Abundant Life

When we are confronted with the fragility of our own humanity and when the insufficiencies of our own ability to control the world around us is on full display, it may be a little easier to understand why and relate to the disciples of Jesus that locked themselves away after his death. (Jn 20:19)

The paralyzing fear of uncertainty is something that can be so strong and dominate the decisions we make or even how we perceive the events going on around us. Jesus was dead. Would those who crucified him now come for the rest of us?

Perhaps being locked away in that room felt safe. The suffocating walls that surrounded them could feel like a last defense to protect their wounded hearts. These hearts that were once so vulnerable - giving up everything to follow Jesus - are now overcome with grief to the point that the room that they have trapped themselves in serves only as a reminder of how afraid they were of everything outside the locked door.

I know that I have felt - and I’m sure that many others have felt - something similar to the followers of Jesus after his death. Our disappointments, our pain, and even our sin can feel as if they dictate our future. The horizons of our future narrows to the point that there is no life without this same sin, no future without the pain in my heart, no step forward without having to drag the weight of all my past bad memories and mistakes behind me.

Soon we find ourselves trapped within those same suffocating walls as the first disciples. Sure, it will be uncomfortable to stay here for the rest of our lives, but at least we know what to expect.

Do you find yourself giving into this mindset at all?

Are there ways that you have determined your future based on the mistakes of your past?

Is there a sin that you keep returning to and can’t imagine a world where it isn’t chained around your neck?

Have you confined your expectations of Jesus to a small dark room with walls of fear - thinking that he can only work within the parameters you’ve set and do nothing more?

To be very clear - the lies that we can come to believe about ourselves, the limitations we place on Jesus or our futures - they all come from the depths of hell. These warped views of reality do nothing but distort who you are and what God is truly capable of doing in your life.

Jesus doesn’t want you to remain in that locked room. In fact, he clearly tells us what he wants for each of us - for you:

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (Jn 10:10)

This is the standard that we can measure our lives against. Do I have life? Do I have abundant life? Or do I settle for the slow drip of moving from one experience to the next, occasionally feeling something in the midst of a very grey world.

You were made for so much more. You were made for life - abundant life!

Jesus didn’t leave his disciples in that dark, locked room. He entered into that space. He entered into the pain of grief, the shattered expectations, and the limited view of their futures in order to bring them this Good News of abundant life. More than coming into that space, he shows them that there is an entire world outside of these walls that is trapped within the same lies, the same fears, and the same limited view of life and that “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (Jn 20:21)

Jesus enters into the suffocating room and tears down the walls of false expectations in order to direct the disciples to take part in his own saving mission. He brings them life. This is shown in such a beautiful and incarnational way as he breathes on them and gives them the Holy Spirit. This scene pulls us back to the very beginning of the bible where God formed man out of the dust of the earth and in order to give him life, He breathes into his nostrils. The room that the disciples had trapped themselves in had become a tomb. Their hopes were rotting as they may have felt their hearts turning to dust. Yet, in the midst of this darkness Jesus breathes life into them - abundant life.

This life cannot be contained. It explodes into the world as Jesus equips those once thought dead with the power to forgive sins - to bring abundant life into the lives of those living in the lies of sin, pain, and hopelessness.

Even if it is more comfortable to stay within those walls, to be bound up in chains - we can feel our restlessness growing within us. The dissatisfaction of a life lived within the confines of our own mistakes demands a response.

Let him into that space of pain, despair, and narrow expectations.

Let him shatter the false expectations that you’ve come to believe about yourself.

Let him tear down the walls and the locked doors that you hide behind.

Receive the abundant life he offers and reject the chains and the walls that try to convince you that you have no future without them.

The world has been forever changed by men and women who once believed that they were limited by the mistakes of their past. These saints accepted the gift of living abundantly - will you?