Trapping Jesus ...

If you accept that there is a lesser of two evils; you have already lost the war.  Throughout our lives, we are from time-to-time presented with a choice, where both outcomes are bad.  We are asked to pick the one that is the least bad, and then expected to make that choice.  To refuse to choose is often an outcome by itself that may be worse than actually doing anything.  It is called a no-win situation.  And so often it is presented, with us falling into the trap of trying to decide how to do the least damage with what we pick.  This trap is not new.  But it represents a lie told by Satan whose premise is quite insidious.  He tells us through these situations, that “you” must control your fate by making a choice where all the options are bad.  The reality is, that while every option “we” could pick is bad, “we” still have another choice … take it to God in prayer, sit back, and watch the power of God at work.  For while humans truly are limited in their choices, God is not, and what God can do can truly amaze.

None-the-less the Pharisees had been very angered by the 3 stories Jesus had told regarding the state of church leadership, and how they might still be redeemed.  The Pharisees believed they were already good enough and had no need of redemption, especially by this upstart with no formal acknowledgement by the system of religion they managed.  This message of light from the outside was not welcome in their tightly concocted inner sanctum.  So they responded by creating three traps of their own, one by each of the main groups or sects of their religion.  This would insure fairness among them, as well as diversity of thought, so that even if one line of thinking failed there would still be another to attempt to catch Jesus up in what He said.  But underlying all their attempts would be the common premise of presenting two choices where no matter what He picked, He could be embarrassed in front of the people.  Their problem was they reasoned as men, and forgot, or refused to admit, Jesus reasoned like our God does.

The first trap would come from the Pharisees who considered themselves preeminent among their peers.  These masters of the Tora would seek to catch Jesus up in a popularity dilemma.  The topic was taxes, just bringing up the very word “tax” to an Israelite at that time, was to kindle anger of the deepest variety.  They may have picked this particular topic, because Matthew, the author of this very gospel to his Hebrew contemporaries, was a former agent of Rome collecting taxes from his brethren.  Tax collectors had earned a reputation lower than harlots or sodomites in this day and age.  They were in effect traitors to their people, doing Rome’s work, and then profiting off of it besides.  If Caesar demanded a single penny from a farmer, the tax collector may very well take two, and keep one himself.  This made the process even more onerous, and the tax collector more hated, perhaps rightly so.  So the Pharisees figured there would be no way to discuss taxes with an honest Jesus and not embarrass Him immensely.

Matthew begins in chapter twenty-two picking up in verse 15 saying … “Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. [verse 16] And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. [verse 17] Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?”  Nothing was left to chance in setting this trap.  The Pharisees sent Herodians with their disciples to act as witnesses for the state, in the event that an otherwise honest Jesus decides to get hinky with an unpopular topic like this one.  The Pharisees feared Jesus may just bow to the will of the people on this, so they actually sent government spies to watch in case He did.  They also used a proxy, that is, they sent their disciples to execute the trap so no one could ever directly accuse them of any impropriety in trying to spring a trap like this one.  Perhaps they used disciples Jesus had never met, so He would not see any connection back to themselves.

Then to disguise the trap, the disciples use the highest form of false flattery upon Jesus, first calling Him Master.  Then proceeding to compliment Jesus again on how He ALWAYS teaches the truth.  If they really believed this, they would not be there trying to spring a trap on Him.  They would have joined His ranks and become true disciples of the Most High God.  But they did not believe this, so their words were lies as they crossed the lips of those who did not mean a word of it.  I wonder, do we do the same?  Do we compliment our God in our prayers, bragging about how good He is, and how He is good all the time; yet the minute adversity blows our way, we crumble and blame God for it.  Then our true beliefs emerge as we blame God for every horror that happens on earth, casting Him as an angry God, who is looking to punish us for our deeds, instead of redeem our hearts from them. 

Or worse, we cast Him as a God who just does not care enough to save us from the horror that has come our way.  Never once acknowledging what we do, or sin, or a devil bent on our misfortune as the cause of what we stumble into.  Cancer was not put here by God, it exists because evil exists.  No disease was ever intended to exist.  It is the very presence of evil in our world that permits diseases to become part of our knowledge of good and of evil.  We were intended to be ignorant of them.  But instead we chose to become familiar with them.  This is the knowledge our God thought it best we never understood let alone encountered.  Breaking trust with God resulted in all of this.  But this was not God’s idea, and His number one job is to redeem us from evil, and extinguish the effects of evil on a permanent basis.  Not as a punishment for those who embrace it, but as salvation for those who want no more to ever be a part of it.

Beyond the lies they believe about what Jesus’ preaching includes, the disciples also compliment Jesus on being no respecter of persons – essentially that Jesus would talk to Caesar the same way He talks to a beggar in the street.  This further false flattery is not something they believe, but they are taunting Him into staying true to this course in order for Him to answer the trap badly.  And so after meticulously laying the trap, they spring it – asking Jesus if it is lawful to pay taxes.  Notice they do not make reference to which law.  They could have been talking about the law of Moses, or of Herod, or of Rome, or of God.  They leave this reference unclear so they can combat Him no matter how He answers.  This was the best minds in the country, coming up with the best test, they could imagine.  All to trap Jesus in front of the people.

Matthew continues the story in verse 18 saying … “But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?”  Yikes!  It is as if a bright light is turned on in a dirty kitchen late at night, and the cockroaches who were all to happy to feast in the darkness are now revealed by the brilliant light, their antennae darting back and forth as they scream to each other “we must hide, we must hide”.  They run for the corners looking to be rehidden by the darkness, but it will not come.  Jesus perceived their wickedness.  He knows in an instant who did this, who was responsible for this, and what they are trying to do.  He calls out their hypocrisy as He knows they do not believe a word they say to Him, about Him at least.  He knows it is false flattery.  And then in bone chilling words He once used with Satan himself, He asks these wicked men, why they are tempting Him.

And do our prayers that say one thing, and our lives that witness another, earn us a similar response?  When we treat sin like gold, and freedom from sin, like a pain we want to avoid – do we not behave the same way as our Pharisee forefathers?  We have countless requests of our God, for the millions of things we think we need.  But only routine prayers to say thank you for food, and even less so when our other requests are granted.  Our prayer life resembles a child on Santa’s lap at the mall.  Our hearts are revealed to the same God who walked among us, as He walked among these Pharisees.  They did not believe they needed to change; how many of us believe exactly the same thing.  We count ourselves “good” enough already, just like they did.

Jesus responds picking up in verse 19 saying … “Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. [verse 20] And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? [verse 21] They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.”  Hold the phone!!  There is not supposed to be any “good” option in this response.  There is not supposed to be a “good” answer.  This was a trap of bad vs worse, no good option allowed or anticipated.  And this is why you lose.  You, me, the Pharisees back then, all keep looking at situations with human eyes, limited by human thinking, and ideas about what is possible and not possible.  Instead, we could be turning over our “impossible” situations and decisions to God and watch what He can do, instead of trying to dictate to Him what we want Him to do.  Our prayers “telling” God what to do, are as worthless as our trying to take things into our own hands in the first place.  We are in effect, trying to lead God.  When we should be surrendering to God and following whatever He decides – expecting what He does, to not look like anything we would have thought of, and to be a million times better than anything we could have imagined.

The conclusion of this story occurs in verse 22 saying … “When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.”  This response is so strikingly sad.  They heard Him.  They were blown away that He had figured a way out of their trap.  And then they left Him and went their way.  Notice nowhere in that response was any sort of change on their part.  They did not become disciples after that.  They did not repent of their intentions.  They scurried back like the cockroach, to plan another attack in the darkness, for darkness is what they craved.  Make no mistake, when you walk away from the light, you are headed for no other destination than the darkness. 

People who treat Jesus as some kind of option, or some kind of alternative – believing that spirituality is all that counts, and doing good all that matters – walk away from His light, into the darkness of deceit.  Jesus offers you a real change in who you are, how you think, and how you love.  You cannot fix that.  You, on your own, may not even believe that needs fixing.  But it does.  It is the self-love that cripples you, and damages others.  And because self is at the center of it, you are powerless to fix it.  But Jesus is a master at re-creating you from who you are now, into what He knows you are capable of being.  He is not looking to leave you in your misery, making excuses for your pain.  He is looking to lift you out of your misery, freeing you from your pain forever.  That is the kind of change we can all embrace.  The free kind.  The kind that comes from submission, instead of control.  Walk away from your own ideas about bad and good, possible and impossible, and turn it over to Jesus, who can do things, and show you things, and make you into something you could never have imagined.  And the word regret will have meaning to you no more.

But the traps for Jesus were not to be ended just yet …

 

Awesome Symbolism (witness number nineteen) ...

There was an important reason why Jesus referred to Himself as “the Light of the world”.  For without Him, we are all blind.  For those who seek truth in Christ, the miracle of the healing of the man who was born blind can find equal relevance in our own spiritual experiences.  Those of us who believe we do not need to be led to truth, that we already have a good enough grasp on the scriptures, and a superior interpretation of them, find ourselves much like the Pharisees who preceded us.  At the end of John’s gospel account chapter nine beginning in verse 39 we find Christ speaking to those who were a witness to the faith of the recently healed blind man in the divinity of Christ.  Jesus says to those there … “And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.”  Those of us who “think” we see fine, are to discover we are truly blind.  Those of us who realize we cannot see anything until Jesus shows it to us, are to discover we will finally be made to see.  We are made blind by our arrogance and pride, even if that is founded in our ideas about scripture.  We are made to see, when we are willing to forsake our own wisdom and begin to trust in His.

This was the contrast of the formerly blind man standing before Jesus, and the Pharisees who refused to see the Light of Christ.  They respond in verse 40 … “And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?”  This was a rhetorical question in their minds, for from their perspective, no one had a better grasp on scripture or the law than themselves.  They did not anticipate His answer in verse 41 … “Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.”  It was NOT the lack of knowledge that caused the Pharisees to remain in their sin.  It was their arrogance in assuming they needed no help with their sin from Christ.  In effect, the Pharisees were comfortable with the idea, that the forms and traditions of their worship were enough to save them.  They could basically save themselves.  They needed no help from a Messiah.  The help they were looking for was not of a spiritual variety, it was of a political one.  They yearned for a strong leader who would blaze the trail of freedom from their heathen Roman oppressors.  They did not think of themselves as blind to truth or salvation, instead they thought they knew everything they needed to know about those topics.  Christ could keep his spiritual ideas about reliance solely on Him to Himself.  Now if He had had something to say on ousting the Romans, they would have been all ears.  But our ideas of God, and what we want from Him, are often not what His ideas are, or what He wants for us.  So to clarify the mission of the Messiah, and dispense with the false leaders who had come before and would come again, Christ decides to tell them in story, why He is there.

Jesus begins his sermon in verse 1 of chapter ten of John’s account … Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. [verse 2] But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.”  Soon Jesus would identify Himself as the door.  In these passages Jesus declares, that there is only one way in and out of the sheepfold.  It is THROUGH Christ.  Attempting to gain passage by another route, say, by the strength of our own ideas, or by assuming our own “spirituality” or “goodness” warrants a position in the flock absent Christ for example:  these methods reveal only our own motives.  They do not entitle us to be in the flock, they actually make us dangerous to others who are there.  Those who enter by the strength of Christ are those who “should” be in the number.

Jesus continues in verse 3 … “To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. [verse 4] And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. [verse 5] And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.”  Jesus tries to show the difference between Himself and those others who might “claim” to be the Messiah.  Those who seek truth, find it in Jesus.  They realize the only way their tattered lives can ever be remade is through the power of Christ.  As such, they only want Jesus to be their shepherd, because they have found relief in no other way, including in trusting their own abilities.  Thus they crave the voice of Jesus to lead them.  When others come and try to get these sheep to follow, the sheep realize there is no truth in those voices, there is no redemption in them, and they wish only to follow Christ.  Here Christ is trying hard to reveal to those there that He is THE method of their salvation.

And why choose sheep to represent us?  A sheep is not a fierce some creature.  They are not particularly bright.  They make mistakes, get lost, and would starve if not taken care of.  They are easy prey for wolves.  From the perspective of the wolf, it is easy to count sheep.  To those Christians who believe it is their right, and their duty, to defend themselves against the enemy, even if those means include weapons and deadly force; I ask, are you the sheep, or the wolf?   We were not meant to combat Satan.  We are outmatched.  It is no contest.  It is ONLY our Shepherd who can defeat our enemy.  It is our trust in Him that sees us delivered.  It is not our making or gathering of new sheep weapons that will save the day for us.  Wolves will always defeat sheep if there is no shepherd around to save them.  This is how evil works, in nature, and in us spiritually.  Our enemy is superior to us, yet tells us, if we just work hard enough, we can defeat him.  He tries to get the sheep to think they are strong enough, tough enough, and determined enough to defeat the wolf by their sheer power of will.  In this is the perversion of the gospel – that we only need Christ to forgive us when we err, not save us from the erring.  Satan’s entire system of deception is to get us to take our eyes and focus away from Jesus and put it on ourselves.  This is how the Pharisees were blinded to Christ.  They chose to trust in their own understanding and not be humbled before God.

John notes in verse 6, that the audience there did not understand what Christ was saying.  I would venture because our first response to being referred to as sheep is not a pleasant one.  If we are going to be associated with animals we prefer a much more majestic or fierce creature.  But sheep?  Ouch.  So Jesus must try to explain again, He continues in verse 7 … “Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. [verse 8] All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. [verse 9] I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”  It is only by Christ that we are provided for, both physically and spiritually.  We are fed, both our daily bread, and our daily spiritual growth, by following only Christ.  It is only THROUGH Christ that we can enter safely, and remain safely in the flock without being a danger to the others there.

Imagine for a minute what heaven would be like to a rapist who had never been reformed.  All around him are the most beautiful women, perfect in every way.  All of them are loving, caring, attentive, and eager to serve.  None of them pose a threat, none are violent, none have weapons of self-defense or need of them.  How hard it would be for the wolf to roam the streets of heaven being tempted to defile every single woman he comes across.  Wondering if he could do these acts of violence in secret, or in darkness, and remain undiscovered; fearing that God might see him and cast him out.  Heaven would not be heaven for such a man; it would literally be a place of torture.  Forbidden fruit all around him, intense desire to dominate, but no ability to execute and remain undiscovered for it; this is the situation non-Christ centered religions and ideologies would have you accept.  Those who do not accept that it is Christ who remakes the rapist into a new creature who no longer wishes to ever hurt another again, and wishes now only to serve and love all; offer no way to achieve this transformation other than the power of their corrupted minds and will.  Muslins believe that God forgives.  But they offer no method of transformation outside of the will of man.  Eastern religions teach that enlightenment is achieved through introspection, not through submission to Christ.  Atheism would have us believe that our instinctive desire to preserve our social order could one day result in a lessening of violence despite all the facts that point to the contrary.  And even some Christians, cling to the ideas that they need not submit to Christ to be remade, they can do it for themselves.  But for the rapist who knows he cannot change himself, there is only one who can.  The point of the story of Christ, is the recognition of this need.

Then Jesus says something truly stunning as in verse 10 He continues … “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”  The unreformed lead a tortured existence of pain and death.  They cannot help but to wish to please self.  If this means they must steal to do it, then so be it.  How often have you taken something, perhaps even something very small, that did not belong to you?  How many rationalizations do you make to “justify” your appropriation?  We remove a pen from the bank and say to ourselves, they are rich and can easily replace a pen.  Or if it is from an employer, we just say to ourselves that this is simply part of our compensation for working so hard.  After all, the bank and our employers wish us to write things down that they will use for their benefit. 

Or perhaps it is simply how we fill out our timesheets, adding a few minutes here and there, or rounding things up just a bit to make a little extra – rationalizing that we work harder than those around us in the same amount of time and therefore “deserve” a bit more than they do.  We get to a point, where we stop thinking about what we take, as being a theft at all.  It is simply normal behavior for us, the right and wrong of it, have long been decided in our favor.  If evil only stopped at thievery perhaps it would not be so bad.  But evil does not stop at this kind of rationalization.  It is degenerative.  What I steal today, I must protect tomorrow.  If that requires killing, so be it.  If I cannot have it, then nobody can, if I must destroy a good thing to keep others from enjoying it, then so be it.  And thus evil reveals itself as nothing but pain and death, a tortured existence that is not truly worth living, and would not be wanted if sentenced to be lived out in immortality in this condition.

But contrast the nature of evil, with the desires and mission of Christ where He says … “I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.”  He is here to make HOW we live, something more than it is today.  A life in Christ is a life worth living.  It is a life that does not cause pain to others or to me.  It is a life that lived out in immortality would be worth living.  And this is NOT just a future promise.  It is an IMMEDIATE one.  Our lives can be made different today as we submit them to Jesus to be remade.  The whole goal of God was eliminate the pain and death that comes from evil from within us.  The pain we cause when we learn to steal and not even regard it as stealing, is something we do not need to suffer from for yet another day.  It is something we can bring to Jesus and leave in His hands to be reformed.  We do not need to struggle every day pitting our knowledge of good and evil against our inherent nature and desire to choose evil.  We need only submit to Christ, our desires, our will, and our decisions, and allow Him to change HOW we think, WHAT we want, and then what we do will follow.  This is the Life that Christ longs to introduce to us.  He longs to offer us a different life.  Here and now, not just in a place we call heaven; this offer was meant to be taken up on today.  We can be something more.  We can be someone different than who we were.  We can be new creatures, if we but let Christ re-create us as He wishes.  What a precious promise and reason for His visit to our world.  He comes to offer us Life, a real life, not this thing we have grown accustomed to, but something entirely different, new and wonderful.  This is the entire mission of the Messiah.

Jesus continues in verse 11 … “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”  He is trying to warn those who hear Him there, that there will be a personal cost to Him, to achieve our redemption.  He must die, taking our place, in order that the punishment of death we have embraced is met on our behalf.  He does this willingly.  This is how far Love will go, to save the object of its affection.  This is the contrast between God and what it means to love others more than self; and Satan who demonstrates where loving self first will lead.  God, who is love, and has done nothing but love us, will now go so far as to take on the punishment we deserve, so that we will not suffer it.  Forgiveness itself is an act of love in the face of evil.  We do not deserve forgiveness we deserve punishment and retribution for the pain we cause to others and ourselves, but forgiveness offers us no punishment, it is love in the face of our evil.  This is the contrast between the nature of Love and the nature of evil.  Evil would demand evil for actions it does not enjoy.  Love offers love even to those who have never earned it and will never deserve it.

As for these other pretender Messiah’s who may come answering the desire of the people to be redeemed of Rome, but offering no way of real redemption Jesus continues in verse 12 … “But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. [verse 13] The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.”  The Messiah the Pharisees were looking for could never be the true one sent from God.  For at the end of the day, those who seek self first, seek to preserve self at all costs.  Political leaders have no problem having others die for their cause.  They have no problem keeping themselves alive, even if others must die for them to do so.  The contrast of those who seek only power, and He who seeks only to offer us life are so outlined.  He would lay down His life for us.  Those other pretenders would be only all too happy to avoid even the risk of losing their own lives, and if we lose ours, so be it.

Jesus repeats his mission in verse 14 … “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. [verse 15] As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.”  He again states that despite what reputation the devil would have us believe about God the Father, it is God the Father who works in concert with Christ for our redemption and restoration.  This is a mission of ALL of the Godhead.  Our Father God is every bit as interested in our redemption as is our Creator God His Son Jesus Christ.  It is not the revelation of Jesus that all of the sudden changes the mind of God His Father about our redemption.  It is the revelation of Jesus that shows us that our redemption was ALWAYS the first concern of His Father God and Himself.  Every story in scripture, even every story in the Old Testament that we may not fully understand, was designed to show us the redemptive desire of our God, not the image of a righteous punisher in chief.  Here is Christ on earth, stating personally what He knows to be true, because He has heard it first hand from the mouth of His Father, in conversation between them we would never know.  This is Jesus definitively stating that His Father is consumed with our redemption and restoration.  They work as one in this.

Then in verse 16 come perhaps the most beautiful words in the New Testament for me personally, as I am not of Jewish decent, or was present at the time of this sermon.  Jesus continues … “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”  Praise God, the mission of the Messiah was not just confined to the people He stood before on that day.  The mission was greater than for just those of Jewish decent, and was greater than for just those who share my particular doctrinal interpretations and values.  His mission was to redeem and restore the world.  Jesus Christ would be the uniting method of ALL of our salvation.  There is nothing to separate us from our home with Christ, except our stubborn determination to reject the re-creation and new life He offers us.  “One fold” not many.  “One home” with Christ, not several.  We are One family united in Christ, for only through Christ might we become the new creations He intends.  It is not our interpretation of scripture that unites us, but instead the method of our salvation.  “One Shepherd” not many.  “One Shepherd” not his surrogates.  We are not to follow other followers of Christ, but to follow only the One Shepherd Himself.  We do not find truth in each other; we find it alone in Jesus.  We can reflect the love of Christ to each other as we allow Him to teach us how to love.  But this does not mean that the source of truth moves from Christ to His followers who have learned how to love.  The source remains the source, it will always be Jesus.

It is fine to notice and admire the sacrifice that some of the great followers of Jesus have made to attempt to promote His love and His faith.  But these patriarchs from Adam, to Noah, to Moses, to David, to Peter, to Martin Luther, to Billy Graham, to your local pastor or spiritual teacher – all may have made contributions to the kingdom, but none are to be your shepherd.  For there can be only one true Shepherd as there is only One fold or home of His children.  We are ALL to find our salvation, our redemption, our re-creation, only in the person of Jesus Christ.  It is our distinct privilege that John recorded these words, that the Lord preserved them, that we have a Bible in which we can find them, and take them into our hearts.  For it is “we” who are those sheep of another fold; it is “we” who are to be included in His great number.  No matter where we were born, or when, or how we have been taught, salvation and life itself are ours for the taking through the gift of Jesus Christ.  It is not even our pain and past that keeps Jesus away from us, He longs only to take away our pain, and give us a real life in its place.  This text is a singular promise upon which we can have hope.  For out of the mouth of God, came the words directed at you, that you too, are to be saved under Christ.

Then Jesus states to the crowd the difference between Himself, the true Messiah, and those who would claim that title as well in verse 17 … “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. [verse 18] No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”  Only Christ could both lay down His own life, and take it up again.  Think of it, He was going to die, but here He states none of us could actually kill Him.  He must lay down His own life.  He must give it up Himself, a free will offering, a free will gesture, in order for us to be redeemed.  Only God the Father could give Jesus the power to both lay down His life, and having done so, to take it up again.  Others could come claiming to be the Messiah, some might even be willing to die for their cause.  But none of the pretenders could ever call themselves out of their own graves back to life again.  Only the Son of God could do this, because only He had received this commandment or ability from His Father; again showing the unity of Father and Son in our work of redemption.

The response of the Pharisees in attendance was only a continued blindness.  They knew the reality of our mortality.  They knew that no-one had ever come back from the dead to life again.  So for Jesus to claim that this was something He alone could do, was just crazy talk to them.  In verse 19 they responded … “There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. [verse 20] And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him? [verse 21] Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?”  The problem the Pharisees faced were not as much the words of Christ, as the deeds of Christ.  Jesus had made the blind man to see again, an act of love the devil had never performed.  This miracle stood in the face of their ideas.  It substantiated a connection between Christ and God.  At the very least, it made Christ a prophet in the traditional sense.  But any connection to God, removed the power of the Pharisees over their religious flock, and they meant to hold the role of shepherd for themselves.  Do we offer the same response?

When Christ speaks to us that we cannot save ourselves; that we must submit our will to Him, not just to fight harder not to sin on our own – do we call it crazy talk?  After all, my nature is to express my sin, in whatever form it takes.  The only reason why I do not sin more often than I do today, is because of the small measure of self-control I exert over it right?  You are asking me to give up fighting.  If I do that, I will go hog-wild on the sin thing without any restraint.  Because, really, what is going to stop me, if I give up trying to stop myself?  But Jesus asks us to trust Him, in spite of what we know about ourselves.  He is not offering us an excuse to sin more; He is offering us a way to sin NO more.  Submitting our desires to Him, allows Him to remake the things we want.  When we want something else, we pursue that thing, not the old thing we used to want, and perhaps find we no longer want.  When we submit our decisions to Him, we give Him the freedom to make other choices on our behalf.  Doors open and close and we simply walk through them, instead of trying to pry ones open that should be closed, or slam the ones that we were supposed to be entering in.  When we submit our will to Christ, we acknowledge that He alone can remake the “who” of who we are into what He intends instead of what we have done with it.  We begin to think differently.  We begin to see truth.  We begin to understand.  And most importantly, we find we are no longer sinning that old sin, and cannot explain why, because we did nothing to see it removed – Christ did.   Is this just crazy talk, or does it work?  Christ says it does, how will you respond?

 

The Way to a Man's Heart is Through? ... (witness number ten)

Folklore would say his stomach.  But would God agree?  John’s Gospel continues in chapter six as Christ moves away from the confrontation with the “religious” leaders, over a healing performed on Sabbath and He crosses the Sea of Galilee.  By this time, as later scriptures will reveal, His fame was well known, and his disciples numbered well over the original 12.  Many had come to follow Christ, none were ever sent away.  It is interesting to note, that Jesus did not cap the number of His followers to 12, it was only those first few who were “invited”, perhaps because also as later scriptures will reveal, they were the only ones who did not decide to change their minds and leave Him.  The same object lesson may apply to us today.  Many claim to follow Jesus Christ.  But when following leads to surrender of our own ideas, our own long cherished desires, our own decisions about our lives; we too, often decide it is not worth it, and leave Him.  How sad.

At this point, those with diseases sought out Christ, and He healed all those He encountered.  A great crowd met Him in Galilee and desired to be near Him, listen, and see what might happen next.  Jesus finds Himself on a mountain, with a great multitude, near the time of the Passover feast.  Time to eat.  But the logistics of pulling off an unplanned picnic were still to be figured out.  In an effort to build the faith of His follow, Jesus (in verse 5) asks Phillip the obvious question … “Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?”  Verse 6 reveals Jesus already knew what He was going to do, but He was about to make a point about how each of us, and all of us, are taken care of by God.  Now, remember for a moment the time in which Jesus lived.  There was no Safeway, or Publix, or Walmart, you could conceivably run down to and pick up enough bread to feed what would soon be numbered as 5,000 men.  And this was not an event where only men attended.  Rest assured they were accompanied by their wives, sisters, children, and old folks.  This was a gathering of epic proportions.  It was spontaneous and unplanned.  It was nearly the size of a small army.

No bakery of the day would have been prepared to sell enough food to feed this many people.  If the families did not bring their own food with them, they would likely not be eating that day.  Even if you went to every baker in the region (which may well be time prohibitive), you would still come up well short of having enough stock on hand to handle this many people in this small an area.   Next, would be the problem of funding.  Christ owned nothing.  His disciples did not have revenue generating occupations.  They followed Jesus around from place to place, relying on the charity of others anywhere they ventured.  The money they collected in donations Judas held … “for the poor”.  So even if Walmart had been open to them with enough bread on hand, they would not have had the funds to make the purchase.  Phillip realizes these truths, but decides to take inventory of what they have on hand, and “explain” the situation to Christ.

How often do we answer the questions of Christ, that were meant to grow our faith, based on the “facts” we know to be true?  There is no store.  There is no money.  There is only little bread.  What are you talking about Lord?  Or in our day … we have no funds for this mission in our community, we have no space zoned properly to open it, we have no staff to man it with volunteer labor … what are you talking about Lord?  The facts do not suit your question.  The budget does not allow for your crazy ideas about spending.  We simply “cannot” accommodate your request Lord, as the “facts” on the ground make it “impossible”.  This was Phillip’s assessment as in verse 7 he offers … “Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.”  This is all we have Lord, and it is obviously not enough.  We simply cannot accommodate your request.  How many church board meetings have resulted in the same conclusion?  How many times have Christians looked at what is “possible” and made their decisions based on the facts, rather than on the faith that lies behind the question?

Andrew, Peter’s brother, gets the spark of an idea.  One of Christ’s disciples is a child, apparently a smart child, as he came prepared to this unplanned picnic with a lunch his mom had made him for the event.  Here is a mother’s love reflected in the life of her child.  It was no gourmet feast, it was a humble meal, made in love for a small child.  But the child, in the true Spirit of love, is more than willing to offer up his entire meal to Jesus to use as He sees fit.  Leave it to a child, to set the example of what we ALL should be willing to give to Christ, literally everything.  The child does not first remove what he needs for himself, and then offer what is left to Jesus.  He does not eat first, and offer the scraps to God.  He decides he is simply not hungry, if Jesus has need of his food.  So he tells Andrew, he wants to offer up his lunch to Jesus.  After all mom will gladly make him another one tomorrow, worst case.  So Andrew takes it to Christ … but then almost immediately realizes that while this child is giving everything he owns up to Jesus, it is still a small thing against so much need.  In verse 9 he explains … “There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?”

What Phillip did not consider, was that the person asking the question ALREADY knew the answer.  What Andrew did not consider, was that even though this offering of a child was small against so great a need, all Christ ever asks of us is what we are WILLING to offer Him, and when we do offer Him something, He takes it and uses it completely.  The blessing the child understood that day, was that when you hold nothing back from Christ, it is YOU who is blessed beyond on all measure.  While we do not know that child’s name today, we all know his offering.  For it is based on his gift, that the ensuing miracle would occur.  At this point Jesus asks the disciples to have all the men sit down (with their families), the men numbering about 5000.  It happened there was a lot of grass in that place, so everyone complied.  I wonder had it been barren if they would have still agreed?  But in any case, they did.

And then Jesus offers us yet another example, of the point of this story.  It is God who provides for our needs.  Even when we have yet to realize our needs have been met.  Before He distributes the food to His disciples in verse 10 … “And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks …”  He gives thanks.  Thanks to who?  Thanks to the little child who “owned” the bread and fishes?  Thanks to the loving mother who had prepared that lunch for her child that day?  Thanks for the boy’s father for “earning” the money that would pay for the food, that mom would pack for her generous child?  No.  Though all those acts of love culminated in an offering to God, Jesus pauses to give thanks to the real source of ALL our food, and the one who meets ALL our needs, His Father God.  It is not merely for the food that will be consumed, but for the miracle that will mark this day in His ministry for a great many to remember.  Long after He is crucified and rejected by those who today will join Him in feasting, His miracle will be a seed that will result in a harvest of souls.  When His true mission is finally understood and accepted, those who eat this day, will remember this act.  It is for this miracle that results in a harvest of souls that Jesus is most thankful for.  For His primary happiness is found in the redemption of those who are lost.  This is a joy He shares with His Father.

And so, He begins to give out food to His disciples to serve to the crowd.  Here too, is another example of the priority of the ministry of Christ.  To serve others.  Notice that he does not begin by eating Himself, but by serving to others.  His servants, or disciples in this case, are given food to serve first to others, not to themselves.  I am certain Jesus in His humanity was hungry.  So were His disciples.  But when serving others, following the will of God, hunger was not something of primary concern.  The act of serving in concert with the miracle of the seemingly endless supply of food had made those serving it completely forget their own needs.  The entire multitude was fed.  Notice again, not one soul went hungry.  Nor was this gift rationed in any way.  He did not restrict any who wanted food from eating it.  If they wanted seconds or thirds, or more, have at it.  Those who were poor, were fed.  Here in an impossible situation, in impossible circumstances, God finds a way.

What man cannot do for himself, only God can do.  When man realizes his own inability, he is finally free to allow God to do, what God already knows He is going to do.  When our budget does not allow for us to accommodate the request of God, but we move forward anyway, we find the impossible becomes possible.  For it was never our money being adequate that our God was looking for, it was our willingness to follow in spite of our lack of funds and negative “facts”.  It is our faith that frees God to work His miracles in our lives, and allow us to serve others as our first priority.  This story is a living example of this truth from end to end.  The miracle was as much for the disciples of Christ to understand service as it was for the hungry who sat on that grassy mountainside.  And they ALL ate, and were filled.  The gift of God is not casual, partial, or insufficient.  It is overflowing. 

Now to punctuate just how large a miracle this really was … in verse 12 and 13 it continues “When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. [verse 13] Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.”  Imagine this.  More left-overs after all had eaten than any store would have had in inventory to start with.  These left-overs could be distributed to the poor who were not there that day, nothing would be wasted or lost, when God gives a gift to mankind.  The child who offered up his lunch, still had a lunch, even greater than the one he offered to God.  You CANNOT out-give God.  You simply cannot out-love the source of all love.  The child, thought it not too great a sacrifice to give Jesus everything he had.  And this simple loving gift was returned to him in fuller measure than what he had offered.  He lost nothing in the giving.  This was no investment scheme designed for the child to profit from.  He had no expectations his offering would be returned to him.  But God knows our needs, and loves us far more than we could ever love Him in return.  And mom’s lunch was blessed, multiplied, and returned to her son completely.  So it is, when we offer God our all, no matter how small our all is, against so great a need.

It would be nice to end this recollection at this point, at the pinnacle of a tremendous event.  But when our own ideas about truth are too stubborn to be taught, the ending cannot always be the blessing it was intended to be.  The people you see, were not looking for the lamb of God, to be slain for their sins.  They were looking for a king and conqueror to drive out the Roman oppressor and lead Israel back to its former glory.  Had Jesus accepted this role, He would have been loved by priest, leader, and commoner alike.  Had Jesus accepted this role, His divine power could have quickly made an end to Roman occupation, and restored Israel to be the greatest kingdom the world had ever known.  He had the power to control everything to insure this happened.  But His mission was not one of power, of control, or of earthly glory.  God does not measure glory in power or control, He measures it in love, forgiveness, and restoration of that which was lost.  What men wanted, was not what God wanted.

The reaction of the crowd (in verse 14) was certainty … “Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.”  The healings, and now the ability to feed an army out of nothing, was exactly the right combination to drive out the Romans.  You could eat every day, and be healed if you were wounded in battle.  They did not even need Christ to fight, He could just sit in the back of the army and do the healing and feeding duties.  These men would gladly have done the fighting for Him.  Here was Satan yet again trying to offer Christ a way to gain the love of His people without having to die for them.  Here was Satan again trying to setup an “alternative” to the ways of God.  No need to die to redeem Israel, no need to die to obtain their love, a simple gesture of liberation, and the whole of the country would worship You.  If you want the people to believe in you, here is a sure fire way to make that happen.  But God does not attempt to control, or manipulate, instead He only offers love, and asks for us to accept it.  So the crowd was to be disappointed. 

In verse 15 … “When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.”  Teleportation anyone?  Invisibility perhaps?  I find this text interesting as the will of those men was bent on making Christ a king, whether He wanted it or not.  How does one “depart” from a mountain where 5000 men know who you are, and are united in their goal of making you king, whether you want it or not?  How do you just “walk away” from 5000 people without attracting the unwanted attention of this crowd?  I can only believe on occasion to avoid the snares of Satan, Jesus simply had to move through space in a way we may never fully understand.  In this instance, He would reject the alternative Satan offered, and escape Satan’s plans to force Him into compliance. 

Here again was another object lesson for us.  These people believed they knew the “truth” about the mission of the Messiah.  They had read the works of the prophets that foretold of Him, and had confused some of the writings about heaven, as being in the time of His first appearing.  Their misinterpretation had become defacto truth, and they were unwilling to alter their hopes around what the Messiah was truly here to do.  Using their religious ideas, and fervor for achieving personal goals, under the guise of divine approval, they sought to force God to do as they wished.  How often do we allow our own ideas and desires about how we live, to offer God an “alternative” to His ideas that is “equally” acceptable?  We decide one day in seven is enough to worship God, it should not matter which day we choose to do it on.  We decide our tithes and our offerings are discretionary and should only be spent the way we see fit.  We decide “who” we love is our business, and if we change our minds, we should be free to do so, no matter how many times we change it, and who we hurt in the process.  Our time, our money, our relationships, should after all be up to us.  So we attempt to define for God, why our alternatives should be just as good as anything He outlined.  We attempt to control Him, by what we do, instead of surrendering everything to Him, and experiencing the freedom of not being bound to control at all.

It was not to be through a miraculous meal that the hearts of this crowd would be reached.  The miracle mattered, the meal was incidental.  But the lesson would last, it is God who provides for our needs even when we cannot see this plain and simple truth.  Even before the disciples had seen the food that would be distributed, Jesus was thanking the Father for it.  No miracle had yet been performed, but the gratitude was already there from Christ.  Why?  Because Jesus knew what His followers did not.  That God Himself provides for our every need, and sees to our existence, no matter what came out of that lunch basket.  When man faces the impossible, he can finally see it was God there all the while meeting the need. 

When man finally surrenders his own will to God, it is then that God can remake us into the creations He intended us to be, freed from the bondage to self, free to serve others, free to love others as God loves.  When the miraculous food started to flow, it was first served to others.  Christ, who by all rights should have been the first to eat, was the last to do so.  God put Himself last, by His own choice.  Only after everyone else had eaten would He have the chance to eat Himself.  Those who followed Christ, were also FIRST to serve others, and last to eat themselves.  Then they went the further step of doing the clean-up of the left-overs.  Service to others is the hallmark of love, the witness that the work comes from God.  It was natural for Jesus to serve first and eat last.  This is foreign to us, and can only come naturally when we allow God to remake “who” we are.  Instead of trying to control God with our alternatives to His ideas, perhaps we can finally be ready to forsake our own wisdom, and begin learning from Him who so longs to free us from ourselves.  It is in this way, that the hearts of men can finally be reached.