The Grace of Going Too Far

The Grace of Going Too Far--October 17, 2018

[Jesus said:] "Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father." [John 14:12]

Jesus challenges us to go too far.  Farther, at least, than he did in the span of his years and miles in Galilee and Judea two millennia ago.  

That is an essential part of how Jesus leads--he takes us by the hand and gives us a push beyond.

Now, to be sure, Jesus is more than a leader--certainly.  He is more than a good example of managerial skill or adept administration.  And there more, vastly more, to the Christian faith than simply seeing Jesus as a model for good leadership.

But, he is at least that.  Jesus is indeed the Savior of the World, the Incarnate Word, the Messiah and Lord of Lords, the very presence of God-with-Us, and the Resurrection and the Life.  Yes. Amen to all of those.  But in addition, he is also a good--and challenging--leader.  And at least part of taking the challenge of Jesus seriously, as we are trying to do in this month's focus, is to pay attention to the way Jesus leads.

In particular, Jesus is the kind of leader who brings the best out of us, rather than using us a props for him to show himself off.  Good leaders propel the people with whom they work to go farther, grow deeper, and to love bigger.  Good leaders bring the best out of their people, rather than nurturing the worst in us.

It is a rather sad thing that this kind of trait needs to be highlighted, but it does.  A good leader does not kindle the worst in us in order to channel our rottenness, fear, greed, bitterness, envy, and anger for their own ends, but rather challenges us to be more, to be better, to be authentic.  That kind of role model and example in the public sphere may well be in short supply, but Jesus shows us how it's done.  Jesus challenges us in a way that both encourages us for how far we have come and also stretches us to move further, almost like a physical therapist for the soul.  He brings the best out of us--he pulls on us and pushes us to gain mobility when we have seized up and clenched our hearts in tight, even enabling us to move like him further than we thought was possible.  He told his followers as much on his last night with them.  

This verse from John's Gospel is one of those ones that can make supposedly humble Lutherans nervous.  Jesus does, after all, talk about his followers (us!) doing "greater things" even than he did, and our sense of piety doesn't like that.  We have all learned the "right" Sunday School answer that whatever Jesus did was the greatest, and that we cannot ever hope to live up to Jesus and the big shoes (or sandals) he has left for us to all fill as the church.  We have all learned that if Jesus did the saving at the cross, then there is no way any of us could do anything "greater" than the salvation of the world, and so we don't like this idea that we, mere measly disciples, could ever dream of doing something greater than Jesus did.  That smacks of the sin of pride to our pious and polite ears.

Except, here's the thing... Jesus said it.

He did.  It's right there on the page.  As John tells the story, Jesus says that his followers will not only learn to do the kinds of things that Jesus himself did, but "greater works than these." And amazingly (and perhaps this is another lesson for us if we are trying to learn from Jesus' way of life), Jesus doesn't feel threatened or insecure in the slightest at the idea of his followers doing "greater things."  Jesus is simply concerned to bring the best out of us, and he is free from the ego that needs to one-up everyone around him.

Like Jedi Master Yoda says about students to an age-weathered Luke in the most recent Star Wars movie, "We are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters."  And while we may never "grow beyond" Jesus, he does insist that his followers will "do greater things" than he had done because the Spirit Jesus sends gives us the capacity for it.

Now, what exactly would count as a "greater thing" is an open question.  We might point to the global reach of Christ-followers to share the Good News all across the world, rather than the relatively limited geographic reach of the historical Jesus' movement.  We might note how the church crossed boundaries, and keeps crossing boundaries, beyond the mostly Jewish circles of Judea and Galilee, so that within a very short time Samaritans and Gentiles, men and women, rich and poor, and everybody and anybody came to be included.  We could say that the relief work, the disease prevention, and the digging of wells for impoverished villages around the world, all done by followers of Jesus seeking to carry out his mission to save and heal and bless, all go further than the wildest dreams of Peter, James, John, and the rest.  The immense breadth, depth, and diversity of the body of Christ today is a sign that indeed, we are going farther than Jesus and his band of twelve Jewish men ever did... and to hear Jesus tell it in this verse, that is exactly as Jesus intended it.  Jesus keeps challenging us to go "too far" in the eyes of others--further than the old boundaries, further than the old limits, further than the old possibilities.  

Jesus reminds us here, too, that he doesn't simply call us to duplicate what he did in Palestine two thousand years ago.  We aren't still fighting the battle of letting Samaritans "in" to our religious club, or addressing the question of helping people on the Sabbath day, like Jesus often found himself dealing with.  We are called to new challenges, wider reaches, and bigger signs of love and grace.  And we do it, not to toot our own horns or to accomplish our own agendas, but because Jesus himself is spurring us on to do it, by the Spirit.

And if that weren't enough of a challenge for us today, Jesus also challenges us by his example as a leader, to be secure enough and grounded enough in the love of God that we can also bring the best out of people.  Jesus challenges us to be the kind of leaders ourselves who draw out the best traits, who kindle the greatest virtues, and who model the noblest character for others, so that they can grow as the Spirit nurtures, beyond even what we imagined or dreamed.  Jesus is so secure in who he is that he isn't threatened by the idea of his followers doing more than he did in their ministry and mission, and he isn't so needy for his own approval as to stunt the spiritual growth of his disciples so that they will never come to maturity.  Jesus wants us to grow.  He wants us to go farther.  And he definitely wants to kindle what is good in us rather than feeding what is worst and most vile in us.  

That's the kind of leadership each of us is called to as well.  We don't want fellow disciples to resort to crude name-calling or bitter insults... and so we won't resort to that ourselves, either, because we want to bring out the best in others, rather than the worst.  And since we don't want our fellow disciples just selfishly looking out for their own interests, we also will not look out for our interests alone.  We don't want other disciples to live ruled by fear and intimidation, so we won't use those tactics to get our way, either.  That's all part of what it looks like to cultivate the best in others, rather than to feed the worst impulses in our hearts.

So that's what we are dared to try today, as we follow Jesus.  We are called, each in our own way, to be leaders, and in particular leaders who encourage others to go beyond and grow beyond us.  We are called to let others learn from us and at the same time grow further than we could see.  We are called, in other words, to let others go "too far" in Jesus' name, and to discover that "too far" is often just another word for "greater works than these."

Lord Jesus, we ask you in all humility to enable us to do more, to live more faithfully, and to share your word more fully.