John, chapter 9

I hate details and minutiae. There was a time in college when such things cost me an entire letter grade on a math exam. I had answered the question correctly and showed how I had arrived at my answer, but I received no credit on that question because I didn’t use the method they wanted me to use. As a result, I got a B instead of an A, and it knocked down my overall grade for the class as well. I thought this was ridiculous. What did it matter what method I used as long as I arrived at the right answer?

We see a similar situation with today’s lesson. In it, Jesus performs a miracle by healing a man who was born blind. I don’t know about you, but I would be pretty amazed by this. If it happened in front of me, I would definitely be in awe of the person who did it, as well as curious about the man that was healed. Is this the attitude the Pharisees took? Of course not.

¹³They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. ¹⁴Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. ¹⁵Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see."

¹⁶Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."
But others asked, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" So they were divided. – John 9:13-16

How short-sighted can these people be? As we see throughout the chapter, they are more concerned with how he got healed and why he was healed as opposed to the fact that he was healed. As usual, the lesson in this chapter comes from the metaphor of healing. The man that was blind not only sees physically, but he is able to see spiritually that Jesus came to save the world. The Pharisees remained blind to this fact even though they could see physically.

John, chapter 8 part 2

Today we see one of the most confrontational pictures of Jesus found in Scripture. IN today’s passage he is speaking directly to the Pharisees in the Temple and essentially tears down their entire belief structure. He accused them of not being children of Abraham, a man revered in almost God-like status tot hem. He also called them children of the Devil. As usual, Jesus easily deflects their arguments in an attempt to direct them back to the path they had lost.

So why is Jesus so confrontational here? Why did he bicker with the Pharisees, while He simply spoke with the common man. Along that line, many times the common man is what followed Him, while the spiritual leaders (the ones that should have known Him) stayed away. They even ended up being the ones that killed Him. I think he was so confrontational because the Pharisees weren’t going to listen to anything else. When Jesus spoke with the common man, like the woman at the well a few chapters ago, They were often already receptive to what He had to say. The Pharisees feared losing their power. They needed more drastic measures if they were going to listen.

³⁴Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. ³⁸I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence, and you do what you have heard from your father.” – John 8:34-38

This is just before Jesus calls them children of the Devil. He was right, of course. As humans, we are children of the Devil because we are born in bondage to sin. Jesus’ words about sin here are 100% accurate. I have seen the effect sin can have in life and it is not pretty. To this day I still battle my own sin even though I have done my best to stay away from it. As Jesus promised, however, He as the Son sets us free.

Another important point from the rest of this chapter is that Jesus does not accept the recognition and glory for Himself. He always directs it tot eh Father. Yes, Jesus was the Son of God and had extraordinary power. Still, even He recognized that He was nothing without the Father behind Him. All glory was given to the Father, and when we glorify Christ we glorify the Father through Him because of His humble nature.

John, chapter 8 part 1

We are not perfect. There isn’t a single one among us that is without sin. Unfortunately, it is part of human nature that we feel the need to cast judgment on people. Sometimes it is not even a scathing judgment like we see with the adulterous woman at the beginning of John 8. It can be as simple as walking in a crowd with some friends, seeing someone different walking by, and sharing a, “Get a load of THAT guy,” moment with everyone else in your group. It just happens.

We see that judgmental nature in action at the beginning of John 8. An adulterous woman is brought into the courts. Mosaic Law stated that it was perfectly legal, even required, that she be stoned to death. Jesus was there, however, and with just a few words, taught how things were going to be different. Jesus came and overwrote Mosaic Law because in essence, He was the law.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9At 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. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." – John 8:7-11

Remember, we are to hate the sing, but love the sinner. As we learned earlier in this very book, Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to say it. If anyone had the authority to condemn this woman it was Jesus. Instead, He embraced her as someone who was lost and needed a new direction.

The second part of this opening deals with Jesus being questioned on His authority. I’ll allow you to draw your own conclusions, as Jesus said His testimony was not only His own, but His Father’s as well. Because He was sent by the Father, that alone was enough.

John 7

John 7 is another exercise in listening. In this chapter, Jesus visits the feat of the Tabernacles in secret, though He still speaks to the crowd. It is interesting to see this because when Jesus speaks, he almost speaks out of frustration. We always think of Jesus speaking calmly and rationally, but here it is almost like He loses His patience for the crowd He is talking to.

21Jesus said to them, "I did one miracle, and you are all astonished. 22Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. 23Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? 24Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment." – John 7:21-24

Can you see the frustration here? Jesus knew of the hypocrisy that the people were talking about. As I mentioned yesterday, Jesus wanted to grow and think beyond what they were told. This was a radical idea at the time, as regular people being involved with worship and church affairs was unheard of. They were supposed to bray it up with the other sheep and regurgitate what the religious leaders of the day told them.

In this section Jesus is asking for us to think for ourselves. We are only accountable for ourselves, so it is important that we make our own judgments instead of blindly following the teaching others. We are supposed to ask questions and form opinions. If we don’t do so there is no way we can grow into a relationship with Christ.

John, chapter 6 part 2

As a writer, I like using metaphors. When I do an article at my other site, Hammer & Rails, I like to use funny metaphors that end up usually being wild comparisons involving football or basketball. Here, metaphors still play an important role. Jesus often taught using metaphors, but they often don’t have much meaning unless we fully understand them. There is no humor if no one understands my funny metaphor. It is often not the fault of the speaker if his audience does not understand the metaphor, either.

That is what we are dealing with here in the second part of John 6. We see Jesus teaching in the synagogue about how is the bread of life. The focus on the sermon is where he gets his power from, yet those in the audience did not understand what he was talking about. They could not see past their human limitations to the heart of the message. In a way, they took Him literally instead of thinking deeper into the meaning of His words.

³⁵Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ³⁷All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. ³⁸For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. ³⁹And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

⁴¹At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." ⁴²They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?" – John 6:35-42

This is a large passage, but it illustrates my point very well. Jesus is trying to speak of his divine nature here. He talks of where He came from and why He has the power to do what He is doing. His audience, however, doesn’t look deeper. They just see him as a man, and in their human minds they view Him as the son of Joseph, not the Son of God. They may have seen some of his miracles to the point, but they still did not believe. It was extraordinary, and even blasphemous, for someone to claim they were the Son of God. Unlike a regular man, however, Jesus could back it up.

As this chapter says, many disciples ended up leaving Jesus because He asked them to walk a harder road. I don’t see where that road is difficult. He simply asked them to believe in Him so they might find eternal life. What can make it hard, however, is that we have to break from the norms of society in order to follow Him. We have to think for ourselves, look deeper, and seek meaning from the Word of Life. If you listen to the world, the Bible is a dusty book of stories. The world is also a place where it becomes easier every day to not think for yourself.

I am not that type of person. I know there is more to this life. I have seen it because of my relationship with Christ. I see people that walk through life with their eyes closed, happy to not think for themselves and grow and it drives me crazy. This very chapter shows us that Christ wants us to grow with Him. He wants us to constantly, even dangerously, seek out knowledge for ourselves. If we’re not growing we might as well be dead.

John, Chapter 6 part 1

My apologies for the sporadic publishing schedule of late. My work schedule has been incredibly hectic and it doesn't allow me to publish until the evenings, at least for the next few days. As a result, I haven't been able to write what I have wanted to write lately, but I do want to publish when I can. When we left off, we were talking about the book of John. Chapter 6 continues the author's theme of concentrating on Jesus' divine nature by focusing on the miracles He performed. The two that we see in the first part of this chapter are the feeding of the five thousand and Him walking on water.

 ⁵When 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?" ⁶He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

 ⁷Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"

 ⁸Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, ⁹"Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"

 ¹⁰Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. ¹¹Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. – John 6:5-11

Notice the attitude the disciples took here. Philip immediately thought it was impossible to feed this multitude. Andrew saw a possible way, but he was still skeptical. This reflects the usual attitudes of each disciple, but Jesus uses this as an opportunity for teaching. That Andrew had some faith went a long way. He helped pave the way for the solutions by finding the boy with the fishes and loaves. Though he didn't know how Jesus was going to solve the problem, He knew that He could solve it.

I find myself in need of a similar sign at the moment. I have my own overwhelming problems facing me at the moment. I have no idea how they are going to be solved, either. I've been searching for an answer, but I keep finding none in my own capacity. Essentially, I feel like I need to take my own fishes and loaves, that being the gifts God has given me, and give them back in search of a solution.

When it comes to walking on water, we have yet another Jesus triumphing in the face of a lack of faith. Here, the disciples were fearful until Jesus performed a miracle right in front of them. To me, that would be enough to never doubt him again. Unfortunately, we see that the disciples will fail to have faith again many times.

John, chapter 5

Today's lesson focuses on the hypocrisy of mankind. Whenever I read about the Pharisees I can't help but get angry. These were people that were supposedly men of God. They were responsible for leading the faith of Israel, yet they were corrupt and blind. They led thousands, if not millions of people, yet they were such a poor example that they chose to persecute and eventually kill the very Son of God in their midst. They were so focused on their own power and greed that they failed to recognize the very reason they held that power in the first place. A prime example is the story that is the focus of today's lesson.

⁷"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."

⁸Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." ⁹At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat." – John 5: 7-10

Are you serious? I cannot believe the short-sightedness here. Jesus performs a miracle, proving that he has divine power, and they are more concerned that this guy is carrying a mat on the Sabbath. Sure it is fine for them to conspire to kill someone (grossly ignoring that little 'Thou Shalt not kill' rule they believe in), but how dare someone perform work on the Sabbath. They are ignoring one of the Ten Commandments to come down heavily enforcing another. I can't believe the ridculousness in this. Jesus even had a great answer for them.

¹⁹Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. ²⁰For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. ²¹For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. ²²Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. – John 5:19-23

This is how we know the authority that Jesus carried. It came directly from the Father. He wouldn't have been able to do anything that he did without the authority of the Father. This is where the fully god, yet fully man paradox comes in. We know that Christ was not boasting in these statements. He is fulfilling prophesy by simply stating where His power came from. He backs it up too, and there was nothing the Pharisees could do to stop it. As we know, even the grave couldn't contain Him.