Instructions We Never Really Read ...

Whether you may be a parent assembling a toy for your child, or perhaps a simple piece of furniture, or just attempting to use that new software for the first time; there are many occasions where we pay little attention to, or discard the instructions completely.  This may stem from the notion that we “know” what needs to be done, and the instructions will only slow us down.  Or it may be that the instructions were written in a foreign language, and we figure we couldn’t have understood them anyway.  Finally, it may be that the instructions were just too long, and would have required too much of our time and attention to really read.  So we set about “assembling” or “interacting” with our objective in the manner we think is best.  Throughout that process though, a good many of us find ourselves at a dead end, unable to figure out how to proceed next and our first recourse beyond google … is to check the thing we avoided up to this point, to refer back to the instructions.

The disciples of Christ were simple men, when it came to matters of the Kingdom of God.  For that matter, most of the audience in attendance at the Sermon on the Mount were simple people.  They all understood the need for prayer.  But the mechanics of how to pray, was something no one was completely certain of.  The Sanhedrin had ideas, and they followed them.  Traditions passed down, that no one dare oppose.  But the people sitting on this mountainside, were learning wisdom from the Messiah Himself.  What was coming out of His mouth, was coming out of the mouth of God’s own Son.  So to have their questions answered from Jesus was quite literally, a God send.  The people and the disciples wanted more certainty in how we should communicate with God.  And Jesus sensed their need even before they had occasion to voice it.  Matthew recorded the entire instruction set in only 10 verses in chapter six of his gospel.

Jesus begins his simple instruction set, in a common language of the people, in a way that would easy for them to understand, picking up in verse 5 saying … “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”  This text follows on the previous section that talked about how we should give our alms to the poor, and those in need.  One of the important points of that section was to give in humility, and in secret, not looking for credit, or an opportunity for comparative holiness.  And so to begin, Jesus continues this very theme as it pertains to prayer.  Prayer, designed to draw attention to itself, prayer designed to show off the oratory skills of the person offering it, will miss the blessing of true one-on-one communication with God.

It is difficult to truly humble ourselves in front of others, particularly when our goal is not humility, it is to be “seen and heard” as a person who prays “powerful” prayers.  In the days of Christ, the Sanhedrin ruling class craved this kind of attention.  They did not just want to pray, they wanted to be “seen” praying, to be heard saying their prayers before God in public places in order to gain the attention they deserve.  And we look down on them for that.  But then, we turn around and offer several public prayers in our church services, in front of hundreds or even thousands of other believers.  Those who are asked to pray at these times, are suddenly cognizant that they will be “scrutinized” by the church for how well they pray.  It cannot be too long, or too short.  It must make a point.  It should not be a mini-sermon.  It should be pertinent to the activity that follows or precedes it.  All of the sudden, the Sanhedrin is reborn in us, and while we may not sound a trumpet to call attention to ourselves, the sequence of events published in the bulletin will perform that same function just as well.

And so we miss the benefit of humility, for the sake of seeking credit, for the eloquence of our speech.  Jesus continues to offer His alternative to us in verse 6 saying … “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”  Here we go again.  Our human minds equate this promise to a powerful secret Santa; we avoid public prayer, and our secret Santa showers us with the desires of our hearts.  But then, that is not what is promised here.  What is admonished is prayer in secret, in places where no one will judge us for our eloquence, where we will not be seen at all.  In that place, true humility before God will be possible.  To know our need.  To know how vast our need is.  Is already a blessing that words can scarcely describe.

But beyond having a semblance of how wretched we truly are, and how glorious our God is, while in secret we can pour out our hearts to God, craving the change we so much need.  To lay our sins down upon the altar of prayer in that private place is possible.  We can confess what we would not want other ears to hear.  We can ask, not only for forgiveness He freely offers, but for re-creation within us we do desperately need.  To want something else.  To have our very desires remolded by our Creator, is possible when we are not being watched by our peers, or even family and friends.  Our salvation will be personal.  It will be one-on-one.  It will be Jesus saving you … from you.  This cannot be done in group session.  It cannot be done in public, for we become too conscious of who is watching and what they will think.  It must be done in our closets, in our private places, where no one is watching but our God who never sleeps.  It is there, in private, where our salvation is achieved.

God does not simply grant us the wish list we bring to Him.  Instead in those private moments, He works on the character within us, to re-create our thinking, our desires, our motives, and ultimately as a result, our actions.  This reward is only possible when you are free to pour out who you are to God, in a place where you can do this without the pressure of others watching.   And so what do “we” do?  We hold prayer meetings to pray in front of each other.  We do it again at family meals, or family worship.  And while these practices are not wrong in themselves, they deny us a benefit we might otherwise be getting if we were praying in our private places.  Our problem, is that we replace our private prayers, with only the corporate ones, and then think to ourselves that our prayer life is “just fine” based on the number of times we pray in a week, instead of the passion of our prayers poured out in private with only God watching.

Jesus continues His instructions in verse 7 saying … “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”  Vain repetitions.  How many of the prayers for our food are a complete copy of the last time we said “grace”?  How many other occasions whether public or private, turn out to be carbon copies of our previous prayers, they become memorized speeches instead of meaningful petitions.  Churches use “readings” in public forums that are half-uttered prayers based on scripture we repeat over and over.  Even the Lord’s Prayer itself coming in just a few verses away will become something we repeat over and over, thinking we have said what we needed to say.  But its repetition will make its impact upon us dull, to the point of changing nothing in us.  The idea that we repeat what we say “so that God will hear us” states, that our God is deaf, and uncaring.  Repetition is not the way to gain the attention of God, it is a way to bore Him to tears.

Jesus continues in verse 8 saying … “Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”  And herein is the secret to why we pray at all.  It is not to make God aware of what we need, as He already knows that.  It is not to beg God to provide what we need, that only reflects a lack of faith on our part, and is completely unnecessary when we understand how much He loves us, and can take trust in that love.  His actions precede our words.  There is nothing He does not know about us.  Therefore our prayer life, is meant to show US, our need, and His love.  We do not need repetitions.  We need earnest communication with a God we KNOW is there listening and loving.  We need a method to submit to Him, to lay before Him, our thinking, our desires (yes even the sexual ones), and our motives, to change as He sees fit.  Prayer is a perfect mechanism to do this.  Prayer becomes a channel where we enable God to save us, and ignore our otherwise disobedient lives.  It is a channel where we ask Him to do what we know He already wants to do in us.  Not for us, but in us.  The things He does for us, He is already doing before we utter the words.  What we truly need is the things He longs to do in us, and for that we need to give Him permission using the vehicle of our prayers.

All of these instructions precede the example of prayer Jesus would outline for His people.  It was Jesus Himself who just finished saying we need not offer vain repetitions.  The Lord’s Prayer can become a vain repetition when we have the vanity to think it is the only prayer we ever need offer.  It can become vanity when we seem to only ever offer it in a public place, in front of other people.  These were the instructions we simply find ourselves overlooking in order to get to the easier word-for-word repetition we could find in the Lord’s prayer itself.  And we somehow find a way to look down on our Pharisee forefathers.  Nevertheless Jesus wanted us to know what we could say to our God, and why it was important.

He begins in verse 9 saying … “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”  First we identify that who we pray to is not just a nebulous god such as the Greeks or Romans might identify.  Other cultures have gods that live beyond our sight as well.  But our God, is also “our” Father.  Jesus lifts up humanity and offers us the privilege of calling His Father, Our Father.  Our God lives in heaven, not the heavens meaning the skys, but in heaven the city built trillions of years before our existence, the place He chooses to dwell.  Heaven is a place where other life forms gather to be with Him, and to be close to Him.  They would need a city to facilitate that goal, and so they have one.

Hallowed is His name.  We do not know the name of the Father, but one day we will.  Whatever that name is, it is to be hallowed, spoken with reverence.  This term is to remind us of who we are, and who He is.  For it is His greatness, and His love, that would be willing to part with His only Son to see us redeemed.  It is the greatness of His love that is able to re-create in us what we have broken in our choice to embrace sin over and over.  For that alone His name is hallowed and reverenced.  But not unspoken at all.  We tend to think because God is who He is, we should avoid talking to Him on a personal level, because that would somehow bring God down to us.  But the point of prayer itself is to bring us up to God.  That His name is hallowed, only reminds us of that notion.  It does not keep us from speaking to Him in the words that pour from our hearts.

Jesus continues in verse 10 saying … “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”  In heaven, it is the highest honor of existence to carry out the will of God.  Angels long to do it.  Other creations long to do it.  God does not need us to do it, He can do everything and anything all by Himself.  He permits us to help, because of His patience and love of His creation.  To carry out the will of God on earth, despite our circumstances, bad decisions, and human failings, is no less a privilege to us.  To think of it in those terms, is to be a toddler granted a new toy in the Kingdom of God.  Daddy is going to hold our hand and help us do, what He needed to do.  Perhaps in the life of another, perhaps you will be the tool to reflect the love of God the Father.  In so doing, Daddy gets his will accomplished, sharing with you the joy of loving and making a difference.

Jesus continues in verse 11 saying … “Give us this day our daily bread.”  This part of the prayer is not designed to send God a gentle reminder due to His old age and tendency to forget things now.  Nope.  This simple sentence is meant to address a few ideas in you.  One, we need only ask for what we need today.  There is no stockpiling in this idea, no hoarding, and no worrying about tomorrow.  That is a complete departure from everything in our world.  We work to take care of ourselves, always thinking about what we need in the future.  Here is Jesus reminding us, to quit it.  If we cannot trust God to already know He loves us and was already planning to meet the needs of today, how can we trust Him with the greater needs of our salvation?  We should all be homeless, or at least be ready to be homeless, ready to let go of everything we cling to, and stockpile.  But that idea is beyond our comprehension.  So we work, and convince ourselves that this line in the prayer is nothing more than a blessing on food, and we repeat it vainly every time it is said.

Jesus now changes the subject a bit as He continues in verse 12 saying … “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”  There was a very Jewish notion in this text.  Literally translated it means, all those loans you think you loaned out, go forgive them.  Release the people from their debts, give them the freedom not to worry about them.  Why?  It was in the sentence before, we are already getting whatever we need for this day from our God, we just got finished asking for that.  So if I have all I need from God, why am I asking you to repay loans.  I don’t need your money, I have my God.  I can change your request of a loan from me, into a gift of resources, underwritten by my God.  A chance to do His will on earth as it is in heaven.  And Jesus intended to come back to this one.

But for now, another pressing thought as Jesus continues in verse 13 saying … “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”  This one came from experience.  Those 40 days and nights in the desert being tempted of Satan were very hard on Jesus.  None of us could ever have withstood it.  But that did not happen by accident it happened because the Spirit led Jesus there.  It was necessary to try His gold in the fire.  Here Jesus asks the Father that we experience no such equivalent.  It is hard enough for us to stay out of sin when there is no temptation.  But when temptation comes, too many of us fall to it.  So here, Jesus asks that He and His Father find a way to shelter us from evil and deliver us from evil, changing who we are without the added burden of temptation.  It is the greatest mercy our God could ever show us.  Again the reminder to us, of how great, and eternal is our God, and the conclusion of the prayer.  A prayer we speak so casually now, we have it memorized, and it makes so little dent in our thinking anymore.  The sample Jesus spoke has become the only prayer we take certainty in.  We have increased our inventory of prayers not much beyond this one, at least not with any certainty.  How sad.

But the instructions were not over yet.  Jesus goes back to the trespasses thing again picking up in verse 14 saying … “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: [verse 15] But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”  How can we be free when we cling to who we were?  If we cannot release others to be free, it is ourselves we bind.  It is a tangible demonstration that we hold something back from God, a part of ourselves and our greed, that we refuse to let go.  We do not free others and in so doing we do not free ourselves.  We hold ourselves captive to our greed, and refuse to trust God with our daily bread.  Instead we cling to the notion that we can provide our own bread, let God focus on some other need.  And this thinking then permeates our salvation.  We can purify some portion of ourselves, let God work on something else, something we “need” help with, as these portions of ourselves we can do for ourselves.

And so “self” remains at the center of our religion, pushing Jesus to the side in a partnership role.  And we keep our salvation at bay, preventing the heavenly Father from truly releasing us from the past, from who we were.  As co-pilot, Jesus is not granted the access He needs to redesign the aircraft.  While we stubbornly cling to the pilot’s chair and role, we block our Lord from doing what He so longs to do for us, if we would only yield control.  Instead choosing to trust ourselves with our needs, both temporal and spiritual.  We begin to look upon the Lords Prayer as something we say over and over in church, and thereby meet our obligations for prayer.  Slowly but surely we take more of our salvation out of the hands of Jesus, and put it in our own.  Increasingly denying what we allow God to do for us.  Increasingly becoming comfortable with the chains of slavery to our self-love we hoist upon ourselves.  Ultimately we find ourselves not truly knowing who Jesus truly is.  For we have come to trust only us, in any matter of concern regarding us.  We feed ourselves.  We keep our debts.  We provide for ourselves.  And we will purify ourselves, when we get around to it, though that day never seems to arrive.  And thus Jesus is not our savior, for we have never allowed Him to save us … from us.

All because we cannot let go of our past.  All because we are unable to free others from owing us, and in so doing free ourselves from the burden of being owed.  We are unable or unwilling to change loan into gift, because we worry what the financial implications might be, of not having the wealth of another to count on to sustain us.  When we already have a better guarantee than any other human could ever provide, we have the love of a Father God, not just a Father, but OUR Father.  We opened the prayer with that line, and already we have forgotten it.  This ability to release others from their wrong doing extends beyond financials, it extends to every part of human interaction.  Others will do us wrong.  It is human weakness, and satanic evil behind it, but it will occur.  When it does, we have the choice to free them, and in so doing free us from it.  Or we can cling to it, and let it build hate and revenge in us over it.  Until we drown out the idea of real freedom, and become slaves to our slights.

Oh the blessings we forego when we make those choices.  But it need not be so.  Freedom is here.  It is right around the corner for you.  It is as simple as trusting your Father, enacting His will here upon earth, letting Daddy hold your hand, and becoming an instrument of love.  It releases you.  It brings with it, a freedom such as you have never known. 

And the sermon was still far from over …

Public Display of Faith (witness number twenty three) ...

John continues his account of the fulfillment of prophecy of the work of the Messiah in chapter 12 of his gospel and beginning in verse 20 he notes that due to the Passover, there were Greek believers in attendance who also wished to see Jesus.  They approached Phillip who took their request to his brother Andrew, who took it to Christ.  This was all happening at what the people believed was the zenith of His ministry.  The people were sure this triumphal ride into Jerusalem was to be the day of His coronation.  They were still bent on Him becoming King whether He wanted it or not.  The Greeks who were there, were intent on witnessing this event up close.  But what the people wanted from their Messiah, was not the mission of the Messiah.  Jesus reading the intents of His listeners must try once again to correct their misinterpretations of scripture for His mission.

Jesus responds in verse 23 … “And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.”  It is important to note that how God measures glorification is NOT how we measure it.  God does not seek adoration, or praise of His name, as the means by which He is glorified.  His ideas of glorification come from acts of love He performs for someone else.  For the name of God to be glorified from the perspective of Christ, it must indicate an even greater act of love, than anyone has given witness to so far.  Only then can the name of God be truly glorified, not from vanity, but from love in action for others; for our God lives by His own ideas of service and love to others first and always.  Jesus then continues in verse 24 to describe what act of love and sacrifice will now accomplish the goal of glorifying the name of God … “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”  The Messiah must die to bear the punishment of us all.  The death we have earned He will take on in our stead.  The hopes of the people to witness a coronation that day were not to be met.  Crowning Christ King would not glorify the name of God, but offering the world the crowing act of love and sacrifice would.

Then Jesus continues by offering what the results of His crowning act of love and sacrifice might bear in verse 25 He continues … “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”  When we seek the redemption and transformation that Christ offers us, we begin to see sin and the pain it causes with clearer vision.  We begin to see how our actions and our apathy have hurt others and hurt ourselves.  This revelation of our lives and of ourselves can cause us to hate what we have become; hate what we have done with our short lives on this planet.  We know that sin causes pain, yet we perpetually choose to embrace it; out of control, spiraling towards even more pain.  It is this life we come to hate through the revelation of its reality, by the transformative power of Christ.  It leads us to want something more, something else, something better.  It leads us to want the life Christ has prepared for us in perfection, to want that perfection to begin here and see its fulfillment in heaven.  If we love sin, we do not seek an escape from it, and it kills us.  But if we hate the sin within us, we find a re-creation through Jesus Christ is possible in the here and now, and redemption and reformation are only a request away.

Jesus continues in verse 26 … “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.”  To live as Christ lived, to serve as He served, and love as He loves, is to “follow” Christ.  To be “with” Christ, is to join Him in His ministry to others, for the benefit of others, both physically and spiritually, to meet every need we can meet.  This service of love is how Honor is measured in heaven.  When we serve despite our lack of ability, or skills, or means, the Father God honors our efforts and results are His gifts to us all.  We are reformed in the serving; others are brought to Christ by the love we reflect.  This is how we “follow” Christ, and how we “serve” Him – in the form of the least of these we encounter.  We do not serve to find praise for it.  We do not serve with the intent of receiving some reward in the future from those we do good actions upon.  Our reward is the service itself.  Our honor is to reflect the love of God to others and to be joined with Him in mission and in spirit.  To be in union with heaven is already more reward than we are capable of comprehending.

Though He was divine, He was also human.  The humanity in us fears death, and dreads its arrival.  It is no easy thing to suffer and die, made worse for Him in that this would happen to Him by the very cherished children He had come to save.  Christ had full knowledge of what was coming.  While the people still hoped for a coronation, what was actually soon to occur was His torture and death.  Even before His final struggle with the burden of bearing our sacrifice that would occur in the Garden of Gethsemane, here Christ publicly proclaims His human apprehension for what must occur.  He states in verse 28 … “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.”  Christ sees His eminent torture and death and it troubles Him deep in His core.  It is not only the human part of Him that dreads death.  It is the divine part of Him that cannot see past the grave.  What if, having born our sin He is forever stained with it?  What if, having been stained with our great evil, He is no longer allowed in the presence of His Father – for sin cannot endure the purity of the love of His Father.  What His divine side is risking, is potential eternal separation from His Father – which is the definition of Hell itself.  There is only one way for our salvation to occur, but it is a risk for Him, not a sure thing.  His act of love might cost Him everything, not just His human existence, but His proximity to His Father for all time.  Yet this was the only way, that we could be redeemed from the clutches of evil that we had embraced.  And so it must go forward.

But despite the risk, despite His apprehension, He must continue, for His love for us is just that great.  He declares in verse 28 … “Father, glorify thy name.”  The mission of the Messiah must continue, the sacrifice of love that would confound the angels and sentient life across the Universe for the depth of the love of God must be made.  Those standing around Christ could still not understand why He was so troubled.  They were about to make Him King, yet He seemed so pre-occupied and resolute.  Jesus needed for those in His hearing to know once again that His act of love, was not one of simple humanity, but that it was ordained and shared with His Father God.  The risk of losing a Father, was not less felt, than the risk of losing His Son.  Then verse 28 continues … “Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”  The literal voice of God the Father in response to the request of His Son: all the miracles and acts of love and service done throughout the ministry of Christ were the glorification of the name of God.  In every miracle, Christ attributes His acts of love to the will of His Father in heaven.  He takes no personal credit, but offers all to God His Father.  In this, the name of our God has been glorified.  Then the further promise … “and will glorify it again”.  The sacrifice Christ is about to make, will be the ultimate glorification of the name of God.  It will forever stand as a reminder of how deeply God loves.  And it will forever seal in the minds of all the sentient Universe that God is love, and Satan and the serving of self is evil.  This final knowledge of good and of evil will seal the fate of evil forevermore throughout the universe, only possible from the act of love and sacrifice Christ is about to make.

The response of the people to hearing the literal voice of God the Father was mixed.  Some said it sounded like thunder (likely those who were so steeped in their embrace of evil, they were simply unable to perceive the words clearly).  Some said an angel spoke to Him (these could discern the words, but not their meaning, or perhaps were just not ready to believe that they had just heard the literal voice of God the Father).  Jesus was used to having private conversations with His Father in prayer.  But on this occasion with His eminent death so close, He wanted them to share in the dialog with His Father.  He states in verse 30 … “Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.”  Jesus knew the people and His disciples would want evidence of His authenticity.  This was particularly true, because He was about to greatly disappoint them, in not becoming their earthly King, instead choosing to make the sacrifice of offering His life for ours.  That was a radical departure from their understanding of scripture, and He hoped that hearing the voice of God the Father, might help them realize their error in interpreting scripture once all had come to pass.

Christ continues in verse 31 … “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”  The reign of evil, the control of evil over the hearts of men, was about to be broken.  What Christ would do would establish His Kingdom in our hearts, His dominion over our minds, hearts, and souls.  No more could the devil make a claim that we belonged to him.  Christ was indeed to reassert His kingship, but not over politics, instead over the human heart.  The “judgment “ that was to occur would happen in the minds of the unfallen angelic beings who chose to serve God in faith, never sure if the claims of the devil had merit at all or not.  The sentient life throughout the universe who had denied the devil a foothold in their worlds would now know their choice of loyalty to God was a good one.  The absolute defeat of evil was eminent.  No more doubt.  Every claim of the devil that God was a cruel dictator, would be discovered fully as a lie.  The truth would be revealed, and with it the contrast of what love will do, versus what evil would desire.  The devil lost his universal audience and his foothold over us, all in the same event to come.

Jesus continues in verse 32 … “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. [verse 33] This he said, signifying what death he should die.”  Jesus knows what is coming, and how He is to die.  What is more, in His words are the ultimate promise of the Gospel.  He will draw “all men” unto Himself.  Not just those of Jewish ancestry, or even of Jewish faith, but all men.  The salvation of every person who has ever lived will be made possible by what Christ is about to do.  The hold of Satan over us is to be broken by the power of His Love to re-create us anew.  In His death is to be our redemption.  But the people who up to now, were not quite sure what He was talking about, clearly understood the reference to His coming crucifixion.  Their understanding of scripture precluded this idea.  They believed the Kingdom of the Messiah was to last forever, and the supremacy of Israel was never to be undone.  Thus if He were to be executed by Rome on a cross, it would discount His ability to be the Messiah at all (from their understanding of the scriptures).  So they respond to Him in verse 34 … “The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?”.  Perhaps Jesus was referring to someone else.  Perhaps he had mis-spoken.  Any other idea than His own death would be preferable to the crowd of witnesses before Him.  If He died, what hope was there for Israel to defeat the Romans?  After all, how could the Son of God die anyway?  Who could kill Him?  Their own logic precluded this idea, their understanding of scripture precluded this idea, they simply could not accept it.

Again the minds of His listeners were clouded by the darkness of misinterpretation of scripture, and the greed it fostered in their hearts.  So our tender Savior tries once again to clear away the darkness and states in verse 35 … “Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. [verse 36] While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.”  Jesus was and always will remain the light of the world.  He is the light by which scripture was to be interpreted, not the other way around.  It remains so today.  When we examine Old Testament stories and find ourselves tempted to think God was cruel, we need to remember those stories are also referring to this same Jesus.  If His life was one of such love and service it had to have been the same in the first testament to His character.  Perhaps upon closer inspection we can find the love He intended, and the demands of men to have their own way interfering with it.  Yet the light remained in front of them.  Were they to accept it, they would have understood His mission was greater than a mere earthly crown of temporary power.  But they would not.  They remained intent to crown Him.  The time was right.  The people were gathered.  It was going to happen whether He liked it or not.  And so “He hid Himself from them”.  Once again in the middle of a huge adoring crowd of followers and lookers-on, He simply disappears from plain sight.

John continues his epilogue in verse 37 to 41 by stating that despite His plain words, despite hearing the voice of God the Father Himself, there were those who simply would not believe.  Isaiah had prophesied it.  The crowd had fulfilled it.  Perhaps it was prudent that the devil was able to harden their hearts not to believe.  Had they accepted His true mission and understood it, they may have refused to see Him sacrifice Himself.  As much as I want to be saved, I am certain His sacrifice is more than I will ever deserve, better He should live and I should die, than the other way around.  The crowd of believers might have also followed that course if they truly understood it.  But as Isaiah had prophesied this was not the case.  The people chose to trust their own ideas about the interpretations of scripture over the words and evidence and miracles of Christ.

The mission of Christ to reach the rulers of the people as well however, did not go entirely without success.  There were those of the educated class, the ruling class, the noble class who had more access to scriptures and were familiar with the prophesies as well – John tells us there were some of these who did come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.  But though they came to believe, they also remained conscious of their place in society.  The edict of the Pharisees that any who should publicly declare in favor of Christ would result in being put out of the Temple posed a problem for these new believers.  Social class and standing was a big part of “who” they were.  So John tells us in verse 42 and 43 that they loved the praise of men, more than they valued their faith in the Messiah.  Is it any different with us today?  Are we vocal about our faith in Christ ONLY when things are going well for us?  When the world seems at our feet, and our blessings are high, and our health is good – do we only then declare our faith in Christ?  But when temptation has brought us low, and our wisdom has come to naught, and we face a life threatening disease – are we then more quiet about our belief in a saving Christ?  Our certainty of a savior is more subject to ridicule when we are broke, sick, and publicly humiliated.  We value admiration of our peers and working associates, and it is hard to give glory to a saving God when it appears we do not carry His blessing.  Yet it is then that our faith is most of use.  It is then that a public display of faith may make the most impact.  To declare for Christ when it is bound to cause ridicule to us, is to allow for a change in our condition to put the reminder in our audience “Who” controls our fate.

When one has experienced the transformative power of Christ to free us from ourselves, the joy and peace that comes with this freedom from a former sin, is overwhelming.  It is life altering.  It is the kind of thing you can hardly keep quiet about.  When you experience this for yourself, your other conditions of life seem hardly relevant.  Whether burdened by wealth, or free in your poverty – the internal freedom of Christ liberates the soul and transforms the priorities.  In the care of Christ, you have enough for what you need, and perhaps more than you thought when you give it away.  Whether healthy with a vigor for life, or ill and unable to climb the highest peaks anymore – The reformation Christ conducts within you renews your soul and gives you hope for a life of even more, unencumbered by the pain and death of sin.  Though your victory may not be complete as yet, though your struggle to surrender is not always full, and you fall again into a sin that seems to bind and control your life – Jesus is still the method of your freedom, your forgiveness, and your perfection.  A declaration for Christ is a recognition of where we are, and an investment in the hope of where He will bring us.  Though our failures belong to us, our victories are wrought by His grace and love.  There is nothing in the admiration of our peers that can compare with this kind of life altering experience.

Jesus knew that a belief in His ability to transform our life was critical to becoming in harmony with the love of His Father.  To allow any other concern to inhibit this belief was to make a trade far and away in our worst interests.  So he declares to those still evaluating the “cost” of a belief in Him as the Messiah in verse 44 … “Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. [verse 45] And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me.”  This is not the creation of a fan-club for a popular man in Jerusalem.  It is rather the establishment of a faith that leads to God the Father.  It is an acceptance that there are NOT many roads to God, but ONE way only – through the transformation that Jesus Christ alone offers to our sin-sick souls.  Jesus says to His listeners, this is not about my humanity, but about my connection to Him and His Divinity.  The Son of God offers us the only bridge to the Father God, and a real up-close insight into what His Father is like.  This revelation of God is one of love, of hope, and of service.  This was why it was so important to have faith in the “method” of our Salvation in the form of Jesus Christ.

He continues in verse 46 … “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. [verse 47] And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.”  Christ remains the light by which we are able to find the truth in scripture, and the meaning of the written word.  He states that even those who refuse to believe are not condemned at this moment, for His mission was not one of judgment, but one of salvation.  How ironic that we believers who call ourselves Christians are known so much more for our judgment and condemnation of the world around us, than for our participation in the redemptive love Christ showed to bring non-believers to His transformative power.  Jesus stands alone, the only method of our salvation.  Non-believers will not find redemption in accepting our word for how the gospel works.  They will not find redemption in accepting that their lives are ones steeped in the sins of self service, particularly because we keep harping on those facts.  They will find redemption and reformation only in Christ, as they experience it for themselves.  Our whole mission should be to love them to Christ.

Jesus tries again to simply state the facts of a how a real transformation takes place, He continues in verse 48 … “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. [verse 49] For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. [verse 50] And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.”  The mission of the Messiah is a united Godhead both Father and Son for our redemption and restoration.  If we reject Christ and His offer, we remain “who” we are – creatures bound to the slavery and addiction of sin and self-service.  Having heard the offer of Christ to save us, and rejected it – we are left no other course but one of our own design.  There is but one road to perfection, but an infinite variety of pathways to self-destruction.  This is the best deceit of the devil.  He tells us there are many pathways to God, so we are able to find the one that pleases us and pursue it.  But the pathway to God that we accept because it “pleases us” remains rooted in self-service, and does not transform our lives.  Only Christ can do that.  Only Christ makes the offer to change fully the core of “who” we are.  Without that kind of transformation, we will continue to want the wrong things.  We will continue to pursue the wrong path.  We are our own worst enemy.  It is only the death of self, that can see us re-created into the people He intended us to be.  This is not possible without our Creator.  Christ alone is the ONLY pathway to God.

The commandment of God, is only a commandment when we are not in harmony with it.  When it is natural to us, it is no longer a commandment but a part of “who” we are.  But even in His use of this term, Christ identifies the “commandment” as being “life everlasting”.  The goal of Jesus and of His Father is that we should LIVE forever, not merely exist in the tortured state of the addiction to self and self-service.  His first and foremost goal is to offer us a real “life” that can begin now and does not end.  This was the message to those in His hearing that day, and throughout the ages of time.  When we are transformed by His power, our faith grows whether quietly or on public display.  When His transformation takes hold of us, our surrounding conditions matter little, and His work matters most of all.  For His transformation changes “who” we are; and puts us in harmony with Him and His Father.  Then the adoration of men, appears as it truly is, of no value at all.  We can begin to measure Glory like God measures it, in actions of love for others.  Gratitude and praise mean little, but the chance to serve, means everything.  It is this way for our God, as the life of His Son demonstrates completely.  So it will be for us, as we allow Him to bring us into harmony with God His Father …