go: chapter 1: the jesuses i have known, part three

after a rather busy week of finishing and delivering my talk for covenant seminary, working on textbook selection for an upper-level course on colonial america i get to teach in the fall, and trying to work on the dissertation, i now have a few minutes to return to my "walkthrough" of mclaren's generous orthodoxy, recasting it as gracious orthodoxy. so, three more jesuses i have known.
jesus 4: having received the news that his friend and disciple, lazarus, was mortally ill, jesus waited a few days before making his way to bethany to visit the grieving family. and what a visit it was! following a confrontation with martha, lazarus's sister, jesus proclaimed to her, "your brother will rise again." confused yet faithful, martha responded. then, jesus moved to clear away any remaining confusion, insisting, "i am the resurrection and the life. whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." he then called the dead-and-buried lazarus shrouded in burial cloth from his tomb. a man who has power over the forces of life and death. a god who has compassion on sinful men and women. that is a jesus worth knowing.
jesus 5:as jesus instructed his disciples hours before his betrayal and crucifixion, he encouraged them with a promise that though he would be away for a time, he would certainly "come again and will take you to myself, that where i am you may be also." "lord," thomas quickly pushed jesus, "we do not know where you are going. how can we know the way?" jesus aimed his reply at the very faith of his disciples. "i am the way, and the truth, and the life," he said, "no one comes to the father except through me. if you had known me, you would have known my father also. from now on you do know him and have seen him." jesus, as he presented himself in the gospels, is the only way for fallen men and women to know and to see the father. only through him can the way, meaningful life, and the truth be known.
jesus 6:in his continued teachings to his disciples on the night he was betrayed, jesus assured them that his father was preparing them for their future lives and ministries. "i am the true vine," he proclaimed, "and my father is the vinedresser. every branch of mine that does now bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." "i am the vine; you are the branches," he continued, "whoever abides in me and i in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." one who supplies and supports his children in their faithful ministry on his behalf. a jesus that must be known.