When we, as relational beings, find ourselves in a relationship that is coming to a close, something changes. Something shifts us into relationship survival mode. We begin to shake free from whatever fears or uncertainties may have hindered that relationship in some way. Every time, my wife and I have moved towns, an urgency has come upon us and we found ourselves wanting to spend more and more time with the friends we would be leaving behind. Regrets of not taking more time with friends…sooner. Goodbye relationships are found around every corner in hospitals and nursing homes. Loved ones clinging on to loved ones and desiring just one more moment from someone they've taken for granted in the past.
Here we are…a few days away from Holy Week. This is the time during which we remember the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem as he begins his last week of earthly ministry. It was his final week and he knew it. This was his last opportunity to physically be with the people he loved, and he took advantage of it. As we read scripture, we find the urgency in Jesus' actions and his words as he teaches in the temple. His intimacy with his closest friends as they share one last meal together. His intensity as he prayed at Gethsemane. "And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." Luke 22:44
Jesus knew the time was drawing near when he would no longer be with his disciples. He knew there would be a time when he would not be able to go to the temple to teach and answer questions. This was it--His last week. He shifted into goodbye relationship survival mode. Only this wasn't for his survival, it was for ours. He knew what was to come at the end of the week, and he knew we wouldn't understand it. His concern and intensity was birthed from his love for us. He knew we would need some help in order to survive the coming storm. "But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:7, 33
Jesus understood that, though he would die and no longer walk the earth as a man, the relationship wouldn't end there. He knew he would send a Counselor (John 16:7) that would come to dwell with man forever. His urgency and intensity was for our benefit. He would and did do all that he could to assure his eternal relationship with his creation. His urgency took him to a cross and then to a grave. But death could not conquer him. Through his sacrifice, we can rest in knowing that there is no goodbye relationship with Jesus, our Savior. If we trust in the Word that he left us and in the love and forgiveness he offers, he will dwell with us forever and we will dwell with him.
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