In my last post I ended saying, “From all that Jesus says about His Father, it’s clear that He wants us to love and trust His Father as He does.”
A Father of Biblical Proportions
Many of us, however, have not found the help we are looking for in an invisible Father. We are troubled when our Father in heaven doesn’t answer our prayers in the time and ways we hoped He would. We’re quite sure that if our own dads, imperfect as they are, had 10,000 angels to help them, they would give us help that our Father in heaven has withheld. Too often we find ourselves echoing the familiar words of the psalmist and Jesus, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46).
But where did we get the idea that our Father in heaven should follow the script we write for Him? If Jesus was like His Father, then both are as unpredictable in action as They are unchanging in character. Jesus didn’t tell His disciples what they wanted to hear. He didn’t use His strength to do everything they wanted Him to do. He had plans they couldn’t understand. Yet, in the end, in spite of all of this unpredictability, Jesus revealed a Father who gave them more than they could have hoped for.
In hindsight, Jesus’ friends could see how faithful He had been to them. When they thought they were going to die in a storm (Mark 4:37-38), when it seemed as if He didn’t care (John 11:1-6, 32), and when all hope seemed lost, Jesus had surprised them by showing them His Father’s ability to still a storm, raise the dead, and replace despair with hope.
This Father who revealed Himself through Jesus is not like the dads who let us feel their biceps, lifted us to their shoulders, and showed up to support us at school events. But He is also not the problem and mystery some of us think He is. Jesus is just like Him, and He is just like Jesus.In heart and personality, Jesus is exactly like the Father, who “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” for us (John 3:16).
This is different than thinking that Jesus came to protect us from His Father. When we see Jesus dying for us, interceding for us, and allowing us to use His name to approach the Father, it’s not because the Son is more merciful than the Father. It is because the Father and Son are in perfect agreement about Their love for us.
And so we pray: Father in heaven, we need to get past the issues with our own fathers that have clouded our trust in You. While there is so much about You that we don’tunderstand, please help us to see all that You want us to see about Yourself in the walk and in the words of Your Son. —Mart De Haan
So now, what are you thinking?
Don’t feel limited by the following. But here are some questions I’d like to hear some comments on:
Why do you think God has shown Himself faithful while remaining so unpredictable?
Why do you agree or disagree that it helps to see Jesus coming in behalf of the Godhead– rather than intervening to protect us from an angry Father?
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