The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
John 10:10 New American Standard
“Abundance?” during this time when our economy is poor, when tragedies hit, when crime is rampant?
Abundance? Really? Let’s talk.
As Christians, we would readily agree with Christ’s words “I have come to give life and to do this abundantly’. But, the question we must ask ourselves is ‘how is this done when we face so many problems?’ Are Christ’s words some sort of mantra we just keep repeating, while denying the reality of problems?
Unfortunately, some Christians live this way…unintentionally, by way of allowing their good intentioned belief of these words get in the way of their experiencing their truth
So, let’s take a few moments to explore a bit of what is going on at this time in Jesus’ life, and then, see how this might be applicable to us today. OK?
As we open our Bibles to this text, and take several steps back, we see that these words of Jesus came as a reply to the Pharisees who questioned His healing a blind man on the Sabbath (John 9:1). For these leaders, Jesus was continuing to break the rules and they were troubled by it enough that they wanted to put Jesus away. ( see John 7:32)
In chapter 10, Jesus is telling these leaders that their way of thinking towards Him was not only wrong, by that they were misleading others to the point of their destruction. And He contrasted this reality so succinctly in verse 10
So, back to this word ‘abundance’.
Another meaning is ‘living beyond expectations’; the expectations, as seen here, are conforming to the doctrines of the Pharisees. And ,though we don’t have Pharisees today, we do have many man-made, death-filled perspectives on life that if played out can lead to great misfortune.
Now coming back to the today…we live in a world that ‘expects’/considers it normal to worry over misfortunes, to continually despair during tragedies, or to seek more work in order to satisfy one’s wants. (The list can continue). Yet, if the abundant life is something more than this, if it is more than what is expected, might we experience this more often if our focus was more on the Giver of that life?
Might we begin to see things a bit differently when we try to understand our lives from Jesus’s perspective?
Might our greeting one another with a ‘Merry Christmas’ become more meaningful?
Think about it.
Blessings on your journey
-Michael