We Shall See Him as He Is

May 14, 2000

1 John 3:1-2

Introduction: It is great to be back with the Trinity family! By happy coincidence today is Good Shepherd Sunday and also Mother’s Day. Our Good Shepherd is here to bless our families, not only through Word and Sacrament, but also through the relationship of mothers to their families.

Thank God for our families and for our moms. Stop for a moment and think about your mother’s voice: “Lunch is ready”; “Clean up your room”; “Let me hold you”; “Eat your vegetables”; “It’s bedtime”; “I love you”; “Because I’m the mom.” As children, we probably did not hear the love that is really in those words. They are nurturing words that say much more than, “I care about you.” In the Church, we also have something in common with motherhood. The Church exits like a mother nurturing the children of God’s heavenly family. The Epistle lesson says we are “children of God.” That puts us into a special family relationship that the world knows nothing about. It cannot know because it is a spiritual family of which all are born of God. As any mom might ask, “What is our goal as a family?” We also ask ourselves as Church, “What is our goal as a family?” “Where are we headed?” In the words of our text, our goal is “to see him as he is.”

Like Christ, the family faces some great challenges. In our Tuesday morning bible study, we have been talking about relationships of biblical people-how they had to deal with childlessness, breakups, distrust, envy, and all the other things that families today must still deal with. Today there is much that challenges families on every side. Jobs and activities pull at us from so many different directions, we begin to feel like a circus juggler trying to keep all the balls in the air. Dad goes one way, Mom another, the children still another. Today’s families might reside in the same house, but are seldom together. You know, that’s the way it is in the Church too.

It’s hard to keep our family bond strong. The sheer busyness of modern life fragments us. We want our families to be places of peace and tranquility, but too often they are places of frantic activity with stress, tension, and conflict.

The ordinary family might have several relational problems and tensions on several fronts. There may be loneliness, isolation, and boredom. There may be health problems and financial difficulties. To live in harmony is a daily challenge. In no other situation do we live so intimately and deeply as in a family. We face the challenge of living in peace and harmony, of openness to discuss our problems, of humility to admit our weaknesses, of courage to take the first step out of a vicious cycle. We pray, for eyes to see when loved ones are hurting, for ears to listen patiently when they speak, for hearts filled with compassion.

In view of these challenges, families need the good news of love. As human beings prone to loveless activity, we need the lavish love of the Father. This is what church is all about, and it is the reason why we have gathered here this morning. We need to hear, not only the words, but we also need to see the actions of love God has given to us. We need to hear that we belong. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are” (1 Jn 3:1). God knows all our problems and all our failures and loves us nonetheless. His love expressed to us in his Son is strong enough to forgive and transform. “This is love:” John writes in 1 Jn 4:10, “not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Then, in verse 11 he says, “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” In the Gospel, Jesus announces, “I am the good shepherd” (Jn 10:11). Five times in a few verses he tells us what that means, “I lay down my life.” Can you see Him as He is? our bleeding, redeeming, seeking, accepting, and transforming Shepherd. As He calls us to himself, He gives us a new beginning. “In this one body (the body of Christ, God’s purpose is clear) to reconcile to God . . . through the cross.” (Eph 2:16). When His reconciling presence comes to us, we are enabled to say to the Father, “Cleanse me, wash me, love me, give me a new heart for the sake of the Good Shepherd,” And that is what He does, embracing us and saying, “I love you. You are my child. Live with my blessing.”

Hearing the good news that we belong to family, and especially, the family of God is what we all need. John says very emphatically, about God calling us His children. “And that is what we are!” When faith in God and trust in His saving work comes, we belong to God. We become a part of His family, connected to one another. God knows us by name and we know Him.

Children of the heavenly Father love and forgive one another because they are loved and forgiven. So, where there are offenses, there is also forgiveness. Where there are hurts, wounds are also soothed. Where there are divisions, bridges are built. Where there are walls, barriers are removed. God’s lavish love in his Son, the Good Shepherd, forgives us and enables us by his Spirit to love one another as he has loved us. There is a popular Christian song these days that contains the lyrics, “we are the only Jesus they will know.” That is a good statement for the Church because what is perceived of Christ is perceived through it.

As Christian family, we have a common goal—to see God.

Illustration: A pastor, meeting with a couple in a premarriage session, asked, “What is your goal in life?” The man answered, “To see God.” He was referring to the “beatific vision” mentioned in our text. The Scriptures say that when we contemplate and look into the face of Jesus we are “being transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory” by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:18). That means on the Last Day we will look at Jesus and see him truly as he is, and he “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Phil 3:21). It will be the vision of Christ that “bestows bliss,” the beatific vision. This is the destiny of every child of God. It is surely our family goal. It is a future vision that also looks back to remember Jesus’ loving sacrifice for us. It is a future vision that challenges us in the present to love as he loves.

From what we see in Mt 4:1-11 in the temptation of Christ, we know that the devil wants to distract us from our goal by smoothly speaking this way to us: “Your goal is to acquire more and more material things for yourself. Your goal is to have personal glory. Your goal is to determine your own destiny.” My friends and fellow children of the most High God, this is a lie.

Our real goal is “to see him (Jesus) as he is.” That, as a scriptural given, means that the goal of every Christian family is that the whole family might be gathered together in the presence of Christ and hear what the Lord says, “Here am I and the children God has given me” (Heb 2:13). What greater joy is there than to have us all gathered in His presence “to see him as he is.” Amen.