Jesus was Unoffendable

Take 30 seconds and try to come up with as many things as you can that never change. How did you do? Maybe you came up with some clever answer, but overall, we are surrounded by change. Our lives can change in an instant and we are powerless to stop it. Yet, we are tend to place our identities in things that change or altering our identities to fit the change. We place our identity in our job, our money, our looks, our possessions, our relationships, our kids, our success, or our beliefs. But these things change, fade, rust, disappear, fall apart, let us down, grow old, and never satisfy. Most of the world lives with their identity tied to these unstable things, completely unaware that they could live any differently. What happens when we live out of these identities is we live in anxiety, depression, disappointment, uncertainty, insecurity, anger, hurt, pride, or selfishness. These things are inevitable when we build our lives on that which is unstable. Jesus offers an identity that will never change and can last forever. The identity he gives us isn’t based on worldly things that are guaranteed to shift like shadows. This identity isn’t based on anything we do or don’t do. It isn’t based on anything earthly at all. When we live out of the identity that Jesus gives, we can trust in God’s power and provision, we can have true joy, no matter the circumstances. We can have hope, we can have peace, we can have confidence, we can have strength, we can have freedom. In fact, we were created to live out of the identity that Jesus gives and that is precisely why it is so harmful when we don’t.  When we live out of an identity we weren’t created to live out of, it is much like using a tool that was never created to do the job you’re trying to use it to accomplish. Try digging a 6-foot hole with a spoon. It’s so difficult because a spoon was created to shovel food into your mouth and a shovel was created to dig a deep hole. Similarly, we cannot flourish when we try to live out of an earthly, unstable identity. Reflection/Discussion Question: What are you placing your identity in?

As Jesus carefully chooses his final words for his disciples before going to the cross, he does what he always does to help them understand lofty, spiritual truths: He uses metaphors. Jesus didn’t use obscure metaphors that added further confusion to his point; he used pictures of things that the disciples knew well. As Jesus uses the metaphor of the vine and branches, he uses the grapevines that he and his disciples often passed on their way to pray. As Jesus called himself the vine and his disciples the branches, he could point to the grapevines to help them understand. Jesus knows that he is about to die and that, as a result, his disciples will scatter in fear and confusion. He tells his disciples “apart from me you can do nothing,” (John 15:5b, NIV), but then he proceeds to willingly go to the cross to be crucified. Imagine the disciples’ despair as they recalled Jesus’s words that they can do nothing apart from him, and now he is lying in a grave. What the disciples would soon find out is that Jesus’s spoke with his resurrection and Great Commission in mind. The Great Commission would be a tall order for anyone, but this is why Jesus spent so much time reminding his disciples of their relationship to Himself: “apart from me you can do nothing.” Before Jesus died, he knews he would be leaving his disciples with the most important job that will ever exist: make disciples of all nations. He knew that they would fail miserably if they tried to do this on their own, but that they would see the kingdom of God grow exponentially if they remained connected to the one true vine. Reflection/Discussion Question: Do you believe that you can do nothing apart from Jesus?