Magic

When I was a kid I used to watch a show called bewitched. It was a bout a normal man who married a witch who could make almost anything happen just by wiggling her nose. She could clean her house, transport across the country, fix broken things and lots of other stuff. Another show from that time was called I Dream of Genie. it was about a man who found a genie in a bottle and she could perform almost any kind of feat using her magic. A few years ago it was Harry Potter. He was a kid who lived a horrible life and then found out he could do magic and went to a magic school to learn how, while he was there he had many exiting adventures.

Whether it is TV today or The story of Aladin and the magic lamp from years centuries ago the idea of getting what we want without having to actually do the work to get it has always fascinated us. It still does today.

You will probably be shocked and amazed when I tell you that we are going to look at a passage today that many people have misunderstood and taken out of context. It should come as no surprise that almost any statement can be taken out of context or twisted to mean something that the person saying it never intended, our modern media has become expert at half truths and partial clips to make things sound the way they want them to sound. The problem is that our modern media did not invent this method, they merely used what humans have been doing for centuries and made some improvements.

John 14:1–15 NASB95

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. “And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

This passage began as a way to comfort the disciples who were stressed out. Jesus knew that they were overwhelmed and that it would soon get worse so he tried to ease their fears and comfort them. Don’t let your heart be troubled. I am going away but I am going to get a place ready for you and I will come and get you and bring you to this place that I have prepared for you. You cannot go with me but you are not forgotten and you are not abandoned. I love you and will return for you. That is what Jesus was trying to convey to his disciples and to us.

He also tried to comfort them by proving to them that he had all the power of God at his disposal. He was not making promises he could not keep based on a hope that he could make it happen he was making promises that were backed by all the power of the maker of the heavens and the earth.

Of course they didn’t understand, who would? Phillip even stated the problem. I can almost hear him say Jesus we want to believe you, we desperately need it to be true but we have doubts, if you could just show us the father then our hearts would be at ease. If you could just prove to us that God the father is backing your play then we could rest easy.

Jesus tried to explain to them that he and the Father are one, that Jesus is God in the same way that the Father is God, that there is no difference in power or authority. Jesus tried to make them understand who he was and who he is. He tried to explain something that is just beyond our ability to understand. Jesus tried to explain the Trinity. Of course we have over 2000 years of scholars and theologians studying the Trinity, trying to explain it and teach it. We have all this knowledge and all the modern resources, computes and books by the millions. The best minds of the last 2000 years struggling to understand and explain the Trinity have still not been able to make it clear and simple for us. It is just too much to wrap our heads around. We believe it, but we cannot say we fully understand how it works, and neither could the disciples.

Jesus was trying to help them understand, trying to teach them and comfort them. Which brings us to one of the often misused and misunderstood parts of the scriptures.

John 14:12–14 NASB95

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

Jesus told them that the works that he had done they would do. They had seen him perform miracles, and indeed we have scripture that tells us of some of the miracles that the disciples did perform. Jesus even stated that they would perform greater works than he did. Can you imagine how hard that was to believe?

Then he told them that he would go to the father and that he could be advocating for them, for us, and he said.

John 14:14 NASB95

“If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

Many have read that statement and prayed for all kind of things claiming that Jesus would answer their prayers because of this verse. Many have been disappointed.

Now when you try to communicate something to another person a lot of assumptions are made. You assume that you both speak the same language, that you both know the same meaning for the same words, and that you both understand the context of the conversation. Obviously if you don’t both speak the same language there will be no understanding between you. If you speak the same language but use different definitions for the same words very little communication will take place.

My nephew started life in a rough environment. His dad was an addict and his mom was put into an insane asylum. When he was still a toddler my parents went and got him and took him into their house. He had to go to speech therapy and have several other problems addressed before he could catch up with kids his age. One of the things that I remember about that time was that he would sometimes say he was nervous. He would repeat this over and over again and become more and more agitated until he eventually got so upset that he would mess up his britches. I am not sure who it was that figured it out, it may have been the therapist or it may have been mom but eventually someone figured out that when he had to go the the bathroom he said he was nervous. He thought the word nervous meant go to the bathroom. So he would say he was nervous and we would ask him why he was nervous, he didn’t know how to tell us why he had to go to the bathroom, to him the question made no sense. More people would come and try to figure out why he was nervous which really did make him nervous until he eventually messed up his drawers. Having a different definition for the same word can really mess everything up can’t it? That is why the words we use and what they mean are important.

Another element of conversation that is just as important is context. If you had just began a new job your new boss might explain to you what your duties were and show you how to get them done and then at some point he would probably figure that you had a handle on it and leave you to your work. He might say something like if you need anything give me a call, my door is always open. Now if you finished work and went home, then later that night you wanted to eat some chips and salsa and you couldn’t get the lid off of the jar it might occur to you that your new boss had said that if you need ANYTHING feel free to call him and that he had an open door policy. So imagine that you called your new boss from your house and said hey boss, I am trying to eat some chips and salsa and I can’t get the lid off of the jar, I remembered that yous said if I needed anything I could just call you and I really need the lid off of this jar. How do you think the rest of that conversation would go?

Well in this conversation Jesus was talking about his relationship with his disciples. He started with this

John 14:12 NASB95

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.

and he ended with this

John 14:15 NASB95

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

So he was talking to people who believed in him and kept his commandments. In our hearts and minds we know this. We know that we could not pray for Jesus to make robbery not a sin or to approve an exception for adultery just for us or some other silly thing like that. We know Jesus will not do those things for us whether we ask him to or not. He can’t, if he did he would not be Jesus. He would be going against his own character and his own word. The context of the conversation and our own common sense tells us not to take this as an offer to give us anything we want just because we want it.

Of course the idea of a genie in a bottle is very attractive. The genie will give us anything we want whether it is good or evil, whether it is right or wrong, whether we deserve it or not, whether we need it or not. As a matter of fact most of the stories are about how the genie tries to twist your words around to make sure you don’t get what you want or to make sure that it works out badly for you somehow. That is not what we want. No one wants an all powerful being who is out to get them and make their lives miserable.

If we were honest with ourselves we want an all powerful being who is looking out for our best interest and who gives us what we need and what is good for us, but we also think we know best what that is and we want what we want and we don’t want to let anyone else decide what we can and can’t have . What we think we want is an all powerful being who has to give us whatever we want, what we think we want is a genie in a bottle who grants us unlimited wishes. Of course the story is always about how the genie usually gets the best of the wisher and makes them miserable in the end.

That is not what Jesus offers us. Jesus offers us the opportunity to ask for anything we want and to have an all powerful, all knowing, loving being who listens to those requests and either fulfills them, modifies them to what they should have been or denies them based on what is best for you and for everyone else. We think we would want to do magic or have wishes but it is far, far, better to have a God in heaven who loves us and does what is best for us, even if it is not what we want at the time.

What Jesus means is that he will do whatever is best for us and for each other, not that he would do anything and everything we want. Of course if we were honest we already knew that, and isn’t that what we would really want anyway, whatever is best.