"Let it go Indiana..."

How many of you remember the scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Jones was trying to retrieve the Holy Grail while his Father was desperately trying to save him? The scene had already played out with the female character. Indiana Jones was trying to save her but she would not stop reaching for the relic. Now faced with the same dilemma, it was Jones trying to save the artifact while his Dad was trying to keep him from perishing. 4 simple words would prove to have a powerful impact: "Let it go Indiana."

What a powerful scene. It's a beautiful depiction of the struggle we face when truth is encountered. Will we continue to reach out, trying to save the relic we have pursued for so long? Or will we let it go, and be pulled to safety? This is the tension we find in the Gospel records. Jesus came to bring life. Life that was free. Life that was abundant. Life that was built upon a true understanding of the nature of the Father. And yet, so many chose to reach out for the faith they pursued for so long. They would rather struggle to preserve an artifact than be pulled to safety. What will you choose?

I see so many people who would rather hold to an Old Testament view of God rather than receive the revelation of the Father in Jesus. The goal for them is to preserve a faulty understanding of God rather than reinterpret His nature through the Son. The goal of our faith is not finding Jesus in the Old Testament. The goal is to renew our thinking based upon what is revealed in Jesus. And what He revealed is the true nature of the Father.

This mentality astounds me. What is it about what is revealed in the Old Testament that is more life giving than what is revealed in Jesus? What is it that we are trying to preserve?

Is it the belief in a nationalistic deity? You do realize that much of these writings were based upon the premise that Jehovah was simply the God of Israel don't you? It's not like Jesus' coming meant that God was somehow converted. It wasn't like He suddenly changed because of what Jesus was willing to go through. It seems to me that many of the West believe that God is now the God of America. He blesses us. He is on our side. What we fail to consider is that Jesus displayed the Father's love for all nations and all people groups.

Is it a felt need within us that God simply be for us and against everyone else? This goes a little deeper than the national deity idea. It preserves the idea that God only loves a certain portion of His creation while He still holds animosity towards the "others." That somehow God likes separation. That there are those who have His favor and others who don't. Didn't Jesus go after this type of thinking? Didn't He say that His Father caused it to rain on the just and the unjust? Blowing the idea that the Father only blessed a certain portion of the Earth's population out of the water.

Come on people. We have go to let it go. Jesus was the EXACT REPRESENTATION of the Father. Everything that came before Him was types and shadows. Understandings of God based upon finite thinking. It wasn't that the Old Testament writers were "wrong" but they were seeing through a limited understanding. They did not see the Abba of Jesus through unconditional love. They didn't see the grace and mercy that was continually extended to them because of His great love. They viewed God through the lens of performance, ritual, tradition, and sacrifice. They failed to recognize that the coming of Jesus would signal the depths that the Father would go to in order to reach us. All of us.

"Let it Go Indiana." There is safety in what Jesus has revealed. There is life beyond the holy grail of our thinking. This is what repentance is all about. It's the ability, and the willingness, to change our minds. To move beyond many of the ideas about God limited to the Old Covenant (and Old Testament) and to step into the abundance of life that is found in Jesus.

Trust me. This is life changing. Your liberty awaits you. Everything you need is found in Jesus. Stop thinking you have to preserve this Old Covenant type of thinking. All the promises of God are found in Jesus, and they are "YES" and "AMEN." Come into the freedom of the sons of God. Discover the fullness that is experienced in knowing the Abba of Jesus. A God who is LOVE. A Father whose love is everlasting, whose mercy endures forever. "Taste and see that the Lord is GOOD." Always good. And ALWAYS has been good. Jesus didn't change the nature of the Father. He revealed it. He welcomes us into it. "Let it go Indiana." Let it go.