I don’t help myself as a Christian by not allowing Jesus’s words to speak directly into my life and the muddles I’ve got myself into.
I come from a part of the Church that has trained me to be so alert to the dangers that can come from doing this inappropriately, that I never allow it to happen appropriately: even when Jesus is very clearly speaking words to comfort or challenge someone in a very similar situation to my own.
To take one example: I am often in the same place as the younger brother in Jesus’s famous parable of the prodigal son: nervously heading home having made a mess of my life (once again) and doubting my father will still accept me.
When I’m listening to those internal, unbelieving voices, I need to hear Jesus’s words telling me what sort of welcome I can expect:
‘But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him’ (Luke 15:20b).
Jesus is, through his words preserved in Scripture, urging me to expect that sort of welcome myself – before I’ve even begun to splutter out my own words of repentance. Yes, he was just telling a story, but that story is the truest account of how my heavenly father will always respond to a repentant me (or anyone else). His Spirit wants me to know and feel the truth of those words for me, today: to feel my father’s overwhelming, forgiving embrace of love.
To take an even more pertinent example: I am most often like the elder brother we meet at the end of this parable – stuck in self-righteous jealousy of the gracious welcome the prodigal has received. I’ve lived much of my life wanting the younger brother’s experiences away from home – secretly suspecting he made the right choice in running away and, seemingly, enjoying himself. I’m someone who has had the great privilege of always being a Christian, at home with my father, but who often wishes I’d spent some time away ‘enjoying myself’ too.
It’s then that I most need to hear some of the words Jesus has the father say to his older son at the end of the parable:
‘“My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours”’ (Luke 15:31).
When I hear those words spoken direct into my life and my resentful feelings, they floor me. Because they are true – I have never known a day out of my father God’s care; he has been a constant presence in my life, the great fixture. And he has shared everything he has with me – his creation, his son, his Spirit, his love, his people: I could go on and on. So, when I now feel resentment bubbling to the surface of my heart and mind, I speak these words of Jesus directly into my life to remind me of my father’s constant, generous love for me.
