The Secret is Out

If Jesus wanted to be at the Feast of Tabernacles in secret, why did he begin teaching in the temple courts? This wasn’t a tabernacle out in the country with only a few in attendance. This was a major celebration week at The Temple where people from all over were gathering. If I wanted to not be seen, I think I’d avoid a prominent place like the tabernacle!

And like any other time Jesus was teaching, people were “amazed and asked, ‘How did this man get such learning without having studied?’” John 7:15 They couldn’t point to a Rabbi he had studied under and yet he was able to explain Scripture like no other!

Jesus tells them very clearly where his teaching comes from. It is from the One who sent him, God himself. Then he refers back to Moses saying, “Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?” John 7:19 What?

It almost sounds like Jesus is trying to pick a fight here. The people deny trying to kill him, but actually, he knows very well why they are trying to kill him. From their perspective, he is breaking the Law of Moses by claiming to be God! I can just see some of them covering their ears and spitting as he claims to be from God. That would probably be why he brought up the Law of Moses to begin with. But then to accuse them outright of not keeping the Law that they put their pride in keeping was a suicidal statement in that crowd.

There are two points of the Law that are driving the people crazy concerning Jesus.

“You shall have no other God’s before me.” Exodus 20:3

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” Exodus 20:8

He claims that God is his Father – that he is the Son of God and he keeps healing people on the Sabbath. The first of these is punishable by death! “If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us to worship other gods,’… You must certainly put him to death.” Deuteronomy 13:6-11 And breaking the Sabbath also had severe consequences. For these reasons, they were trying to get rid of Jesus to remove the evil from among them.

But what did Jesus mean by telling them that not one of them keeps the law? Often in his teachings, Jesus takes a point of the law and talks about how they keep it and how it was intended. The Sabbath Law was very much greater than what they did on the Sabbath Day (Exodus 23). It involved giving the land a rest, it involved giving back the rights to the use of the land to the owners after a certain period of time. It involved justice and mercy among the people. And it involved an attitude of recognizing God as the One and Only True God and that all things come from him and are for his glory.

But the people in Jesus’ time were overlooking most of the law and hung up on how much you could carry and how far you could go, neither of which was specified in Moses’ recordings of the Sabbath Law. The religious leaders constantly harassed Jesus when he healed on the Sabbath (especially when he told the healed person to pick up his mat) or picked off grains in a field as he was walking through. Over the years, they had decided that those were not acceptable Sabbath practices and, therefore, Jesus was breaking the Sabbath Laws.

Jesus is pushing them to get past the petty things and get to the heart of the matter. “Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.” John 7:24 Here he is again, telling me to get past the behaviors and look at the motive of my heart. If my heart is in touch with God, I can make a right judgment. If it is not, I may assume the wrong thing and make a decision based on wrong information. Without God, my understanding is spotty. I don’t have the whole picture. And my actions will reflect my understanding.

I wonder how many ‘rules’ we have made in our churches that have nothing to do with relationship with God. How many rules do we enforce that we can’t even point to a Scripture that they came from? Take the idea of dress, for instance. Must we wear our ‘Sunday Best’ to church? Or is casual acceptable? Does a dress need to be below the knees? Must it have sleeves? Should a man wear a colorful sport jacket or a bright tie? Are shorts okay in the summer? Where does Scripture address any of these fine points? Yet how often do we judge others walking through the door based on these very things? Or what about buying and selling on Sunday? Is it okay to eat out at a restaurant after church? If it is a one day sale on Sunday only, is it okay to go shopping?

What is it God wants from me in terms of Sabbath Laws? For beginners, I know he wants my heart. I know he wants me to worship him and him only. I know he wants me to treat others with justice and mercy.

It doesn’t look like Jesus was keeping a very low profile on this day. He was not letting fear of being arrested or killed keep him from continuing to teach what his Father had asked him to teach. Maybe if I keep looking to the Father rather than man for my instructions, I will also have a boldness to teach what the Father is showing me. Maybe I will have a ‘heart knowledge’ of God’s Laws that will help me make better choices.

Stirring the Pot

How does a public figure become public? It seems that usually they ‘create a stir’ in some way. They make an impassioned speech that people either love or hate, they do a great performance that people applaud, or they do something shameful that people hate but love to talk about.

Jesus was creating quite a stir. In fact, he had the religious leaders in Judea so stirred up that he couldn’t even go there publicly because they were out to get him. His brothers thought he should be getting out there more and letting people see what he could do if he wanted to become a public figure. John tells us in John 7:5 that Jesus’ own brothers didn’t believe in him. They liked his miracles, but they didn’t believe he was the Messiah.

Jesus response to his brothers is curious. “The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come.” John 7:6-10.

What Jesus was saying to his brothers was that because they were not public figures confronting the religious orders of the day, they could move about freely and not fear for their lives. But he had chosen to do what his Father had sent him to do and that put him in a position where he had to choose carefully when he allowed himself to be seen in public and when he did not.

None of us like being told we did something wrong – especially in front of other people. The religious leaders in Judea were no exception. Here comes this guy who didn’t study under any prominent Rabbi, yet he was teaching with more authority and wisdom than they were. And he kept telling them they got it wrong, they were inconsistent, they were self-centered, and they were missing the point God had intended. People in general were muttering to each other, but afraid to go public and align themselves with one side or the other because of fear of the religious leaders.

Jesus is still creating a stir today, more than 2000 years later. People aren’t assuming that he will become a political leader and rescue them from dominating powers, but they are still muttering to each other, some in support of him and some against him. And those of us who align ourselves with him still stand the chance of being hated by the world for the very same reason Jesus was hated by the world – because we testify that what the world does is evil. We are willing to call sin, “Sin,” and willing to say no to things that are not glorifying to God. Others are forced to examine themselves when they see us making those choices and they don’t like what they see. They don’t want to see it. So they try to put the focus back on us to get the heat off of themselves. And all of this can happen whether or not we speak words!

The more I allow Jesus to change me, the more light I shed in the darkness around me. I like to think there is a difference between harsh light and soft light. Both light things up, but harsh light hurts the eyes which makes us close them while soft light allows us to keep our eyes open and see what is being illuminated. There is a time and a place for both – a time for confrontation and a time for quiet leading by example. May God help me to choose wisely.

Choices

In college, most majors have some very difficult classes in the freshman year that separate those who are serious about and capable of learning their particular major from those who are not. By the end of the freshman year, a large number of students have changed majors or some even drop out. It seems that the teachings in John 6 are separating those who are serious about following this particular Rabbi from those who are not. “On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’” John 6:60 And then, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” John 6:66

Jesus asked the 12 that were chosen, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” John 6:67

I am very much alive in the flesh. If you pinch me, I’ll at least jump if not more. This is the world I live in every day. I’m real. I need sleep. I get hungry. I get thirsty. I need the bare basics: food, shelter, sense of well being.

But Jesus says, “The flesh counts for nothing.” More completely, he says, “The Spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” John 6:63 But my flesh screams at me every morning when I get out of bed and stumble toward the coffee maker. How can it count for nothing? All day long, my flesh lives and breathes. It goes to work, it spends time with family, it works around the house, and it visits with neighbors and friends.

Each day when I get up, I choose between life in the spirit and life in the flesh. Am I going to yield to my fleshly desires or am I going to follow the Rabbi. Actually, these decisions are going on all day. Jesus encourages us that his teachings are life.

I like Peter’s response, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:60 Ahhh! Here is the thought that helps make the decision more clear – the word ‘eternal’ in front of life. So I can choose to live for the here and now, or I can choose to live for eternity. Where am I going to put my energy today? In preparing for eternity or in getting through today?

There is another word to consider as well. What is it I believe concerning this Rabbi. Is he the ‘Holy One of God,’ the Messiah? If I believe he is the Messiah, then I am going to do everything in my power (and his) to learn what he is teaching. I am going to choose to be his disciple and follow him.

This, then, is the turning point. Either I am going after him with everything I have including life itself, or am turning away because I don’t have the guts to go on or I don’t believe he truly is the Messiah.

Today, I choose to go after him – to seek him with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul, all my strength! I want my life to count for more than 60-90 years of just going through each day. I want it to add up to eternity!

I'm Hungry!

So many times, I wish I had lived physically in the time of Jesus. I wish I could have been one of his Disciples, sitting at his feet and learning from him. Yet, I wonder if I could have believed him and followed him if I had seen him grow up next door. Would I have been able to believe he was truly the Messiah? Some of the things he taught are difficult to wrap my mind around even now. And how to teach them to others is beyond me. Oh, how grateful I am for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to guide my thinking and explain things to me!

Over time and miracles, Jesus has managed to gather quite a crowd around him. These people became followers and disciples of the teacher. Good things happened when you hung around this guy. Who wouldn’t want to follow him?

Then one day he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. His teaching confused the people. Miracles they liked. Teaching about God the Father and Jesus the Son scared them.

First of all, he was telling them that he was God’s Son. But to them, he was the kid from next door who grew up and now was doing these great miracles. They liked the free bread, but they were missing the whole point of his life. When he outright told them who he was, they started to grumble about him. Then Jesus made another statement that can be confusing unless it is read and understood in context. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.” John 6:44-45

This does not mean that only a few select will be drawn by the Father to the Son. But rather that “Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.” John 6:45 God’s voice is out there for everyone to hear if they are willing. And he will always point us to Jesus Christ because that is the way he made for us to begin an eternal relationship with God the Father.

There are two things here that my ‘feet-on-the-ground mind’ stumbles on. One, it is difficult for me to comprehend the spiritual realm that I cannot see or touch. And two, I live on a time line. I am born and then I die. Infinity or eternity is not an easy concept for me to fully grasp.

Jesus was trying to move his followers from the physical bread (they thought they didn’t have to work anymore, just follow Jesus around and he would feed them) to the spiritual bread that God was providing for them through Jesus. He was talking about living bread and his flesh being that bread and telling them they needed to eat his flesh and drink his blood. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.” John 6:56-59

Here we are again at a place where we cannot understand Jesus’ teaching if we are thinking only in the physical realm. God is Spirit. Jesus is the bridge between the physical and the spiritual. We have to understand that there is a difference between physically eating bread or flesh and spiritually eating bread or flesh. Jesus gives us a little help by referring us to the manna. The manna was a very unique food provided by God for the Israelites while they were in the wilderness. It was only available in the morning. They could only gather enough for a day at a time. If they gathered more, it rotted. But there was an exception. On the day before the Sabbath, they could gather enough for two days and it would not spoil. There was always enough, but they had to trust that it would be there each day. Exodus 16

Now if we move that to the spiritual realm and Jesus being the manna from heaven, we can see that what Jesus is saying is that our spirits need to be fed and that he is the food they need. Each day, we need to spiritually feed on him and he will give us enough for that day. We need to trust that there will be spiritual food tomorrow when we need it and the next day and the next. I don’t need to try to gather enough for the rest of my life and then not come back anymore, but just enough for one day at a time.

Each day, Jesus bridges the gap between my spiritual self and my physical self. Each day I wake up hungry for physical food and each day I wake up hungry for spiritual food. So while I eat my physical bagel and coffee, I also eat my spiritual food by meditating on the recorded words of God, Moses, the Prophets, and the Apostles that we know as the Bible. And I pray that the Holy Spirit will fill my mind with the teachings and explain them to me when I get hung up.

I can’t help but keep coming back. I’m hungry!

The Trip Goes Faster with Good Company

Ever notice how a long trip doesn’t seem so long when you are in good company? Good fellowship along the way makes time go fast. By the same token, when things aren’t going well, time seems to stand still.

In the evening, after feeding and teaching the 5,000, John 6:17 tells us Jesus had not yet joined the disciples. I wonder where he was… Was he lingering discussing a few things with people who had questions… Was he alone talking with his Father… And why did the disciples leave without him? Had he told them to go on ahead and he would catch up? Or did they say, “He’s still not here; let’s just leave without him.”

After the disciples had rowed between 3-4 miles in the strong wind, they saw a man approaching them – walking on the water! Since you can’t walk on water, they were likely sure they were seeing a ghost. But they were all seeing the same ghost! John says they were terrified. Jesus saw their fear and immediately told them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” John 6:20

“Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.” John 6:21

It seems that at least for the moment, their troubles were over. They no longer had to row hard with strong winds causing large waves. They got to their destination quickly with no more trouble.

I wonder how many times I leave Jesus behind because I’m in a hurry to get my day started or to get on with the next project. I work hard and things don’t seem to go well. The ‘winds’ in my life keep slowing me down and make it difficult to get to my goal. Why does this person need to talk now? Why does that person need a ride now? Why did the equipment fail now?

And then here comes this ‘ghost’ walking on the water. It may be a complete interruption in what I am doing and I am terrified. How can I take time now to help this person or talk with them when they need encouragement? How can I get my tasks done and meet the needs of my family, friends, and community? There certainly is not enough of me to go around. I’m terrified by what I perceive are demands on my day.

Then I hear Jesus’ voice saying, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” And if I can still my fear enough to recognize his voice, I invite him to join me in my day. And suddenly, things begin to go better and I am confident that I can get done what Jesus has put on my schedule for the day – even if I can’t get all my own agenda done. And I can rest in peace knowing that I reached my destination safely.

I wonder why I have such a hard time ‘getting it’. It is so simple. Start the day with Jesus and everything will go better! So why when I have an extra full day do I tend to cut my time with him and say, “I’ll talk with you later,” and then never get there. I need to be with him first thing in the morning every day. I know that. I’m so thankful that he is willing to walk up in the middle of my storms and get in the boat with me, even when I left without him. What an amazing friend he is!