Transcript

Edmund: Let’s play a little thought experiment. So let’s say you died.

I know, unfortunate. But you find yourself in an airport like this one, and you’re waiting to get on one of two planes. So you walk up to the counter and you talk to the kind lady there and you say, “Hey, I want to go on one of these planes.” 

And she says, “Well, one goes to heaven. And one goes to the other place. Here’s the only thing you have to do: you have to tell me why you should be allowed to get on the plane to heaven.” 

So what would you say? I mean, you might say things like “I’m a really good person. I’ve done good things, or I haven’t done as many bad things as other people I know, or I haven’t done really bad things.” But the truth is, all those answers are actually the wrong answer.

I’ll tell you what the right answer is in a minute. So Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, theologian, physicist, Mick Jagger lookalike, he said this about Jesus:

“Not only do we only know God through Jesus Christ, but we only know ourselves through Jesus Christ. We only know life and death through Jesus Christ. Apart from Jesus Christ, we cannot know the meaning of our life or our death, of God or of ourselves.”

The answer is Jesus. Jesus is our identity, Jesus is the cure for loneliness, Jesus is the Church, Jesus is what Christianity is all about, Jesus is who we should turn to for advice, and Jesus is the answer that gets us to heaven; gets us on that plane that goes to heaven.

It is Jesus; it’s not our deeds or the things we’ve done or not done that get us to heaven. It’s Jesus’ life in us that gets us eternal life. 

So I love this painting of Jesus. This is called “Christ Pantokrator” “Pantokrator” means “all- powerful.” And it’s one of the oldest paintings that we have of Jesus.

And it’s interesting in the early Church, people really struggled with Jesus’ identity and who Jesus is. Most of the heresies in the early Church—meaning most of the incorrect teachings about Jesus—involved an incorrect understanding of Jesus as both God and man. All of this had to do with trying to explain why Jesus is so important and why He matters, and how He could be both God and man. 

You can see in this painting, the artist is trying to depict those two natures of God; His humanity and His divinity in these two sides of Jesus. So when I look at this painting of Jesus, I’m reminded of the fact that Jesus was a historical person. He came into this world, and God became man and wants to be close to us.

So Pascal is right; understanding Jesus helps us understand God and ourselves, but Jesus wants us to do more than just understand Him. He wants us to have a life-changing relationship with Him. So Jesus is more than just a historical figure; He’s alive and He wants a relationship with us. And sometimes we can miss that point.

We can just focus on doing good actions or avoiding sin. He wants us to have more than that; He wants us to have a relationship with Him, and to have that relationship be what moves us and what carries us through our lives. 

This is so much coffee. 

So to further clarify this point, God often uses the example of marriage in Scripture to talk about His relationship with us.

And if I told you that there’s this thing that you can enter into where all of your decisions you have to make with another person; all of your money is theirs; you have to live with them for the rest of your life; you can’t really go anywhere without telling them. Would you want to just enter into that situation?

Well, no, unless you fall in love with a person. And when you fall in love with a person, all the rules come later. And you’re happy to do it because you love that person. And it’s the same with our relationship with God. The way we live, avoiding sin—all those things come after we’ve fallen in love with Jesus.

So marriage isn’t just about knowing some facts about your partner or understanding them, it’s about falling in love with them. And your relationship grows in intimacy and trust over time. And it’s the same with our relationship with Jesus. 

The Catechism says in paragraph 521 “Christ enables us to live in him, all that he himself lived and he lives it in us. By his Incarnation, he, the son of God, has in a certain way united himself with each man. We are called only to become one with him, for he enables us as the members of his Body to share in what he lived for us in his flesh as our model.” 

Okay. So let’s get really practical. Jesus wants to have a relationship with you and He wants you to join His Body; the Church.

What does that mean? Well, it means just speaking to Him like a friend; inviting Him to be the center of your life. And just inviting that relationship to inspire and motivate you as you go throughout your life. And it can begin right now. 

It could begin today.

So let’s end in a short prayer that you can pray to invite Jesus into your life and to begin this personal relationship with Him:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Jesus. I believe you are the Way, the Truth and the Life. I welcome you into all areas of my life. I want to walk with you and be guided by you. Help me to turn to you throughout the day, to speak to me as a friend, and guide me to be more like you. Show me your friendship, your love, and build a relationship with me.

Jesus. I trust in you. Amen. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.