The Abundant Life

In John 10:10, Jesus says "I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly." What a marvelous thought: Jesus did not come so that we may suffer and die for Him, but that He might suffer and die for us so that we might have life and have it, as some translations attest, to the full.

What does that mean? To my mind, it means that we can trust in God's goodness. We can trust in God's great love and know that He will do everything that the most loving person on earth would do and then some. We can trust that God does not will our suffering or illness - Jesus went around healing, not once telling anyone to "offer it up." We can trust in God's power and have no need to be afraid.

This is not a message we hear very often from the pulpit. Most clergy preach the church of the Cross much more often than the church of the Resurrection. Yet, the sole reason for the journey to the cross was to reveal the good news of the resurrected life. Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?

We are saved to new life - to my mind, that is the "good news." There isn't a precise definition in the scriptures. It is merely described as what the disciples brought to Jews and Gentiles and in the process overturned the world.

The gospel has to be more than some message of solace that helps one to bear the trials of this "vale of tears" as one Marian prayer implores. While helpful, this kind of message would not create such a dramatic awareness that people gladly went to their deaths rather than deny it. No, the gospel had to be something truly magnificent - real "good news."

My "good news" is that God loves us and offers eternal life to anyone who asks - not on our merit, but on his graciousness alone - and that we are filled with God's Spirit who gives us "power, love and self control" as Paul reminds Timothy. To complete this abundant life, he tells the Ephesians that we are filled with "every spiritual blessing in the heavens." This is really good news.

So much is made these days about the effect belief has on our ability to accomplish tasks or overcome obstacles. Maybe if more of us unleashed our faith and believed that it would actually make a difference in our world, we would see more of the abundant life. As the Psalmist says, "I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." I would add, not only the land of the dead.