Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings, special ones.

No time to talk. I need to run with the boom truck to a big tree job. Blessings on your day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

This sentence borders on disturbing for me—at least sobering. Since this is a description of Jesus’ own disciples—His closest friends and followers—how can I justly avoid these questions: What about me? Who do I think I am to ascribe a higher level of faith and understanding to myself? What is it that completely amazes me? What important truths am I not getting—even though they have been profoundly presented? What dots am I failing to connect? What blind spots am I blind to? What pieces of opinion do I rigidly embrace so as to cause a hardening of the categories? To be sure, this little disclosure helps to confirm that it’s not enough to rise to the status of “disciple”—as though that is some kind of end—a status of completion—a mission accomplished. Perhaps it is more appropriate to regard that status as an essential beginning—not any kind of ending or achieving. Indeed, we are all projects under construction.

Do you see some of the logical objective inequities being displayed by the disciples? These guys have all beheld an amazing stream of miracles—healing of diseases and deformities, evicting of evil spirits, raising of someone stone-cold dead to life again. What further evidence do they need to conclude that they are in special relationship with SOVEREIGN GOD IN FLESH? HELLO! Only days before they themselves were supernaturally empowered to command and chase demons—but now they’re scared out of their minds at seeing what they thought was a ghost?! Something is definitely out of whack! Then when Jesus climbed into the boat (as if He needed one), and the wind died down, “they were completely amazed” as if, for the first time, they were being exposed to the supernatural deity of Jesus?!

I reason that the wrong response is to allow discouragement. I can’t seem to imagine a better response than, with a HEART AFTER GOD, to “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5)—and let the adventure and discovery of following Jesus unfold.