TOMS: John 9

For an introduction to this series, click here.

May 7, 2007

This chapter basically has one story: the story of the healing of the man born blind. This story has a lot of layers, and hopefully we can dig into a few of them.

The story begins with a strange question from the disciples as they meet the man born blind: "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (9:2) This question reveals a lot about the Jewish faith and the mindset of the disciples. The disciples, the Jews in general, and lots of people today believe that bad things happen to people because they do bad things.

Jesus' response is a source of great comfort to me: "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him." (9:3) God is in control of even the bad things that happen in our lives. He is at work in ways we cannot understand. I'm sure that this man's parents were devastated when they found out he was blind. They probably questioned or even blamed God. They could have no way of knowing the plan God had for him. They just knew they would have to try to raise a blind son. God doesn't tell us His plans, He just goes ahead and does them and expects us to do our best.

Anyway, Jesus heals the man. Then the fun begins. First of all, the man goes around telling people he can see (remember he does not know anyone by sight) and some people doubt he is telling the truth. They say he looks like the blind man man who begged at the gate of the synagogue, but it couldn't be him. Finally he convinces most everyone around that he has been healed, and they bring him to the Pharisees. Many of the Pharisees said Jesus was not a prophet, because if He were He would not be working on Saturday. Others reasoned He must be from God because He is doing so many good works.

They brought his parents in, who basically said 'Yes he is our son, but you ask him how he got his sight.' John tells us they answered this way because "they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue." (9:22) The Pharisees' prejudices had already precluded them from finding out the truth.

So they ask him more questions. This man, who would have never been allowed in the Temple and who probably had no formal education, shows remarkable depth of insight. "Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." (9:30-33) Of course, the Pharisees' only response to this statement was to kick him out of the synagogue.

This is the danger all of us face the minute we think we have God figured out. When we think we are the authority, that God can only act in ways that make sense to us, we are in trouble. The religious leaders of Jesus' day were confident they had God figured out. Then God Himself came among them and they rejected Him. Similar things happen in our time. People become confident in themselves and how they worship God, and they start to think their way is the only appropriate way to do so. Then when God actually does something they don't understand, they accuse those involved of displeasing God instead of embracing those through whom God is clearly working. I'm not suggesting we ignore centuries of church history and throw out all of our denominational teachings. I'm just suggesting we acknowledge that God can and does work through those who worship God differently than we do.

TOMS: John 8

For an introduction to this series, click here.

May 4, 2007

Sorry it's been so long, and it's going to be longer since I write again, because I'm going to be out of town this weekend.

As I said before, the legitimacy of the first story in this chapter, the woman caught in adultery, is somewhat in doubt. I’m no expert to have a real opinion on whether or not it should be included in the text. For my purpose, I want to treat it as legitimate and offer a different take: what if this woman was a friend of His that He knew was not guilty of what they were accusing her of? Most of us always assume that she really was caught in bed with a man, but what if she wasn't, and the Pharisees were trying to embarrass Jesus? I realize the story assumes that she was, but we are also not told much of anything about her. All we have is the word of the religious leaders. What if they were lying? Such a scenario makes a lot of what Jesus does make more sense.

The rest of the chapter destroys the myth that Jesus never claimed to be God. In this chapter Jesus does in fact claim to be God multiple times. First of all, Jesus says "You neither know me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also." (8:19) In the same context Jesus says: "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins." (8:23-24)

Later, Jesus confronts their sin in wanting to kill him, saying that Abraham would not be wanting to kill Him, so they should not rest in claim to being children of Abraham. Jesus says, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me." (8:42)

It’s honestly hard to tell sometimes if the religious leaders knew who Jesus was and opposed Him because He was upsetting their status quo or if they were really blind to who Jesus was. I kind of think there were probably examples of both. The Sadducees, Pharisees, scribes, etc., were not exactly a monolithic group. They had many ongoing conflicts and disagreements among themselves.

Later, but in the same conversation (it is obvious that this entire chapter is one long conversation between the Jewish leaders and Jesus) Jesus says, "If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." (8:51)

The people asked Him, "Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?" Jesus replied, among other things, "It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, 'He is our God.'" Then He concludes His statement by saying "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." (8:58, ESV)

TOMS: John 7

For an introduction to this series, click here.

April 28, 2007

This chapter begins with a shocking revelation about Jesus' family. It was the time for the Jewish feast of Tabernacles, or Booths. Jesus' brothers (half-brothers, of course) came to Him and said, "Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world." Then John adds, "For not even his brothers believed in him." (7:3-5) Jesus' brothers were mocking His teaching and His success. If this means anything, it means that Jesus as a young man did not flaunt His gifts. If as adults (I assume that if Jesus was 30 or 31 here, that His brothers would have mostly been in their 20s) they did not believe, then they would not have seen Jesus performing miracles as a child, as some of the apocryphal gospels record. It is instructive that most of Jesus' siblings did come to salvation after His death and resurrection.

Anyway, Jesus did not humor them, but He did go to Jerusalem later. Jesus was apparently the main topic of conversation in town. When He didn't show when they expected, they wondered where He was. The Jewish leaders were intent on arresting Him, so that is probably the main reason He did not come at first. When He does finally come, He doesn't hold back: "Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?" (7:19)

The verses that follow reveal the confusion that surrounded Jesus, and the confusion of the people about the nature of the Messiah. Some of the people said, "When the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from." (7:27) These people concluded that since they knew Jesus was from Nazareth, then that meant he was not the Christ. Others said the exact opposite: “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” (7:41-42)

Why was there so much confusion? Mainly because the Judaism that was practiced in the first century was not the religion God gave Moses centuries earlier. In its place the Pharisees, Sadducees and others had created a religion based on superstition and twisted applications of Moses' Law. Time and time again in the Gospels Jesus points His opponents to the Law of Moses and demonstrates how far their false religion had strayed from God's plan for Israel.

In the midst of all this confusion, the Pharisees sent soldiers to arrest Jesus. They were going to bring Jesus in front of the Sanhedrin and prove to the people that Jesus was a fraud. The soldiers came back empty handed, saying, "No one ever spoke like this man!" (7:46)

Then John records a very interesting statement by a familiar character: Nicodemus: "Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 'Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?'" (7:51, ESV) This is valuable for a number of reasons. First, it tells us that Nicodemus was probably a believer. Secondly, it humanizes the Sanhedrin somewhat. The council always appears in the Gospels and Acts, with a few exceptions like we see here, as a monolithic entity only interested in preserving their traditions.

TOMS: John 6, Part 2

For an introduction to this series, click here.

April 25, 2007

As we left off yesterday, Jesus was correcting the Jews' superstitious belief that Moses had provided the manna in the desert. Jesus then goes farther and says there is something more precious than physical food. That of course, is Jesus himself.

The Jews are mystified that Jesus would call Himself the bread that came down from heaven. They misjudge Him, saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?"(6:42) They could see nothing beyond the physical fact of the man standing in front of them.

Jesus responds: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, 'And they will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me." (6:44-45) This is one of the clearest statements of the doctrine of election in the Bible. Notice the phrase "I will raise him up on the last day." Who is the him? If you examine the passage, you will learn that the ones who are raised are those whom the Father draws. All that the Father draws will be in heaven. No more, no less. That's a mystery we cannot understand. We can debate the particulars, but the fact that God is the first actor in salvation is clear in Scripture.

The people, who have lived their whole lives in a culture of very strict dietary laws, still cannot get past Jesus' statement that He is the bread that came down from heaven. They say, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

Jesus does not allay their fears. In fact He compounds them: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." (6:53-58) Naturally, the people are stunned: "This  is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" (6:60, ESV)

Now some take this verse out of context and say that Jesus is referring to the elements of communion. They teach that the bread and wine become the actual body and blood of Christ or that Christ is spiritually present in the elements. Nowhere in this passage does Jesus mention communion, and this event took place at least a year before the Last Supper, when Jesus instituted that ordinance. Jesus is talking in this whole context about believing in Him, and that is all this passage means. Jesus corrected their assumption about Moses, but He also builds off their error to draw a parallel to prove that He is better than Moses. Moses fed the people with manna: physical food. They are all dead. Jesus provides Himself: spiritual food. Those who take in Him will live forever. That's the simple message of Jesus here in this passage.

TOMS: John 6, Part 1

For an introduction to this series, click here.

April 24, 2007

This is a terribly rich chapter of the Bible. It starts off with the feeding of the 5,000, which I shall skip because it has been commented on before, except for some comments added by John at the end of the story: "When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, 'This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!' Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. (6:14-15) This seems more like a comment from Mark, but here we find it in John, and none of the other three Gospels mentions it. Of course John is setting up the discourse he is about to record, but it also gives proof of Jesus' deity. He is omniscient, and He knew what the people were wanting to do.

Next we have the story of Jesus walking on the water and calming the storm, although John curiously does not mention that Jesus actually calmed the storm, nor does he mention that Peter walked on the water toward Jesus.

John records a very funny observation next. The people saw the disciples get into the boat, but they knew Jesus did not get into the boat, the only boat at the dock that night. So they went looking for Jesus around the area where they had seen Him last night, but they didn't find Him. They went across the Sea, and found Jesus at Capernaum with the disciples. The community around the Sea of Galilee must have been a lot like the town I grew up in: Piedmont, Mo. In Piedmont everybody knows everybody else's vehicles. People wave to each other as they meet on the roads. You can drive by the grocery store and know at least half the cars in the parking lot. If you've never experienced small-town life, you probably won't understand that. But these people must have been like that. They saw Jesus staying while the disciples got in the boat, so they figured Jesus would still be there or somewhere close. There are numerous accounts in the Gospels of people seeing Jesus coming into town or seeing Him pass by from one place to another. People knew His boat, much like people know others' cars today.

Back to the story. The people who followed Jesus around to the other side were not interested in hearing or knowing Jesus. Most of them were there for the free food. If people figure they can get something for free, they will always line up at the trough to get more. Jesus confronts their hypocrisy: "'Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.' Then they said to him, 'What must we do, to be doing the works of God?' Jesus answered them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.' So they said to him, 'Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, "He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" (6:26-31) 

The people thought they could have it made if they kept following Jesus. After all, they thought, Moses gave the people food from heaven for 40 years. Jesus provided us one meal yesterday. If this man says he is better than Moses, then he ought to give us food for longer.

Jesus then said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.'" (6:26-33, ESV)

The people's lack of faith is demonstrated by their misquoting of scripture. The ESV marginal note refers the reader back to Nehemiah 9:15, while another source I have here says the people were quoting Psalm 78:24. The passage from Nehemiah is closer, and is a public prayer which acknowledged God's power in providing the manna, and Psalm 78 also attributes the manna to God, not Moses. Whichever one they were thinking of, the people misquoted the scripture, twisting it to say that Moses gave the manna. Jesus quickly corrects them, and tells them there is something more miraculous than providing food for a day. What could that be? Come back here tomorrow, hopefully, if my meeting doesn't go too long.