Would you say that Jesus lived an abundant life? After all, He didn’t own anything other than the clothes He wore. At the end of the day, lacking a home, He would retreat to the mountain, the Garden of Gethsemane or a friend’s house. He was a rabbi, but the leading religious leaders scorned and mocked Him. Frequently misunderstood and falsely accused, eventually, He was crucified on fallacious charges.
When Jesus asserted that He came to give us abundant life, wouldn’t we expect His life to embody abundance? If so, Jesus obviously had something else in mind other than material wealth, social prestige and recognition. In Galatians 5, Paul defines life in the Spirit with nine attributes: gentleness, love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, self-control, faithfulness and patience. These are qualities which distinguish Jesus’ and our lives as abundant. In the following, we examine how several of these virtues played out in Jesus’ life. The appraisal will heighten our understanding of how they contribute to an abundant life and help us to take stock of our own life.
WHAT IS ABUNDANT LIFE?
To begin, the obtuseness of the twelve disciples was persistent. How many times did they misunderstand Jesus teaching and what He was about? Although the twelve had witnessed Jesus perform innumerable miracles, they still thought from a worldly perspective. Time after time, rather than exhibiting impatience with the disciples’ inability to let go of old ways of thinking, Jesus displayed restraint. When Jesus asked the disciples to feed the multitude, their first reaction was not to look to Jesus, but to figure out the overwhelming amount of food required and conclude that they couldn’t possibly produce it. Most likely, our response to the disciples would have been something like, “Where have you been all this time? Have you not seen what I’ve been doing for the past two years? What more do I have to do to convince You of who I am?” Such a retort would have set a contentious tone for the occasion. As the disciples distributed the miraculous meal, they would have labored under condemnation, but Jesus was not about Himself, it was the disciples that mattered and patience was more apt to transform them (however slowly), than censure.
This is not to say it must not have been disappointing or exasperating, for Jesus, but instead of delivering a lecture on their lack of faith in Him, He patiently instructed the twelve to organize the crowd into groups of fifty and proceeded to pray and bless the meager lunch given by a boy in the crowd. Jesus continually shows us what it is to live unchained to our emotions. He was human and had an emotional life but was not subject to it.
When Jesus received word that His friend Lazarus was sick, He did not rush to heal Lazarus, but stayed two more days in the place where He was. No doubt, in human terms, Jesus must have wanted to immediately set out to see about Lazarus, but instead of following His emotions, He yielded to His Father’s will. It turned out that Lazarus died (at least temporarily), but Jesus called him back from the grave. The event caused many of the Jews present to believe in Jesus. Would they have believed if Jesus had come earlier and healed Lazarus before He died? Or was it necessary for them to witness a man coming out of the grave after four days? God must have thought so.
THIS WAS A MAN WHO KNEW HOW TO LIVE FOR OTHERS, NOT HIMSELF.
In times of trouble and crises, it can be difficult for us to draw on patience and self-control. It takes yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit as Jesus surrendered, Jesus was free, not to deny His emotions, but not to be driven by our them.
Another telling moment for understanding how Jesus lived an abundant life occurred during the Last Supper. Jesus had just spoken to the twelve disciples about the His upcoming betrayal. At first, the disciples were shocked, asking who could do such a thing, but in the context of this serious disclosure, an argument broke out among the disciples as to who among them should be considered the greatest. What does Jesus do? Call them out for their selfishness? Does He ask, “How could you think of yourselves when I am facing betrayal and certain death? Did you hear what I just told you?” Although this might be the expected response, we do not hear accusatory remarks from Jesus; instead, we hear Him commending all twelve for their loyalty in continuing with Him in His trials and reassuring them that He certainly will bestow a kingdom on them, one in which they will be honored.
This was a man who knew how to live for others, not Himself. How different the atmosphere at the Last Supper would have been if Jesus had not turned the conversation around with His tribute to the twelve men for their devotion to Him. Becoming angry at their selfish indifference or conducting an evaluation of each of the disciples’ strengths and weaknesses would have left no one untroubled, including Jesus. He raised the conversation to a higher level that maintained the oneness of the relationship between them.
Jesus so often reacted to situations in ways that are contrary to our expectations. Viewing abundant life through events in Jesus’ life deepens our understanding of who He really is. We find, in many situations, Jesus would have been justified to make the occasion about Himself, but this is not how He lived His life.
THE PAINTING
The painting, Field, was chosen to accompany the devotional for its animated, spirited tone. Like a dance, movement inhabits and activates the fields of each panel. Anything but static or passive, the abundant life Jesus conceived is an engaged life. Although a basic form repeats throughout, the variation infers the richness that attends the abundant life under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
A WINNING HAND
On the surface, abundant life may seem to be a losing hand, but at a deeper level it’s the winning hand. Jesus led a most satisfying life because He always saw the bigger picture. If He had satisfied His discontent with the disciples, He could have missed the gratification of witnessing the disciples experience the tremendous miracle of feeding a hungry crowd with a meager lunch? Or if He sought empathy instead of overlooking their callous response, would He have created a division between Himself and the disciples? Jesus knew how to live above self-interest.
It should, however, be recognized that although He lived a life of self-denial, Jesus was not a doormat. Witness His interactions with the Pharisees and religious leaders. Jesus knew how to discern when self-assertion was required. Out of love, He could not let those opposed to Him continue in their deception. How much easier it would have been to ignore their jibes and scorn. Even on these occasions, however, putting Himself aside, He refused to let silence protect His reputation. He spoke the truth no matter the cost.
Many rewarding experiences came to Jesus because He lived an abundant life of self-denial. He walked in the fruit of the Spirit. Gentleness, love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, self-control, faithfulness and patience were His companions. And of course, the greatest pleasure was being able to claim at the end of His time, “Father…I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do (John 17:4).” This encapsulates the ultimate satisfaction of living the abundant life.
THE SPIRIT
The nature of the abundant life is so contrary to our human nature that it is a gift that can only be received through the power of the Holy Spirit. As Jesus submitted to the Spirit, we also must deny self or, as Jesus put it, gain our life by losing it, a feat only the Spirit can accomplish in us. This is not self-imposed martyrdom; if so, we are back to self as the center of all things. Even as the sacrificial lamb of God, there was never a hint of martyrdom about Jesus. The scriptures speak of enduring the cross for the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). As Field expresses, there is a joyousness in the abundant life, an attainment only brought about by the Holy Spirit in us. Let us then ask the Lord for abundant life and yield to it as the gift Jesus intended, not a goal to be taken on to prove our worth to God.
Lord Jesus, we think we know what it is to live an abundant life until we consider it through Your life. None of the things we think are essential, homes, wealth, esteem, and even family, were part of Your life. We should not get the idea that You are against these things but they are not requisite to your definition. That’s so hard for us to believe. We have to experience it, live abundance as You define it to be convinced.
You promised to give us abundant life, declaring that it was the reason You came to earth. You would not have made this declaration if it were not true. As believers, we experience new birth in the Spirit, but we often live below the level of abundant life that You have in mind. The fruit of the Spirit, gentleness, love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, self-control, faithfulness and patience escape us. It is our choice. Regrettably, we actually resist You to pursue our own vision of what it means to live an abundant life. Change us Lord Jesus. Help us to believe You when You said we can only gain our life by losing it.