compassionate would you say you are? Why do you think so?
- What does it mean to you to “be Christ to others?” Is it difficult for you to do so? Why or why not?
- Think now of a time that someone else showed the love of Christ to you. How did that affect you?
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