Bruce’s Ministry

Agnus Dei

Posted by Bruce Norton on Apr 13 2009

It has been a couple weeks since I have posted on this blog.  Quite honestly, I have been doing some reflection on Jesus and my role in God’s kingdom.  Lent and Holy Week has been extraordinary for me.  He has revealed so much to me during this time.  It seems so huge and big to me and yet I know that I am still only scratching at a small part of the very top of the surface of that which is infinitely and unimaginably bigger than I am or can understand.

 

When I was discussing some of my revelations with my mentor, I was reflecting on how profound and intricately interwoven those revelations are.  The relationships between happiness, sorrow, sin, selfishness, selflessness, humility, pride, suffering, the motivation of God, and the motivation of man are very tight.  For example, if you desire to be selfless because you know you will feel good by doing a selfless act, your motivation is one of selfishness and therefore your selfless act becomes a selfish one.  While this is a very simple example of what I have been wrestling with, I offer it to you as an example of the interwoven and intricate relationships between those things that bring us closer to God and the things that separate us from Him. 

 

So I asked my mentor, "How do I teach this to others and get it right?"  He challenged my desire to teach it, and my immediate thought was because that is who I am.  That is what I am supposed to do.  But when I tried to express it, it still didn’t come out right.  Finally, I described it like this:

 

It is like biting into a piece of fruit for the first time.   This exquisitely exotic and sweet taste fills your mouth and instantly fills your entire body with rapture and joy.  It pleases all of your senses to the very core of your being.  The experience of biting into this fruit is so inviting that every part of every cell of your body craves another bite.  This experience of elated bliss is such that you are compelled to share it with someone else.  It is almost as if sharing it with others somehow completes this heavenly and extraordinary experience.

 

As I thought about my description, two thoughts came to mind.  The first was an obvious one.  My use of fruit to describe the experience and the intense desire to share it with others is reminiscent of the Garden of Eden.

 

In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.   Gen 2:9 (NIV)

 

“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”   Gen 2:16-17 (NIV)

 

As I think about it, my description of my revelations and need to share them is how I imagine the fruit from the tree of life must have tasted.  But instead of simply enjoying the fruit from the tree of life, we had to separate ourselves from God by eating the only fruit he forbid us to eat – the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  That resulted in our settling for something less than God had planned for us.  Our embrace of a temporary and mediocre life continues today.

 

The second thing that struck me about my description was that it was not only the description of the things revealed to me by the Sprit, but also a description of God’s love for us. 

 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.   John 3:16-17 (NIV)

 

Agnus Dei is Latin for the Lamb of God.  The Lamb was sacrificed for me.  What an amazing and incredible selfless act.  On Holy Wednesday in Bethany, a woman anointed Jesus with expensive perfume while he was in the home of Simon the Leper.  Incensed, at what he considered a wasteful act, Judas went to the chief priests and agreed to betray Jesus.  On Maundy Thursday, Jesus taught the apostles about servant leadership by washing their feet.  He shared the Passover feast with them, taught them the Holy Eucharist (Holy Communion), and prayed at Gethsemane before he was arrested.  On Good Friday Jesus was tortured and crucified.  The Lamb was sacrificed in my place to cleanse me of my sins before God.  Three days later He is risen and lives today.

 

I invite you to take some time in a quiet place.  When you have cleared your mind think about living a life knowing that you will be sacrificed.  Imagine the best you can, being betrayed by someone you love.  Imagine the best you can, being arrested for telling the truth.  Imagine the best you can, being tortured by a device with hooks on the end designed to tear your flesh.  Imagine the best you can, being mocked by everyone around you.  Imagine the best you can, in your weakened state being forced to carry a cross weighing hundreds of pounds on the exposed flesh on your back so they can nail you to it to put you to death.  Imagine the best you can, being nailed to that cross.  Imagine the best you can, the weight of your body pulling on the ropes and nails holding you to the cross.  Imagine the best you can, being pierced in the side to ensure you are dead.  Imagine the best you can, asking God to forgive the very ones who did this to you.

 

Someone did all of this for you and me.  His name is Jesus Christ.  We have life because he endured suffering beyond comprehension, gave his life as a substitute for ours, and was resurrected.  If you had to describe this as a piece of fruit to someone else, wouldn’t it be the most exquisite fruit imaginable?  Wouldn’t you be compelled to share it?

 

It is.

 

You are.

 

I hope you had a happy Easter this year.

 

Bruce..