This is not a new verse to me--in my faith tradition, this verse has been forefront as a way to indicate that we observe Saturday Sabbath, according to the commandments. Sermons have included this, readings, and doctrines, are all based on the idea that my church observes all the commandments as they are written in Exodus 20. But taking a bit more time with the verse led me to ask, I know what the commandments are, but what exactly is the faith of Jesus?
There is no one verse in the Gospels that indicates what Jesus' faith consisted of. There are some instances though that provide insight into His faith experience. You will probably be able to add some from your own reading. I would like to share a few of my ideas over the next few posts.
The first aspect of Jesus' faith was that He trusted God to work out His life in due time, in the way it should go. We see this in the beginning of His life when He was found in the temple talking with the rabbis. His parents lost him and in the process, gained the Son of God, because after that visit in the temple His identity and mission started to become apparent to Him. "...he went down with [Mary and Joseph] and was obedient to them." Even though He was supposed to be the Messiah, He trusted that God would prompt Him at the right time to do the right thing. In the meantime, He obeyed His parents and awaited the call of God to do the next thing. "And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man." Luke 2:52.
It must have seemed strange to hold the knowledge of having a unique position in the history of the world and the universe and yet to go to a wood shop every day and build cupboards and chairs. There was nothing terribly special about being a carpenter. The Bible is silent about this period of Jesus' life, even though the Apocrypha has some interesting and sometimes fanciful tales about Jesus' magical powers during that time. But these are out of character with the One who emerged later on from the carpenter shop, and who did not perform celestial fireworks for the sake of showmanship. I imagine that He worked hard, did well at His work, was kind to others, endured the scathing comments about being the illegitimate son of Mary. He probably read the scriptures frequently, because in His later years He seemed to know them backward and forward. Perhaps He sometimes wondered why He was to remain in a carpenter shop for His early life. Who would believe He was the Son of God, coming from that kind of beginning? Why not go to the Hebrew schools and learn like a respectable young man? Not only that, but it is commonly thought that His family was quite poor. Jesus' job was not to make the family rich by some divine sleight of hand. It was to work to support the family as any young man of that time would--by honest work. And during this time, God was preparing Him by growing His faith. Jesus contributed to this growth no doubt, through prayer and scripture study, mulling over things in His mind as He worked.
Later, when called into the wilderness to face off with the devil, Jesus was first tempted regarding His identity. "If you are the Son of God..." This was the undercurrent of all the temptations. Prove to me who you are because you neither look like it or seem like it. That is often how it is because God's way is not how we expect things to be. There was Jesus, low blood sugar, faint with hunger, dehydrated, hot and miserable out in the desert. There was nothing about Him that looked divine at that point. But He knew who He was and did not cave in from doubt because He realized that appearances did not reflect the larger picture. All of the context was not evident to the casual observer, who was conditioned by the attitudes of the world. The devil knew that and hoped that Jesus would succumb to the suggestibility around this issue, but He did not.
So perhaps one aspect of the faith of Jesus is that He was clear about His identity. He knew God and the scriptures--both of which clarified to Him what His relationship was with God and humanity. There was no prevarication on His part.
This brings me to the take-home point of this post: Do I know who I am? From scripture and experience with God, do I have a sense of that? Do I understand my role and my duty, and am I performing these? Are my ideas about myself found in scripture? Not in some narcissistic way that would mistakenly give me an inflated sense of mission such as a David Koresh would have. But just about who I am as a human? That it is God who directs my steps and gives me purpose? That although there were many years in which I seemed to wander aimlessly, God is over all and that I live for Him? That those disappointing individuals of the past will be dealt with by God--it is not my role to vindicate myself?
It is a rare person who can look you in the eye and say who they are, what they are about, and why they do what they do--with conviction. Even when their lives appear to be awkward, or without focus, marked by misfortune and lapses in judgment, or detours and roadblocks to their goals. We do not have the whole story, and they might not, either. Perhaps in the larger context, they are living exactly as they should, given their experience and God's plan for their lives. Perhaps they are "as a brand plucked from the burning" and are trying to "redeem the time" that was lost earlier.
I am talking about myself here, not some unfortunate soul for whom we have been taught to feel pity. We all wander, question ourselves, seek after God, do the best we can to determine His will for our lives and then seek to pursue it. So maybe having the faith of Jesus means in part, that we recognize Him in all things, rely on Him to reveal His leading to us, knowing that He will always be with us. He will define us, create our identity--all within a larger context that only He knows. The faith of Jesus frames the belief that we do not always have to understand or know what our role is on this earth. We are not little Messiahs. We are humans who are seeking God and trusting Him to create meaning out of the things that we do the best we can to honor Him. The faith of Jesus tells us that God will bring meaning, vindication, direction and purpose to our lives.
I have set the Lord always before me;
because He is at my right hand,
I shall not be moved.
Psalm 16:8.
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