Ahead, Beside, Within--October 19, 2020

Ahead, Beside, Within—October 19, 2020

“And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” (Ephesians 1:22-23) 

Jesus rules like oxygen. And we are made for breathing. 

Oxygen, of course, is one of those absolutely, non-negotiably, irreplaceably essential things for human beings to survive. You could say in a very real sense that it runs our lives, in that we depend upon it for our very survival. It dictates to a fair degree what we can do and how much we can do it, as well as where we can go—after all, you can’t go to places where there’s no air unless you bring your own supply of oxygen with you. They say you can live for more than a week with no food, and even a day or two without water. But without oxygen, you’ve got mere minutes—seconds, maybe. Element number 16 calls a lot of shots in our lives. 

And yet at the same time, interestingly, oxygen fills us. It is within us all the time, and in a very real sense, it becomes a part of us. There is oxygen around me in the atmosphere, but then there is oxygen within me inside my lungs, brought inside our chests each time we inhale. And then at a yet deeper still level, there is oxygen that becomes me—the oxygen that goes from my lungs into my bloodstream and into my cells. At some point in that process—maybe somewhere between lungs and arteries—we don’t think of it as just “air” anymore, but as part of ourselves. You are what you eat, but you are what you breathe, too—it just becomes a part of you, in a literal, chemical sense. 

So at the very same moment, it is true to say that oxygen is a substance other than me, directing where I can go and what I can do, and it is also a substance within me, filling me and enlivening me. 

This is the way Paul talks about Christ himself. He both rules over all things as “head,” but he also “fills all in all.” Both of those together are essential for the Christian life. 

To say that Christ is our head means that we place ourselves under his direction rather than simply our own best hunches about life. Left up to our own self-centered thinking or gut impulses or willpower, we would run amok, stepping on each other, taking from each other, turning deaf ears on people around us, holding grudges and wreaking revenge on all the people we think have wronged us. But as disciples looking to Jesus to be our head, our Lord, we are learning to follow his way of life and to make it our own. And so you find Christians doing strange (to the surrounding world’s eyes) things like giving their time up for people who need them, feeding the hungry, living among the sick and heartbroken, forgiving their enemies, speaking the difficult truth when it would be easier to tell a pleasant-sounding lie, loving those who have been unkind or indifferent, and sharing generously from their possessions. We do those things, not because it is our own natural disposition to do any of them, but because we disciples are daring to live with Jesus directing our steps, toward the needs of the neighbor around us, and away from self. 

And at the same time, Christians don’t merely believe that Jesus is a cosmic drill-sergeant barking orders at us but leaving us to fend for ourselves to do what he commands. That was the trouble with the Law—it is great at barking orders to us (“You shall not steal! You shall not murder! You shall not envy what your neighbor has!”) and it’s great at showing us where we fail at doing what it orders (“You just stole! See? You just did what I told you not to do!”). But the Law could never change our hearts or actually enable us to do what it told us to do. The Law doesn’t dwell within us. But Christ does. Christians believe that Christ really does fill us, and that we really are able to live different lives because the Spirit is within us. That means it’s not just up to me alone to find the courage and strength to love, to give, to forgive, and to follow—but Christ within me fuels me while at the same time Christ ahead of me guides me and Christ alongside me walks with me.  Christ makes us fully alive.

Christ is all around—and we need him in all those places. As we dare to pray today for Christ to guide us and direct our steps, we can take confidence, too, in knowing that he fills us to make it possible for us to go where he leads. Breathe deep in that assurance.  Let Christ fill you like oxygen, so that you and I can be brought to life again in this day.

Christ our Lord and our Strength, be within us, beside us, and ahead of us—and everywhere else we need you to be. Be like the air we breathe, and the rush of a wind filling our sails.