The Other Side

 

  The song, ‘The Other Side’, in the movie The Greatest Showman shows P T Barnum trying to persuade actor and wealthy socialite Philip Carlyle to join him.  Carlyle’s involvement would not only be an endorsement of Barnum’s entertainment enterprise, but also a way to make it financially viable too, by offering Carlyle a stake in it.

  It’s a hard sell, but eventually Carlyle is won over – perhaps by the prospect of a different kind of life (on “the other side”) – less secure, less respectable, but much more alive and free.

  It’s about buy-in.  It’s about getting someone to believe in what Barnum is doing.  That’s an important aspect of faith – perhaps obviously, as faith is about belief in something at some level or other.  But the Christian faith (and no doubt others) requires buy-in.  It demands a commitment.  Often that is confused or conflated with paid-up membership of a particular congregation or denominational structure, and the doctrines and values they espouse.  Sometimes buy-in and belief in these contexts is reduced to saying a certain prayer or certain prayers, agreeing with a few precepts, or adhering to certain micro-ethical standards.

  But there’s something much more fundamental about belief and buy-in with Jesus.  It’s an active belief, that is lived out.  It manifests in a life that looks a bit like Jesus, because the believer has committed to following Jesus.  By that I mean they take seriously the kinds of things Jesus said and did, and seek to embed all of this in their own life.  So it’s not about ‘brand loyalty’ to a particular faith tradition or a specific sect within it; it’s about living in response to the reality of the rule of God, as Jesus announced and enacted.

  This is why Jesus called disciples.  A disciple was a bit like an apprentice, or a ‘mentee’ to a mentor.  The whole idea is that the disciple learns from the master, to think like they do and act like they do, to take on their teaching, and live the way they do.

  In both Matthew’s and Mark’s accounts of the Gospel – the story of the good news of Jesus – we read about Jesus summoning four young fishermen on the shore of Lake Galilee: “Follow me,” he said (Matthew 4:19; Mark 1:17).  Follow: that is what a disciple does, they follow in their master’s footsteps – literally walking very closely behind him on the road to hear everything he said and watch his every mannerism and movement.

  The third gospel, Luke, doesn’t tell that story.  Instead, we read there of one of those Galilean fishermen, Simon Peter, being won over by Jesus in this way: Jesus was teaching crowds by that same lake, and he got into Simon’s boat so he could address them all.  It created a stage facing the banked shore, like a theatre.  When the show was over, when Jesus had finished talking to the crowds, he told Simon Peter to put the boat into the deep water and let the nets down for a catch.  Simon says, “Master, we’ve worked all night long but have caught nothing,” before adding, “Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets” (Luke 5:5).  The nets are put down, and are filled with so many fish that Simon has to call his colleagues in the other boat to help haul it in.

  This is pretty similar to a story in John’s gospel, which is told right at the end of the Jesus story.  And on that occasion, Jesus isn’t in the boat, but on the shore – although the disciples in the boat don’t recognise him at first.  He calls out to ask them if they’ve caught any fish, to which they answer ‘no’.  So Jesus instructs them to cast the nets to the right side (that is, ‘the other side’) of the boat and they’ll find some.  Which they do…

  Back in Luke’s earlier episode, Simon is overcome.  He kneels at Jesus’ feet, saying “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8).  Jesus reassures Simon: “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”  In some versions of the Matthew and Mark equivalent, we read the phrase, “I will make you fishers of men,” when Jesus calls those first, fishermen followers.

  I think that image makes a lot more sense if we look at it from the fish’s point of view.  If you’re a fish, you live in the water.  That’s your world, your experience, your reality.  You may not have any concept of something other, something different, something beyond.  But above the water is all this other stuff, another world alongside yours.  And when you’re pulled from the water, drawn up, you glimpse ‘the other side’: a bigger reality, a different kind of world.  Ok, it’s not great for the fish at this point, but the idea is there: disciples of Jesus are alive to this other reality, partly beyond our understanding and experience, yet somehow present and almost tangible – “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).  And in living it, and in thought, word and deed, inviting others to embrace and experience it, they (we?) are catching people – drawing them into this new understanding and way of life.  So it’s not a preoccupation with the hereafter, but a new perspective on the here and now.  That is what Jesus invites his disciples to: the other side.

Come Alive

 

   Like many good movies (and some not so good ones, no doubt), The Greatest Showman has a ‘how the band got together’ montage.  The song ‘Come alive’ provides the soundtrack to P T Barnum gathering his group of ‘curiosities’ and unusual performers.  Barnum recruits various people from the margins and shadows of his society, offering them the chance to see themselves and the world differently, and challenge the perceptions of others.  It was, simply, an invitation to come alive.

  In the Gospel of John, Jesus coins a famous phrase, that he came to bring ‘life in all its fullness’ (John 10:10).  In actual fact, the verse in its entirety contrasts Jesus – the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep – with the religious leaders of the day – “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy”.  So how can we tell if a religious leader or community reflects Jesus?  Maybe by their fruit – do they bring life, or do they steal and kill and destroy?

  And what might ‘life in all its fullness’ look like anyway?

  When Jesus had been on the scene for a bit, he’d started to turn heads and set tongues going, so much so that people started to wonder if he was the Messiah figure they’d been expecting.  Among these was John the Baptist, a relative of Jesus, and what we might call an affiliate – they preached a similar message about God’s kingdom.  So John sent some of his own disciples to ask Jesus if he was the one they’d been expecting, or if they should wait for someone else.  The writer of Luke’s Gospel then summarises what Jesus has been doing:

“Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind” (Luke 7:21)

 

  That’s exactly what’s been going on in the preceding chapters of Luke.  To make it even more explicit, Jesus answers them:

 

“Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them…” (Luke 7:22)

 

These were understood (or could be, at least) as signs of God’s kingdom, of a restoration, a righting of wrongs.  Hebrew texts like Isaiah 35 and 61 spoke of exactly these things happening.

  In demonstrating and enacting God’s kingdom, Jesus brought people to life – in some cases, literally.  He removed barriers to inclusion and participation – sometimes by healing ailments, sometimes by simply challenging social boundaries.  Jesus went to the margins and partied.  He sat at the table with people many would have shunned.  Jesus did and still does invite and invest in the ‘unlikely’.

  If you are in a place where people are not coming fully alive, then maybe it’s time to find a space where people can and do come fully alive – somewhere that Jesus is, because it doesn’t sound like he’s where you are now.

  Jesus “came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10) -  where we can find ourselves “dreaming with our eyes wide open… Come alive.”