Living like Jesus
Yesterday we drove from Gauteng to the Western Cape for the holidays. And just before Three Sisters on the N1, we saw this wonderful scene. (“Lewe” is the Afrikaans word for life.)
I have been wondering what the original author had in mind. Maybe “Jesus lives”? Jesus did overcome death, and now lives forever.
Mark 16:9 (WEBBE): 9Now when he had risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.
Hebrews 7:22-25 (WEBBE): 22By so much, Jesus has become the collateral of a better covenant. 23Many, indeed, have been made priests, because they are hindered from continuing by death. 24But he, because he lives forever, has his priesthood unchangeable. 25Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.
Or maybe “Jesus gives life”? Jesus Himself said that He came to give us life in abundance.
John 10:7-10 (WEBBE): 7Jesus therefore said to them again, “Most certainly, I tell you, I am the sheep’s door. 8All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture. 10The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
But my favourite interpretation of what the author of on the hillside might have meant is this one: “Living like Jesus”.
1 John 2:5-6 (WEBBE): 5But God’s love has most certainly been perfected in whoever keeps his word. This is how we know that we are in him: 6he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked.
Philippians 2:5-7 (WEBBE): 5Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, 6who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.
Jesus was human when He was on Earth, so it makes sense that He can be our role model.
John 5:19-20 (WEBBE): 19Jesus therefore answered them, “Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise. 20For the Father has affection for the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
Jesus did what He saw His Father doing. While He was human, He still walked in a very close relationship with the Father.
Luke 4:1a (WEBBE): 1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan …
Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit, just like we are today. So we have the same access to the Father and the Holy Spirit that Jesus did. And more, now that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father.
John 14:12 (WEBBE): 12Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father.
Everything we need to walk like Jesus, every day of our lives, is in our grasp. We just need to believe the promises that God gave us in His Word, and act on them!