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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.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT

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CHAPTER 6

FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT

​1 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.

“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? 3 Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 He was amazed at their lack of faith. Mark 6:1-6

Where was Jesus’ hometown? I assume it was Nazareth where He was raised from childhood. He was a familiar figure to the people, a young child, a teenager, a young adult. There was nothing unusual about that. However, He was an unusual boy, gentle, loving, well-mannered, a good student, hard-working and responsible. People must have envied Joseph and Mary for the son they had, in so many ways different from the other village children but…they thought no more about it.

At the age of 30 He laid down His tools and left home. He had brothers who could take care of His mother. He had a calling to fulfill. He was an educated man, a rabbi with authority. It was time for Him to become an itinerant teacher, moving around the country to instruct the common people in the Law of God. There was nothing unusual about that. The Beth Talmud was constantly turning out young rabbis, few with authority, but many disciples of those whose authority had been authenticated by at least two witnesses.

He did not often preach and teach in His home town but, on this occasion, He visited the synagogue on the Sabbath and was naturally invited to teach. The people were astonished. He spoke with such wisdom that they were overawed. His reputation for doing miracles together with His inspired teaching took their breath away. Where did He get all this knowledge?

Their familiarity with His growing-up years, His family, His belonging to this community dulled their amazement at His teaching and they took offense at Him. How true that “familiarity breeds contempt”! The entire community shut their hearts to Him and threw away the most amazing opportunity to embrace their Messiah.

Once again, this same capacity of human beings to be so bogged down in the present that they cannot take the long look lost them the chance to be written into God’s big story.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – A MAN WITH A SHRIVELED HAND

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CHAPTER 3

A MAN WITH A SHRIVELED HAND

​1 Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”

4 Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.

5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. Mark 3:1-6

The Pharisees’ dispute with Jesus over His attitude to the Sabbath was turning into a running battle. It was almost as though Jesus was baiting them by purposely healing people on the Sabbath. The rift between their definitions of righteousness and His was becoming more clearly defined and was widening into a chasm.

The Pharisees’ “righteousness” was defined by what they did not do. By contrast, Jesus was showing them both God’s heart and theirs by using the Sabbath as an opportunity to help people who needed help. His attitude was: “What kind of action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless?”

God’s vision is always filled with compassion for people who need help. The greater violation of His law is not doing what is right rather than doing what is wrong. A lot of the time, people engage in sin in order to manage their emotional pain. Jesus had more to say to the Pharisees who engaged in religious rituals to cover up their failure to be merciful than to people who engaged in sinful behaviour to cover up their pain. He redefined sin by modelling mercy. To Him, sin was not doing good rather than doing evil. The most wicked behaviour was to ignore someone in need rather than to commit adultery.

This speaks loudly to us because our most natural behaviour is to look inward and keep taking care of our own needs and our own “reputation”. This is what the Hebrew people called the yetzer harah – the evil eye. The eye of light keeps looking at God and sees other people’s needs. God’s greatest measure is: what do I do when I see another’s need and I have the power to meet it? That is the righteousness which flows out of the righteousness imputed to me by faith. They are two inseparable sides of the same coin.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – “OUT, SQUATTER!”

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“OUT, SQUATTER!”

Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee. Mark 1:23-28

What is the essence of authority? Jesus knew what He was talking about because He knew the Father and had confidence in Him. He was not theorising or speculating. He was speaking from reality and experience. In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, He confidently asserted, “I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen…”! (John 3:11). During the last supper, when He undressed Himself and washed the disciples’ feet, John commented, “Jesus knew that the Father has put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God…” (John 13:3a).

John could not have recorded things like this unless he was divinely inspired. It seems, then, that the greatest authority comes from complete confidence in the one who has the authority.

Jesus translated that confidence into action in the synagogue in Capernaum. He was confronted by a shrieking madman who reacted violently to His presence. When Jesus spoke, the demon yielded, under protest, yes, but he had to give way because Jesus had the upper hand. Another demonstration of “fishing” for His disciples.

Jesus was not intimidated by the demon’s blustering show of strength. He confidently stood His ground because He knew where the authority lay. When it comes to a stand-off between His kingdom, where everything is perfect and orderly, and the kingdom of darkness, where chaos and ruin are the outcome, God’s kingdom prevails because Satan’s kingdom is all bluff.

In partnership with Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, every child of God carries the same authority to restore order and calm in the chaos we have created by siding with the devil. When we can confidently align ourselves with God and purposefully believe in His plan to restore perfection, He said that nothing is impossible. 10

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – HE TAUGHT WITH AUTHORITY

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HE TAUGHT WITH AUTHORITY

They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Mark 1:21-22

This was the new disciples’ first “fishing” lesson. What did they learn? Jesus was a Jew. He was quite happy to live this God-drenched life within the boundary fence of His Jewishness. He did not do anything to buck the system or to be revolutionary in His attitude to the parameters of the Law. He did what every other devout Jew did – He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath. He used the ordinariness of His situation to present the extra-ordinariness of the Father.

The record in Mark’s Gospel says that the people were astounded at His authority. He spoke to them as though He knew what He was talking about. And why shouldn’t He? He had just spent forty days alone with God in the most austere and dangerous of environments, hemmed in by physical and spiritual enemies, and yet He had experienced God’s presence and love so strongly that it had overwhelmed every scary moment.

He knew who He was; He was soaked in the power of the Holy Spirit and He carried with Him the environment of heaven. So steeped was He in the heavenly dimension in which He lived that He filtered every earthly experience through His awareness of God. He viewed life through God’s eyes and nothing human or natural fazed Him; not sickness, not adversity, not opposition, not misunderstanding, not even demons or death caused Him to wobble in His security in God. He was in charge and everything not of God had to give way in God’s presence.

How does this affect us? If we are not so sure of God’s presence and loving purpose in the face of everything that is a challenge to His perfection and His purpose, we will be affected by the environment of earth, not of heaven. God wants to challenge our faith by putting everything in our path that will try to deflect our awareness of Him to an awareness of the roadblock. Faith becomes purer and stronger every time His presence overcomes earthly encroachments.