Vineyard Church | Weekly Update March 27, 2024

Monkey see, monkey do.… Yes, this again. First, I am a fan of monkeys. I can sit and watch them for hours and not be bored. I like monkey behavior so much, two of the gifs I send the most via text message are monkeys conducting behavior that I find particularly interesting but that to replicate myself would be frowned upon by my wife and others (the wife and others category is often a killjoy but also a category that helps regulate unnecessary conflict). Secondly, we are back to the monkeys this week because Holy Week just might be the most impactful monkey see, monkey do week in the history of the world.

Before we take a brief look at what Jesus did that becomes what we are called to do, I need to take a quick detour to unpack the why…. This is the question we find at the trailhead of the journey with Jesus, and the path we take at this trailhead determines if we start off on the path of faith or the path of religion: Why do we do the stuff Jesus did; or why SHOULD we do the stuff that Jesus did?

A common answer to this question reflects the most frustrating and madding answer in the life of every kid ever, the “because I said so.” Even as kids, we knew that this was a trap of hierarchical oppression and abiding parents because they said so felt like an affront to the very freedoms won on the path of our nation becoming back-to-back world war champs--the height of oppression.

One problem with the “why” of discipleship (monkey see, monkey do) is that it can feel like the “why” is a holy reflection of because I said so, when we see scripture like John 14 and John 15 as directives to obey, behave, or be good. Applying this to Mark 16 and Matthew 28, the commission by Jesus of his followers, we can mistakenly create a “why” for discipleship that is about work, achievement, or moral soundness (goodness). Work, achievement, and morals are not negative things, but when they are tied to the why of discipleship, it becomes more about being personally affirmed or about avoiding punishment than it is about being a reflection of the love that the Living God has for us.

The point is this.… The why has to be because I love Jesus. There is not another answer to the why that will allow us to follow the path of faith when we find ourselves at the trailhead of the journey, and it is the only why that will keep us on the trail of faith after we step off on the journey. It has to be because I love Jesus… and this has caused me all kinds of problems in the development of my relationship with God.

What does loving Jesus look like? How do I “do” it? How do I get over the fact that it sounds weird, feels weird, and pushes back against cultural applications of love, masculinity, and freedom? The entry point to understanding how to love Jesus is to grasp that he loved me first and that Holy Week is an amazing demonstration of his love.

Jesus teaches in John 15:3 that no love is greater than the love that would sacrifice a life for the life of others. The love Jesus has for me, for you, for all that have lived or will in the future, is manifest in his sovereign decision to step into my place, assume all of my sin, and willfully be punished so that I might live and know God, so that I might live.

So that I might live… He even knows me. He knows about me what you don’t know about me. He has seen it all, and in measuring what I have done against his love for me, he chose to die so that I might live.

Tomorrow at our Last Supper celebration, Friday at our Good Friday remembrance, and then on Sunday as we proclaim the resurrection, we are remembering the love of a Savior. If we are moved by that love, if his love for us becomes the beginning of the why, we see the natural conclusion of the why of discipleship when we choose to do for others what Jesus did for us.

Taking stock of what Jesus did for me, I love him for it. Because I love him, I want to know him, so I read his words and pray and communicate with him. The closer I get, the more I want to be like him, which leads me to do the stuff that he did, not to be good or to earn love but because I learn to love, and love leads to sacrifice.

Any other reason for discipleship is about religion, about earning, about achieving. Any other path is about avoiding doom while holding on to what I have; any other path is about partial submission, which is not submission at all.

The trailhead of the journey is the why for taking the journey at all. Do I love Jesus, or am I just afraid of His Dad? Do I love Jesus, or am I hedging my bets so I don’t burn in the fires of hell? The only why that will endure, the only why that testifies to our salvation, the only why that will lead me to the place where I can be discipled, is that I recognize what Jesus did for me and I love him for it.

Adam Greenwell
Pastor | Billings Vineyard Church
www.BillingsVineyard.org