'Omnipresent Super-Galactic Oneness?'
Severely depressed after after a failed rescue mission in the Himalayas, (resulting in a raccoon falling to its death) Ace Ventura, in the Pet Detective sequel played by the nutty comedian Jim Carrey, succumbs to severe depression and joins a Tibetan monastery.
After being there for some time, he is approached by Fulton Greenwall, a British correspondent working for a leader in the fictional African country of Nibia. Because by this time, the completely maniacally, overly exaggerated, oddball Ace has gone a bit mental, he has become a liability for the monastery. The Grand Abbot Monk gives Ace excuses to justify his departure. But Ace refuses. He demands he will stay at the monastery until he achieves (as he calls it), 'omnipresent supergalactic oneness'. The dialogue goes something like this after the Grand Monk practically begs him to leave...
Ace: But I am yet to achieve omnipresent supergalactic oneness.
Monk: No. Wait. There it is! You've just attained it.
Ace: I have?
Monk: Yes, just now. You are one! I can see it in your eyes. You're more one than anyone!
The monks then cheer as Ace struts off with Greenwall on a mission to save the Great White Bat of Nibia. If you haven't already, you can watch Ace Ventura ('When nature Calls' 1995) to get the rest of the story. It's a goof ball comedy if you haven't guessed. And yes, I'm a fan of all of Jim Carrey's Christian comedies. ;-)
As we approach the end of John chapter 10, we'll hear Jesus make a radical point blank statement about His relationship with the Father: He and the Father are one. We've heard Him say things that allude to this. He and Father know each other intimately (John 10:15), 'before Abraham was born, I Am' (John 8:58) and other references throughout John. But in John 10:30, Jesus says it directly: He and the Father are 'one'.
What does He mean by this? Oftentimes, when people read this passage, they sort of think John is telling us, as Ace puts it, Jesus is saying He has omnipresent super-galactic oneness - not a counterfeit oneness with the universe as Ace sought, but a hypostatic oneness with the Father, the First Person of the Trinity. It's easy to mistake Jesus' statement as referring to what theologians call the 'hypostatic union'. I don't believe this is what He is saying in the context of this passage.
I believe the oneness that Jesus is telling the Jews about in this passage is not referring to a metaphysical unity, or, His nature and person. He's not arguing for the hypostatic union, that Jesus is fully God and fully man, yet still One Person. He is stating that He is one with the Father in the totality of His work and power as the Messiah, the Son of God and Savior of the world. All that He thinks, says and does is exactly what the Father thinks, says and does, as it relates to His vocation. And the Jews should recognize this if they are truly His sheep.
This isn't to say that these verses throughout John that refer to Jesus' being one with the Father do not support the development of the theology of the hypostatic union, the Trinity and Jesus being the Son of God. They absolutely do. These subjects were of great debate in the first four centuries and not until the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon in the mid 400's AD were they settled as official Church doctrine. The claims of Christ in all four Gospels were the basis for these arguments and proving His oneness and equality with the Father as 100% God and 100% man.
So, yes, Jesus does have omnipresent supergalactic oneness with the Father. But it's a true, operational unity with the Father in the powerful works which He has been doing that John is referring to in chapter 10. The Father is fully in Christ, and Christ is fully in the Father. In all His works.
In this message we’ll tackle this difficult text, which also weaves in a rich discourse of how this oneness of Jesus and the Father applies to the redemption and eternal security of the sheep that hear His voice.
Read ahead! We'll be finishing out John chapter 10 beginning in verse 22. We'll also be continuing our reading at the beginning of service through Psalm 119, verse 89-96.
Click below to listen to this sermon on John 10:22-42
