Tag Archives: Gospel of John

Wanting What We Want VS. Wanting What We Want

If you’re following along in the Amazing Race that our church is doing, you’re reading John 6:22-7:53.  The story is starting to get a bit crazy as Jesus is moving towards the cross.  The crowds are tense, and dividing over what they believe about who Jesus is.  The religious leaders keep trying to arrest Him, but can’t.  Jesus knows that His time is coming to an end.  The tension just keeps building and building.

One of the conversations Jesus has can be found in John 6:26 and following.  Jesus feeds the five thousand the fish and bread in a miracle.  Then He disappears, and the crowd has to go looking for Him.  When they find Him, they want Him to feed them again.  It makes sense.  Many of them are poor, they are hungry, they’ve left home to find Jesus, they are faithful to Him, and it doesn’t seem to be much work for Him to feed them.  He prays, and the food shows up.  So why wouldn’t they ask for food?

Jesus goes off on this crazy tangent about how HE is the bread and wine.  He tells them that the food they want isn’t what they really want.  What they really want is food that lasts forever.  They agree.  Then He tells them that His skin and blood are the food that lasts forever.

Ok, stop just a minute and think about that.  Imagine you are standing there and hear that.

No, really, think about it.  Don’t think about communion on a Sunday morning.  Think about the fact that you ask Jesus for food, and His answer is for you to eat his skin and blood.

Yeah….

……

……

Sometimes God gives us an answer that we don’t want.  At least we think we don’t want it.  Consider the discussion Jesus is having with his potential disciples.  They want to be fed.  Full tummies.  Temporary happiness.  For four or five hours.  Jesus wants them to be healed.  To live a life of joy, peace, and obedience to what they were hardwired for.  Most of the time, when we hear an answer from Jesus that we don’t like, it’s because we are living too short sighted.  We are looking at today, He is looking at today, tomorrow, and forever.

Jesus probably hasn’t told you to eat his flesh and blood in a shocking way lately.  But what IS He telling you that is hard to hear?  What answer is He giving that seems like He isn’t even listening to what you’re asking?  Where is He pushing you?  Trust Him in it.  If He isn’t pushing you right now, then that is what you need to ask for.

What are your thoughts?

Me < Him


We’re reading John 3:22-36 this week as a church. Two things are working on me from this story.

John the Baptist gives his famous “He must increase, I must decrease” speech. How do I do this? I am praying and asking God to show me what this means today for me. I have a strong desire to do it. But some areas of my life seem completely entrenched. I have things I want to go away, and I want to hold on to for dear life, simultaneously. It’s tough. So, I’m reminding myself of this goal, and praying the Lord’s Prayer. A lot. I know God will be faithful, it’s just painful.

The second thing I’m working with is the idea of “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life”. I know, I know, simple, basic, 101 level theology. But I’m being pushed on what it means to be a believer, a follower, a disciple. Christ’s calls to discipleship are sky high. His parable of the soils is haunting me right now. Francis Chan and his book , Crazy Love, are just feeding the questions. (You REALLY should pick up this book!) So what does it mean to “believe in the Son”? What all does that entail. Does true belief, the size of a mustard seed, produce life change automatically? Does a person who claims faith, but lacks serious growth, only deceive themselves? At what level is growth real? At what level is it just self-help stuff?

I’m honestly not worried about myself, not because I’m so great or wonderful, but I know that I rely on Christ and need Him above all else. I can’t breathe if He doesn’t show me His grace and mercy every nano-second. I can be selfish and ungrateful, I sin, but I know that I am trusting Him for everything. But as a pastor, how do I gauge what we are calling people to? Especially students?

Anyway, that’s where I am today, in John 3.

Doves, Lambs, and Swords


What is it about Jesus that makes Him so hard to be seen as the One? John the Baptist says that he wouldn’t have known Jesus was the Messiah if God hadn’t told him ahead of time to watch for a sign. He was supposed to watch for the Spirit to settle on someone. Again, we have that imagery from Genesis. God the Creator, speaking words about the Spirit. When John saw the dove settle on Jesus, he knew.

What about Jesus makes it so hard to take Him seriously? I still struggle with it. Just today I blew Him off completely and did things my way, making a total mess of it. (And it’s only 10 am!) What would help was if He showed up with a sword, swinging, demanding, telling everyone to drop and give Him twenty! He will do this one day, but not yet. He comes as the “Lamb of God”, John the Baptist says. (This is, by the way, the only place in the whole Bible that phrase is used.)

But then, when I do screw up, His love and willingness to carry my mess drops me to my knees. I am so completely messed up and unworthy of His forgiveness, yet He drops it, heavier than any sword. He forgives, loves, and reaches out to me, over and over and over.

This Lamb of God is unlike anything I’ve ever known.

Who Knew?! John 1:19 – 28


Reading through John 1:19-28 today. Wow, I learned a lot!

For example, in this passage, John begins telling us about the first week of Jesus’ ministry. I never noticed the “the next day” verses in 29, 35, 43, etc. John continues his parallel to Genesis 1 that he began in the very beginning of the book. I love that kind of detail that God puts in. Here the creator is creating again, a new ministry, a new era, a new history. All in seven days, ending with a miraculous marriage and party. And what about this idea of ending with a marriage? The whole Bible begins with a marriage (Adam and Eve), and ends with a marriage (Christ and the church). So, here in Jesus’ first week is a microcosm of history. Too cool!

Secondly, I want to be like John the Baptist (JtB). I’ve read this passage a couple of dozen times, and never really stopped and looked at what John is doing here. JtB gets this delegation out to see him, to legitimize his ministry. It’s his chance to step onto a national stage and establish himself. What an opportunity! But he blows it. As these big leaders question him, each answer speaks less and less about him and more and more about Jesus. His first answer is “I am not the Christ”. Then “I am not”. Then down to “No”. He simply doesn’t want to talk about himself. That is ALL I want to do most of the time. But JtB wants to talk about Jesus. I love that, and am going to consciously work towards that.

Also, the bit about him being unworthy to strap Jesus’ sandal is something I never got before, at least not totally. I just discovered that in their culture, a disciple would do many things to help out their rabbi. The rabbi wouldn’t get paid for teaching the scriptures, it was an honor. (I don’t get paid for teaching either. I love that part of my job. I get paid for doing paperwork! Ugh!) So the disciples would offer service to help out their rabbi. But there were limits to what they would do. There is an ancient rabbinic saying that goes “Every service which a slave performs for his master shall a disciple do for his teacher except the losing of his sandal-thong.” It was beneath the disciple to do this. But here, JtB picks that very thing to say he is unworthy of doing. I often think Jesus owes me, and JtB says he isn’t even worth touching Jesus shoes. I have much, much work to do in this area.

Just some thoughts as I was reading today. I love the fact that this book never gets old!

Don’t Miss It!


John 18 finishes out with the final verses in 28 – 40. It’s Jesus before Pilate. Pilate is the appointed governor from Rome. He’s the guy desperately trying to hold onto his position and job. If he can’t keep Israel calm, Rome will remove him and put someone else in his spot. (This actually happens later after Jesus is gone.)

What kills me about this is that the Jewish leaders come to Pilate’s house, and bring Jesus to the ruler. They won’t enter the house. Why? Because if they go in a Gentile’s house, they will be “unclean”. If they are “unclean”, then they have to go through elaborate ceremonies to become spiritually clean again. There isn’t time to do that and to kill Jesus before Passover begins.

But what is Passover? It is where the Jews celebrate God saving their first born sons when they were in Egypt. The Egyptians had a plague put on them where the first born boys in each family were killed. But the Jews put the blood of a lamb on the doorposts, and God saved their sons. Passover is a huge celebration where they remember God doing that, and they celebrate being saved, once, long ago. A big part of Passover is looking forward to the Messiah coming again.

So, we have very educated Jewish priests wanting to stay pure so that they can celebrate God saving them and the Messiah coming. They want to kill Jesus quickly, and won’t even go into the courtroom to have Him tried due to their desire to be “pure”. They are killing the Messiah, the one son sent to save them, and are worried about being pure. The upside down irony is so thick that it’s suffocating.

How could they be so stupid? How could they miss it? How could they be so worried about their religion that they miss the whole thing they are looking for? It’s ridiculous!

And it is. It still is every time I do it. Every time I judge someone from my basis of how right I am, and how wrong they are, I miss the Messiah. Every time I ignore someone’s needs while I am SO blessed with money, health, time, education, and ability, I miss the Messiah. Every time God asks me to do something, and I pretend not to hear, or not to be sure that it is Him asking, I miss the Messiah. It is stupid and ridiculous. It still is today.

Where are you missing the Messiah today?

In The Name of Love, One More In the …


Reading today, Jesus continues through His crucifixion stages. Peter denies Him for the second time in John 18:25-27. This time, it was probably in fear of His life. After all, the guy asking was there when he cut the soldiers ear off.

Then Jesus is taken to Pilate, the Roman governor. A couple of details hit me today reading this. One, the Jewish leaders won’t take Jesus into Pilate’s palace. If they did, they would be “unclean” for going into a Gentile’s house. There were ceremonies they would have to go through to become “clean” again. The ceremonies would need to be done before the start of the Sabbath, which was that evening, and they didn’t have time to get it done, what with the trying to kill Jesus stuff on their “to do” list. So they wouldn’t go in. The interesting note is because that Sabbath was Passover, a celebration when the Jews remembered God saving their first born sons from death. The irony is too deep to handle in that. They want to party, thanking God for saving their first born sons. They are so concerned about being a part of this celebration that they are conducting an illegal trial to kill God’s firstborn (and only) son. Does that confuse anyone else but me?

Secondly, when the people cry for Barabbas release instead of Jesus, it says that he had taken part in a revolution. He was part of a group trying to overthrow the Roman government. This is exactly what the people had hoped Jesus would do. But when He didn’t, and went down the whole “my kingdom is not of this world” path, they ditched Him and moved on. They wanted a king, but they wanted one on their terms. Maybe Barabbas could be that. He definitely was a better shot at it than Jesus had turned out to be!

But then, as always, as I’m dumbfounded at the thickheadedness and stupidity of the Jews, God reminds me of my tendency to do the exact same things. (Sign) I really don’t like it when He does, but then I remember how much He loves me. Anyway, how often do we get so caught up in our ideas of religion and power and influence and marketing and “the way things SHOULD be around here” that we ignore what Jesus is doing all together. We might even ignore Him in His name. I do.

What’s His response? He speaks truth, and then lays down His life for me.

I won’t even go into the part where He calls us to do the same thing for other people around us. That’ll be another day.

Why play hide and seek?


In John 18:15 – 18, an unnamed disciple gets Peter into the audience where Jesus is being tried in court. It seems like the disciple is probably John. So, here is my question. If John is known by the High Priest, it would seem that they would know he was a disciple of Jesus. And he is given freedom to come into the trial.

Yet Peter, when asked about being with Jesus, denies it. Why? I don’t understand. I always thought he was afraid and undercover. But if John was known, there would be no need for him to hide. John was safe, he would have been too. But instead Peter lied and tried to hide. (wow, that rhymes).

Anyway, why did he do it? His life doesn’t seem to be at risk. He doesn’t seem to be at threat of being arrested. Any ideas why He would hide? If we can figure it out, I’m sure that there is a lesson in it for us.

What do you think?

Tie Him Up Before He Says His Name Again!


John 18:12-14 is such a small section of the story, and yet it contains some interesting points to it. Jesus at this point has knocked the men down just by saying the name of God, He has healed the ear of the man who had it knocked off, and has said He will not fight with a sword. Yet notice that the first thing the soldiers do is tie Jesus up. All they know is force. They didn’t have to do this. He was willing to go with them, yet they tied Him up. He had just healed one of their own, and they see Him as a threat.

Then He is taken to Caiaphas, the high priest. This is a man who spent years studying the Bible to understand God. He had lived a life beyond reproach, worked hard to know and follow God. Yet when God spoke to Him face to face, Caiaphas saw Him as a threat. He wanted Jesus killed.

I do the same thing. I get a dream or a plan going, and Jesus doesn’t want anything to do with it. Whatever I have planned for my life, Jesus declares it to be destructive, anti-God, and wants to freely come and heal it. But I resist, and want to tie God up and do away with Him, at least temporarily. I’ll bring Him back out later and set Him free once I’ve done whatever it is that I am hell bent on doing. I am the biggest fool of the three between me, Caiaphas, and the soldiers.

You see, I know Jesus. He is the savior, the healer. He has proven a thousand times to me that His way is best and that He wants my very best for me. He is not selfish, mean, or petty. Yet I want to tie Him up and do away with Him at times. When I’m weak, tired, and selfish. When I’m afraid, worried, and unsure. Then I want to be god with the smallest “g” possible.

Lord, I really am sorry. Help me to be the one who surrenders at all times, not just when it’s convenient. Help me to follow, and not try to use you when it works best for me. You are God, I am not. Period. And I like it that way.

Knocked Down, But Not Out


With Jesus’ time of prayer behind him, we see Him move towards His arrest and ulitmately His crucifixion in John 18. A couple of things stick out to me in this story. One, Jesus is in control of His own schedule. They don’t grab Him while He is praying. He gets up, walks across the valley, and then when they come, He walks out to meet them. He is in charge from the get go. It’s not something that catches Him off guard, or that He resists. He marches directly into the storm. Wow.

Secondly, notice in verse 6 what happens. Jesus asks who they are after, knowing it is Him. It’s dark, and they only have torches. They say they are after Jesus of Nazareth. He answers “I am he.” When He says this, they fall to the ground. Why? “I am He” is the name in Hebrew for God. In Exodus, it’s the name God gives to Moses to tell the people Who sent him. It’s the name the Jews held as holy, and wouldn’t speak or write on their own. It’s the name of God alone. When Jesus, being God, says this phrase which is one of the names of God, it explodes with the Holiness of God. This Holiness knocks the soldiers back and down.

How could they even arrest Him after this? Its an excellent example of how we get so far down our own paths that we ignore God and do the wrong things in the face of His Holiness. I do it from time to time, and have to get knocked on my rear hard to wake up. Its no wonder they missed it.

What about you? Do we really believe God is in control of the storms around us? Will we march into them with Him? Is there something that you are holding onto so tightly that you ignore His overwhelming power and holiness because of it?

The List


Reading John 14:15-31, I can not imagine how the disciples would have felt hearing this. Jesus is leaving them. He makes it clear. He’s gonna send help, and God is going to be with them. But Jesus is leaving. And His main point is to do what He has told them. What has He told them at this point? Love God, love others, don’t fall into the systems around them, be pure, and tell everyone about God’s Kingdom. Heal the sick, help the poor, laugh with the happy, and cry with the sad. Do those things, and you love Jesus. Don’t do those things, and you don’t.

How are we doing? How am I doing? What about you? What about your local church? Or the American church? Or the church worldwide? Are we known for these things? No, we aren’t. We’re known for a lot of stuff, but not much in the above list. How do we change it? We don’t start by trying to change the church worldwide. We start on the other end of the spectrum. We start with me. With you. Am I known for that list? I don’t think so. I need to love others more. I need to help the poor and outcast more. I need to do more to help heal the sick. There is much for me to change.

So do I love Jesus since I come up short? Yes. Because I hear Him call for these things, I take Him seriously, and I am always working on change. It’s the desire to know Him that leads to the change. God isn’t waiting on us to perfect it to accept us. He loves us enough to accept us right where we are. But He loves us too much to leave us there.

Where are you in the list? Find the areas you need to grow. Pray for that opportunity today. Then go look for it and do it. Do it now, before it is time to leave.