Beloved

This word has slowly been gaining on my consciousness. For a long time, I only thought of it in terms of the "beloved disciple" from the Gospel of John. He was singled out as being especially close to Jesus: "the disciple whom Jesus loved" who leaned back against Him during the Last Supper (John 13:23-25). They had a particularly deep friendship that, for whatever reason, rose above those He had with the rest of His disciples.

The Gospel of John has meant a lot to me, because God literally placed it in front of me like an enormous love letter, packaged as science fiction (which story, as soon as I write it out, I will link back to this post). As I came to know Jesus personally, and as He became more and more precious to me, I found myself getting a little jealous of the beloved disciple. I mean, the guy had the honor and privilege to CUDDLE the Son of God. JEALOUS.

But the more I read in the Bible, the more I see that the beloved disciple is so much more than a real human singled out for special friendship with God. Rather, the few times he's mentioned (only a handful) are there so that we have a PRECEDENT for how close we can-- and should-- be to Jesus. There are invitations, suggestions, and commands (honestly, if you're a grammar nerd you'd be quick to point out all the verbs that are in the imperative) to get close to Him.

"Be still and rest in the Lord; wait for Him and patiently lean yourself upon Him..." (Psalm 37:7).

To lean on Him the way the beloved disciple does is not merely an invitation, but an order. I don't have to go shyly to Him for a hug; I should run up to him and press close while I wait for Him to move in my life, to make me like Him, to work in me and through me.

Obviously, we can't physically hug Him, but if you have believed His words and are putting your faith in Him, Jesus is in you. And you are also in Him. We have been united, grafted together. So resting and leaning is more than a simple human embrace. It is being aware of having been totally absorbed by and into Christ.

This is why people call John 'the mystical gospel'. There's stuff in there that would fit right in with sci-fi.

Anyway. One of the truly miraculous, wonderful things about the Bible is that there are so much of Jesus in it, long before He comes onto the scene as a human in the New Testament. This is one of the ways you can be sure the Bible is God-breathed, that the words each human writer put down on parchment and passed down through the centuries came straight from the Holy Spirit: all the prophetic signposts to Jesus.

So it's interesting to look at the various places where the word "beloved" shows up and see if and how it relates to our relationship to Jesus.

The Song of Solomon, for example, which on top of being a somewhat racy snapshot of a husband and wife in love, is also known to be an extended metaphor for Jesus and His people, His church, is full of "beloveds". There is way more to this than I want to get into right now, especially as I am just a geeky disciple and by no means a Biblical scholar. A lot of people have written about how this is one of the great mysteries of God: that the relationship of a married couple is the closest thing we have in terms of human intimacy to help us understand not only our relationship to God in Jesus, but also God's relationship among the three Persons of the Trinity - three distinct individuals who make up one God.

Think of the time Jesus was baptized. "And the Holy Ghost" (Person #1) "descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him (that is Jesus, Person #2), "and a voice came from heaven, which said, 'You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased'" (the Father, Person #3).

And Jesus hinted at this unfathomable unity, and that He wanted us to share in it with Him, as He prayed FOR US (future disciples) in front of His disciples shortly before going to the Garden of Gethsemane: "I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their [the disciples'] message, that all of them may be one, just as You are in Me and I am in You." (John 17:20-21).

In any case, "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine." (Song of Solomon 6:3). The important thing to realize here is that not only are we Jesus', bought with His blood, but HE is OURS. I can't get over that. He is our Savior, our insurance, our seal, our Lord, our King, brother, friend, captain, priest...He is EVERYTHING. It's REALLY important to remember that from day to day.

Ok. ANYWAY. So the other day, I was reading in Deuteronomy...that's the last book of Moses, in which Moses is about to die and hand off everything to Joshua, who will lead Israel out of the wilderness (finally). Before he goes, he repeats all the commandments God has given the people, repeatedly warns them NOT TO FORGET the Lord (because in spite of the plagues, the Red Sea, the bread from heaven, the water from the rock, and the pillars of cloud and fire that traveled around with them for FORTY YEARS...they had a tendency to do that). He also sings a prophecy over them and blesses each tribe with a few special prophetic words.

When I got to Benjamin, my brain immediately jolted: "Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him, for He shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between His shoulders." (Deut. 33:12)

Doesn't that make you think of the beloved disciple, leaning back against Jesus' chest?

Bear with me in another short segue. After Jesus was crucified and was resurrected, but before many of His disciples had heard that He was alive, He intercepted a few of them on the road to a town called Emmaeus, and proceeded to cheer them up by revealing in the Scriptures all the various signposts that pointed to His own death and resurrection. They didn't recognize Jesus until they shared a meal with Him, and then He vanished. Then they turned to each other and said the famous words, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked to us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32).

Because the Holy Spirit had not yet been sent to unite Jesus followers' spirits to Him, He had to show them these things.

I feel like Jesus probably had to do this a lot for His disciples after His resurrection. He stayed with them for forty more days, preparing them to carry His message throughout the whole world. He wanted to make sure they would be able to "open the Scriptures" for those they would be teaching. So I can't help imagining Jesus pulling His beloved disciple aside and pointing out this blessing, and saying, You see this? I put this here for you. You will always rest between My shoulders, even after I ascend to My Father.

And so it is with us. Friend, if you are trusting in Jesus today, you are bound to Him by the Holy Spirit, who also works in you to point out these precious truths in the Bible. We lean back against His chest today by reading His Word, letting the Holy Spirit show you what He wants you to take special note of that day. You heart will BURN when you see what the Lord has intended for you to find in His Word. Believe that you are the "one the Lord loves", the "beloved of the Lord"!

When He takes care of us, He doesn't do it from a distance.