Tag Archives: Pharisees

SOME PUZZLES OF SCRIPTURE

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What did Jesus write in the dust?

Another intriguing story appears in John 7 and 8.

During the Festival of Shelters, after an altercation with His brothers, Jesus went from Galilee to the festival in Jerusalem but secretly, at first.

‭John 7:14-15, 31-32, 45-48 NLT‬
[14] “Then, midway through the festival, Jesus went up to the Temple and began to teach. [15] The people were surprised when they heard him. “How does he know so much when he hasn’t been trained?” they asked.

[31]Many among the crowds at the Temple believed in him. “After all,” they said, “would you expect the Messiah to do more miraculous signs than this man has done?” [32] When the Pharisees heard that the crowds were whispering such things, they and the leading priests sent Temple guards to arrest Jesus… “

… but the Temple guards returned empty-handed.

[45]”When the Temple guards returned without having arrested Jesus, the leading priests and Pharisees demanded, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” [46] “We have never heard anyone speak like this!” the guards responded. [47] “Have you been led astray, too?” the Pharisees mocked. [48] “Is there a single one of us rulers or Pharisees who believes in him? [49] This foolish crowd follows him, but they are ignorant of the law. God’s curse is on them!”

The members of the Sanhedrin revealed their contempt for Jesus and His teaching, rejecting His offer of the ‘living water’ He came to provide for His spiritually thirsty people.

The high priest, carrying out the water ritual at the end of the Festival, poured a jar of water onto the ground, water that would do no more than drain away into the soil. In response, Jesus stood up and loudly offered ‘living water’ to those who were thirsty. (John interpreted Jesus’ invitation to refer to the Holy Spirit who would be ‘poured out’ after His death).

The sequel to the story is recorded in John 8. Although this story has been omitted from some early manuscripts, it fits perfectly into the context of John 7.

The Pharisees hated Jesus so much that they set a trap for Him. Knowing His passion to show mercy, they wanted to catch Him out for not upholding the Law.

Probably using one of their own as a volunteer, or perhaps trailing a known ‘sinful woman’ until they could catch her out, they grabbed her in the act of adultery and threw her down in front of Jesus.

The Pharisees had failed to learn not to challenge Jesus. He was too smart for them. They arrogantly demanded a response from Him. “She was caught in the act. The Law says to stone her. What do you say?”

Without a word, Jesus bent down and began to write in the sand. Impatiently, they pressed Him for a response. Eventually, He stood up with a challenge, “Anyone who is innocent can throw the first stone.” Then he bent down and continued writing.

There are many speculations about what He wrote. To me, the most plausible one, that got the exact response He wanted, was like this.

Jesus knew the Scriptures (He authored the Bible)! So did the Pharisees. So, He knew the hearts of these Pharisees and responded exactly according to Jeremiah’s words…

‭Jeremiah 2:13 NIV‬
[13] “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

…and God’s judgment on them.

‭Jeremiah 17:13 NIV‬
[13] “Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.”

What did Jesus write in the dust? He wrote the names of the Pharisees as an act of judgment against them. What did they understand that scared them off? They realised the frightening reality that JESUS KNEW THEIR HEARTS.

David expressed the same sentiment about his enemies and what he would do to them with the Lord’s help.

‭Psalms 18:39-42 NLT‬
[39] “You have armed me with strength for the battle; you have subdued my enemies under my feet. [40] You placed my foot on their necks. I have destroyed all who hated me. [41] They called for help, but no one came to their rescue. They even cried to the Lord, but he refused to answer. [42] I ground them AS FINE AS DUST in the wind. I swept them into the gutter like dirt.”

The sequel is well known. Jesus could show the woman mercy despite the law because there were no witnesses against her. Instead of judging her, He forgave her and sent her on her way to live a new life.

There may be more in the details of the story that are yet to be discovered, but what we have learned indicates that Jesus was much more than a good man. He was God, clothed in human flesh, and revealing the all-knowing nature of God to those who were willing to examine the evidence. Despite His revelation to these Pharisees, they never did recognise the truth or believe in Him.

Another story reveals Jesus’ supernatural knowledge that startled and transformed a loose woman. When Jesus told the Samaritan woman of her sordid history without knowing her, she was not ashamed but elated. His intimate knowledge of her life, WITHOUT JUDGING HER, drew her like a magnet to everything He had told her, and she was changed.

Faith comes to the one who takes an honest look at the evidence and, on the strength of that, believes!

To be continued…

FAITH IS THE GLUE

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FAITH IS THE GLUE

“Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in Him. But, because of the Pharisees, they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue, for they loved human praise more than the praise of God.

“Then Jesus cried out, ‘Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.'” John 12:42-46 NIV.

Secret believers! Held captive by fear!

This is the power of false religion. Because religion has its origin in the human mind, it needs humans to defend it and force to keep people from leaving when they know the truth; force, the only way humans know how to exercise power. Fear holds people in bondage and force protects their loyalty.

These religious leaders were bound by the fear of what their colleagues would do to them if they followed Jesus. Is it possible to believe but not to follow? Jesus said not. To follow Him means to take up the cross. Anyone who carried a cross was on the way to death. A disciple is one who has embraced his rabbi, his rabbi’s yoke, and everything his rabbi stands for. He is no longer his own person. He has died. These Jewish leaders, whom John said believed in Him, had not yet fully embraced Jesus as Lord. They were afraid.

However, fear and force cannot bind the conscience when it is convinced of the truth. How was it that the apostles and many thousands after them, were willing to lay down their lives rather than deny that Jesus is Lord? Did He threaten them with death if they refused to acknowledge Him? Did He destroy Peter for denying him with oaths and curses? What changed cowering men into courageous witnesses? The resurrection convinced them that He was the Son of God and not even death could scare them into submission to the Roman authorities or the bullying religious leaders.

The reward for believing in Jesus far outweighs the cost! There is a revelation of the face of the Father in the face of Jesus that is reserved for those who recognize and embrace the truth that He and the Father are one.

Throughout the history of His people, Jesus had dealings with them in many different ways. He met Moses through the miracle of a desert bush that burned with an unearthly fire but was not consumed, and revealed His name to him on the mountain. He revealed His glory in dreams and visions to His prophets, men like Isaiah and Ezekiel; He gave His personal protection to Daniel in the den of lions and his three colleagues in Nebuchadnezzar’s fire; He spoke in an audible voice to Abraham and Jacob and even wrestled with Jacob until Jacob prevailed and became a prince with God… but they never saw His face.

Now He was here on earth in person, in human form so that all men might see the face of God in Him; but only those who believed the truth of who He was would recognize in Him the nature of the Father He represented. To some, He was a blasphemer; to others at best a prophet or just a good man. Only to those who believed in Him was He the face of the Father.

John lived and walked with Him for three and a half years. To him, Jesus was the Word become flesh…”We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14. Paul met Him on the Damascus road and, from then on He was, to him “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” Colossians 1:15. To the unknown writer to the Hebrews, He was “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being…” Hebrews 1:3.

How did Jesus respond to Philip’s request, ‘”Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us’?“ Jesus answered, ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.'” John 14:8, 9.

The miracle is that Jesus is just Jesus, good man, prophet perhaps, until faith opens the eyes and the heart sees Him as the Son of God and a mirror image of the Father. This is the glue that binds us to Him. We are not held to loyalty by fear or threats of death. To believe in Him is to see Him and to see Him is to recognise the Father in Him, to love Him and to embrace Him as the Son of God.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

AN EFFECTIVE BARRIER TO TRUTH

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AN EFFECTIVE BARRIER TO TRUTH

“Finally, the temple guards went to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, ‘Why didn’t you bring Him?’ ‘No one ever spoke the way this man does,’ the guards replied, ‘You mean He deceived you also?’ the Pharisees retorted. ‘Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in Him? No, but this mob that knows nothing of the law – there is a curse on them.’

“Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ‘Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?’ They replied, ‘Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.'”

“Then they all went home.” John 7:45-53 (NIV).

Ugh! These men are obnoxious!

They sent temple guards to arrest Jesus, but the guards could not bring themselves to do it. His words fascinated and mesmerized them. They had never heard anyone speak as Jesus spoke. They returned to the religious rulers and Pharisees empty-handed who were so sure of themselves that they dismissed them with withering contempt.

These men held themselves up as the measure of truth. Since none of their number had believed in Jesus (perhaps Nicodemus had kept his night-time visit to Jesus a secret), of course Jesus was a trickster and a fraud! The temple guards were taken in by Him because they were just part of the gullible mob, according to them

Nicodemus put in a rather weak protest, appealing to his colleagues at least to give Jesus a hearing, but his was a lone voice trying to get a fair deal for Jesus. His plea was swept aside with the same arrogant dismissal as the guards received.

Why did these men stick so tenaciously to their opinion of Jesus that they were not even prepared to give Him a hearing?

Their first argument was the typical everybody’s-doing-it reason. Since all of them (except Nicodemus, and he was of no consequence to them), dismissed Jesus as a fraud, that made them right. Their confidence was based on the flimsy premise that majority opinion must be the truth.

Unfortunately, in God’s eyes this kind of reasoning does not hold water. Even if the whole world chooses to believe lies, that does not make it the truth. Billions of people follow false religions, sincerely believing that they are right and even being willing to murder to defend their beliefs but that still does not make lies the truth.

Secondly, they clung to their superficial reason for rejecting Jesus because they refused to investigate the evidence. What were they afraid of? Would they have changed their minds about Him if they found out the truth? I don’t think so. This was not about Jesus; this was about them. It would take honesty and humility to listen to Jesus and to take Him seriously and they were not prepared to do that because they would have to forfeit their status in the community and bow to Him.

We may not think we are like the Pharisees but deep in every heart there lurks the pride that cuts us off from God. “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.”  Humility is the only attitude that opens the door to revelation from God. Jesus told His hearers that, if anyone genuinely wants to know the truth, he will be able to discern the source of His teaching – from God or from Himself.

Once again, this conflict opens up new understanding about God, about us and about the depravity of our own hearts. My plea is that we put aside our right to be right and examine the evidence. We have only one source of truth – the Word of God. He has graciously given us an infallible point of reference to keep us on track. If we are humble enough to say, ‘I don’t know,’ we will be on the way to finding out the truth.

Let’s use it!

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

HIS YOKE IS EASY

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HIS YOKE IS EASY

“The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about Him. Then the chief priests and Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest Him. Jesus said, ‘I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am you cannot come.’ The Jews said to one another, ‘Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find Him? Will He go where our people live scattered among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?’

“‘What did He mean when He said, ‘When you look for me you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?'” John 7:32-35 (NIV).

Jesus was such a cool customer and the religious leaders were so flustered! They did not realise that they couldn’t arrest Him; try as they may, because His time had not yet come.

His cryptic words had them really confused. They did not like the people’s interest in Him. The situation was getting dangerous and they were losing their power and influence over them. It had to be stopped and yet they could not get Him into their clutches.

What was Jesus telling these spiritual leaders of Israel? Compare His words with the words He spoke to His disciples in the Upper Room on the eve of His death.

“‘I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.'” John 14:2b-4 (NIV).

Why did He say to the Jews, ‘Where I am you cannot come,’? And yet He told His disciples that He would come and take them to where He was? It all sounds so confusing unless we understand the difference between the reception the Jews gave Jesus and the attitude of the disciples.

It’s about that little word, “believe” again. Believing is more than giving intellectual assent to a fact. In Hebrew thought, to believe something intellectually without acting on it was a useless and meaningless exercise. To believe meant to take seriously and act on what one believes. To believe what Jesus said was to take Him seriously and do what He said.

How many “believers” are there who give intellectual assent to Jesus as Lord but continue to live their lives as though He does not exist? This attitude has sullied the credibility of the church and misrepresented what it is, a living organism, the body of Christ, not an organisation. Jesus gave us two criteria for credibility in the eyes of the world; the love we have for one another that proves that we are His disciples and our unity which witnesses to the fact that He was sent by the Father.

Jesus did not call us to be rigid followers of doctrine but loyal followers of our Master. He gave His life rather than break the unity between Himself and the Father and yet so many of us are too busy fighting to be right than following Him. There are three responsibilities of the believer that will make us credible followers of Jesus:

1. To protect love;

2. To preserve unity;

3. To promote contentment.

I yearn for a return to the simplicity of Jesus’ invitation: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew11:28-30 (NIV).

He is telling us, the young, inexperienced “oxen” to join Him, the old, experienced “ox” in His yoke (His way of doing life) so that He can teach us how to live burden-free in a relationship of loving union and submission to Him!

The Jews refused. Will you believe and be joined to Jesus?

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – GUILTY AS CHARGED!

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GUILTY AS CHARGED!

13 Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”
But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16 They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
And they were amazed at him. Mark 12:13-17

The religious leaders were so intimidated by Jesus that they had fled the scene for fear of more exposure and more egg on their faces. Now they used their supporters and even supporters of their enemy (Herod) to do their dirty work for them. They were out to trap Jesus into incriminating Himself by His own words, but they should have known better. Not even their flattering prologue fooled Him. He knew exactly who they were and why they were questioning Him.

These men should have been warned before they ever posed their question. They were the ones who would be made to look like fools, but they ploughed on anyway. One wonders what their body language and tone of voice was like when they began their hypocritical and rehearsed speech. Their sarcastic words were actually bull’s-eye truth if they had only spoken them with sincerity. Was their little preamble intended to nail Him to an honest answer? They didn’t need to do that because there was no danger of Jesus ever being devious or deceitful.

Their question was loaded. Answering either way would have put him into a dangerous position. Pay taxes – He was siding with Rome and that would have angered the Jews. Don’t pay taxes – that was treasonable and would have got Rome’s attention. Once again Jesus was sharp and accurate – His spiritual vision 20/20. He used a Roman coin as a visual aid. The coin represented the inescapable world system in which they lived. As part of that system, they were obliged to participate in it and God Himself sanctioned that.

But there was also another kingdom which Jesus represented and, whether they liked it or not, everyone was also part of that kingdom, either willingly or living in rebellion. Everyone is subject to God’s rule and will eventually be judged by the way he/she responded to that rule. This was not an either/or situation but both/and. The very obedience in paying taxes to Caesar fell into the greater submission to the kingdom of God.

With His own return question which, by the way, was a clever way of making His opponents think, Jesus hit them right on the nose. Of course is was right to pay taxes to Caesar, There was no question about it and rebelling against it was, from God’s perspective, disobedience to His rule but… what about giving to God was belonged to Him? There was the glaring omission on the part of the religious leaders, and they were trapped. Guilty as charged!

However, no amount of truth would bring His opponents to their knees. Jesus was hammering the nails deeper and deeper into His own coffin…and He knew it!