Daily Archives: January 26, 2014

The Resurrection Is Coming!

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THE RESURRECTION IS COMING! 

“After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders were looking for a way to kill Him. But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to Him, ‘Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.’ For even His own brothers did not believe in Him.

“Therefore Jesus told them, ‘My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival because my time has not yet fully come.’ After He had said this, He stayed in Galilee.” John 7:1-9 (IV).

It must have been tough for Jesus to have been rejected by His own brothers!

But it was to be expected because they were part of “His own who did not receive Him.” It was probably the old story of being offended by His goodness. They grew up with Him. He was their flesh and blood. How could they accept that He was not a mere human being like they were?

Their words were not a suggestion but a taunt. One can read their hostility between the lines. Their words were accusing, revealing and a challenge to Him. ‘If you are who you say you are, go public and prove it. You have a golden opportunity to go to the festival in Jerusalem where everybody who is anybody will be gathered.’ Every word was full of venom and unbelief.

Jesus did not seem to be offended. He simply explained why it was not appropriate for Him to go to Jerusalem then. The Jewish leaders would be looking out for Him. Perhaps they even hoped to grab Him and assassinate Him before the crowd arrived so that He would have no opportunity to wow the people and win them over.

His brothers were free to come and go as they pleased because they were not controversial public figures. They were not living according to a strict timetable as He was. No one was watching out for them with murderous intent. They were not hated for exposing evil.

Jesus was smart. He knew that, if He arrived in Jerusalem before or during the festival His enemies would either waylay Him or stir up a riot against Him. Lynching was not God’s plan. He had to be tried, found guilty and offered publicly as a sacrifice at the exact moment when the slaughtering of the Passover lambs began. His guilt and execution had to be a decision of the representatives of both the Jewish and Gentile world. He had to be offered up for the whole world.

Jesus confined His ministry to Galilee for the moment where He was out of sight of the members of the ruling party. The Pharisees were everywhere, no doubt spying on Him and reporting back to their superiors, but the common people were happy to have Him around as long as He ministered to the sick and demon-possessed and taught them about the kingdom of God.

Unlike the undertones of His brothers’ accusation, Jesus was not seeking fame or popularity. He was not trying to make himself a “public figure”. It was unfortunate that the works He did forced him into the limelight. He often cautioned the people He had healed not to tell anyone about it. He did not want fans, but followers; people who accepted His yoke and committed to being His disciples because they believed in Him, not because of what He could do for them.

How unfortunate that many people “follow” Jesus today because of what they think He can do for them! How much better to be like His brothers who were at least honest about their skepticism. It took the resurrection to convince them that He was the Son of God and, once convinced they wholeheartedly threw in their lot with His disciples and were part of the group on whom the Holy Spirit fell in the day of Pentecost.

We may judge Jesus’ brothers for not recognizing who He was. It was part of the process by which they came to faith in Him. Their attitude was not set in concrete. Thank God that even the attitude of our loved ones which may cause us concern is only a part of the process by which many of them may yet come to faith. The resurrection and Pentecost are still coming for them!

Both Lord And Christ

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BOTH LORD AND CHRIST 

“From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.’You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.’ Then Jesus replied, ‘Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!’ (He meant Judas Iscariot who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray Him).” John 6:66-71 (NIV)

Good old Peter! For once he got it right!

For all their blundering, misunderstandings, prejudices and misperceptions, of one thing the Twelve had become convinced, that Jesus was the Son of God. They did not fully understand all the implications and they certainly clung tenaciously to the hope that He would deliver them from Rome, but they never abandoned their conviction that He was someone far more than human.

John was careful to identify and isolate Judas Iscariot as the traitor, but that did not mean that Judas was not also convinced of His identity. Why he betrayed Jesus is not absolutely clear. It could have been purely for money or it could have been his way of trying to force Jesus to do what he thought He would do — move supernaturally against the Romans during the Passover when Jerusalem was filled with Jews from in and outside Israel.

John made a clear distinction between two groups of disciples — the ones who were following Him for opportunistic reasons and the Twelve whom He had chosen. The first group was obvious fascinated by and drawn to Him because of the possibilities of what He could do for them. He healed them; He got rid of tormenting demons and He even fed them supernaturally from very little. If they could have a king like that, their troubles would be over.

The problem with this kind of faith is that it places false expectations on Jesus which He is under no obligation to fulfil. It is unfortunate that He is often presented to people as the solution to all their problems. Prayer and faith are a way to get what we want. When He does not meet to our expectations and capitulate to our demands, we either do what we can to appease Him, as though He were some pagan idol, or we become disillusioned and walk away like these fickle “disciples” did.

 

The Twelve followed Jesus because they were chosen. He selected ordinary men from many walks of life; fishermen, tax collectors, political activists, nobodies who were not already fashioned by the religious system to have fixed ideas about God and His Messiah.

When He began to speak about things they could not understand; about suffering and dying, which made no sense to them, they were sufficiently convinced about His identity to wait it out. Their expectations might have differed, even from one another’s but they were prepared to give Him a hearing because they had bonded with Him as a person even if they did not understand everything He said.

Peter voiced the thoughts of the group, and they agreed with him by sticking with Jesus when the others left. It must have heartened Jesus to know that He had a loyal group, even if it was only His intimate group of disciples whom He had personally invited to be His followers. They were not part of the “anyone” and the “whoever”. He called them by name and that meant a lot to them.

The fact that He lost only Judas from the Twelve is also surprising, given the harshness of His words. They may have trembled with fear, abandoned Him and run for cover, hidden in the Upper Room and lost all hope when He died, but that was only part of the process. Resurrection day changed all that. His words, falling on deaf ears then, took on explosive meaning when the implications burst on their understanding.

No doubt, they must have remembered Peter’s expression of their collective faith: ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’ How glad they must have been to have stuck with Him then! Their faith had paid off. It was not about what He could do for them. It was all about who He was — both Lord and Christ to whom every knee shall bow.

Have you bowed to Him?