Jesus Simplified Things

What Did Jesus Do?

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.”
John 13.35

One of our favorite movies is It's A Wonderful Life. I don't know if you are familiar with the classic film, but if you are you know that the trigger to George Bailey's crisis is Uncle Billy's forgetfulness, and his misplacing of $8000. In this day and age, when CEOs play fast and loose with millions of other peoples' money, it is hard to imagine anyone making a big deal about $8000, but at the time its loss was enough to make George Bailey wish he was dead, or more accurately, to wish he had never been born. If you haven't seen the movie, don't worry, I won't spoil any more of it. The point I'm leading to is this, many of us can relate to Uncle Billy, who was habitually forgetting things, and misplacing things. Most of us are simply too busy to keep track of everything. I know I am. Thankfully, Jesus simplified things.

On our refrigerator in the kitchen there is a pad for writing down “Things to do” lists. It's a good thing it's there, because even when I only have two or three things to remember to do, there is a pretty good chance I will forget one or two of them. I'm serious. I'm the kind of person who gets up from the living room, walks to the bedroom, and then ask myself, “What did I come in here for?” Fortunately, Jesus simplified things.

Think about it. Jesus was an Israelite, he was part of a people who for more than a thousand years had been covenantally bound to obey the Ten Commandments. But for more than a thousand years Israel had done a terrible job obeying the Ten Commandments. It was as if they just could not keep track of what they were supposed to do and what they were not supposed to do. I mean, Uncle Billy's little lapses in memory were nothing compared to Israel's abysmal record of forgetting the Commandments. Mercifully, Jesus simplified things.

It's like this—knowing that people were never going to be able to remember and obey all of the Ten Commandments, Jesus sort of concentrated and distilled them down to one. One commandment to remember and obey. I think even I might not forget one commandment. What a gracious act, to give one commandment which, if obeyed, would fulfill all commandments! Lovingly, Jesus simplified things.

In the midst of perhaps the most intimate and poignant moments of his life, when the Lord spoke of and showed his disciples just how much he loved them, Jesus simplified their future lives by giving them one “new” commandment to follow—love one another. “Lord, what about all the other commandments?” “Don't fret about keeping track of all of them, simply obey this commandment, and the world will know that you are my disciples, that you are children of the Father. Just love one another.” Eternally, Jesus simplified things.

For there will never be any other commandment that will ever supersede the one Christ gave to his disciples on the night before he was crucified. Which is to say, it is the one commandment we need to remember, and to obey. Not that making things simpler made them easier. The Church's record obeying its one commandment these last two thousand years is just about as bad as Israel's record was trying to obey the Ten Commandments. But, God be praised, Jesus did more than simplify things, he also fulfilled all things, with respect to the Father's will, so that all who put their faith in him are credited with his righteousness in fulfilling all of God's commandments, while the punishment for all our many lapses and failures in obeying the commandments were laid upon him. Divinely, Jesus simplified things, and not just for us. For, you see, Jesus provided a simple way for the Father to know who his children are. They are the ones who love one another in the same way that Jesus loves them. Simple, isn't it?

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4