"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens." - J.R.R. Tolkien
We have made it through another week. This age of COVID-19 is starting to become routine. As we continue to wait and wonder, I'm becoming aware that our old normal will never again exist. I remember what it was like living through the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. At first, we were numb. Then slowly but surely, we started to rebuild our lives towards a new normalcy because things were never the same. Then as now, we wondered if this was the end of the world, would Jesus be coming back. As Seventh-day Adventists, our minds always go there because the eschatology, the study of last-day events, that Jesus left us with encourages us to look for Him. We look East, we hope, and we continue to wait. As we anticipate, we look for comfort and cling to Bible promises. We review prophetic checklists, we analyze where we are, and we try to calm our anxieties.
Faith is difficult during times of trouble. As our opening quote suggests, if we run away when things become difficult, we are not faithful. We need to exercise our loyalty to God during these unpredictable days. As we continue to study Jesus' last hours, we come to the next part of John 14. Within this chapter, Jesus gives us so much to ponder, and He offers anchors for our faith.
"All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn't love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you" (John 14:23-26, NLT).
Jesus makes something clear in this portion of the text. If you love Him, you will do what He says, and in return, He will love you as well. This portion of the Biblical text used to make me uneasy. Not from the standpoint of not wanting to do what Jesus asked. I was always apprehensive, with this portion of the passage, because I worried about how non-Christians would take this message from Jesus.
I could hear someone say, "So, Jesus is a dictator?" or "Jesus won't love me if I don't do what he says?" and "Then, what you're saying is that God has no love for me?"
Then it dawned on me that this text isn't about loving one segment of humanity based on obedience and not loving another based on disobedience.
The Bible makes this fact clear in Romans 8:35-39: "Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? As the Scriptures say, 'For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.' No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (NLT).
This text makes it clear that God and Jesus both love us. There is nothing that will ever be able to separate us from that love. However, the text in John 14 is not about love, but rather it is about something else. In John 14, the Biblical text is about loyalty.
Jesus is calling us to loyalty above all else.
The conversation about loyalty is vast in the Bible. All throughout the Scriptures, you can find God calling His people to honor Him and no one else. There are stories, poems, laments, miracles, prophecies, etc., that God uses to call His people to Him. I want to focus on a few of these to illustrate this point on loyalty and how important it is to God.
The first illustration comes from the Old Testament. This first passage is found in Numbers: 15:37-41:
"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: Throughout the generations to come you must make tassels for the hems of your clothing and attach them with a blue cord. When you see the tassels, you will remember and obey all the commands of the Lord instead of following your own desires and defiling yourselves, as you are prone to do. The tassels will help you remember that you must obey all my commands and be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that I might be your God. I am the Lord your God!'" (NLT).
This passage talks about a piece of clothing known as a tallit by all Jewish people. This tallit looks like a prayer shawl with tassels on each of the four corners. The tassels have five knots, and several of the 613 strands that make up the tassels are made of a blue color. Every bit of the tallit represents symbols of the Bible.
Symbology Explained:
The five knots represent the Torah
(i.e., Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)
613 strands represent the laws found in the Torah
The color blue represents loyalty to God
In this passage, the people of God are encouraged not to seek other gods. As they wore their tallit and clasped the tassels with the five knots and the 613 strands, they would be reminded of their God and their responsibility of loyalty. As they saw the color blue in their tallit, they would recall the lessons of the rabbis. In these lessons, they would be taught the Ten Commandments were written on bluestone. These stones came from God's blue throne (The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 3, p. 72, Ezekiel 1:26, Exodus 24:10).
The color blue and loyalty are also found in God's Old Testament worship services. When you look at the Sanctuary system of worship, we see that God set up a sacrificial system with Moses. After the Israelites were freed from Egyptian slavery, you find that the high priest served God and the people. The high priest was told to wear a particular type of clothing with all sorts of colors, precious stones, and metals. When the people saw the high priest, they knew that the priest was loyal to God, and they were reminded that they, too, should be faithful to God (ref. Exodus 28).
The high priest's influence was meant to lead the people to God. This is important to note because we see that whenever God sets up a system, Satan sets up a counterfeit. Satan's counterfeit worship system is meant to pull people away from God's method of worship. In Revelation 17, we find that Satan's worship system is classified as a great prostitute. The reason the Apostle John was given this image by the angel is that "general unfaithfulness to God is always presented in terms of spiritual adultery" (The New American Commentary, Vol. 39).
The high priest leads people to God, and the great prostitute is meant to lead people away from God's system of worship.
I find something particularly fascinating in this analysis of loyalty and the color blue. When you compare and contrast the materials worn by the high priest in Exodus 28 with the clothing of the great prostitute in Revelation 17, you find that they are wearing the same things. They are both wearing the same colors, materials, precious stones, and metals.
There is one major exception.
The high priest wears blue, and the great prostitute does not.
I do not think it is a coincidence that we see this in the Bible. I also do not find it coincidental that Passover, Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday is happening amidst this COVID-19 pandemic. Two thousand years ago, Jesus was being loyal to God and to us. Jesus' love for us led Him to die in the most brutal way the Romans could imagine.
On that Sunday morning:
Jesus showed the universe and us that He is victorious over death and sin!
The tomb was found empty!
The Lamb won!
Every harmful effect of sin was conquered!
On that Sunday morning, COVID-19, economic collapse, governmental ineptitude, scarcity, and anxiety were defeated too!
I want to end with this quote from The Great Controversy:
"While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. 'The earth mourneth and fadeth away,' 'the haughty people … do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.' Isaiah 24:4, 5" (Pg 590).
I end with this quote because I do not think we are at the End Time. However, I think we are headed that way, and it may be sooner than we think. We can see from this quote that Satan has many more things planned for our planet. We will all have the temptation to become anxious and quit. However, we are called by God to be loyal to Him through the difficult times ahead. As we practice our loyalty to Jesus, I want to remind you of something important.
THE LAMB WINS! And because Jesus is our Savior, we do too!
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Geraldo
Discussion Questions:
What does loyalty look like to you?
Are there any areas in your life that you struggle with loyalty in your life?
Do you think loyalty and sinlessness are the same? How do Jesus' death on the cross, and the gift of salvation interact with loyalty? (John 3:16-21)