Do you know where your Bible is? Do you currently have a Bible that you can read and understand? If you do not, please talk to me because I want to make certain that you have one. Because, I am challenging you to fall in love with the Bible once again. After-all, the Bible is the primary way that the Spirit of God still talks to us today.
Right now my favorite Bible is the one that my wife bought me recently. It has a soft leather binding and is light in weight. But, what is even more special than the fine, leather exterior is that within its pages the Bible carries to us the words of Jesus. The Bible allows Jesus to talk with us, even though Jesus ascended into heaven almost 2,000 years ago. It is the primary way that the Spirit of God allows Jesus to walk and talk with us even still today. Before we dive further into that; a story.
“Mom, what can I do for you?” the son asked as he slid the car keys into his pocket and joined his mother at the side of the hospital bed. The mother looked at him with the loving smile that you can only get from your mother and said, “You being here is all I need.”
We need to have those we love beside us. We need those who love us to be close.
When looking at the entrance to the haunted house for the very first time, with sounds of ghosts and screams piercing our ears through the doors, I remember a small Trinity (my granddaughter) holding onto my hand. She gave a little shriek. “Are you sure that you want to go in?” I asked her for the tenth time. She nodded “yes” for the tenth time, but the expression on her face said “no” for the tenth time. I assured her that I would be with her the entire time, walking right next to her. We entered, and she squeezed my hand tightly, knowing that someone who loved her was beside her the entire time.
We
need to have those we love beside us. We
need those who love us to be close.
That kind of presence is what the disciples desired more than anything when they learned that Jesus’ final hours of life were fast approaching. How could he possibly die on a cross and leave them? They needed Jesus to be there, just as he had been in the past. In the past, they were literally able to follow Jesus. They went where he went. They trusted that he knew where he was leading them. When Thomas asked where Jesus was going, that he did not know the way, Jesus responded, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus was the one who walked along beside them. How could they follow him if he was gone?
When Jesus was with them, they literally listened to his voice and listened to his teachings. How would they learn anything with him gone? When trouble arose, Jesus was right there to guide them through the tough times. Who would guide them now?
Jesus knew the fear and sadness in the disciple’s hearts. Would it surprise you to hear that Jesus also knows the fear and sadness within your heart? Would it surprise you to hear that Jesus finds a way to walk with you, just a parent does a child entering a frightening situation? Jesus promises:
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever,” Jesus says. “This is the Spirit of truth.” Just as Jesus hands his mother over to the care of the beloved disciple as he takes his last breaths on the cross, so too Jesus hands us over to the care of his Holy Spirit. We are not forgotten.
Pressing the point home, Jesus continues, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.”
Jesus finishes by declaring that those who love him are those who keep his commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus says, “and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
And, this is where those Bible come into play here. Yes, it is comforting to know that Jesus loves us and promises to walk beside us through hard times. Sometimes, being next to someone through the hard times is all that we need. But, we all know that any real relationship is a two way street; it has conversations that go back and forth.
Have you ever been in one of those conversations, which is not so much a conversation, but listening to a very, very long monologue? You know how these conversations go; at first you are fascinated by what the person is saying, and as you take a breath to share something of your own, they just keep going. These types of people would be great underwater divers because they seem to have no need to take a breath. And, after about five minutes of constant talking your mind begins to wander to the shopping list and the conversation you had with the store clerk yesterday. After twenty minutes you snap back and realize that you have been staring at the person’s lips this whole time, but you have no idea what the person is saying.
I have been there so many times that it is not funny.
I wonder how many times Jesus feels that way with me? Most days I have so many things to say to Jesus that it is just one big monologue. I am not certain that I often stop to consider that Jesus just might have something important to say to me. But, Jesus does have something to say, and when we crack open that Bible and read the stories and words of Jesus; the Holy Spirit guides us to hear what we need to hear.
Jesus does not leave us orphaned, even on the days when it seems as if we have been left to fend for ourselves. Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to walk beside us and speak to us through the scriptures. The Spirit walks alongside us.
Parents do that too. Parents try to walk alongside their graduates as they go off to new places and new lives. Some parents try to walk beside by sending daily texts. Some call at 9pm every single night. All of this, of course, can elicit the response of “Come on Mom!” or “Geez Dad!” But, these parents are right to do so, because in this crazy world where up is now down and down is now up, you need someone to walk beside you. These parents are simply acting out of the love that has been given them from the one who walks beside them, Jesus Christ our Lord, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Greek word for “Holy Spirit” actually means, “The one who walks beside.”
You, O people of God, have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. You, O people of God, have the one who walks beside. You, O people of God have the one who allows Jesus to speak to you through the scriptures. You have the Spirit. And, as the mother in the hospital said to her son, so we say to the Spirit, “You being here is all we need.”
It
is enough. It is enough, in the face of
a confusing world to know that the Spirit of Jesus and his glory and power is
with you. It is enough, in the shadow of
loneliness, to know that Jesus walks right there, beside you through the Spirit. And, it is enough to know that even if you
start walking on the wrong path, there is someone bedside you, full of
forgiveness and love to help you to see a new path to walk.
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.” Jesus says. The message cannot be any simpler. The Spirit will accompany us. The Spirit will be our companion. And, in these uncertain times, this love through walking beside is exactly what we need.
Perhaps, walking beside is also what we need to do.
Love is making the call or showing up. Love is being present, because Jesus is present with us. Jesus says, “Love one another, as I have loved you,” and, so, we do. We too walk beside others, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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