The Abundant Life
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. John 10:10 NASB
Have life – Abundantly, that’s what we want, right? Actually, it’s even more than that, as I am sure some preacher told you. The Greek is perissōn, from the verb perisseúō, meaning “superabundant” or “beyond excess.” It’s life at its very best. An amazing promise.
Rarely fulfilled.
Why is that? Why is it that even though we desire this completely overflowing life, we seem to experience one trial after another? If Yeshua promises such a rich existence, why are we bogged down in the necessary trivial? Even the great heroes of the faith seem to lead pretty ordinary lives filled with the usual heartaches, tribulations, grief, and concerns. In fact, Yeshua can hardly be an example of perissōn. No one wants to be crucified.
Perhaps we need to reconsider Exodus before we read John. Perhaps the path to perissōn leads through the midbar. Oh, you know that word—midbār. It’s the odd derivative of dābar that means “wilderness,” the place where human life is unsustainable. How can the wilderness be a necessary path to superabundance? Zornberg’s comment explains:
“The forty-year midbar journey was intended as a difficult odyssey of self-understanding, a reconnaissance mission into the human heart. The manna is essential wilderness food, unknown, uncanny; but precisely in its unknowability it will open a new kind of knowledge: ‘that man does not live on bread alone but on what issues from God’s mouth.’ The sentence communicates the mystery of the manna: it stirs up the question—What is it that can sustain human life?”[1]
Do you understand? The wilderness is our journey to dependence. Until we learn that lesson—deeply—perissōn isn’t available. The way to a full life with God passes through Mordor. Suffering is inevitable. In fact, that forty-year journey in waste places is what it means to be called out of Egypt by God. There is no other way, and manna (“What is it?”) is the diet that leads to perissōn.
Look, life is hard—but it’s supposed to be that way. There are no pleasant paths through the wilderness of the soul. Stripping Egypt from your thought is a traumatic exorcism. There will be blood. But it has to be done if you want to reach perissōn. I wish I could tell you otherwise. I wish I could offer consolation and a soft pillow. But I can’t. If you choose this path (and it is a choice), then don’t expect the “wonderful plan for your life” to be a bed of roses. It is a wonderful plan but it passes thought the wilderness of Sin (oh, that’s a real place too). You and I have embarked on an odyssey of self-understanding, a mission of the heart. It’s going to hurt. Let’s hold hands.
Topical Index: superabundant, perissōn, midbār, wilderness, manna, John 10:10
[1] Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, Bewilderments: Reflections on the Book of Numbers, p. xvii.
