with devotion

I am going to him who sent me.

The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

Sometimes it is so hard to think in spiritual terms. It seems that the Jews were a very sensual people in that they took everything that Jesus said in a physically literal way. I think that many today also gravitate towards literal interpretations and by doing that they often miss the greater spiritual message. So often religious people find themselves arguing over whether the creation story was literal and they miss the fact that they agree on the idea that God actually created everything that we see. Such was the literalism of Jesus' times.

I believe that the struggle we see in this passage is the ongoing war between evil and good.. carnal and spiritual.. mind and heart. Here is the way that Jesus explains it in another place:

"seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand"

There are things that can only be discerned spiritually and if we do not approach them in that way we will, like the Pharisees, be angry enough to take things in our own hands. And when we take spiritual matters in our own fleshly hands we will find ourselves (like the Pharisees) fighting against, rather than flowing with, God. It is a sobering message.

Open the eyes of my heart Lord. I want to see life from your perspective.

You know where I come from?

Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from? But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

I find it so interesting how the religious authorities went after Jesus. It seems that even people outside of the inner circles of authority knew that Jesus had a proverbial target on his back. It speaks volumes to me about the atmosphere in Judea that day and the audiences that Jesus spoke to. Despite the threats and the danger the Lord pressed on because he understood that his mission was not earthly but heavenly. He saw past the danger and to those that would believe his message. He trusted his Father to protect him.

That last sentence of our passage is so revealing. In essence the people who believed in Jesus were saying that they believed because they of what they saw with their eyes. I wonder how many of those fell away when they saw Jesus crucified? One has to really wonder if they really knew him at all? My thinking is that their understanding was superficial at best. Knowing Jesus has never been about his miracles but about his love. The miracles were a demonstration of his love and compassion. Miracles always have been about love.

Help me to see with an inner eye Lord. Help me to look not on what is seen but is unseen.

Do not judge by appearances ...

Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

The way that the religious elders treated Jesus was never about anything that Moses ever wrote. Their rejection of the Son of God was always about them. Nothing in the scriptures ever substantiated their actions. Their hatred of their Messiah is evident in every interaction with Jesus. These often hid behind accusations like the one here - a demon? Seriously? How could anyone take them seriously? Their indictments reveal an illogical spin that resembles the political rhetoric of our day. Perhaps this demonization of Christ is just spin?

Using the example of Sabbath circumcisions he points out the utter craziness of their objection to healing a man on the Sabbath. The lesson from this passage is that people, even religious people, are not qualified to judge because our senses are limited to externals. Only God can see beyond our externals. The exception is ourselves. To judge with right judgment we must first judge what is in our own hearts. The religious leaders would have been wise to judge their own hearts before they judged the actions of Jesus.

Lord, help me to remove the log that obstructs my vision and causes bad judgment.

My teaching is not mine ...

About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

For all of their lives Jewish people went to the temple and heard their leaders teach them primarily about the law of Moses, the prophets and their own interpretations of those scriptures. Jesus' teaching was so different from the status quo. I wonder if the religious teaching was very similar to what you hear today where a teacher reads and interprets the scriptures for the unlearned? Hearing Jesus must have been so refreshing as he generally taught using stories (i.e. parables) that even children could understand.

Yet not only was his method different but his message radically departed from the leaders of that day. Instead of teaching people to follow the letter of the law he spoke to them about the spirit of the law. The sermon on the mount stands as the greatest sermon of all time because it focused on the internal, rather than the external, aspects of what it means to follow God. Jesus' teaching was so radically different because it revealed the heart of the Father and His pursuit of our hearts - with love front and center.

Help me to not seek my own glory today Lord. Guide me in ways that honor and glorify you.

My time has not yet come ...

After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” After saying this, he remained in Galilee. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.

There is an interesting and continuing dialog that takes place in the gospel accounts of Jesus' ministry and we see it in this passage. The first time we saw it was when Satan came to Jesus in the wilderness and tried to force Jesus to reveal himself through the miraculous. We again see it here as the brothers of Jesus tell him to reveal himself in a dangerous place. Such is the way that unbelievers put God on trial - they love to taunt Him and challenge Him to act in a way that is not in accord with His will.

As he speaks of waiting Jesus teaches them, and us, about timing and the will of God. I struggle, as I suspect many do, with this idea of timing. In truth I do not want to wait for God's timing but prefer that He act in accord with my schedule. Such impatience disregards the importance of patience and endurance in our lives. Interesting how it was Jesus' plan all along to go to the dangerous place. I love how his courage was not foolhardy but wise. Perhaps courage is mostly an issue of wisdom, patience, endurance and timing?

Help me to wait Lord. You make all things beautiful in your time.

One of you is a devil.

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.

I cannot imagine how Jesus felt as he watched those who were following him suddenly walk away. You can sense a feeling of rejection in his words as he speaks to the Twelve. Peter responds and speaks what many of them, and many of us, feel about Jesus. His words are like no others and his character is matchless. Jesus is an inspiration to everyone and anyone who really hears his words and observes his actions. There is no one and no place to go because there has never been, and never will be, anyone like the Lord Jesus.

Yet today, and even way back then, a few of those who Jesus chooses turn their backs on him. It is a sobering fact that Judas was there and "personally" heard him speak and watched him do miraculous things. Likewise many of those who walked away that day "personally" saw and heard those same things. Their actions teach us that it is not about what we see and hear with our heads that matter but those things that we embrace deep in our hearts. It always has been and always will be.

You have the words of life Lord Jesus. You are the Holy One of God.

It is the Spirit who gives life ...

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.

The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

In what is perhaps the scariest passage in all of the bible.. for religious people anyways.. Jesus speaks of Judas. Here is a man who by every single "appearance" seemed to be a true follower of Christ. It shakes me to think that some who seem to be so religious do not even believe at all. Does it shake you? I wonder if Judas was listening at all when Jesus was speaking of some (I think that means more than just Judas) who do not believe. Such has been, and is, the state of religious groups. A mixture of believers and unbelievers.

Religious people are often very happy and comfortable to speak of the outward things - like helping the poor or raising money for this or that. Yet these, like Judas, take offence when they are confronted with spiritual things. Back then they took offence when the Lord spoke of eating his flesh and drinking his blood because they were blinded to the spiritual aspects of what he was saying. Even today they make something carnal from that which is spiritual. Understandable because it is the Spirit who gives life and the flesh is no help at all.

Help me to never be offended by your words Lord. Teach me your ways.

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