From its beginning, Christianity had to deal
with those in the community who zeroed in on the intellectual dimension of
their faith and ignored the actions Jesus expects His followers to perform.
As long as they believed in the salvation that
Jesus' death and resurrection offered, they thought they didn't have to
imitate His concrete actions, which actually brought about that salvation.
For the rest of their lives, they thought they
could simply lean back in their recliners and "believe."
Loving acts
Luke didn't want anyone in his community to
become "minimal action" Christians (Acts 4:32-35). That seems to
be why, throughout the initial chapters of Acts, he inserts short narratives
describing how members of the early Jerusalem church channeled their faith
in the risen Jesus into specific acts of love.
"The community of believers were of one
heart and one mind. They never claimed anything as their own. Everything was
held in common....There were no needy among them....All who owned property
or houses sold them and donated the proceeds...to be distributed to everyone
according to their needs."
Luke is convinced that believing, life-giving
communities exist only because their members are willing to die by
generously giving themselves to one another. People's needs can be taken
care of only if someone gives part of himself or herself to make up for
what's lacking in the other.
According to those who study John's Gospel and
the three letters bearing his name, the publication of a Gospel that
constantly stressed faith in Jesus as divine opened the door to those who
thought they could be saved by what they believed instead of how they loved
and sacrificed themselves for others.
They rejected the life-giving tension that
develops when someone both believes and acts, exchanging it for the false
serenity that comes from just believing Jesus is Yahweh.
The I John author (I John 5:1-6) tries to
counteract this tendency by stressing how our knowledge of the relationship
between Jesus and the Father should prompt us not just to "ooh and aah"
in amazement, but also to "do what God has commanded."
We're expected to conquer the world, but we
can't do that by just meditating on the intellectual ramifications of Jesus'
divinity. We must also reflect on and imitate the things He did for others.
That seems to be why the writer contrasts "water and blood." It's
a reference to Jesus' Baptism and the blood shed in His death.
Forgiving acts
Though there were misunderstandings about his
Gospel, John the Evangelist never let his community overlook the dying
aspect of Jesus saving us. Most of us concentrate on the "doubting
Thomas" section of Sunday's Gospel (John 20:19-31). We smile at someone
so sure that Jesus is dead that he has to eat crow a week later when the
risen Jesus stands before him.
It's important to reflect on the criterion
Thomas employs to prove the person in front of him actually is Jesus:
"Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hands and put my finger into
the nail marks and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."
During Jesus' first visit, He breathed on His
followers and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive
are forgiven, and whose sins you retain are retained."
It doesn't take a lot out of us to
"retain" someone's sins. We keep them in mind, use them in our
evaluations and contrast them with our own "sinless" personality.
But those who forgive die to themselves; they destroy the power that
retaining gives them over others.
Forgiving wounds us. But, like Jesus' wounds,
they take away other people's pain. Only such wounded Christians can
legitimately believe in the salvation Jesus offers.
(4/20/06)