I pass a sign from time to time on a church building. It says, "Abundant Life Church." I have no idea what the people are like who enter those doors, so this is not about the people. It's the phrase "abundant life" that begs a comment.
I barely know what "life" is, so "abundant life" escapes me. Oh, I know the verse well enough in John 10:10, "I have come to bring life to you and for you to have it more abundantly." But, in the context of John 10:1-18, life is put in opposition to destruction, theft, and murder. These last 3 were products of false Chosen Ones, the former a product of the true Chosen One.
It seems that the semantic set up in the passage is one of contrast. The focus is not just on abundant life, but on the kind of life that is distinct, not offered by those who destroy, kill, and steal. It's not abundant life, but a life that is different from the life offered by those who destroy and plunder. Powerful men who chose to plunder cities and maim its citizens just for conquest couldn't really offer a full or satisfactory life. There had been other chosen ones, sons of God to grace the earth. Alexander the great called himself with such an appellation. The pharaohs of the middle dynasties of Egypt did. Augustus Caesar did. More than one Persian king did. But following these earthly chosen ones didn't offer a fully satisfactory life. It lacked the spritual dimension, the life that might extend past what the present moment offered.
I'm not much of a follower. But, I can follow somone who has more to offer than what I see in the here and now. The offer is fuller, more satisfactory. It contains worthy desires that have actions as their vehicles for manifestation. I would have made a lousy ancient citizen for a king who thought he was all that, the chosen of the gods. I would have made a lousy follower of King George III in our own Revolutionary War. But, I can follow someone who offers a spiritual dimension.
1 comment:
can u follow someone that is always trying to harness things?
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