Tag Archives: Pharisees

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?

What To Do When Jesus Annoys You

Our church is taking part in a study called the Amazing Race, and as a church we are reading through the New Testament together until the end of the year.  I thought I’d post my thoughts on the days readings, and I’d love to hear what you have to say.  If you don’t attend SCC, I’d still love to invite you to read with us, and weigh in with what you are learning as well. 
Today we read Luke 12:35-14:35.
The stories we read today mostly center around Jesus and the religious leaders squaring off.  At this point, the religious leaders want Jesus dead.  They just don’t see any other way to stop Him from ruining everything.  They know it, and Jesus knows it.  
What strikes me is the number of times Jesus heals someone, and does it on the Sabbath.  The Sabbath is Saturday, and it’s the Holy Day of the week for a Jewish believer.  The religious guys had developed a ton of rules on how you are supposed to rest.  They had effectively turned rest into a full time job.  One of the things they didn’t want done was for anyone to be healed on the Sabbath, because that was work.  Remember, God gave us a Sabbath day so we could rest and keep our bodies, minds, and souls healthy.  But if someone tried to heal someone’s body, mind, and soul on the Sabbath, that was wrong in their minds.
So, Jesus just goes ahead and does it.  
It doesn’t make them happy.
Obviously, we don’t have the legalistic issues that the religious leaders had on working on the Sabbath.  But we do have issues with Jesus.  Sometimes He wants me to forgive people, even when they haven’t asked for it. (Actually, that’s all the time.)  Occasionally He will ask me to be generous with stuff that I want to keep for myself. (Well, He expects that everyday, to be honest).  He can get crazy from time to time and want me to tell myself “no” about some action I want to take, and use self discipline. (That is really an expectation of His all the time.)  I mean, sometimes He annoys me.
Just like He annoyed the Pharisees.
It’s all about whose Kingdom we live in.  That is part of the reason you have the Kingdom discussion in the middle of all of these stories.  Who is in charge of my life, of the religious leaders’ lives, of your life, anyway?  That is the big question.
Today, right now, take some time to talk with God about what it is that He does, expects, or commands that bugs you.  Be honest, He already knows.  You have nothing to lose.  At least you don’t if you admit it.  Act like everything is fine, and you’ll find yourself mad at Him for healing people all around you, when you can’t seem to be healed.  It’s your, and my, choice.

Everyone Hates ChrisT

There is so much going on in Matthew 22:15-22!  Here’s the deal; the Pharisees decide to trap Jesus.  What I find interesting is how they decide to do it.  They decide to trap Him in His words.  It’s intriguing on a couple of levels.  One, they don’t seem to think they can get Him to mess up in His actions.  They don’t send a prostitute after Him.  They don’t try to trap Him in a compromising position at a party.  It’s His words they go after.  The other interesting part of this shows their value on what someone says.  They don’t care what He actually believes.  They just want to find a way to twist what He says to convince people He’s evil.  They’ve quit listening and looking.  They just want to set Him up.

So, they send some of their disciples and some Herodians to Jesus.  The Pharisees are the ones who are strict about their religious rules.  They hold a hard line on what people can and can’t do, and are very legalistic.  The Herodians are the opposite.  They are Jews who have accepted that the Herod’s are their rulers, and compromise wherever they need to in order to survive.  They blend all sorts of Roman worship into their faith, and are Jews in name only.  With these two working together, it shows you just how much they hated Jesus.  He is a threat to all of them in one way or another.

So, the two teams go to Jesus and ask a question about Herod and the government.  No matter which way He answers, one of the groups will be offended.  If He answers for the Jewish faith, the Herodians will report Him to the government as a trouble maker.  If He answers in favor of Herod, the Pharisees will use His words to prove He is a compromiser and not a true religious teacher.  He’s in big trouble here.  That’s why they tell Him “You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are”.  It’s a set up.  They are basically saying, “We’ve got you, bro!  You act like you don’t worry what others think, but get out of this one!”  You can just hear the jealousy and insecurities come out of them in this whole scene.

Jesus, though, is the Hero.  He won’t be suckered.  He turns the tables on them.  His answer with the coin basically puts the decision back on both groups, and makes both of them look bad.  In essence, He’s telling them “Pharisee’s, why are you so worried about money?  If you’re so spiritual, let Caesar have his little money.  Trust God!  Herodians, why are you playing like you’re religious?  God has plans for you, trust Him!”
They’re stuck.  They lose.  So they leave.

Nice story, but why does God tell it to us?  So that He can show off and prove how manly Jesus is?  So that we read it and know better than to mess with Jesus?  Or is there a deeper point here for us?

I think there are several.  One, be careful of letting fear, jealousy, and bitterness drive your life.  When we get in a bad spot due to fear, we make bad decisions that leave us exposed for who we are.  We can hide it for a while, but it will always come up to bite us.  Second, are we in a spot where we are more worried about what religious words a person uses than how they live their lives?  Who cares if someone says things the way we do or not?  Are they living a life that points others to God?  When we get consumed with our way of worshipping, our way of teaching, our way of doing church, then we try to trap people with their words.  You can see how well it’s worked out before.  The outcome will be the same for us today.  And finally, what about Jesus in this story?  Is this the Jesus you know, One who can easily defend Himself at any time in any situation?  You definitely get the idea that this trap did not worry Him at all.  This is the same Jesus who promises to protect you and defend you.  Do you trust Him to do His job?  Do you believe in His strength?  Or do you worship a weenie version of Him?

Like I said, there is just SO much going on in these few verses.  I love it!

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?