Year 8, Day 263: John 15

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John 15 continues much of the same discourse that we’ve heard in the last two chapters.  He is just using different analogies.  In this chapter, He compares Himself to a vine.  If He’s the vine, we are the branches.  We abide in Him; He works in us.

If we are the branches, then we have one purpose.  Our purpose is to bear fruit.  In fact, we could say that the fruit is evidence of the fact that we do abide in Him.  Jesus tells us that without Him, we can do nothing.  Without God, we can bear no fruit.  Therefore, if we see fruit from God, it shows us that He is abiding in us.

Don’t overlook the thrust of the chapter, though.  While Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, this happens for the glory of God.  We display His fruit.  It is nice to realize that the fruit is proof of His presence in us, but the focus should be on glorifying God because of His proof than glorifying the fact that God chose to work through us.  He gets the glory, not us.

If we are walking with God, then we should be putting love on display.  After all, God is love.  His fruit, bore through us, should look like love.  This is also why Jesus tells us that we can ask anything.  If our focus is on the glory of God, then we should be asking for things that will glorify Him through His ability to display love through us.  If we are doing that, then He will give us that for which He asks.

Jesus does not end this chapter on a positive note, however.  While we focus on God’s work through us and the displays of His love, Jesus talks about hate.  The world will hate us.  It will hate us because it hates God.  The world persecuted Jesus because it did not want to submit to Him.  In a sense, the world is not content with being the branches.  Because it doesn’t want to be the branches to God’s vine, it hates Him.  Therefore, the world persecutes God.  If the world persecutes God, then it will persecute the God it sees in us.  It isn’t that the world hates us because of who we are.  The world hates us because of the God it sees in us.  The world hates us most when it sees the fruit that God bears in us.

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Year 8, Day 262: John 14

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Jesus tells His disciples that He is the Truth, the Way, and the Life.  The context of this passage is that nobody comes to the Father except through Him.  He is the Way.  The truth is that He is the Way to God.  The life is the life that God gives to us when we come to Him through Jesus.

The greater context of this teaching is that Jesus is preparing His disciples for the crucifixion.  He tells them that they will see Him only a little while longer.  In a few days’ time, the disciples will experience the crucifixion.  They’ll experience the resurrection.  Then they’ll experience the ascension.  That’s the point.  Yes, Jesus will die.  Yes, the turmoil will be great, but only for three days.  Then the disciples will see Jesus ascend and He’ll be gone from the Earth for quite some time.

Jesus doesn’t want His disciples to feel abandoned.  He doesn’t want them to feel alone.  He doesn’t want them to be confused – although honestly that is hardly avoidable given that the resurrection and ascension aren’t exactly common or easily understood experiences in the moment.  The point is that Jesus loves His disciples and He is trying to teach them and allow them to make sense of the world around them.

All of this is said so that the disciples will understand that God plans to send the Holy Spirit to us.  Jesus won’t leave us alone, He will send His Spirit.  There’s a bit of a catch, though.  Having the Holy Spirit isn’t quite like walking with Jesus.  We cannot reach out and touch the Spirit.  We can’t look into the eyes of the Spirit.  We can’t hear the Spirit speak words over creation and work a miracle.  While Jesus promises the Holy Spirit and assures us that we won’t be abandoned, it is certainly and noticeably different than walking with Jesus on a daily basis as His disciples have done.

However, Jesus informs us that while the experience with the Spirit will be different than with Jesus it will actually be better.  Instead of looking into the eyes of Jesus, the Spirit will dwell within us.  Instead of wondering what Jesus is teaching, the Spirit will guide us from within.  When Jesus was on the Earth, God was with us.  After the ascension, God will dwell in us. That’s powerful.  The religious leaders proved that Jesus could be taken away when they crucified Him.  Nobody can take the Holy Spirit away from dwelling within us.

Our hearts should not be troubled.  Faith is hard, and discerning the Holy Spirit takes effort.  But God is with us!  He dwells with us!  He is in us.  We should have God’s peace indeed!

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Year 8, Day 261: John 13

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John 13 is a great chapter for servant leadership.  In this chapter, we see Jesus get up and wash His disciple’s feet.  Yes, he is washing their feet as a symbol of putting Himself below them in terms of status.  He is also washing their feet as a symbol of the cleansing that Jesus will do for us all.

What’s interesting to note is how this chapter ends.  Jesus says that God has been glorified in Him.  Note the return of the theme from yesterday.  God has been glorified in Christ.  In other words, Jesus has placed Himself in a subservient position to God.  In doing so, He worked for the accomplishment of God’s will.  In this, God has been glorified.

However, Jesus then turns to the disciples and continues too teach the disciples.  He tells them to love one another.  He tells them to love one another because that is how the world will know that they are Jesus’ disciples.  When they demonstrate God’s love, the world will recognize them as the followers of Christ.

Furthermore, in the world recognizing Jesus’ disciples, the Father will continue to be glorified.  That is the ultimate goal of our love.  Yes, we love one another because it is the right thing to do.  We love one another because God first loved us.  We love one another because we are the disciples of Jesus.  Ultimately, though, we love one another because in doing so the Father is glorified.  We love for the glory of the Father.

That’s the shameful part about the story of Judas.  Whatever His motives for handing Jesus over to the religious leaders, it wasn’t about glorifying the Father.  He may have been chasing the money – although I personally doubt it as he returns the money and hangs himself.  He may have been trying to force Jesus to overthrow the religious leaders.  But he wasn’t pursuing the glory of the Father.

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Year 8, Day 260: John 12

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John 12 is a neat story.  We have the anointing of Jesus.  There is the triumphal entry – albeit a slightly more scaled down version from John.  These are memorable moments in the Gospel story.

That being said, we also have some other lesser known stories.  The Pharisees plan to execute Lazarus along with Jesus.  There are the Greeks who seek out Jesus.  There is the voice of God that speaks while Jesus is amidst the crowd.

There is a theme that passes through each of these stories if we are careful to look for it.  The theme is quite simple.  Jesus has come to do the work of the Father.  Jesus is not seeking to glorify Himself.  He is not seeking to win a popularity contest.  Jesus merely wants to bring about the will of the Father.

This theme is most obvious in the central story: the voice from heaven.  As Jesus is teaching, He confesses that He has come to dwell with humanity for this hour so that the Father will be glorified.  The Father replies to Jesus so that others can hear it.  Look closely at the Father’s words.  God says that He has glorified His name and He will glorify it again.  The crux of this chapter is the glory of God.

In this light, we turn to the anointing of Jesus.  Here is a joyous act that serves to glorify and worship God.  Yet, there is Judas standing by asking if it was the most effective use of resources.  I’m not going to lie, I often wonder if I had been there if I wouldn’t had shared Judas’ thought.  But there is a lesson to be learned in that confession.  When we aren’t careful, we temporal human beings can get in the way of glorifying the Father.  We can let our limited perspective prevent us from seeing the big picture.  Our humanity can sometimes cause us to forget to see that the glory of God is the focus.

Naturally, there is also the plot to kill Lazarus.  Once more we have the same issue as with Judas and the oil.  The Pharisees can’t see the resurrection of Lazarus as a good thing.  They can’t see God being glorified.  All they can see is people turning to Jesus and no longer turning to them.  In their own jealousy, they miss the picture.

In the end, the glory of God is our focus.  It is why we are here.  If Jesus came so that God could be glorified in His death as it brings salvation to us all, we should have the same pursuit.  The glory of God should be our focus, even in those moments when our humanity desires us to focus elsewhere.

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Year 8, Day 259: John 11

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It is the best of tales, it is the worst of tales.  In John 11, Lazarus dies.  Jesus raises Him.  Mary and Martha hear bold teaching of the resurrection.  Yet the religious leaders plan to kill Jesus.  This chapter has such promise, and it serves an incredible role in the plan of God.  It is still a sad chapter, though, when we consider the position of the religious leaders.

Look where this chapter starts.  Jesus hears of Lazarus’ impending illness and makes a bold prediction.  This story will not end in Lazarus’ death.  Naturally, this prediction appears false at first because Lazarus does die.  Jesus knows better, though.

In fact, look what Jesus has to say about the situation to His disciples.  Lazarus’ illness hasn’t come so that Lazarus will die, it has come so that the faith of the disciples could increase.  Yesterday I spoke about challenging teachings, here is another one!  How many times do we hear about a person getting a life-threatening issue and the world of the people around the sick person falls apart.  We see this with Martha and Mary in this story.  Jesus is convinced of something else, though.  Jesus is convinced that His disciples will grow through this story.

Catch the truth that Jesus is trying to teach us.  Hardship causes us to growth.  Difficulty makes us mature.  What is the famous saying?  Pain is just weakness leaving the body.  If we have the right perspective, we can look death in the face and know that we will be better in the end.  That’s a challenging teaching indeed!

In the end, Jesus is right.  Lazarus doesn’t die.  The disciples and those around Lazarus see a resurrection miracle.  Faith grows.  People are inspired.  It has all the trappings of a great story!

Instead, though, what we get is the hatred of the religious leaders.  They make even more plans to kill Jesus.  They reaffirm their desire to have Him die.

In the end, it goes back to what Jesus taught us yesterday.  Jesus’ sheep hear His voice and they grow when He teaches.  The religious leaders do not want to believe, so even in the midst of a great miracle the religious leaders look to Jesus’ death with even more zeal.  The religious leaders aren’t even interested in allowing Jesus’ works to witness to His truth.  They’ve made up their mind.  Nothing Jesus can do – not even dying for their sake – can convince them of their error.

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Year 8, Day 258: John 10

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In John 10, Jesus gives pastoral analogy after pastoral analogy.  Jesus is the Good Shepherd.  His people are His flock.  They know His voice and He knows them.  The one who enters by the gate is the Good Shepherd, but the one who slips in does so in order to steal and destroy.  We should be familiar with all these images.

In the midst of each of these teachings, the religious leaders are there to question and judge.  I know what it feels like to have every action and every word scrutinized both publicly and behind my back.  It’s not fun.  I can only imagine what Jesus endured as He simply tried to teach and bring hope to people.  The religious leaders bring such a downer upon the ministry that Jesus is trying to do.

What is it that Jesus teaches under the intense scrutiny of the religious leaders?  I love the message.  He says, “Which of my good works cause you to accuse me?”  In other words, Jesus is reminding us to let one’s works speak loudly about one’s character.  Want to know who a person is?  Look at what they do.  Look at the effects of their life.  Look at the things for which they strive.

This leads us to the crux of the issue.  It isn’t that the Jewish leaders have an issue with Jesus’ works at all.  They don’t mind the healings and the feedings.  What they don’t care for is the teaching.  They don’t like the fact that Jesus is calling Himself the Son of God.

Be honest with yourself for a second.  If you met someone wandering through the street who called Himself the Son of God, I’m willing to bet you would be skeptical, if not outright doubtful.  This brings us back to Jesus’ point.  Some of Jesus’ teachings are quite challenging.  How do we know that He can be trusted to be the Son of God?  His works testify to His claim.  He makes challenging statements, but He does incredible things.  Who else but the Son of God can walk on water, feed a multitude, heal the sick, and raise the dead?

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Year 8, Day 257: John 9

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John 9 gives us more conflict to analyze.  It appears that Jesus initiates the conflict.  After all, He is the one who heals on the Sabbath.  Couldn’t He have healed the man a day earlier or a day later if He wanted?  Did He have to aggravate an already acerbic situation?

On the other hand, is Jesus really to blame?  Is Jesus trying to irritate the Jewish leaders or is He simply trying to let God’s love for the world be seen?

This is a great debate to have and a wonderful place to do a little self-analysis.  How do I react when God’s love is shown?  Do I celebrate?  Do I embrace it?  Or am I critical?  Do I judge that it isn’t done in a way that I think is appropriate?  Is it right to judge?  Is it dangerous to never judge?  These are powerful questions.

In the end, Jesus is consistent with His message in other Gospels.  We will know those who are from God by their works.  When God’s love is shown, it should be obvious.  When we see God’s love at work in the world we should be prepared to recognize it. 

The issue is that we aren’t skilled to see God’s love at first.  This like jealousy and anger get in the way.  Being judgmental and fearing error stop us from experiencing the grand power of His love.  Wanting to be in control means that we miss out on where He is working.  This is why Jesus tells the religious leaders at the end of the passage that He came so those who do not see may see.  God knows that we don’t get it naturally and we need help.

In the end, Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath gives us an awesome opportunity to look at our own humbleness.  Am I willing to acknowledge my growth areas and embrace God’s attempts to get me to grow?  Will I be interested in seeing God’s love wherever it shows up or will I always expect it to happen in a manner that I deem right?  Am I like the man who was blind and asks to meet the Son of Man so that I can believe or am I like the Pharisees who are so convinced I know what the Son of Man looks like that I never ask to see Him?

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Year 8, Day 256: John 8

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John 8 opens with a great story.  Here a woman comes before Jesus, accused.  Jesus teaches the religious leaders a great saying.  The one who has no sin in his life is welcome to cast the first judgment.  The religious leaders go away, because they get the point.

While that is a great message, that is only a small portion of the story.  Keep in mind the broad context.  The religious leaders are looking for a way to kill Jesus.

That leads to a really interesting question.  The religious leaders leave because they get the point.  But what is the point that they get?  Do they really understand what Jesus is teaching?  Do they leave because they are convicted of the sin in their heart?  To be honest, with all the arguments that have come before and after this story, I would honestly find it hard to believe that they leave because of their guilt over Jesus’ conviction of the sin in their heart.

Could it be that they leave because they aren’t going to get what they want out of this scenario?  Remember, they bring the woman before Jesus to force him into a position.  Does he side with them and risk alienating the crowd?  Does he side with the woman and give the religious leaders an opportunity to show how Jesus doesn’t take sins like adultery seriously?  They want to force Jesus into a position, knowing that as soon as Jesus takes a side they have an angle against Him.  They leave, then, because by taking no overt side in the debate He gives them no angle against them.

Jesus’ teaching is masterful, and it teaches us much about sin and judgment.  But the greater context of this story is about Jesus, not the woman.  This is why we continue to read in the story that the religious leaders come again and again to argue with Jesus.  They are after His death.

What’s really interesting is what Jesus focuses on inside the trap of the religious leaders.  Jesus teaches us that the truth will set us free.  The truth of the presence of sin set the woman free in the beginning of this chapter.  The truth of each of our sins sets us free as we turn to God, confess them, and allow Him to work on freeing us from that bondage.  When we live in sin, we are in bondage.  When we turn to God and confess our sin, the Son can set us free.

I love that even when Jesus is threatened, He continues to teach about freedom.  Instead of defending Himself, Jesus focuses upon what God has sent Him to do.  It nearly gets Him stoned, but I am willing to bet that He knew that possibility existed.  He knew that the message of truth was worth the trouble it would bring to Him.

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Year 8, Day 255: John 7

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John 7 picks up where the last chapter left off.  The people are still figuring out who Jesus is.  Is He a fraud?  Is He really the Son of God?  Is He a curiosity that is worth being paid attention to for a little while and then forgotten once the newness wears off?  It seems like we can find people of each of these categories in this chapter.

Jesus gives us the great test for this debate.  In John 7:18, Jesus tells us that the person who is not from God is going to eventually focus on his own glory.  The person who is from God, however, will focus on giving the glory to God.  After all, if a person is truly from God, why wouldn’t he want the glory of the one who sent him?  If a person is truly from God, why wouldn’t he want the one who can bring Him into eternal life to receive the glory?  The person who is from God points us to God.

Naturally, there is more debate to follow.  Some people think Jesus has a demon.  Other people seem to think that He should be believed because nobody else could do the kind of deeds that Jesus has already done.  Other people want to see Him arrested and brought before the authorities.  It seems like there always was, and always will be, debate about the identity of Jesus.

I love the opinion of Nicodemus at the end of this chapter.  Nicodemus is one of the few people who have the courage to stand up to the religious leader’s opinion.  The religious leaders are seeking to kill Jesus.  After the debate among the people, they feel even more confident in their ability to expose and get rid of Jesus.  In this context, Nicodemus has the courage to stand up and speak.  Nicodemus wants the truth.  He speaks about Jesus’ right to a fair trial.  At this point in the story, Nicodemus may not yet be decided about who Jesus is.  He does want to find out the truth, however.

What is neat in this story is the religious leader’s reaction to Nicodemus.  They immediately discount his voice.  They discount his voice because he disagrees with them, he challenges them, and he isn’t pursuing their goals anymore.  They tell Nicodemus that they already know the truth.  They think that a prophet can’t come from and do what Jesus has done.  Nicodemus is discounted because of the closed minds of the religious leaders.

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Year 8, Day 254: John 6

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It’s true what they say.  No good deed ever goes unpunished.  You can have the best motivations.  You can even have a plan that succeeds.  Even with the best plan that succeeds, someone will get upset and they will misunderstand or manipulate things until the good deed suddenly looks worse.

For example, take the feeding of the 5,000.  What an incredible miracle!  How many thousands of people eat their fill on a miraculous dinner made from five loaves of bread and two fish!  It should have been a miracle remembered for the ages.  It should have been an inspiration for people to turn to God and worship Him.  Unfortunately, neither of those things happened.

Look at the recipients.  Jesus leaves, and they continue to look for them.  We don’t know how, but Jesus Himself tells us why.  They come because they ate their fill.  They come because they got hungry again.  They come because Jesus was a cheap meal ticket.  What should have led to awe and worship leads to greed and self-centeredness.  Jesus’ good deed is misunderstood, misconstrued, and misrepresented.  They make Jesus out to be a means to a physical end rather than a spiritual model for godly living.

Furthermore, take the religious leaders.  They could have celebrated at the miracle of God.  They could have used it as a springboard to talk about the greatness of God’s provision.  It could have been an incredible moment of spiritual community.  Instead, it is the means to religious argument.  The Jewish leaders get upset at Jesus’ teaching.  They don’t want Jesus to be from God.  They don’t want Him to be from heaven.  They deny the greatness of the miracle because it doesn’t fit into their box.  What should have been a great moment mutates into the worst kind of alternate: angry spiritual debate.

This angry spiritual debate has more communal consequences.  Many of Jesus’ own followers grumble against Jesus about His teaching.  Instead of being a moment when people turn to God and His incredible provision, the argument turns the miracle into a time and place where Jesus actually loses followers! Many people turn aside from Jesus and no longer follow.

Good deeds, indeed.  It should be a great moment.  It turned out quite the opposite.  Don’t get me wrong, Jesus still uses the moment to teach and train His disciples.  God still is in control and He still uses the moment.  Yet the people don’t see God at work.  They turn away.  The seeds of confusion and anger are sown in the presence of the greatness of God’s provision.  It is all too often the way of humanity.

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Year 8, Day 253: John 5

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John 5 is once more about focus.  Jesus heals a lame man on the Sabbath.  Instead of being awed by the miracle – how many modern day Christians would give anything to genuinely see a healing miracle like this – the Jews get upset.  They get upset because Jesus healed on the Sabbath.  Could it be that they are jealous?  Sure.  Could it be that they were religious snobs stuck inside a box of their own thinking?  Sure.  Could it be that they were afraid?  Sure.  We don’t know why the Jews persecuted Jesus because of His compassion.  The reality is that they did and their focus was off.

Then, Jesus goes about showing the Jewish leaders what their focus should be like.  There is something He says to them that really caught my attention today and I don’t remember it catching my attention in the past.  Jesus says to them, “You search the scriptures because you think that you have eternal life in them.”  Whoa.  Those are some serious words that caused me to do a double-take.  I need to flesh that out a bit.

First of all, remember how the Jews of Jesus’ day decided upon salvation.  They were saved because they were the biological offspring of Abraham.  They were the people to whom the Torah was given.  Their mindset was that salvation belonged to them because they were who they were.  Their focus was on biology and genealogy, not their heart.  That’s Jesus’ point here.

What we must be careful to not get from this passage is that it is wrong to study scripture.  Of course, it is good to study scripture!  Jesus encourages the study of scripture.  Even in this chapter Jesus tells the Jewish leaders that the study of scripture should have pointed them to Jesus!  Jesus is all about studying the Word of God.

That being said, though, we should still be careful.  Our knowledge of scripture will not save us.  Our ability to recite scripture from memory will not save us.  Our ability to speak meaningfully about scripture will not save us.  In fact, Jesus is correct with what He tells the Jews.  Eternal life does not come from the study of scripture.

Scripture points us to Jesus.  Scripture helps us to understand God’s work in Jesus.  Scripture does not save us, it points us to the one being from whom our salvation comes: Jesus.  We can learn the lesson well from the Jewish leaders.  When we are looking for salvation, we should always turn our eyes upon Jesus.  Our salvation comes through Him by the grace of God the Father.

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Year 8, Day 252: John 4

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I love this chapter.  John 4 is hands down one of my favorite chapters in the whole of God’s Word.  Here we see Jesus teaching in a manner that is near and dear to my heart.  Again and again Jesus sets up the person to whom He is talking so that they are going to have a mind-blowing, life-altering moment.  Jesus doesn’t just want to give them new information, He wants their perspective to change, too.  He isn’t just a conveyor of information like some dry, boring, lecturing professor.  Jesus is shattering the way that people construct their life to provide space for a new framework.

For example, take the woman at the well.  When Jesus asks her for a drink she reminds Him that as a Samaritan she isn’t qualified to give Him a drink.  Jesus seizes the opportunity and tells her that she needs the living water that He is offering.  She immediately is interested, and it gives Jesus the opportunity to draw her out of her focus on the physical realm and look into the spiritual realm.  She wants to end her thirst; Jesus takes the opportunity to show her a new level of thirst that she never knew existed.  He then shows her how to satisfy such thirst.

The next thing that Jesus does is to take her confession about not having a husband and shatter her perspective once more.  Jesus tells her that she doesn’t have a current husband but has been many several times prior.  The fact that Jesus knows this amazes the woman.  It is this conversation that forces the woman to no longer see Jesus as a Jew with whom she cannot interact and instead see Jesus as a spiritual prophet with whom she wants to interact.

Next, the disciples come.  They are startled to see Jesus speaking to this Samaritan woman but to their credit they say nothing.  The woman leaves and the disciples invite Jesus to eat.  In turn, Jesus questions them about food.  Jesus sees an opportunity to shatter their perspective.  The disciples are hungry and thinking about eternal food, but Jesus gets them thinking about the eternal and spiritual food.  In doing so, He teaches the disciples to see the Samaritans as a potential harvest instead of a people to be scorned.

In this chapter, Jesus really does show us what a master teacher looks like.  Jesus is all about using what seems like an outrageous claim to change the perspective of His disciples.  He knows that often the easiest way to open up people’s minds is to make a comment that takes them out of their comfort zone and then show them how a change in perspective and cause the knew thought to actually be within their comfort zone.  This is what great teachers do all the time.

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Year 8, Day 251: John 3

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Today I’m not going to focus on the typical things that come out of this chapter.  The world’s most understood verse is here.  The beginning of Nicodemus’ walk in faith is here.  These are great things upon which we can focus, but that isn’t where I am going to go today.

Instead, there is a dynamic in this chapter that is often overlooked.  This entire chapter is built upon a single thought: how do people figure out who Jesus is and how they are going to respond.  This chapter is about people getting a grip on what God is doing through Jesus.

For example, take Nicodemus.  He wants to know what he doesn’t understand.  Nicodemus chooses to come at night when he won’t be spotted and when Jesus won’t be quite as busy.  Its not likely that Nicodemus is doing official work for the Pharisees or he would have come with the crowds.  Nicodemus wants to know, so he goes to the horse’s mouth.  Nicodemus goes straight to the source.  Notice that he gets his answer, too.  There’s something to be said about the direct approach.

Then we hear about John’s disciples.  They see that many people are going to Jesus instead of John.  Whether out of confusion or jealousy – we can’t be completely sure – they go to John and ask him what is going on.  It might be easy to be critical of them, but resist that temptation.  The reality is that they are going to their mentor.  They are going to the place where God has shown He can speak.  They also take the direct method, it’s just that they are going direct to God speaking through John instead of direct to God speaking in Jesus.  Note, also, that they get their answer.

There is a very important message in this chapter.  We all need to figure out for ourselves who Jesus is.  As Jesus says, those who believe in Him are made to be the children of God in the Spirit.  Those who deny Jesus are already condemned.  We need to figure out Jesus.  The question that this chapter asks is where we will go.  Will we God directly to God?  Will we go to places that we know God uses to speak truth?  Or will we go elsewhere and get whatever we should find there?

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Year 8, Day 250: John 2

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I think the theme for me when I read John 2 is best given in the last words of the chapter.  “Jesus did not entrust Himself to them … for He Himself knew what was in man.”  Jesus knows where our hearts focus.  He knows our passion.  He knows how we can be misguided, even when we’re trying to help.

For example, take a look at the wedding in Cana.  Yes, Jesus performs a great miracle.  Don’t miss the point that what Jesus makes is finer than our greatest accomplishment!  That being said, the reality is the Jesus’ mother puts Him in a position He doesn’t want to be in.  His time has not come.  Even after He makes His point, His mother continues to insist.  To be honest, she doesn’t even acknowledge His objection!  She turns to the servants and tells them to obey Jesus.  Jesus’ mother means well, but her heart is in making the wedding better and not listening to God’s plan.

In a far more direct example, we have the temple story.  The religious leaders have turned the worship of God into a means for making money.  They are preying upon the people and using God as the element of fear!  They are behaving unjustly and their focus is clearly upon material gain and not upon their relationship with God.

This is why even when many people believe in Him, He doesn’t put His trust in them.  It seems like so many people are simply looking to use Jesus to accomplish their own agendas.  That’s still true today.  So-called religious leaders get rich off of people who are just trying to relate to God.  Other religious leaders guilt people into doing what they want.  Others use Jesus’ own words to convince people of their obligations.  Unfortunately, Jesus knew the truth.  He knows what is in the heart of man.

What I find really neat in this is that although Jesus knows what is in the heart of mankind, He still came for us.  He still died for us.  He still invites us into relationship with Him.  He knows what is in our heart and knows that we will occasionally fail Him.  Yet He still wants to be with us.  That’s God.

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Year 8, Day 249: John 1

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John 1 starts off anything but practical. Unlike Matthew and Luke, John gives no birth narrative.  In fact, John takes us directly from the creation of the world through Jesus Christ to the baptism of John and the ministry of Jesus.  In this, John makes a very theological point.  The start of the story of Christ is not a night in the manger – as important as that story might be to the story of Jesus’ fleshly existence.  The reality is that Jesus’ story reaches back into creation.  Jesus’ story starts before we are even on the scene.

What this shows us is that the story of the light of the world – Jesus Christ – is an eternal story.  What this means, then, is that the world’s struggle against the light is also eternal.  John tells us that the world did not know Him.  Those who were made through Him did not recognize Him.  Even the Hebrew people, who worship God, did not know Him when He came.

However, all is not lost.  While the world in general did not recognize the light, there are some who did – and still do.  These people are given the privilege of being the children of God.  Such people are not born of flesh and blood but born of God.  The story that John is telling comes full circle.  The story of Jesus doesn’t begin with a human birth, it begins with a spiritual creation.  Our story – the story of the children of God – does not begin with a physical birth either.  Our flesh and blood birth pales in comparison to our true birth in and through God’s Spirit.

This is why John says to make straight the paths of the Lord.  Our perspective is often skewed.  We focus on the wrong things.  We tend to focus on the things of this world and how they happen instead of focusing on God’s ways and what He has done through us.

In fact, we see this in the story of Nathaniel, too.  Nathaniel comes to Jesus and tells him the story about when he heard about Jesus.  Nathaniel was amazed at Jesus’ ability to know how it happened.  Jesus, however, refocuses Nathaniel.  He tells him that he will see bigger things with a shift in perspective.  Nathaniel will see heaven opened and the angels coming down to the Son of Man.  Arguments can be made about this happening several times in Jesus’ life: His birth, His temptation in the desert, and the transfiguration are some of the top of the list.

I think that the death and resurrection are the greatest fulfillment.  When Jesus dies, the heavens are opened and the curtain is torn.  When Jesus is raised, angels come to human beings and tell them that Jesus is no longer dead.  What greater thing to see than God’s redemption of creation!  What greater thing to see than God’s embrace of His people!  In the moment, Nathaniel is content with something small and reasonably insignificant.  Jesus refocuses him to look to the eternal and foreshadows that if he continues to walk with God then he will see the salvation of mankind.

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Year 8, Day 248: Psalms 120-121

Theological Commentary: Click Here

These two psalms naturally go hand in hand.  So much of human existence is spent dealing with the consequences of sinfulness.  We deal with our sinfulness.  We deal with other people’s sinfulness.  So often the things that we worry about are rooted in the parts of our lives and the lives of others than run contrary to God’s ways.

Because of this, we have times like the psalmist experiences in Psalm 120.  He is in distress.  He calls out to the Lord.  People around him are lying.  People around him don’t want peace.  They desire to bring him down in their midst.  They want to see him stumble and fall.  What they really want is a war.

This is why the psalmist turn to the Lord.  Notice the psalmist’s tone, though.  The psalmist doesn’t call for the destruction of his enemies.  He doesn’t ask God to rain down wrath upon him.  He merely asks to be delivered.  He wants to be freed from their scheming.

This brings us to psalm 121.  The Lord is our keeper.  He watches over us.  He will keep us from evil.  We can call upon the Lord and He will know our going in and our going out.

Again, though, we can pay attention to what the psalmist doesn’t say.  The Lord will protect us from evil, but He will not do evil.  The psalmist does not presume that the Lord will punish others unfairly while protecting us.  We know that scripture says that vengeance is the Lord’s, but it is also the Lord’s to decide when and where His vengeance is put on display.

I think this a great point to bring out.  It is one thing to ask the Lord to protect and deliver us.  It is acceptable to remember that the Lord has a covenant with us.  But we must not be presumptuous and tell the Lord how He is to protect us.  He will protect us in His own righteous way, which is far better than any way we could dream up anyways.

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Year 8, Day 247: Psalms 119

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Psalm 119 is a teaching psalm, designed to use the Hebrew alphabet as a means to remembering the psalm.  Being a teaching psalm, it makes sense to ask about the point.  What exactly does this psalm teach?  Without going into every stanza, what are the main points of the psalm?

As a teaching psalm, its main point is living according to the ways of the Lord.  We can tell this by examining the first and the last stanzas.  After all, the psalmist wants to put the most memorable in the easiest positions to remember.  If the psalmist starts greatly and ends greatly, the long psalm will be remembered as a great psalm.

We begin with a discussion on what it means to have the Lord’s blessing.  Those who are blessed walk in the ways of the Lord.  The psalmist is interested in steadfastness and determination when keeping the Lord’s statutes.  It is hard to make the right decision time and time again.  It is hard to consistently chase away the temptation to pursue selfish thought.  As a teaching psalm, the psalmist tackles on of the biggest areas of human weakness.  We are good in the moment, but sometimes we falter when it comes to the long haul.  If we are the Lord’s, we need to be the Lord’s at all times.  That needs to be our persistent focus.

The stanzas continue to pass throughout the psalm, but again and again the focus is upon the ways of the Lord.  We approach the idea that the ways of the Lord lead us to praise.  The ways of the Lord keep us from harm.  The ways of the Lord allow us to escape danger.  The ways of the Lord have many applications and genuinely leads to a better life lived.

This brings us to the last psalm.  It begins no different than we would expect: Give me an understanding according to your word!  Once more the ways of the Lord are cast before us, even as we close out this psalm.  His law is our delight.  His statutes are worth leaning.  His commandments are right.  His rules help us.  The last stanza is one of the most forceful in its focus on the ways of the Lord.

I love how this psalm ends.  “I have gone astray like a lost sheep.  Seek out your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.”  I could write another entire blog post about this line alone.  Clearly it is putting a great stamp on the idea that the ways of the Lord are important to our life.  It does more than that, however.  It is a confession.  Even knowing that the ways of the Lord should be our focus, we still go astray.  We still need the Lord to seek us out. 

There is still more.  Just because I stray into sin does not mean that I have forgotten the Lord.  The psalmist is drawing out the fact that we can have a life genuinely focused upon the Lord yet have moments of sin. Just because I have gone astray and I need the Lord to seek me out does not mean that I have lost my salvation or risk mortal peril.  It is human to have lapses of judgment.  Yes, we must also deal with the consequences of such actions.  Yet, the psalmist knows that God does not abandon us for a single moment of sin.  Our perfection is marred, but our relationship with God need not be.

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Year 8, Day 246: Psalms 118

Theological Commentary: Click Here

There is a verse buried in this psalm that I simply adore.  “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humankind.  There is both breadth and depth in this verse alone, which the rest of the psalm bears.

First of all, there is the truth in the moment of life.  The one thing that we can count on is that we will eventually be surrounded.  Life will oppose us.  People in life will oppose us.  We will be threatened; we will be attacked.  Who will come and save us?  Is there much reason to believe that when we are kicked, orphaned, and left for dead that we will be rescued by humankind?  Do human beings really have a great track record of caring for those who are in the lowest of social positions?  Why trust in humankind at all?  I’d rather trust in God.

Then there are the high points of life.  When I am elated, it isn’t because I have done something with finite success.  The true highs in life are when I’ve been able to reach into the eternal and make a difference.  The moment when God uses me to shows unexpected love to another person is a high.  The moment when God uses me to speak a profound truth that I’d have no hope of coming up with myself is a high.  The moment when God uses me to befriend the oppressed is a genuine high.  If I genuinely consider the grand high points of my life, they all have more to do with times I am walking with the Lord than accomplishing worldly goals.

Naturally, there is the truly spiritual perspective.  In the end, no human medicine or science will be able to save me.  These bones will wear out.  My muscles will become weak.  The cosmic rays coming from the sun will damage my genetics beyond repair and I will suffer mutation, cancer, and the like.  It is better to take eternal refuge in the world where I have a hope of eternal life than to live in a world where my only hoe is to simply stop existing.

Indeed, it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put my trust in humankind.

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Year 8, Day 245: Psalms 116-117

Theological Commentary: Click Here

It is easy to determine the theme of these two psalms today.  We should praise the Lord.  We should return to the Lord what is His.  We should lift up the cup of His salvation and remember His glory.  We should honor and fulfill our vows to Him.

Why should we do this?  The psalmist gives us a plethora of reasons.  Perhaps the greatest of these reasons is that He remembers us.  When we are in our darkest pit, He is there to rescue us.  When we stumble and fall, He is there to pick us up.  He does not abandon us when we are down, He picks us up and carries us on when we are unable to do so ourselves.

He also brings our soul to His rest.  This expression can be taken on multiple levels.  Naturally, this means that we can know His peace.  In a turbulent world, He shows us rest.  He calms the world around us through His incredible omnipotence.  This also can be seen in the light of the eternal.  At the end of this age, he will bring us to Him and give us rest from this life.  We will know true peace at the end of the age.

There is another reason to bestow honor unto His name.  He still knows us when we are simple and humble.  God is not just the God of the wealthy, popular, strong, or important.  He is the God of the orphan, the widow, and the simple.  He loves us all regardless of our actual station in life.

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Year 8, Day 244: Psalms 115

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Psalm 115 poses an interesting debate.  It begins by attesting to the glory and praise of the Lord.  This is as it should be.  Then, the psalm asks God why the nations should wonder where the hand of the Lord is.  In other words, the psalmist is feeling that God could show Himself a little bit more than He is.

In this context, the psalmist begins to talk about the gods of the other nations.  They are wooden, made from clay, or other natural materials.  The psalmist wonders how anyone could think that they are gods.  After all, how on earth can flawed human beings make things that have any power over creation?  Their manmade gods may have eyes, ears, hands, and feet but they cannot see, hear, act, or move.  It doesn’t make sense.

That being said, it doesn’t really resolve the issue at hand.  All it does is bring the point even more to the forefront.  The nations of the world have fake gods whose actions cannot be seen in spite of the gods’ ability to be seen, held, and worshipped.  The God of the Hebrew people cannot be seen.  The psalmist therefore is asserting that because God cannot be seen, He should be seen through His actions.  If we cannot see God, then we should be able to see Him through His actions.

He is our help.  He is our shield.  He is the one who blesses us.  He is the one in which we put our faith.  There is the crux of the issue.  Faith is hope in that which we cannot prove.  We cannot see God, yet we continue to put our faith in Him.

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