Reflection on the readings for the 26th April, the 4th Sunday of Easter
- Apr 28
- 6 min read
Readings: Acts 2:42-end; John 10:1-10
Today’s reflection is by Reader, Cal Bailey.
Getting to know another person well is both exciting and scary. As I was getting to know Jo, while we were courting, I remember her calling time occasionally by saying “That’s a bit up close and personal.” It was her way of saying ‘We’re going fast enough. Don’t get too close too soon.’
Adam and Eve came to a moment when God was getting up close and personal with them in the garden after the Fall. Do you remember what they did?
We’re told they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves because they were naked and felt embarrassed.
The bible tells us repeatedly that God wants to be up close and personal with us. Think of Jacob’s dreams as he left home and as he returned home again. Or the great and awesome presence of God on Mt Sinai after the twelve tribes had left Egypt. Jesus came to earth to be up close and personal with people, to show us God visibly, to be with us, right with us. He wants us to know him.
In John 10 he describes it like this: “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. … His sheep follow him because they know his voice … They will come in and go out and find pasture” (10: 3,4,9).
This is the intimacy, the freedom, the life of the children of God. It’s a beautiful, pastoral image of the abundant life which God gives us.
But I wouldn’t want you to think it’s simple, or easy, or without cost to find such life. We may be married now, but being up close and personal with Jo is still a big challenge! And scripture doesn’t give the impression that it’s easy with God, either. I want to suggest two reasons why this might be so.
Firstly, there are many voices claiming to be God’s. The context of this passage in John 10 follows a succession of rows between Jesus and the temple authorities in John 6, 8 and 9 in which they claim to be the true voice of God on earth. In our gospel today, Jesus calls them ‘thieves and robbers … (who) have come to steal, kill and destroy’ (10:1,8,10). He doesn’t mince his words.
Jesus wasn’t killed by them for nothing. He clearly threatened the preferences, priorities and behaviours of those who ran the temple as well as the Jewish political leaders.
There are many voices claiming to be God’s. How do we know which is true? Many Christian leaders claim to tell us that they know – I became a Christian through one such group – and I now think they were brilliant in their evangelism, but over-reached in their self-confident theology. How can we know what is true? It’s by learning to listen to that voice. Remember what the new church was described as doing in the Acts reading: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). What do we do with this teaching?
Jesus says this in John chapter 7:17: “If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own”. In other words, we learn by doing. Taste and you will see. It’s the method of the apprentice, which we call discipleship. Follow and you will discover. This method tests whether we’re serious. If we won’t try the new clothes on, we’ll never know if they fit. But if we start with a mind to follow God, we will slowly but surely discover the voice, joy and life of God. Being up close and personal with God isn’t easy; but it’s trying hard to live as a disciple day by day, that gives me the deepest reason to believe it’s true.
The second reason it’s not easy to live up close and personal with God is that it’s not just anyone who comes to be up close and personal with us – it’s God himself.
I want to take you to a passage which has puzzled me for 40 years - until this week. It’s the story of Jesus and the fig tree, which occurs both in Matthew’s gospel and Mark 11:12-14, 20.
On the face of it, this is a story of Jesus being most unreasonable. He was expecting figs but it was out of season so he found only leaves. He curses the tree, which withers and dies.
Here’s what I’ve discovered – two things. Firstly fig trees have big leaves – up to 30 cm long – which is probably why they were used by Adam and Eve! The leaves grow in spring. Secondly, fig trees have not one but two fruit bearing seasons. There’s the spring season, when last year’s growth sprouts for the first time, called the Breba crop, which is small but grows along with the leaves; and the main season which is autumn, when the whole tree is fruitful.
Jesus is hungry and sees leaves on a fig tree, but can’t see the fruit because the leaves are large. So he approaches it, looking for fruit. It wasn’t the main season for fruit – autumn – but if there were leaves visible, then the spring fruit should be there, even if it’s concealed. He doesn’t find any, so he curses it.
On a fig tree, spring leaves are an advertisement for fruit, but the tree wasn’t delivering what it was promising. There was appearance but no reality.
An interesting story – but why is it included in the gospels? It’s the context of this story that gives it meaning. Both before and after this event, in both Matthew’s gospel and Mark’s, Jesus is in the temple. The ‘Before’ is when he visits the temple, looks round, but it’s late and he goes to Bethany to sleep. The ‘After’ is when he clears the temple and overturns its tables, causing chaos there.
Matthew and Mark are making a very deliberate point. The fig tree and the temple are telling the same story. Both had the right appearance – the tree had its leaves and the temple had its sacrifices, its services, its prayers, its coffers. But neither had what God was actually looking for – neither fruit nor truth.
Jesus says it plainly: “My house will be called a house of prayer – but you have made it a den of robbers.”
When Jesus gets up close and personal, he’s looking for fruitfulness and truth.
There’s a version of the Christian life that looks good from the outside, but up close and personal it’s not there.
I’ve found it’s easy to be a superficial Christian in business. It’s easy, for example, to talk about moral values in meetings, but not to implement them in my own work. It’s easy to talk about being generous but difficult to give money away.
Just as with the fig tree or the temple, Jesus wants to see beyond the appearance. I want to finish with 2 challenges for us.
Firstly, when Jesus comes up close and personal with us, what will he find? Will he find fruitfulness? Will he find devotion? Or are we like the fig tree or the temple or the pretend Christians in business – good at the talk, but less good at the following?
The second challenge arises because today is the day of our church’s annual meetings. If Jesus were to come up close and personal to St James, what would he find?
Our annual meeting isn’t a legal ritual we have to go through annually. It’s a rehearsal for the meeting our church will have with Jesus at the judgment – another time when he gets up close and personal. What’s the reality of St James – the fruitfulness and the truth?
Today is our chance to serve St James deeply by asking the central questions about our fruitfulness, by checking the real priorities of our leaders, and ensuring we appoint godly people to be on our church council. The temple didn’t come out well.
So let’s determine that St James is a place where God’s priorities, not ours or a few leaders’, are central to all we say, all we do, all we are.
Amen