This past Sabbath I went to visit my sister in the faith and her husband who is recovering from a severe injury and illness. Prior to our meeting I had been thinking about a major issue and argument I have with those who claim the Christian faith and Yeshua as Messiah.
In speaking to the Apostle Phillip in the Gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 12 Yesus Christos says….
[12] Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father”.
He meant what he said……the condition necessary to realize the fulfillment of his words hinge upon complete Belief and Faith. There is absolutely no other way “Greater Things” are possible. My question to the super faithful who are so resistant to the pursuit of justice, right-making and works of charity and compassion is this: What do you interpret “greater things” to mean?
What is the purpose of so much power being promised to the followers of Yeshua/Yesus Christos? Is it to meet once a week and perfectly keep the sabbath day? Perfectly say God’s name? Keep the calendar perfectly? Debate your beliefs to prove your worth? Or some other basic tenant of a faith concept that actually has little to do with the true Gospel mission and representing Christos?
Mind you, all of these “acts of righteousness” occur while the elderly languish in loneliness, cancer wards and extremely ill patients receive few or no visitors and those in foster care or straight up orphanages see no one beyond the guardians put in place to monitor them. The strangers in our gates are demonized and expelled and the poor are cast as burdens to our comfort and resources as a society. And the homeless just aren’t worth the efforts and don’t exist.
Clearly there is very little, if any “Christ” in this and these attitudes certainly don’t demonstrate the power to be given to achieve “greater things”. The results are dead and dying churches, fellowships dwindling down to nothing or swelling with members of the same loveless ilk, drawn together by a mutual fanaticism around disjointed concepts of “Christianity”. Children vanish from fellowships, adults strategize on ways to reach out and save them, not realizing that its their own actions and false teachings that push them away. People are stuck in places where God has been pushed out and replaced by an agenda, an agenda that usually has nothing to do with fostering and achieving these “Greater Things”.
My daughter and wife were spared extreme health complications and most certainly death by the healing, mercy and grace of the creator of the Universe. In our opinions the miracles that occurred were primarily because of our attitudes of humility, reverence, love and repentance, repentance being the key to everything.
I only began to really understand repentance in its fullness and depth when I began to gravitate towards the Eastern Church. Essentially repentance is a 60 minute an hour, 24 hour a day ceaseless attitude where one realizes that he or she falls woefully short of the morality, character and being of the God they are imitating. Realizing that some of our homespun attitudes of ego, vanity and selfishness have absolutely nothing to do with and are diametrically opposed to the creator of all things and are not what our fellow man, our neighbor, spouse, family and friends are supposed to see as examples of “Christian Behavior”. Repentance is actually key to continual fellowship with the Devine. That continual fellowship is what transforms and changes the believer as they journey on the road to Mount Zion.
A lot of churches in my old movement as well as a lot of mainstream “Christian bodies” have become a people and a movement obsessed with everything but Godly righteousness. We fight over racial, ethnic, tribal and political ideals while all of the ways we stand for God and do the greater works of God are downplayed, discounted or ignored. The results are divisiveness, conflict and straight hypocrisy.
So I ask, want to begin to do the greater things? Want to begin to really have a relationship with God while representing him and his kingdom sincerely, meaningfully and accurately? Start by realizing just who the Christ was, realizing that the principle aim of his teachings was to define the nature of God and declare the Kingdom of God. He was a healer, the redeemer, the being who came to save the world and bring all to repentance. The being who came to set the example for those who truly love God and desire to do the works and the “greater things” to affect change on the earth.
For those really interested in serving the true God realize that it starts with striving to serve humanity with love, compassion, mercy and the fight for Justice. The world will see you keep the Sabbath, the high days, the dietary laws and such, but then again so do a large number of Arian Nation, White Nationalist and Far Right Christian Identity Groups. What the world needs to see is you “LIVE CHRIST” and “LIVE THE GOSPEL” and WALK as Christ did, every second of every minute of every day of your life. This is what the world desperately needs to see from “true believers” as they will finally give way to “the greater things” that Yesus Christos talked about.