Writings: I Am With You Always

By: Dr. Gregory S. Neal

“Remember, I am with you always.”

I can’t think of a message that is more important to us at any time, but especially in difficult times, than this one.

“I am with you always … to the very end.” (Matthew 28:16-20)

Sometime in the late 1990s I was driving from Wichita Falls to Dallas. It was during a time when I was making frequent trips to Dallas because I was teaching a class in theology in the Course of Study, an educational program for pastors who were not going to seminary. I’d made that 142 mile trip again and again and again ... so many times that it seemed like my old green Mercury could make the trip on its own. Half the time it may have, because I would pop a book tape into the player — back before the days of iPods and phones that would play music over the car's stereo — and just go. I wasn’t always paying close attention to what was going on around me as I drove; I was just trying to get there. I was on the western stretch of Highway 380, heading from Decatur to Denton, and was about half way there, zoning out while listing to the book as I drove, when I would swear to you that I head a voice in my head saying:

“PAY ATTENTION”

It came out of no where. It was one of those voices that sends shivers down your spine. I shook my head and turned my focus back to the dinky 2-lane highway I was speeding on, just barely in time to see an on-coming car begin to veer across the dotted line in the middle of the road coming directly at me. I banked to the right to miss it, but as I veered it continued to swerve toward me. I turned the wheel even harder to the right, and went off the road onto the shoulder and the other car missed crashing headlong into mine by scant inches. In fact, my right rear bumper was actually scratched by the back of his bumper, it was that close of call! As I rumbled on the shoulder, and came to a stop, I saw behind me in my rear view mirror that the other car had gone crashing down the ditch along the side of the road and into the far embankment. I got out, wobbly kneed, and ran to help the other driver.

It was one of those rare times in my life in which, after the fact, I was absolutely certain that I had heard the voice of God … this time, grabbing my attention and pulling me back to what I was supposed to be doing. It was one of those God moments where, had I not listened – just barely in time – things might have turned out very differently. For me, personally, it was an example of what Jesus said: “I am with you always … to the very end.”

And that’s where we are today, both as a people and as a nation. We’ve been going along our busy lives, not paying too much attention, zoning out on the road of existence, and God has said: “PAY ATTENTION” And, BAM …

We get a pandemic
We get a near head-on collision with death
We see a horrible injustice
We see absolutely justified objection
We see elements taking advantage of the circumstances
To seek for personal or political gain.
It’s in moments like these
That we need to hear again what Jesus said.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

Only, we’ve not been doing that very well, have we? We’ve been hiding out in our churches, often cowering from the world around us, pretending its not there. Meanwhile, people are dying. People who need to hear about the love of God are dying.
People who are hungry, thirsty, naked and homeless, people whom God loves, are dying.

Yes, people who are different from us:
Different in socio-economic status
Different in national background
Different in racial identification
Different in sexual identification
Different in so many ways …

Are being excluded, ignored, and in some cases even actively oppressed by governmental agencies and by social systems and structures. And we, who are a people called to make Disciples of all nations, simply aren’t. We’re just zoning out, our focus is on other things rather than what Jesus is telling us to do. And here is where Jesus says to us all: “PAY ATTENTION!"

"I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

“I am with you always.”

Jesus isn’t gone. Jesus is right here, with us. As Scripture reminds us:

Jesus in the person to whom you give a cup of water
Jesus in the child that you cherish and care for
Jesus in the child that you don't even know
Jesus in the victim, laying in the ditch
Jesusin the protester, marching in the street
Jesus in the stranger who is so very different from us

If we will only look with eyes of faith, we will see Jesus. Sadly, the Church universal tends to turn its back on Jesus. One of the critical teachings of the Christian faith is that Jesus doesn’t give up on us. That’s good news, friends, and it's rooted in this statement: “I am with you always.”

There is no limitation on that word always: “To the end of the age” or “forever” is supposed to nail that down. It’s not that Jesus will only be with us when we’re good, when we’re behaving rightly, or when we’re doing what we should be doing. It’s that Jesus is with us … period. Even when we’ve turned our backs on him.

Many years ago, I wrote a summary of this idea:

"Jesus never leaves us nor forsakes us. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, who seeks us out when we are lost, gathers us in, and brings us home. Jesus protects us from the wolves of this life, as well as from the follies of our own sins. Jesus is our source of strength when we are weak, our source of nourishment when we are hungry, and our source of hope when we feel that all is lost. Jesus corrects us when we go astray, calls us by name to lead and guide us, and never abandons us … even when we have turned our backs on him."

It’s the last condition that plagues us so often: we turn our backs on Jesus every time we fail to behave toward others the way Jesus would. Jesus calls us to accept, to cherish, to build up, and to forgive. When we fail in any of these callings, we are turning our backs on Jesus. The amazing truth of the Gospel, the amazing depth of God’s love, is that Jesus is still with us, always … even when we are not with him. And, yes, we’ve not been with him. American Christianity has been ignoring his teachings about how we are to treat others, how we are to care for others, and in so-doing make disciples of all nations.

Regardless of who they are
Regardless of where they live or what they’re doing
Regardless of what they look like, smell like, or sound like
Jesus calls us to embrace all with God’s love.

That’s not an option for us. In Greek it’s found in the active imperative case: we are ordered to make, create, or build Disciples of all nations. It's not a suggestion.

And did you hear the last word in the phrase? "All nations." The word "nations" here translates the Greek word:
“ethane." We get the word “ethnic” and “ethnicities” from it. All ethnicities ... every kind of people, without exception.

That’s what we’re supposed to be doing. Not worrying about budgets, buildings, or programs. Not focusing only upon ourselves while careening down the road of life. We’re supposed to be focused upon sharing the Gospel, in all of its amazing, wonderful, life-changing truth, with all.

© 2020, Dr. Gregory S. Neal
All Rights Reserved