Tag Archives: Jesus

Guilty!

Bible Study, , , ,

GUILTY!

“They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing Him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with His finger. When they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them, ‘Let anyone who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left with the woman still standing there.” John 8:6-9 (NIV).

Jesus was in a sticky situation again, so they thought. He needed time to work this one out

In spite of all the speculation, no one knows why Jesus wrote on the ground or what He wrote. Does it matter? Perhaps He didn’t write anything. Perhaps He was practising His letters? Perhaps He was just doodling to let the woman’s accusers hear the sound of their own voices. Perhaps He was planning His defense. Perhaps a little bit of everything.

The religious leaders waited with baited breath to hear His response. They thought they had Him. They were gearing up to arrest Him on the spot for being a law-breaker. They had rocks in their hands, ready to carry out their ruthless sentence against the woman. They were not ready for His response!

Jesus stood up and looked at each one. He caught the gloating, blood-thirsty gleam in their eyes. He spoke directly to them. ‘Fair enough,’ He said, ‘go ahead and hurl your stones if you are not guilty.’ Then He bent down and carried on writing. He heard the crunch of sandals in the dirt. He heard the swish of robes as they slunk away, one by one. Then it was quiet.

He looked up. The woman was still lying on the ground, shielding her face with her arms.  He stood up and lifted her to her feet. “Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.'”  John 8:10-11 (NIV).

What had Jesus just done to save the day? He did the one thing the religious experts had forgotten. The law demanded that there be two or three witnesses to validate an accusation against an offender. He knew that He was bound by the Law of Moses to have her stoned if there were at least two witnesses who could corroborate her accusers’ story. But He also knew that, without witnesses He could show mercy and set her free.

He simply made the witnesses go away! How better to get them at their own game than to let their consciences do the work. He was willing to let them carry out their sentence if they were without sin or even perhaps just this sin. Who knows but that they were all part of the conspiracy and their consciences would not allow them to throw their stones at her knowing that they were just as guilty as she. As “holy” as they thought they were, they could not bring themselves to claim that they were without sin. That would make them liars to compound their guilt. They had no option but to leave!

Very smart, Jesus! How long would it take for these guys to learn that they were taking on more than they could handle when they took Jesus on. No matter what strategy they tried, they could not outwit the Son of God because He stood for truth and truth can never be overcome.

Jesus and the woman were left alone. It was His opportunity to apply His yoke to her as well. Many others had learned, through His compassion, mercy and forgiveness that the God He represented was full of kindness and love. There was no accusation, condemnation or rebuke — only forgiveness and counsel. ‘Woman, I am giving you a brand new start. Take your opportunity and don’t blow it.’

The woman must have gone home, washed up, cleaned up and looked up, free from her burden of guilt and energised by the power of a great love to start a new life. Her encounter with Jesus would never be forgotten. She shed her old life like a butterfly sheds its cocoon, determined to live up to the words of her deliverer.

What about you?

He Ripped Off The Covers

Bible Study, , ,

HE RIPPED OFF THE COVERS 

“‘Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them. 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 ancestors ate manna and died but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.’ He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.” John 6:56-59 (NIV).

No one had ever preached a sermon like this before!

I can’t help thinking, as I ponder on Jesus’ words, that no other man could or would dare to make the claims He was making. Those who have claimed to have new revelation from God, like the ones who have twisted the Bible or added to it or subtracted from it, have never gone as far as to identify themselves with their message.

Joseph Smith, for example, asserted that the Book of Mormon was new revelation from God and that it took precedence over the Bible but he did not call people to believe in him as the one sent from heaven. Mohammed claimed to be God’s prophet and superior to all other prophets but he did not claim to be God.

More than that, no other human being predicted in detail his own death and the manner of his death as well as his resurrection and then fulfilled it to the letter. If one is planning suicide, that would work but not violent death at the hands of others and certainly not resurrection three days later.

In this sermon in the synagogue in Capernaum, He was offering the gift of eternal life through His broken body and shed blood and through a union with Him that was as intimate as the food that one ate, that was digested and absorbed and became a part of one’s body, replacing cells and providing energy for one’s muscles.

The manna that their ancestors ate in the wilderness only sustained their physical lives. They lived out their natural lives and died of old age or, in the case of many of them, unnatural and premature deaths because of their sin against God. This happened because they did not trust the God who had entered into a covenant with them that promised them real and eternal life if they obeyed Him.

To “eat” Jesus implied to believe what He said and act upon His word so that it became their very lives. It meant allowing Him to replace self as the energy, motive and driving force of their lives. It meant absorbing His word into their spirits as they absorbed food into their bodies and derived sustenance and strength from it to continue their physical existence.

“On hearing this, many of His disciples said, ‘This is a hard saying. Who can accept it?'” John 6:60 (NIV).

Of course it was a hard saying if they misunderstood what He meant? Why didn’t Jesus spell out what He meant in plain language? Why did He use an offensive illustration like eating His flesh and drinking His blood? Could He not have explained it more simply? When He taught in parables, His disciples got His point without too much trouble.

This was His way of exposing the hearts of His disciples. He was not interested in having yes-men for disciples. He often said and did things that offended them because that was what exposed what they were thinking.

When He told them about His impending suffering and death, for example, Peter exploded in protest. Why? Because he rejected the prophecies that spoke of a Suffering Servant. Even the crucifixion of Jesus was offensive to His disciples until they understood the deeper meaning of His death.

That’s how God works with us as well. He allows people and circumstances to offend us so that what is in our hearts is exposed by our reaction. Only then can we face up to ourselves if we are honest, and allow Him to transform us from the inside through the presence of the Holy Spirit and the power of His word. When we allow His truth to replace the lies we believe, we are in the process of becoming one with Him.

 

We Can Trust Him!

Bible Study, , , ,

WE CAN TRUST HIM! 

“When evening came, His disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. But He said to them, ‘It is I; don’t be afraid.’ Then they were willing to take Him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.” John 6:16-21 (NIV).

“With Jesus in the boat…!” How often have you heard that message preached?

Why did John include this incident in his story? Remember that he was giving evidence that Jesus is the Son of God so that his readers would believe in Him. Every incident was a sign that His claims were true because His miracles authenticated who He claimed to be. Every sign pointed to some aspect of His person and work as the Messiah that gave clarity to what He came to do.

Mark added a detail to his account of this incident that makes it spring to life. “He was about to pass by them, but when they saw Him walking on the lake, they thought He was a ghost…” Mark 6:48c (NIV). If Jesus was walking on the water to go to them, why would He want to pass by them? It makes no sense unless there is something more to His intention than meets the eye.

We have to look for the use of this phrase somewhere else in Scripture to capture its meaning.

In Exodus 34, in response to Moses’ request, God was about to reveal His name to him. He had instructed him to bring another two stone tablets with him up the mountain because Moses had smashed the first two tablets in his anger against his people. While he had been up the mountain with God, they had got Aaron to make them a calf-god out of gold which they were worshipping with undignified frenzy when he returned.

God promised to hide him in a crevice in a rock and reveal His name to him. “Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed His name, the Lord.

“And He passed by in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness…’ ” Exodus 34:5, 6 (NIV).

Would His disciples have got the message? If they understood their Scriptures, they would surely have realized what Jesus was doing. He was making a very bold move to reproduce what He had done on Mount Sinai many centuries before, to reassure them that it was okay to trust Him because He was no phoney. A sign like that would have added to the weight of evidence they already had to convince them of His identity.

The outcome was equally startling. The moment He stepped into the boat, they arrived at their destination. We could, of course, argue that they were so taken up with watching Him walk on the rough water that they did not notice how near they were to the shore. That could be true but John made a point of reporting that His presence in the boat contributed to their speedy and safe arrival back at Capernaum.

“Passing by” seems to be a euphemism for revealing Himself to His people; God to Moses on the mountain and Jesus to His disciples on the lake. He was not abandoning them but alerting them to the deep truth He wanted them to be sure about. Just as it was God on the mountain reassuring Moses that, in spite of His people’s rebellion and failure to believe in Him, He was still the gracious and compassionate God who would forgive them and reinstate them as His covenant people, so also Jesus, on the lake, was reassuring His disciples that He was God; that He was with them and would graciously forgive and receive His people if they would put their trust in Him.

Their fear turned to relief when they realized who He was and they gladly assisted Him into the boat. The stormy lake lost its terror for them and, before they knew it, the boat scraped the shore and they were home, safe and sound after a very eventful day.

Jesus was slowly building a case for who He was. The disciples still wavered and doubted until the resurrection. From that moment on, nothing could shake their confidence in Him as their Lord and God.  With the same power of the Holy Spirit in them that had energized Him, they set out to turn the world upside down. But it took them a long time to get there.

We are also on a faith journey. Every incident in which Jesus is “passing by” strengthens and reassures us that He is who He said He is and we can trust Him.

God’s Picnic

Bible Study, , , ,

GOD’S PICNIC

“Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed Him because they saw the signs He had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with His disciples. The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

“When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, ‘Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?’ He asked this only to test him, for He already had in mind what He was going to do.”  John 6:1-6 (NIV).

John’s Gospel is a masterfully written piece of literature. He skilfully wove his theme, Jesus is the Son of God, into his story, using carefully chosen miracles as evidence that Jesus was who He said He was, and the discourses He had with His opponents that ensued from His miracles to enlarge on and explain His claims.

On this occasion, Jesus and His disciples had crossed the lake to take time out from their busy lives, according to the other gospels. Jesus wanted to be alone with them to get some rest, but when the crowd arrived, instead of being annoyed with them, He graciously received them and spend days teaching them because He recognized their need, much to the annoyance of His disciples.

John did not comment on the extended time of teaching He had with them; only that they needed food and Jesus was as much aware of their physical need for bread as He was for their spiritual nourishment because they were like shepherd less sheep. He was quick to grasp hold of an opportunity to put His disciples to the test and to teach them to look beyond the natural to the supernatural where the Father was waiting for them to tap into His resources to meet needs.

Philip’s response to Jesus’ question, ‘Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?’ reveals his un-readiness to see what Jesus saw — an opportunity to put God’s glory on display by partnering with Him to meet their needs.

“Philip answered Him, ‘It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!'” John 6:7 (NIV). Philip’s response would have been perfectly natural for a man who not walked with Jesus long enough to know that He always viewed crises as opportunities. He was caught off guard and responded from his awareness of the facts.

A vast crowd of people needed a large amount of money to feed them and (unspoken) a very large stock of bread which was unavailable in a remote place like this. Philip’s response when he looked at the circumstances was, in a nutshell, ‘Impossible!’ This is a normal, natural human response when we, too, are faced with impossibilities. We look at the situation, shrivel up and throw up our hands in despair. ‘Impossible!’ says unbelief, and we weep with frustration.

Andrew chipped in and offered a tentative solution which sounded equally pathetic when he verbalized it. “Another of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, ‘Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?'” John 6:8, 9 (NIV). The emphasis on “small” was Andrew’s attempt at making Jesus aware that He was setting them an impossible task. There was food available (if the boy was willing to part with it), but it was ludicrous to think they could feed the crowd with it!

That was enough for Jesus to interrupt their pathetic inadequacy with His plan which had been in place all the time. It was obvious to Him that they had not yet caught on to His modus operandi. When one view’s things from God’s perspective, it becomes easy and when one uses every situation to put God’s glory on display, God will do His part.

When one reads John’s gospel, it becomes clear that Jesus was never at a loss when faced with a crisis. He was in partnership with the Father and used people’s needs to reveal the compassionate heart of the Father.

What a difference it would make if we saw our situations like that!

What’s The Key?

Bible Study, , , ,

WHAT’S THE KEY?

 “‘My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.

“‘Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest?’ I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.’

“‘Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying, ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.'” John 4:34-38 (NIV).

Jesus had just had an astonishing encounter with a Samaritan woman who had been married and divorced five times and was now shacked up with a sixth man to whom she was not even married. That says something about the woman, doesn’t it? There could not have been a worse candidate for a response to Him! At least that’s how we would have judged her.

But Jesus never viewed any person as too far gone. Underneath her hard exterior was what He saw – potential. One just had to know where to find the weak spot to gain access to the heart. This woman’s weak spot was her longing to be loved. She tried five times and five times it didn’t work because she was being used, not loved.

Perhaps marriage wasn’t even an option any more. Just shack up and, if it didn’t work, move on and keep searching. But the problem was that the only ones who wanted a soiled garment were those who were soiled as well. By this time she was so hardened that she expected to be used and abused because she was worth nothing more than that in her own eyes.

To be treated with respect by a Jewish man brought her up short and got her attention, and we know the outcome. Jesus broke down her wall and touched her heart. When the disciples returned and saw Him in conversation with her, unheard of for Jewish man, they could not fathom what was going on. They saw her joy when she abandoned her water jar and rushed back to town and their eyebrows went up!

Jesus had to straighten out their thinking once again. Using imagery with which they were familiar, He challenged them. ‘You guys are thinking, ‘It’s too soon to start harvesting these Samaritans for the kingdom of God. They aren’t ready for it yet. Sometime in the future we’ll preach to them.’ This woman’s response is proof that it’s time for the harvest right now.’

‘I have harvested this woman in a very short time, but there’s a huge harvest out there waiting to be reaped and I can’t do it alone. We have to work together. It’s not important who does the planting and who does the reaping. It’s team work and both sower and reaper get the wages for doing the job.’

What was Jesus getting at? Was He saying that it was not important who did the work but rather that it was important to get the work done. Those who worked together to sow and reap were guaranteed their share of the profits. There were many who had already done the sowing. How else did this half-breed woman know that Messiah was coming? She may not have had it all straight but she was not entirely ignorant of God’s Word

In the natural world there is a time lapse between sowing and reaping but, in the lives of human beings the time for harvesting is always now. Like Jesus and the woman, it’s a case of finding the soft spot. Why did she have this emptiness in her soul which she tried to fill with human love only to be disappointed again and again?

Although she did not know it, she had a craving for a father’s love. We know nothing about her father, and she knew nothing about the perfect Father. He was the key to unlock her heart. Jesus was the mirror of the Father to her. When He introduced her to the Father, everything fell into place!

It is only the Father’s love that can fill your empty heart.