Crisis of Conscience ...

Have you ever been guilty of something, and just knew you had done it?  I have two cats and two dogs.  When I walk in the room and find something out of place (cat/dog mischief on display), if I change my tone, and ask “who did this?” – the guilty animal goes running.  The innocent cat or cats hardly take notice of me at all.  The innocent dog or dogs bring me treats (their idea of toys) to see if it will make me happier.  But I can always tell the guilty critter based on how they react, they tend to run, and of course the guilty culprit changes with nearly every incident.  So how about you; no excuses, no blaming others, or circumstances, heredity, or environment – no, what happens when the blame centers squarely on you and you alone. 

In those situations what happens next may say more about you, than what led you to them.  People tend to react in one of two ways, they seek to make it right, or they seek to cover it up.  The story Matthew penned so long ago is not for those who seek to make it right.  Most of us try this in one form or another, sometimes taking great pains to avoid admitting we were wrong, while trying to fix a seriously impaired conscience.  For the rest of us, who look first to see if anyone was watching, and how credible they might be, before even considering whether to make it right.  This story was meant for us.  And like many things that fall into this category, “time”, can begin to alter your perception even about what is right and wrong.  Things done in repetition for example (no matter whether they were questionable at the start or not), over time become “normal”.  Once they are normal to you, the idea that they might also still be “wrong” becomes less and less a consideration.  And before you know it, repeated behavior, that is normal, cannot be wrong … by definition … whether it was or not. 

There is also the influence of others.  When you do something wrong alone, or by yourself, you may be more aware of it.  But if you are in a group at the time, and literally everybody else with you is also doing it, and from your perception, everyone, everywhere is doing it.  Then perhaps that behavior is also not wrong, it is just normal, whether originally thought wrong or not.  Finally, there is the influence of leadership on the topic.  When leaders you trust, or admire, weigh in their opinions on what is right or wrong (particularly in the grey areas), those opinions carry weight into the decision making process you hold.  If it is church leadership; you know, the folks who are “supposed” to be getting the right/wrong thing correctly all the time, it may carry even more weight in what you decide.  Put all these influences together, and you get a perfect storm, not to cause a crisis of conscience, but to eliminate conscience altogether.  Enter Matthew and divinely inspired recollections.

It picks up in chapter twenty-one of his gospel in verse 12 saying … “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,”  And right off the bat, we get it wrong.  Artists and the church, for many years paint this scenario with the idea that Jesus was furious, entering that Temple with fire in his eyes, a fierce tone of voice, a whip in one hand, and a carpenter’s fist in the other.  The terror of Him moving through the scene, and the anger He brings with Him, causing the exodus of the merchants who had taken up residence in the Temple.  But this is not how it works.  Frankly, it is not ever how it works.  It does not have to.  Let’s re-examine with a second look, and factor in human nature into the equation.

When mom catches you doing something wrong, it is hard to argue with her, while being caught red-handed.  Now instead of mom, imagine a face-to-face with God, while He catches you doing something wrong.  Forget that the Temple leadership approved of these practices (and the fact, they got a kick back on the horrible profits generated there).  Forget the fact that it was not one merchant, but many engaged in this.  Forget the fact that they had been doing it for years, literally for years.  The practice itself was wrong.  They were taking advantage of penitent people who came to the Temple to sacrifice for their sins.  Honest worshippers were subjected to unscrupulous business men, bent on making a profit off of them, in what should have been a ceremony dedicated to God throughout.  And the church was in on it.  And the people who were doing it, even if they had forgotten it was wrong, were now being reminded.  Not by anger, but by the piercing eyes of Jesus, that seemed to reach right down into the core of who they had become, and shake them from the inside out, acting and speaking about stopping this practice.

Matthew continues in verse 13 saying … “And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”  Several things to note here, the first is that the main purpose of the Temple, was really “not” for sacrifice.  Jesus says it is for “prayer”.  But instead of reaching out to God, they, like we, go to church for a quicker solution – one that is not so personal.  The worshippers go looking to perform a ritual that will make them right in the eyes of God.  Both then and now.  Instead of just talking with the God of love they purport to serve.  We miss the purpose of the house.  A building setup to avoid the other distractions of the world, in order to focus our minds for prayer.  In our age, we drag in every other worldly element of production value, and produce a show, where prayer is led by someone else (usually making it, its own mini-sermon), and singing and preaching the main ingredients of the show.  Back then, it was a ritual of blood, from which the merchants and church looked to profit immensely, and prayer itself – well there was little time for that between the sales back then or the well-produced show today.

And as to making the house of God a den of thieves.  Think that practice went away with those merchants?  Today, we give our tithes and offerings, and where do they go?  That is to say, how much of them come back to us in the form of services we benefit from, and how much of them actually make use in reaching the un-reached?  Easy way to measure it; how many baptisms did your church do this month, or last?  Not transfers from other churches mind you, but baptisms of new converts.  Not the kids of existing members (though all are important), I am talking about how we use our funds to actually spread the gospel to those who have not heard it, or think God is too angry to ever accept them.  Did it take that level of giving to affect that reach?  Conversely, how much of our money was spent on making the building better, maintaining it, supplying it, keeping the air on, the leaders paid, etc.  And in many denominations, all that is in excess of the need is given to the pastor, until pastors themselves are very rich men.  While churches grow, they tend to do so based on a popularity contest among their peers.  We reach each other.  And our co-workers, and the poor, and those we are reluctant to include, remain outside of our doors, where we prefer them.  And who is robbed in all of this?

And if Jesus looked you square in the eyes, could you tell Him, this is OK, because everyone else is in on it.  Or the church leadership sanctioned it.  Or you have been doing it so long, you forgot it was not OK.  I dare say if perfect love looked you square in the face, you would know - what you do that is anything less than ideal, is wrong.  And your first instinct would be to turn away from that blinding love and flee from it.  These men did just that.  They were not ready or inclined to hear The Truth.  They preferred the greed they indulged, and the easiest thing to do was to run.  Don’t resist, just run.  They did not even attempt to take the money off the floor.  They left it.  Now imagine what a crisis of conscience must have been introduced to these men, that they discarded everything to get away from it.  Merchants whose sole purpose at this venue was to make money, left the money, the animals, everything, and just ran.  There was no whip needed for them.  Perhaps Jesus used the sound of the whip to insure the animals moved along as well.  But His eyes would have been enough.  There was no anger needed.  All there was, was a mirror of perfect love, revealing to them, how far they had fallen from it.  That mirror was terrifying to them, as it might also be to us, those that like to call ourselves “saints”.

And this is how we know, that anger was the farthest thing from the mind, hands, and tone of Jesus.  Matthew continues in verse 14 saying … “And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.”  Those in need, did not flee, they pressed closer.  Those in need found the grace of God, not from an angry use of a whip, but the tender touching of the hands of Jesus in the parts of them that lived in pain.  And that touch healed them, it did not add further bruising.  But even further proof lies in the nest text as Matthew continues in verse 15 saying … “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,”  Not just those in need stayed in the temple, but so did the children.

Now imagine for a minute, that an angry man with a whip in hand, comes running into your sanctuary one day during services and begins flipping over tables, cracking the whip, screaming at the merchants/leaders, and has the fire of God in His eyes.  Your kids would be the first ones out the windows and doors.  They would be three blocks away before they had the good sense to look for mom and dad.  Mom would likely be right on their heels.  Dad might stay to fight, or he might be running right along with his family to keep them all safe in that city.  But kids, do NOT sit and stay, in scenarios of extreme anger.  However kids DO stay when they see a loving God looking right at them, bidding them come, and be blessed.  Those kids were likely fully unaware of the rest of it.  Tables being turned over so they could be removed only makes more room for them.  Animals being set free is AWESOME, so they will not need to be slain for the removal of sin, they are free to run and be free.  Bad men leaving, good men staying – that is a recipe kids can get behind.  And how do the kids respond?  They begin singing the same songs that were sung to Jesus on His triumphal return to Jerusalem in the first place.  They liked these songs.  They remembered the lyrics and the tune.  And the kids began singing at the top of their lungs.  This was time for praise service, a praise service LED by the kids, orchestrated by the kids, and performed by the kids.  They had the Temple nearly entirely to themselves, WITHOUT fear.

So of course church leadership hated it.  Rug rats do not get to run the show.  And they were singing that kingship song to and about Jesus once again.  The Pharisees could not get it out of their mind, like a tune that just plays in your head over and over and over again, until it is near to making you insane.  They were sore displeased.  They had lost their kickback scheme, and now were forced to see those impaired, restored to fullness, in the miracle that is Jesus Christ.  And to top it all off, the kids were singing so loudly it was echoing down the Jerusalem streets for how happy they were.  Totally without fear, of Jesus, or of them.  They tried to put a stop to it, but Jesus was not having that.  Jesus loves the worship of little children, as He wants so badly for you and I, to become those little toddlers and in so doing, become His church finally and after all.  Jesus responds to the sore displeasure saying in verse 16 … “And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” 

Get that people.  It is not your well-orchestrated, well-produced, worship productions that Jesus enjoys.  It is the entirely random, entirely disjointed, entirely awesome praise that comes out of the mouth of “babes” and “sucklings”.  Those are young kids folks, those are too young to be teenagers, even too young to be first graders.  These are the toddler crowd.  These are the diaper preachers.  This is what “perfected” praise looks like, it looks like TOTAL trust in Abba Father, in Daddy, in Jesus.  They sang until their little lungs wore out.  They cuddled with Jesus, hugging Him, sitting on His lap, or holding His hands, or arms, listening to His every word, curling up under His seat to fall asleep while He spoke to the “adults”.  When they were ready to go home again, Jesus took His cue to leave.  Church was over, because the two-year-olds said it was over, not before, and not while “they” still wanted to be close to Him. 

That is how church works, or how real church works.  Money was never even an issue.  Kids did not think about it, neither did Jesus.  Proximity to God is what church is all about.  Those little ones got it up close and personal.  We get it through prayer.  Neither of us were/are perfect.  Perfection is something that can only come through trust in submission to Jesus, it is something He does for us, sometimes in spite of us, as we connect to Him and allow Him to do this work in us.  Children know who is in charge.  They also know they may be less than perfect, but they are drawn to His love, more than they fear their own imperfections or past behavior.  Children let go much faster, trust much quicker, and find themselves loving, nearly all the time.  It can be that way for us.  Jesus came to save.  To save you and I.  Can we not just let Him do it, in us, for us, forever?  To be in a child-like state of trust, free to love others, brings a level of contentment that this world has no alternative for.

Matthew concludes in verse 17 saying … “And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.”  Jesus went out, likely to spend some more time with Lazarus and his sisters.  But not before the kids had their fill of Him.  And how He SO longs to meet your needs the same way.  That is what reconciliation is all about.  It is bringing you close to Him again.  It is having you able to cuddle with Him again, hold His hand, or touch His arm.  There is no fear in that.  Neither is their guilt.  Forgiveness is the beginning of the love He holds for you, so that both fear, and guilt can be pushed away.  And re-creation is what He has in mind for you, in order to change how you think, and love, to bring you into the toddler set once again.  To bring you into total trust in Him, for everything you need, including your salvation, and your ability to be in harmony with the law.  You cannot do that for yourself.  That takes Dad to do.  You gotta let Him, or you will not see it done.  There is no anger from Jesus for you, or a whip in His hand for you.  There is the love of a Father in His eyes for you.  Come and get it.  Come get all you want.  And Church won’t be over, until you say it is over.

How to Get In to Heaven ...

Every modern Christian thinks they have a pretty good answer to the most basic question ever posed.  It is after all, the goal every Christian seems to seek above all other things.  It is held out as “the final reward”; and is often positioned against hell the only other final destination everyone should want to avoid.  So as soon as an awareness of God is discovered in you, the basic question of how to wind up in the good place, is one you want an answer to right at the get go.  This is not something new to our age.  It has a long history of being asked by people just like us.  You can date it back to the disciples and Pharisees who lived in the days of Christ.  But if you want to, you can keep seeing it asked all the way back to Adam and Eve as soon as they knew they had broken trust with God, and were destined to leave their perfect garden home for the labors of a scarred earth for the remainder of their lives.  And like the later days of Adam and Eve, there were many who just gave up seeking an answer, until the point where they no longer cared, and no longer wanted a future good-place outcome.  Give me a great life now, instead of a great life later, the prevailing thinking.  This thinking too, has lasted all the way to our day.

In the gospel of Matthew, in chapter nineteen, Matthew provides a series of contrasts of those who ask this question, and a detailed view of how it works.  It begins with the real answers, and then follows up with what most of think about how it works, and frankly, why we are nearly all wrong about it.  To begin we pick up in verse 13 saying … “Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them.”  If ever there were a living example of how to get into heaven this was it.  Take note of the sequence here.  It begins with someone (presumably the parents) bringing “little children” (picture 2yr old toddlers, though the ages probably had a little wider range than that) to Jesus.  In our case, we do not even seek Christ on our own.  We have to be brought.  Not by an earthly parent, but by our Heavenly One.  It is God the Father who brings His children to Jesus.  He does NOT just bring the perfect ones.  Because let’s face it, what 2yr old behaves perfectly?  They make messes, sometimes messes with poo they have yet to learn where the proper place for that goes. 

But, and again here is the important part, regardless of their current condition, we are brought to Jesus for Jesus to lay hands on us, and pray.  For this to happen, we must first recognize we are not sophisticated adults coming to debate the correctness of our doctrines.  We are 2yr olds whose primary obsession is to love, be loved, play, eat, sleep, and repeat.  This is not an entrance based on a doctrinal understanding exam, it is based on a personal perception exam – are you a toddler – or not?  And as usual, church leadership (in this case the very disciples of Christ, not the typical anti-hero-Pharisees) are the ones trying to keep Jesus from being bothered by it.  If you are looking to gain entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, don’t find yourself depending on the church to accomplish it.  They are more likely standing in the way, than lending you a hand.  Think about it, how much does your church, encourage you (regardless of your physical age) to be the toddler, you are supposed to be?  Most often, the church demands “adult” behavior from you, and is ready to throw you out, if you should dare to act like this kind of young kid.

Jesus responds in verse 14 saying … “But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. [verse 15] And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence.”  Jesus states it right here folks, in plain English, and in good old black and white.  This citizenry of heaven is made up of little toddlers.  Not adults, like you and me, or rather old farts like me, but young minded, obsessed with loving and being loved, ready to play, eat, or sleep at a moment’s notice.  Toddlers have the unique characteristic of NOT trying to be adults, or have deep doctrinal understanding, they leave all that to Jesus.  Toddlers trust.  Something that adults have a remarkably hard time doing.  The only thing adults are given to trust, is in themselves, which is possibly the worst thing they could ever take trust in.  Toddlers just roll with it.  Whatever Dad wants to do, is an adventure to them.  They trust the love of Dad.

But we don’t.  So Matthew follows this rather complete lesson on how to get in to Heaven with a study of the contrasted thinking (in his day and what remains in ours).  He continues in verse 16 saying … “And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?”  Here ya go.  We just heard the answer.  We just saw an example in living color.  Jesus laying His hands on little children who trust Him for everything (including transformation and blessing).  And a typical adult, just like you or me, ignores ALL of that, and asks the question, as if, there is some other path required of adults, that is not demanded of toddlers.  So a rich young ruler, who considers himself a religious man, asks the question orally, as if a different answer is forthcoming.

Matthew continues in verse 17 saying … “And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”  Jesus begins by losing all the flattery.  The term good master, or good rabbi, was not really genuine.  That is to say, this parishioner was not treating Jesus like the Son of God, he was treating Him like a fellow albeit unrecognized informal member of the Sanhedrin.  Folks in the Sanhedrin liked respectful name calling, so he uses one.  But the goal of Jesus is not to join the Sanhedrin, and fake flattery is not something He wants, so Jesus points the young man back to giving only God respect.  Then Jesus answers him, as any contemporary of the day would.  If you want to enter into “life” (mind you, not the Kingdom, but a better life), you should keep the commandments.  This is the prevailing wisdom of the day, and is meant to challenge the young man’s thinking.

The man responds in verse 18 saying … “He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, [verse 19] Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”  The silly young ruler, actually asks, “which” commandment he is supposed to obey.  As if there is only one that needs it.  This question itself reflects a huge lack of understanding of what obedience means, let alone what harmony with the law would imply.  If this man is looking for “the” commandment to focus on, he is already looking in the wrong place for Kingdom entry.  Nevertheless Jesus gives him an answer, of all the commandments that deal with how to love others.  This is yet another test to challenge the thinking of this man.  You would think his response would be ,,, what about the ones where you love God first? ,,, but that is not what he says.

The incident continues in verse 20 saying … “The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?”  Yikes!!  The arrogance of this man.  To state to Jesus of all people, that you have kept all the commandments that have to do with loving others, since you were a child, is in effect saying, I have not sinned against my fellow man, ever.  First, highly unlikely, given the nature of human kind, second, useless as criterion to enter the kingdom.  The young man is smart enough to know, he still lacks something,  He can sense it.  For all his works he has done.  For all the obedience he has manufactures, it is not enough.  There is something more.  He can sense he is out of harmony.  But instead of coming to Christ as a toddler, looking for the blessing of transformation.  He is coming as mini-rabbi looking for something He can “do” to fix it.

Jesus continues to indulge his questions picking up again in verse 21 saying … “Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.”  Notice the response of Jesus, He says if you will be “perfect”.  Again not gaining entrance into heaven, but if he wishes to actually begin that process, to understand what loving others truly means.  If he is looking for something he can “do”.  Then go sell everything you have, give it all to the poor, and follow Jesus becoming the 13^th disciple, or disciple next if you will.  This is Jesus offering him an invitation that will finally and fully impact his life, change it, and truly transform it.  It is not the shedding of wealth that will do that, it is the following of Jesus that will.  The problem with his wealth, and with ours, is that it keeps us from following Jesus full time.  It distracts us with the cares of maintaining wealth, whether by working hour after hour on some other duty, and away from Jesus in the process.  We want a part time God.  Available for us when we need Him, but content to be quiet in the corner when we do not.  That is not how it works.  Not for toddlers anyway.  They want Daddy’s time and attention ALL the time.  Eat together, play together, nap together or sleep in Daddy’s bed warm and snug next to Him.  Toddlers don’t care about money, they hardly understand it.  They do care about attention, it is the constant companionship that makes them most happy.  Sharing that with other toddlers, even better.

The incident continues in verse 22 saying … “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.”  Here is where the concept of “doing” something to obtain your salvation ends.  In great sorrow.  For the pull of sin, and of this world, is stronger than the will you have within you.  Motives matter.  Despite all the behavior the rich man thought adequate since his youth, he never really understood what it meant to love others, at least to love them, more than he loved his wealth, or himself.  That was a bridge too far.  He could have stored his treasure in heaven by giving it away, but instead he preferred staying liquid in this world.  A short sighted response,  But based in thinking that was misguided from the outset.  It was only the connection with Jesus that might have reset it.  But it was that very connection, the man had refused.  At least, refused for now.

Jesus offers an epilogue to his disciples on this incident picking up in verse 23 saying … “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. [verse 24] And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”  Here Jesus repeats a basic truth we should all know, but somehow conveniently forget.  There is no way for us to “do” something to get into heaven.  Getting a camel through the eye of a needle is simply not possible, at least not possible for us.  In simple terms, there is no way to do it on our own.  There is no way to bring ourselves into harmony with God’s laws.  We may think we obey them.  But we do not understand what obedience really means.  Motives matter.  It is not just the actions of our hands and feet, it is motive of our hearts that reflect the heart of God, or just action without empathy, or worse, action with false empathy.

The incident continues in verse 25 saying … “When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? [verse 26] But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”  The disciples are freaked out.  If this rich young ruler (keep in mind wealth is considered an earmark of the direct favor of God in their day), is not headed into the kingdom, who is?  If a solid commandment keeper is not going to heaven, who is?  Every good Jew, and Adventist, are completely bought in on the idea that if you can get to keeping all the commandments, you have it made.  Conversely, if you are not keeping every commandment, you are out.  No ifs, ands, or buts.  Except here was Jesus debunking that entire line of thinking.  His assessment of camels getting through the eye of a needle, is Him stating we will never get there on our own, ever.

It is the second half of this verse that gives us back hope again.  It is not about what we do.  It is about what God can do in us, for us, and often in spite of us.  With men this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.  The God who invented physics, can easily bend the norms of physics.  The God who died for our sins, understands more than forgiving our sins, He understands how to change our hearts and minds so we stop sinning all together.  That is what transformation is all about.  It is not what we do.  It is becoming the toddler who trusts Jesus to lay hands on us and pray, and see us transformed by the power of His love injected in us.  We reap the benefits of His work, do none ourselves.  We begin to feel His love for others in us, instead of our own love for us and no one else.  We begin to see truth, as we begin to see The Truth, and no other way.

But the topic of the rewards of the kingdom, was not something concluded just yet …

 

The Blending of Church and State (part 1 of 2) ...

There are those who believe that morality should be legislated.  They are not content to simply offer laws that prevent one person from damaging another, but rather believe we should extend the laws to make religious doctrine and belief the law of the land.  In effect, they would wish to have the full power of the State, to enforce that in which they believe.  Majority fundamentalist law is not ever a good thing.  Christians despise the idea of having to live under Muslim Sharia law.  But these same Christians see their own beliefs as under attack by atheists and Islamists, and so to “protect” themselves and their way of life, would gladly vote Christian principles and beliefs into our government enforced law.  Neither Christian nor Muslim would enjoy living under the most stringent Jewish fundamentalist laws.  Going back in history when the Catholic Church held heavy influence over the governments of Europe, vast killings were done in the name of God.  Tracing back further, John records the fate of Christ, when the Religion that had its roots and establishment by God through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses joined with the State power of Rome to decide the fate of Son of God.  The results are always the same when control is attempted over the conscience.  To ever have perfect freedom, love must be a choice, not a compulsion.

When we seek to take away the choice of what to believe, by the power of the State, it only ever ends in the death of the opposition.  John records the most poignant of examples in his gospel, chapter 18, and beginning in verse 28 … “Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover.”  The religious leadership of God’s church delivered Christ to Rome in order to be put to death.  The governor Pilate had not asked for this, he had not sought it.  Christ was brought to him, in order to be condemned to death.  Note that even while conducting a conspiracy to commit murder, the religious leaders are careful to “follow the rules” of their traditions, attempting not to “defile” themselves in order that they may eat the Passover.  As such they do not go all the way into the judgment hall of Pilate where they intend Christ to be condemned.  Observance of the Passover has become a highly regimented event of purported great significance throughout the nation.  It offers the religious elite an opportunity to demonstrate to the rest of the nation why they are holier than them.  It affirms their control over the people.

The words of Christ to the Samaritan woman that foretold the loss of significance about where people worshipped God, would completely undo the influence of the Pharisees over the people.  Without a specific temple, in a specific city, at a specific time – the individualized worship of God – would supplement all the traditions the Pharisees had established over the people to keep them under control.  Take for example the refusal to enter Pilate’s judgment hall.  Since when is entry into any building forbidden by the laws, intentions, and values of God?  The purpose for which we enter a building may run counter to the love of God, but the building itself has no moral significance.  It is merely a structure made of wood or stone.  Examine also the hypocrisy that allows money changers to literally take over the temple, cheating the worshippers and providing kick-backs to the priests during the holiest of feasts.  This practice was not prohibited it was encouraged.  Examine also the hypocrisy of a conspiracy to commit murder that is the purpose of their visit to Pilate, and yet they still believe themselves “pure” enough to partake of the Passover so long as they do not enter a particular structure while accomplishing the goal of murder of the innocent.  This is the extent to which the mind will rationalize its own evil when religion is used to kill others.

The religious leaders have convinced themselves, that as long as they do not personally kill Him, the blood of Christ will be on the hands of the Romans.  They take no personal accountability for the capture and arrest in the garden, for the mocking, insults, and beating during their examination of Him, nor for their complete inability to find one real fault in Him.  They act as if they accidently discovered Christ in the hands of Pilate about to be condemned to death, and they simply had no response to this eventuality; instead of seeing how this entire series of events could not have occurred without them.  They forget the blood money they paid to Judas to betray Him into their hands.  They forget the council meetings they have held where His death was agreed to, planned, financed, and now in the process of being carried out.  Evil does not ever recognize itself.  Evil hides, rationalizes, blames others, pretends to be righteous, and when based on religious fervor – convinces itself it is the will of God.

Pilate, who I imagine was perfectly happy with his own evening’s itinerary is disturbed by this interruption, and is forced to see what the commotion is about.  John continues in verse 29 … “Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring ye against this man? [verse 30] They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee.”  Pilate now wants to know why Christ has been brought to him.  The answer they offer suggests that the crimes of Christ are actually against the government of Rome (otherwise why would they have brought Christ to Pilate).  Pilate, thinking that Christ must have simply been a thorn to the Pharisees, suggests the next logical course of action in verse 31 … “Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death: [verse 32] That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die.”  Pilate is offering the Jewish leaders autonomy to judge a trouble maker and punish Him however they like.  But the Jews are not interested in punishing Christ, they want Him dead.  And they still want to partake of Passover, so they need the Romans to do it.  The typical Roman method of execution was crucifixion and the words of Christ about being “lifted up” foretold this fate. 

Thus begins the examination of Christ by Pilate.  The fame of this miracle worker could hardly be ignored, there were political implications to what Pilate would do with Him.  The chief job of the Roman governor was to insure the smooth flow of Roman taxes back to Rome.  Insurrection posed a threat to the flow of money, and thus it would be considered a failure by Rome to have it occur, or last for any length of time.  Pilate knew the crowds of common people sought this man out.  He knew that if the followers of Christ were to become enraged, it could disrupt the flow of taxes back to Rome.  So he begins his inquiry with the most pressing political question of the day.  John records in verse 33 … “Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?”  If Christ intends to accept the coronation of the people, or perhaps if He already has, this is something Pilate must weigh when deciding His fate.  Is He a threat already?   Jesus responds in verse 34 … “Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?”  In effect, Jesus asks, did my accusers tell you this, or have you obtained this idea from the witness of the people or perhaps a personal encounter?  The subtlety here in the answer of Christ, is that He has made no such declaration, and His predicament would suggest no earthly kingship.

Pilate responds with a sarcastic comment in verse 35 … “Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?”  Pilate is NO Jew, He is a Roman governor.  Pilate will have had no personal encounter with Christ up to now.  But in any case, the Jewish people have brought one of their own to a Roman for execution.  This is not a common event.  Further the High Priest and leadership of the religion have brought Christ here.  So Pilate wonders what Jesus has done to merit such disfavor among His own people.  Jesus responds in verse 36 … “Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.”  Notice first, that Jesus does not see the need for a fight against Rome even if He had been the king of this people, rather His servants would have fought to keep Him from being delivered to “the Jews”.  Interesting that even if He were the King of these people He intended no threat to Rome.  So even if guilty of what His accusers said, Pilate would have no interest in the accusation as Christ posed no threat to Rome.  But what Jesus was actually saying was something a bit deeper.  He was a King, but not a King over the world of evil in which we live.  His Kingship was over our hearts in order to break our chains to evil, and restore our freedom to love.  That was the perfection He was here to accomplish.  Jesus sees Himself as a King over all people, in that as many as choose to follow Him, and choose to acknowledge Him as their King, He accepts.

Pilate continues the exchange in verse 37 … “Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. [verse 38] Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.”  Pilate upon hearing the answer of Christ believes perhaps He is a King, but just not from around there.  Jesus changes the direction of the conversation and reaches out to Pilate in a way his quest for Roman justice would understand.  Jesus says He is here for this cause, that He bears witness unto the truth.  Those who seek truth, listen to His voice.  Pilate, who has sat in the judgment hall many times, and heard the voice of lawyers and witnesses, knows full well that people bend the truth to suit their own purposes.  Witnesses contradict each other without intent to lie, but offer testimony that could not possibly all be true, as they disagree about the facts.  Christian religious denominations study the same Bible, read the same texts, and come to completely different conclusions about what the “truth” is.  Each believing only its version of truth is truth.  So Pilate responds with his most perplexed evaluation of this asking “what is truth?”  The answer was literally standing in front of him.  Christ had said it before; He was the embodiment of truth.  What Pilate was sure of by now, is that there was literally no threat to Rome, nor guilt in the person brought before him.  In short, Christ was not worthy of death at all.

John records that Pilate believed he had a way out from being involved with the condemnation of an innocent man.  The Romans offered the Jews a traditional prisoner release on the occasion of the Passover.  So Pilate attempts to make the choice a simple one.  He will offer the people the most notorious criminal they know.  Pilate will offer them a known murderer, robber, and general criminal that would threaten their very lives if he escaped.  Or, they can have Christ, who from what Pilate can tell, is completely harmless.  So in verse 39 it continues … “But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? [verse 40] Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.”  The people would prefer a criminal who intended them harm, than the freedom that Christ would offer.  The choice is no different today for us.  So often we choose the tempter who means us harm, than the freedom from pain Christ longs to bring us.  We like our addictions.  We like our misery.  We revel in it.  And thus we add our voices to those who prefer Barabbas to Christ.  It looks as though Religion is determined to make the State bend to it’s will.

But the trial and the blending of Church and State was not over yet …

 

To Kill The King (witness number twenty two) ...

The plot thickens.  The resurrection of Lazarus was definitive public proof of who Jesus was.  He was the true Son of God.  No one else could raise the dead back to life, not man, not even Satan; this was something only God could do.  And it was something the people were simply not going to ignore; the Messiah had come.  They did not understand why He had not declared Himself King.  They did not understand why the Romans seemed oblivious to His arrival since they were surely soon to be driven out of Israel.  But one thing was certain, only God could raise the dead back to life.  From a purely military perspective this would make their new army invincible.  Their soldiers could fight fearlessly and if they lost, Jesus would simply reattach the dismembered pieces and bring them back to life again to keep on fighting.  The Romans, and no other power on earth, could resist that kind of army.  And the Pharisees could see it; they were losing the hearts and minds of the people entirely to the new Messiah.  So their desperation was raised, and in the last few verses of John’s Gospel account in chapter eleven they issue a public edict that if anyone knew where Christ was, they were to tell them, so that He could be taken.

Knowing the Passover was near they reasoned among themselves that Christ would probably be coming to it.  After all, Jesus had attended prior feasts.  He taught in the temple on Sabbath when He was there.  He healed on it too, but that was the source of all this righteous anger in the first place, if you asked them.  Jesus in fact, had done nothing to deny the validity of the Jewish faith, or destroy its system of worship, or deny its law.  But how Jesus amplified the law, and focused on the motives of the heart rather than the actions of public display, was a stark contrast between the intent of the law, and the perversion of it.  The Pharisees sought to use the law and the scriptures to hold power over the people.  Christ sought to use the law to free the people from the chains and bondage of evil and serving self.  Christ sought to teach the people that harmony with the law begins and ends with loving others, and can only be achieved through a transformation of character – a resurrection from the death of evil, to the life of loving others through Himself and His transformative power.  Christ was not interested in a hierarchical system that preserved power for the few.  Instead He was keenly interested in a one on one relationship with every hurting soul, to make them free from the pain they embraced.  While the Pharisees were obsessed with Politics and Power, Christ was passionate about redemption and reformation within us, not around us.  Christ was a true revelation of what the Jewish faith was supposed to be about, not what it had become.  And so those whose highest ambition was to rule, had reached the inescapable conclusion, they must kill the one who cared nothing for ruling, but would completely destroy their power.

In chapter twelve, John begins by marking the time – six days before the Passover, which would be the last Passover for Christ in this world.  Then John gives us the precious location of Christ, He had traveled back to Bethany to be with His newly risen friend and his sisters who were so loved by Christ.  And in verse 2, a special meal is prepared for Jesus and his disciples.  It was not His famed “last” supper, but it was probably the last supper He would have occasion to enjoy before the intensity of the burden He must bear for us would occupy His every thought.  This was a special dinner with friends and adopted family.  John notes, that Martha would serve at this meal, and Lazarus would sit at the table with them all.  Perhaps Martha understood best of all who were there that night that serving is the highest honor one can enjoy.  Perhaps the faith of Martha who was the only one of them to open the door to an immediate resurrection of her brother before it happened, and the only one to declare openly and assuredly that Christ was the Messiah before He raised her brother – understood it the best.  A life with Christ who transforms us, is a life of service to all.  Lazarus would enjoy His company.  Mary would make her finest gesture of love to Him.  But Martha would quietly serve and in so doing would understand better than everyone else there, what life was to be about, and where joy comes from.

Then in verse 3, John describes the act of Mary on her Lord, the best and only offering she could think to make.  Verse 3 states … “Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.”  She could have used a towel to wipe her Lord, Lazarus was wealthy and there would be no shortage of proper towels for that purpose.  She could have been less extravagant in selecting the ointment to use on His feet.  It would have been less noticeable and less costly.  But that would not due.  A life savings of money would hardly be enough to express her love to Christ.  He wore no finery, or gems, so she could not buy him some object to keep.  And though this gesture would only last a short while, it was something she believed He would accept.  The source of her funding for this gift was likely not the best.  It is possible being caught in the act of adultery some time ago was a pattern by which she was paid for her services.  It is one possible explanation for how a woman would gain access to a year’s worth of earnings at a single point in time.  It is also possible this was her share of the family inheritance, or perhaps what remained from the process of burying her now risen brother.  We are not told, how she came across this gift, only that she did.  Mary was overcome by grief to think that love would allow her brother to die.  But now she knew why, and she now knew, that nothing could interrupt the love Christ had for her, or her brother, not even death.  She had hope now, no matter what would come to be.  And so her gesture must be comprised of the best of all she would ever have. And even then it could not equal what He had done for her.

But to one who cares less for love, than for self, this act must be due criticism.  Enter Judas.  John rarely records the interactions of the other disciples with Christ throughout his Gospel.  He usually only records what they say when it is critical to the story.  In this instance, Judas asks the question why this ointment was not sold and given to the poor?  This does appear to be the model for the early Christian church.  New converts would sell everything they owned and give the money to the church for distribution as there was need.  So while this question may appear as though it was motived by a better ideal, John is quick to point out that was not why Judas asked.  John lets us know, that Judas was also a thief, and he stole from the bag for the poor that he kept on him at all times.  An interesting question might be, what did he spend the money on?  Whatever it was, appeared not to quench his greed.  This is the fundamental problem with serving self – self never reaches contentment, it always wants more.  No matter how much money we feed our greed, our greed can envision more.  Self is a perpetual unhappy customer, because all the joy in serving it, is temporary at best, empty at worst.  Whereas the joy of serving others can be never-ending, to make another happy is perhaps our highest honor and opportunity.  Mary would pour out her love to Christ with everything she had, holding nothing back for herself.  Judas would endlessly take from the bag for the poor, and never find enough in there to make him contented with what he had already taken.  The contrast again was stark.

But Jesus knew both the heart of Mary, as well as the one in Judas.  So Jesus defends Mary and her act of complete selflessness and charity.  In verse 7 He says … “Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. [verse 8] For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.”  Here Jesus appears to reveal that Mary perhaps understood better the true mission of Messiah was one of sacrificing His own life for ours.  He accepts Mary’s gift not from a sense of greed, but from an understanding that she is offering the best of anything she will ever have.  Then He offers a solemn reminder to His disciples, His time with them is growing short and He will not always be with them.  To Judas, His phrase … “the poor always ye have with you” … was to subtly remind him that he would always have an opportunity to give to others, particularly those in need.  The giving was not about changing the lives of the recipients, it was about changing the heart of the giver.  This was the lesson underway with Mary, and unfortunately a lesson Judas would seem to never learn.  It may have been that in this subtle rebuke, the heart of Judas was offended, and he realized that this humble Man would never take the power everyone wanted Him to have.  He may have seen that His death was more inevitable, than any power Judas may gain if He ascended to the throne of Israel.  Who knows; all that is sure, is that John’s commentary was hindsight for all of them.  Had John or any other of the disciples known that Judas was stealing from the poor, the crime would not have gone unmentioned.  Only his suicide would come to reveal these facts.

Meanwhile, verse 9 reveals that many people had gotten the news that Jesus was with Lazarus in Bethany.  This gave an occasion for them to travel there, because they would not only see Jesus, but they would be able to speak with Lazarus and meet the only man who had ever come back from the sleep of death.  This irrefutable proof of His divinity had to be addressed from the Pharisees point of view.  Nothing they could say about it could crush it.  It required action.  The best plot they could come up with was to kill Lazarus once again.  If Lazarus was back in his grave, perhaps people would believe he had never left it.  Dead is dead after all.  It is perhaps this revelation of John regarding the fate the Pharisees intended for Lazarus, the prompted Jesus to keep secret some of his earlier miracles recorded in the other gospel accounts of His ministry.  Jesus had brought a young girl back from death as well, but told her and her parents to keep it secret.  Perhaps Jesus knew, that the Pharisees would not have thought twice about re-killing her as well.  Living, walking proof had to be dealt with.  The logic of course is ridiculous.  If Christ raised Lazarus once, what was to prevent Him from doing it again.  But then evil rarely makes sense in its plots against love.  There is a reason why it is referred to as the “mystery” of iniquity – because it hardly ever makes sense to choose it, yet we do.  How does one kill the source of life anyway?  Perhaps this is why Jesus said He had to lay down His own life, that no man could take it from Him.  John records in verse 11, that because of Lazarus, many Jews, even those in leadership “went away” and believed on Jesus.  Even the threat of being put out of the Temple was losing its grasp.

John begins in verse 12 saying … “On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, [verse 13] Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.”  Battle over, priests had lost.  Nothing was going to keep the people from openly declaring in favor of the coming of the true Messiah.  It was to be His coronation day, today, whether He wanted it or not.  The priests had lost the PR war, and the actions of the masses of the people proved it.  They went to greet the proposed King of Israel in the traditional manner dating all the way back to King David.  The joy of Israel was unbridled and unrestrained.  All they could imagine was that this would be the last day of Roman occupation, the last day of servitude, and the first day of the ascendency of Israel to the preeminence among the nations.  The joy therefore was great, but the understanding misguided.

How like us.  We come to Christ and find great joy in the belief that from now on, all our prayers will be answered in the affirmative.  We never stop to think that our hearts have not been changed enough yet to “want” the right things.  So we treat Christ more like Santa Clause, than like our Savior.  When the answers to our prayers do not come in the way we wanted, we go away sorely disappointed.  Just like the people who would leave to greet Him with palm branches expecting to return with a new King, and instead would return only with the memory of that day.  Our disappointment comes because we want things that are not in harmony with the will of God.  We see through self-centered eyes, and with the limited scope of human vision that cannot see past the grave.  God sees what is best for us, now, and for the eternal life He wants to give us, which is really the only one that truly matters.  If we saw things through the eyes of God, we would gladly accept His answers, and realize what we ask for is not always in our best interests.  How different would the lives of those aspiring servants of Christ been, if He had granted their requests to overthrow Rome, but did nothing to overthrow the evil in their hearts.  Israel would have amounted to only another dictatorship ruling by fear and the sword, and the greed of men.  Instead Christ did nothing to change the political status of those servants, choosing rather to offer them freedom from within, that no power on earth could ever take away, and a life of service that would be the only one worth living.  It does not matter if Rome is in charge on the outside, if Christ is in charge on the inside.

Verses 14 through 18 outline the fulfillment of prophecy, in Christ riding in to Jerusalem triumphant, and on a young colt of an ass.  The people were drawn there in great numbers, singing, praising God, and expressing great joy.  The resurrection of Lazarus was the crowing miracle of achievement in His ministry, it was the confirmation the common people and leaders alike could only attribute to being divine.  And in verse 19, the Pharisees state the facts … they have lost the war of hearts and minds of the people.  The people flock to Christ no matter what threats they can conjure.  Against this revelation of truth, they could have responded by giving in, yielding, and joining the crowds in acknowledging Christ as divine.  They too could not dispute the resurrection of Lazarus.  The facts were plain.  But when a choice is made, to refuse to believe, facts do nothing to persuade.  The Pharisees knew the truth, and refused to accept it.  And so the only path laid out to them was one of death.  They thought to kill Christ and be done with it.  But in truth, they were signing away the only hope for redemption that would be offered to them.  It was their own death warrants they were issuing.  To refuse Christ, to refuse truth, to refuse redemption, was to embrace not only the first death, but the eternal one as well.  This is where the pursuit of self, and of power, will ALWAYS lead – to the death of the pursuer.  This is why the wages of sin is death, because death is the only welcome release from the pain of sin.  And the choice to refuse to believe, in spite of what they knew, left them no other path to follow.

We face an equal danger.  There are those Christian who treat the holding on to a cherished sin, or pleasure of self, as if this choice bears no fruit and carries no consequences.  We hold back from Christ that thing which we do not want Him to change.  And so our sin remains, and our pain remains with it.  Instead of being willing to lay all on the alter, we keep some cherished pleasure hidden away.  But like a cancer it grows and grows, until it reaches a point where we begin to question whether we want God more than we want that thing we have been holding on to.  Our sin begins to cloud our judgment until we begin to think there is no moral conflict at all with it.  We can have BOTH God and our favorite sin.  We rationalize that we do not need to change anymore.  And like the Pharisees of old, we plant seeds in ourselves that reap a harvest of pain on a pathway to death.  Refusing to accept redemption can lead to no other outcome.  Redemption is designed to spare us from ALL pain.  Redemption and recreation teaches us to want different things, and let go of the things that are hurting us.  But we must be willing to be re-created completely, not just in part.  We must learn to trust God with ALL of us, not just the parts we think need tuning up.  And when we do, we find relief from the pain, and a pathway of life, not a highway towards death.  Let us never refuse to accept what we know to be true … and perhaps we can avoid finding ourselves in a plot to kill The King.

 

A Question of Law (witness number nine) ...

The conflict was to be escalated.  Our story continues in the Gospel of John chapter 5.  The religious leaders of the day had determined that a man healed of a crippling disease that was so intense he was unable to move a few feet into a pool of water on his own, had been “ordered” to carry his bed on Sabbath.  This crime was bad enough, but now they had found the Man who did the “ordering”, and determined He must be killed for His offense.  This is the ultimate definition of conservative fundamentalism; those who would espouse contrary beliefs must be killed because they do not agree with the group thinking.  The religious leaders never so much as paused to determine if the act of carrying a bed on Sabbath was indeed a breakage of the law.  A re-evaluation of their understanding of scripture, never so much as entered their heads.  The law is the law after all.  The interpretation however was decided by committee and the results were to be made edict.  Lost in the entire process; the defiance of physics in the miraculous healing of the man, and the love that cared more about healing, than “when” that healing took place.  Even a miracle was not enough to jolt the stubborn mob into re-thinking its position, instead the miracle acted as a catalyst to inspire them to murder.

A verbal debate on the law, the Jewish leadership felt confident they would win.  They had won for many years, and this is why their collective opinions had never been overturned.  If anything they had simply gotten more and more conservative in their interpretation of laws as the years progressed.  This is the natural course of events when the study of law is absent from the love that inspires it.  When one focuses only on actions and not on motives, an interesting cadre of possibilities is presented.  Loopholes emerge.  Fine print becomes important.  A question of law must be thoroughly vetted and a detailed interpretation agreed upon, much like a contract.  However, love is not something so easily and fully defined.  Love is hard to pen on paper, and make a contract out of.  Love seems to always exceed our understanding, and employ concepts that are counter intuitive to our best interests, such as forgiveness, and patience in the face of hate.  How does one interpret motive, and define it, if it is truly based in love?  Laws about actions are easier to proscribe, than a recipe for how to love another.  And so the law had been separated from the love behind it, and actions were all that mattered now.

A miracle in the face of our “facts” was an event that could not be ignored.  A verbal debate might be won as it was historically.  But a defiance of all the known laws of physics and science is not something easily dismissed.  It undoes perceptions.  It redefines realities.  It causes atheists to scramble, and mistaken religious zealots to either pause and re-evaluate, or as in this case, to harden their positions and seek to kill the opposition.  Truly these were a stiff necked people.  And truly so are we.  We harden our resolve never to re-evaluate our core doctrines, no matter what circumstances we encounter.  As such we block out the Holy Spirit from teaching us, as we focus all our energies on “teaching” others in His name.  Not even miracles, give us pause.  We simply find a way to explain the miraculous as either affirming our positions, or being merely coincidence if it disagrees.  Seems as though nothing has changed in the approach of religious leaders from ancient times to now.  But the conflict was to get worse.

Christ answers them in verse 17 and says … “But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”  Ouch.  Jesus had said a mouthful.  First, and this point was completely lost on them, this act of love was not the independent will of Jesus in sympathy for the man, it was an act of love done by the will of the Father.  Second, this “work” was not truly work, it was “love” in action.  When God rested on the seventh-day at creation, the animals he had made did not immediately expire from lack of breath.  The plants did not stop growing.  Gravity was not suspended.  Food did not disappear.  The universe kept spinning as it always had.  Love was not the thing God rested from.  And in making the Sabbath holy He was blessing us, by setting aside His time to spend it with us for one day every week in a special way, a way He outlined.  The intent was to free us from our normal distractions and give us time to spend with Him, the source of all love.  Jesus reaching out to this man on Sabbath begins with addressing his most pressing need, a physical restoration.  Love does not consider a healing from pain the “work” that must be delayed on Sabbath.  The salvation of man does not take a day off.  The restorative work of God on the human heart needs no time out on Sabbath, if anything it needs an acceleration on that day.  We appreciate God all the more, when He frees us from the slavery of self, and offers us some dedicated special time with Him.

In effect, Jesus was saying that the Father Himself, was redefining their interpretation of what “work” was, and what He did in heaven and on earth.  Love was not something God needed rest from, it was something He was and is and would always be.  Love incarnate.  In this instance, Jesus was telling these men, they were wrong, and they were not only arguing with Him, they were literally going to argue with God the Father on this one.  Those words should have been the end of the debate.  And they should have caused those who claimed to worship the Father, to take a step back, apologize, and rejoice in the love the Father wished only to show them.  But it did not.

Verse 18 chronicles their very human, and very stubborn response … “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.”  Their thinking and their perspective point about their interpretation of the law did not so much as flinch.  They were still certain Jesus had broken the Sabbath, despite only performing an act of love.  Now they saw His reference of the Father as a further crime of Blasphemy, and it only enraged them further.  This is the hallmark of the thinking of Satan.  Reason is abandoned for passion, and steeped in the pride of arrogance.  The Jews were wrong, and they would gladly kill Christ for pointing that out.  The miracle still stood as something beyond their version of “truth”.  Had this been only words, they might have been able to ignore His truth, but when it was bundled with something else they could not explain, they reduced this debate to one of ego, and they were not willing to sacrifice their pride in the study of the law, to the soft-spoken truth of love in action.

Jesus however, does not attempt to dispute this further accusation of blasphemy, he continues his focus on redefining what “work” actually means.  In verse 19 he responds … “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”  It was common in the culture of the day, that whatever skills and trades the father did in a family, the sons would learn and inherit.  All throughout nature, parent animals teach their young how to find food, build shelter, and care for their young.  A Jewish son would in all likelihood continue the occupation of his father as there was little opportunity to find something else.  At a minimum he would have been educated in his youth of the trades of his father.  This is the truism Jesus references.  In this He further states, this is what I have been taught by my Father.  My Father’s occupation is acts of love, it is what He has taught me.  Acts of love in the mind of God, is not considered work that transgresses the law.  In this Jesus is again stating their argument over their position on the law is in direct conflict with God the Father.  Love is not work, it is a state of being.

In verse 20, Jesus raises the stakes … “For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.”  Now to address the reason for their extreme emotional response, the thing they could not ignore; the miracle.  Guess what, there are greater things than this that you will witness and marvel at.  Here was Jesus saying, this was not a single act of love for you to soon forget, and write off as some sort of weird anomaly or coincidence.  There is going to be even greater miracles, that will be even harder to dispute, and you are going to marvel at them more than you marvel at this.  In effect, your inability to explain away the miracle associated with this act of love is about to get compounded in scope and frequency.  This was unwelcome news, as it implies a supernatural power is behind the acts of Christ, and they may be arguing against something larger than humanity on this one.  This is not going to be just another typical verbal debate; this one comes with proof of the divine position on the question of law.

Now recognizing that they are debating something greater than humanity, if one is determined to hold to ones position on the law, then the natural conclusion is that Jesus must be acting on behalf of some evil power, not from God.  But before they can hold on to this conclusion (in spite of all the facts to the contrary), Jesus trumps this idea by offering them a power the devil does not have, in verse 20 He continues … “For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.”  Lest you think Satan is behind the miracles I do, the ability to raise the dead is something only God could do, and so only the Son can do it as well.  Again following the understanding of Jewish culture of the day, Jesus is saying I have learned what my Father taught me.  And this time He is clearly articulating that only God could do the act of bringing back the dead.

How poignant a lesson for us; here is Jesus saying to us … only God can bring back the dead.  Do you realize that in embracing the pain of sin, you have embraced the death that sin brings?  Only God can bring back the dead, only God can restore the life He intended for you, from the death you have embraced.  And what is more, only Jesus can save you from this death you have chosen.  Without the redemptive, restorative, creative power of God, you would be doomed to your slavery to self, to pain, and to the death you would one day crave as the only escape from such a tortured existence.  God alone can bring you back from this death.  God alone can, not only restore your body, but He can restore your life to one of freedom to love others, not bound to only think of self.  This truth has never been more relevant, and more needed than in our hearts and lives and motives.

In verse 22 and 23 Jesus now outlines the true mission of the Messiah … “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: [verse 23] That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.”  The work of judgment has been reserved to Christ.  Christ had been sent into the world by His Father to redeem, to restore, to bring life.  Jesus is saying in verse 20, God alone can bring back the dead, and in these verses, I am here to do just that from a spiritual perspective.  The work of the Messiah is not the work of a man.  It is the work of God the Father, in sending His only Son to this world.  Honoring the Father CANNOT happen if honor is not also given to the Son He sent.  There is no bypassing Jesus or the Messiah in the act of judgment.  The judge interprets the law.  The judge has the final say.  The judge overrules the opinions of the lawyers, and makes the final determination.  If this is a question of law, then you are talking to the lawgiver, and the judge.  Judgment on whether acts of love are work on the Sabbath is something Jesus will decide, as God has given Him this role.  The Messiah is more than man, He is God, the Son of God.

What is more, salvation CANNOT occur bypassing Jesus and attempting to appeal directly to the Father.  This is a team effort.  And if we refuse to acknowledge the way of our salvation, we are refusing the gift of the Father as well as the gift of His Son.  God is saying to the world, this is “how” you will be saved, through my Son.  Through the ultimate definition of the law in action, look at the life of Christ, look at how far love will go to save and redeem, this is my method for your redemption.  Jesus is the living embodiment of the law, and when questions of interpretation arise, look to Christ.  Christ is the judge of what the law means, and how it is to be interpreted.  His life is that definition.  The words God gave on the top of Mount Sinai, now have a living example to model after.  The meaning of the law now has a living witness, and a living judge.  Whatever you thought you knew about the law, measure those interpretations against the life of Christ; for Christ is the standard by which we can measure the love that inspires the law.

Verse 24 summarizes the entirety of the gospel … “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”  Jesus plainly states this is how you avoid condemnation and pass from death unto life, is belief that God sent Christ to save you.  Notice, Jesus does not say you are saved by your strict adherence to the law.  He does not say you are saved by the doctrines you believe and by your interpretations of scripture, and understanding of prophecy, and the time you spend in reading and prayer.  You are saved not by the accumulation of your spiritual efforts, but by your belief in something outside of yourself.  You are saved by your belief that Christ can and will save you from yourself.  Christ is not throwing away the Sabbath, or the law, He is instead offering you a way to see clearly what it means, and how to truly “keep” it.  Christ is not throwing away His book, or His word, He is instead telling you that your wisdom in these matters requires further instruction.  You are to be the student, not the teacher.  You are to learn from Christ, not teach Him what your truth is.  Your salvation comes to you as a gift of God, something outside of yourself.  All of your accumulated truth is meaningless outside of submission to Jesus Christ.  All of your attempts to obey are fruitless outside of Jesus Christ.  You are saved first, then you can finally begin to learn what obedience means, and why motives matter.

In verse 25 Jesus continues … “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.”  In this Jesus is speaking both literally and spiritually.  Those who accept Jesus are transformed from death unto life.  And Jesus has the power to reach into the grave and cause the dead to hear Him and respond.  Lazarus would soon be a literal example of power of restorative creative love.  But thousands more who heard the sermons of Christ would become living examples of this transformation.  The 12 who were with Him now, would become men to reap the harvest and help change the world.  Millions would pass from death unto life by hearing and believing the words of Christ, if only through the written account of John in his gospel.

Jesus continues in verse 26 and 27 … “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; [verse 27] And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.”  Here is Jesus plainly stating God is author of all life.  Life is within God.  Life is also within Christ.  Not life that was placed there, but life that was authored there.  God is the source of life.  Christ is the source of life.  Our restoration is possible because Christ restores life to us.  And the life Christ brings to us is everlasting as He is everlasting.  We will be made to live forever because Christ lives forever.  We are not immortal now.  There is no inherent immortality in us.  Life was placed into us, it did not originate in us.  It originates in God, and as such only God can give it as a gift.  Here is Jesus saying judgment is reserved to Him because He is both God, and by choice, man.  God has become man in order to save that which was lost. 

The act of redemption requires no rest on the Sabbath.  This is the living example of the life of Christ, who is the judge on this matter.  The Sabbath has not been broken, it has been affirmed.  This is the ruling of the Judge, both in heaven and in earth.  The Sabbath is all about companionship with God, time with God, time reserved that is special for man and God.  Nothing Christ has done in his act of love to the man who was diseased for 38 years, was considered “work”, it was considered restoration based in love.  Despite the man’s response which was known before it was committed, despite the act of betrayal of Christ to those bent on killing Him, it did not deter the love of the Father or the Son for this sick man.  No matter how we respond to the love of God, it does not deter God from loving us.  Though we hate Him, He still loves us.  Though we betray Him unto death, He still loves us, and seeks our redemption.  This is the power of love.

Now Jesus looks forward to the end of the work of the Messiah, in verses 28 and 29 He continues … “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, [verse 29] And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”  Even at the end of the earth, even at the end of all things, it is still the voice of Christ who ALL the dead can hear.  It is still the voice of Christ that can call that which is dead and lost back from the graves they have ALL gone down into.  Notice this does not imply that disembodied souls are floating around somewhere, powered by themselves, that are now compelled to return to their reanimated bodies.  This states the dead who were ALL resting in their graves are restored by the power of Christ at the end of all things, whether righteous, or wicked, dead is dead.  And only Christ can restore what is dead.

The condition and eternal destiny of the dead is not determined by their actions, but it is revealed by them.  Motives inspire action.  Those who have done good, are those who through submission have been freed of themselves, and have learned to love as God loves.  God within them, inspires them to do good.  God in control of their will, their desires, and their actions leads them to do good, from a desire to do good.  Those who refused the gift of God, who instead trusted to their own ideas, their own will power, their own actions, do what is predictable, that which is in their own best interests.  Inevitably this leads to doing evil.  The reasons behind the actions matter.  Doing what is perceived as a “good” action, for a selfish reason, can hardly be classified as truly “good”.  The recipient of this action may benefit, but the one who does it, does not benefit.  Good must come from a restoration within us.  This is not natural to us, and can only happen when it is God who restores us from death unto life, as we submit our entire lives into His control.  This is what determines our destiny, and is revealed by the transformation that takes place within us while we yet live.  What we do, is then a result of our salvation from ourselves, or a revelation that we have refused to let this occur.

In verse 30, Jesus tries again to illustrate that the will of God to save us, is not something just He does, but something His Father is also keenly interested in … “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”  Father and Son equally engaged in the effort to redeem mankind.  Nothing Jesus is to do in this world is a one-sided affair; it is the will of His Father.  The miracles that Jesus is to perform are not from the power of His humanity, but from the will of His Father.  Though divine, Christ submits His own life to the will of His Father, as we must also do, if we are to be saved.  Even though He was perfect Christ still submitted His own will to God the Father.  He did not trust to Himself, but to His Father.  Even in this Christ shows us the example of how to live and find salvation from ourselves.

In verses 31 through 38 Christ then moves the conversation to the witnesses that He is speaking the truth.  He first says that it is John the Baptist who for a while they were happy to believe that testified of Christ.  It was only then, that this group of religious leaders lost interest in the message of John.  Interestingly enough while John’s message was to repent, a rather fundamentalist concept, the religious leaders were OK with him.  When he then testified of Jesus, they lost interest.  How reminiscent of modern Christianity, very interested in discussing sin and publicly condemning behavior with which we do not agree.  But when it comes to surrendering to Christ, the message goes eerily quiet.  Christ continues then, His argument that it is the Father in heaven that testifies to the truth of His words, through the divine miracles He performs.  This is the truth they did not want to hear, and the one for which there was no other answer, than that they were wrong.  And so they chose to disregard it anyway.

In verse 38 Jesus offers a stinging criticism.  The study of the law is not the same as the embracing of the law.  The study of scripture is not the same as the embracing of scripture.  Had the leadership embraced the law they would have by extent embraced the love that stood behind the law.  Had they placed their focus on motive over actions, they would have recognized the healing of the man to be an occasion of great joy, great love, and great rejoicing.  Love had renewed a life.  Those who had the word of God within them, would know this.  But as Jesus said to them … “ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.”  In the rejection of Christ, was bound the rejection of the testimonies that pointed to Christ, and the Father who sent Him.  You cannot have the word of God abiding within you, and then reject the words and message and life that is represented in Christ.  It is not the law that saves; it is the love behind the law.  It is only the Lawgiver who saves.

In verses 39 and 40 Christ undoes the foundation of their religious thinking.  He likewise undoes the basis for every Christian denomination on planet earth.  Jesus says … “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. [verse 40] And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”  The Jews had gotten so hung up on studying the scripture that they thought that act alone would offer them eternal life.  Christianity likewise today, gets so hung up on the differences in doctrine from the examination of scripture we hold to, that we believe these distinctions alone are what save us, or doom us for eternity.  We are both wrong.  We are all wrong.  The scriptures testify of Jesus Christ as our one salvation.  We ALL need to surrender to the one Lord alone.  Jew, Christian alike, are wrong that it is the study of scripture that saves.  It is only in coming to Christ that we are saved.  We may have memorized the entire Bible word for word, but if we have not embraced the point of the testimony, if we have yet to come to Christ, we are as lost as we ever were before we opened the book.  Salvation comes from Christ, not from study, not from the perceived distinctions that separate modern Christians.  Salvation comes from Christ.  Only in Christ can truth or unity ever be discovered.  Only will love ever heal the pain and differences we have allowed to take precedence over the love that emanates from the heart of God.

The words of verse 40 still haunt my ears … “But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.”  He was speaking to the those who thought they had the truth.  He was speaking to a nation who had dedicated itself to the keeping of the law, to the preservation of the prophets, to a worship system that Christ had setup all those years ago in the desert.  And despite all this blessing, and all this truth, and all this scripture, they STILL did not have the love of God within them.  Could it be those same haunting words are equally applied to me in the church pew in which I find myself?  Could it be that modern Christianity despite having yet another Testament of Christ, the gospels of John and His contemporaries, that we would STILL not have the love of God within us?  This prospect is terrifying and predictable.  If we have refused to surrender, even with all the accumulated knowledge of our age; if we still prefer to trust our own wisdom instead of surrendering it to Christ, we stand with the mob that day bent on taking the life of God.  There is no difference between us.

In verse 43 and 44 Jesus goes on to point out the absurdity of ignoring the divine stamp of approval on the life of Christ and miracles He performs, with a preference to have one man testify of another.  Christ tells this group that they argue against the Ruler of the Universe, instead preferring human wisdom, human honor, human approval.  This is not a question of law that has been raised.  This has become a question of ego.  These folks do not want to submit to the idea that they could be wrong about what they believe.  It is not the law that is wrong, it is the interpretation they have devised that is in error.  It is not the words Moses penned on paper that were in error.  It is the focus on humanity and human judgment and the refusal to submit to God, that has resulted in the errors associated with the keeping of the law.  It has resulted in blinding them to the joy of a healing, and instead a focus on the fact that it was done on the Sabbath.  This is the crazy, that develops when human wisdom is preferred to the divine.

Christ concludes His dissertation by referring them back to the author they most revere.  In verse 45 He says … “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. [verse 46] For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. [verse 47] But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”  Here Jesus plainly says, all of scripture, including the writings of Moses testify of Christ.  If they have missed this, they have missed the point entirely.  If Moses testifies of Jesus, and though they say the follow Moses, they still deny Jesus, they are not likely to accept the words of Christ as proof.  But in this their problem is compounded.  If Moses truly condemns them for their lack of belief, is there any hope left to them?  They have made a career, and a life, out of the study of the law.  Now Jesus tells them, they have missed the point entirely, and the patriarch they so revere is condemning them for their choice to trust in their own wisdom.

Many years ago when Moses died before entering the Promised Land he was buried in secret by God.  But apparently the devil found his body, and contended for it.  So God called Moses out of the grave and had taken him into heaven.  Perhaps the devil was looking for his body, to attempt to use it to cause the people to believe a lie.  Who knows?  But the Jews did believe that Moses had been taken to heaven.  So the idea that Moses might be in heaven actually accusing them to God the Father, was literally un-nerving.  At this idea, their animosity and intent to kill Christ was quelled for the moment.  This idea took them back, caused them to pause and re-group.  At this point, Jesus had told them He was the Messiah, the Son of God, the judge and final arbiter of what it means to obey the law, and now that Moses testified of His divinity.  A question of law had evolved into the larger question of salvation in general.  For now, whether the man carried his bed or not did not matter.  For now, whether Jesus had blasphemed did not matter.  For now what mattered was to consider the words of Christ and just make sure Moses was not on His team.

And so Christ was able to withdraw from this confrontation, and travel away from Jerusalem once again.  This had been the first time in His ministry, when Jesus so clearly had told the people and leaders who He was, and what the mission of the Messiah was.  Though judge, He was not here to judge, but to redeem.  Though God, He would daily submit His own will to the will of the Father.  His teachings focused on motives, and demonstrated love in action, not just in theory, or in words.  He was there to restore life.  He was here to bring the dead back to life, those who had died spiritually were to be awakened through the power of His words.  Nothing, not even death, could separate us from the love of God, both Father and Son. 

I do not know if the man who had been healed heard this discourse.  I do not know if he ever later read the encounter John would record.  I can only imagine that if he did, he would have been covered in the shame of his betrayal of God to a mob bent on killing Him.  I can only imagine he would have been SO sorry that he clung to his traditional ideas about the law, instead of embracing the love Christ was offering to him.  But in the same way, as I examine my own life, I see all the times I clung to my own ideas about scripture and the law, trusting to my own wisdom instead of submitting it to the only God who would save me.  I see all the times when I thought to conquer sin on my own, instead of abandoning this work to Christ who alone is capable of doing it for me.  And I too share the shame of the healed man.  I hope we both learned from our mistakes, and going forward, were neither of us ashamed to surrender fully to Jesus Christ each day forever more.  For in this is salvation, even for one who betrayed Him, like the healed man, and like me.