Encountering or Exploiting Jesus?

With frustration Jesus said to the royal official and the crowd gathered around Him in John 4, "Unless you people see signs and wonders...you will never believe."

Jesus saw a tendency in the people of His day that is similar to us.  As long as He was doing fabulous and phenomenal miracles that entertained them, He was a welcomed hero. But when He transitioned from wonders to His Word, they resisted and lost interest.  

There is a difference between encountering and exploiting.  To encounter Jesus is to be with Him to discover His purposes for you.  To exploit Jesus is to use Him to get your purposes for you.  People who exploit Jesus chase His miraculous power with little interest in His message.  For them, Jesus is only as good as His latest wonder. And once the excitement is gone, they move on to find their next enchantment fix.

Jesus did not come to be a traveling roadshow, He came so that we might encounter Him. He came so that we might receive revelation of the Father's love and bring glory to the Father.  He came so we might walk in His purposes for our life rather than the way of the world.  His miracles and wonders are graciously orchestrated to inspire us along the way but not intended to be the essence of our relationship with Him.  Faith, not miracles, is the foundation of our walk with Jesus.

Spiritual maturity includes a number of characteristics, not the least of which, is trusting Jesus between miracles.  Sometimes that is a short period of time, but more often than not, it is quite long. In those long stretches, our faith and trust in Him is tested with great intensity.  We wonder, "Am I crazy for believing in that which I cannot see?  Did I miss something?  Where is He?"

There is a kind of spiritual growth that occurs only between miracles.  It cannot occur any other way though I wish it could.  We cannot bypass those periods and expect to grow far beyond spiritual infancy.  God accomplishes more by being with us during those times than removing us from them.

See you this weekend at one our worship gatherings.  Looking forward to encountering Jesus again together.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden