When I was fourteen I worked for a good friend in her clothing store. I wouldn't be driving for another eleven years, so Mom had to drop me off. Every time she did she'd kiss me good-bye and say, “Remember who you are!” That meant a lot of things then, and has come to mean more as I've moved further up and further in. This morning as I continued reading Rob Bell some more “more” was added.
“A rabbi would only pick a disciple who he thought could actually do what he was doing... So at the end of his time with his disciples... [He] tells them to go to the ends of the earth and make more disciples. And then he leaves... And he doesn't stick around to make sure they don't screw it up. He's gone. He trusts that they can actually do it.”
It's not fair to crop this section from his excellent lead-up (regarding the Torah, Jewish culture and the practices of historical rabbis), but the core concept stands on its own.
Jesus mightn't have known exactly how the rest of history would go, having relinquished His omniscience to the Father. But He did know two things: one, that the Holy Spirit could be trusted. And two, He knew who Man is. As I've written before, Jesus was the only complete human to ever live, and having lived out that ultimate humanity He knows the fullness of what we were created to be. He may remember that we are dust (Ps. 103:14), but He knows far more about dust than we do!
They say knowledge is power, and it holds true here. Jesus knew who He was and who God is and walked in power. The apostles learned who they were and who God is and walked in power. The demons know that we don't know who we are, and walk in more power than they have a right to. We are the ignorant ones, struggling in a world where the powerful thrive.
There has long been a picture in my mind of a woman standing at a full-length mirror. She is dressed in rags, hair disheveled, tears and dirt upon her face. But in the mirror we see Reality: a splendorous woman, beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, crowned with glory, trailing a wake of victories, both small and great behind her.
What does it mean to become fully human? Stepping through the mirror and learning what God knows. What is today's “more” I add to Who I Am? “The rabbi thinks we can be like him.” —Velvet Elvis
2 comments:
This part of the book where he explains the whole rabbi thing blows me away every time I read it. I am always floored by the implications.
I like what you wrote about the woman standing in front of the mirror.....because up until very recently when I looked in a mirror, I could only see the rags and disheveled hair. One day you told me that you saw a very different reflection of me. And that was the day I realized that when you looked, The LORD was showing you the future and the victory and beauty to come of me. And you seeing that caused me to actually believe that there had to be something beautiful underneath what I viewed. I started to know that I would look into that mirror and see something splendorous someday. See the reality. Learn the power I truly have. I'm starting to think I don't know the half of it!
Jessie, This image of the woman in rags needs to be shared with a larger audience of women. A book, perhaps? Think about it! A friend of my son was praying for me since I was moving recently, then he asked my son, "Does your mom know who she is? Does she really know? She's the daughter of the King!" Really, a princess?
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