Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
Dig Deeper
On a recent trip to South Africa, I had the privilege of speaking to a group from a wonderful church in the city of Port Elizabeth. As I was speaking to this group, I began to talk to them of a biblical passage from 2 Kings 5 in which Naaman asks the prophet Elisha for earth that he can take back to home homeland so that, in his mind, he can properly worship the God of the Jews on His own land. In describing this event, however, I didn't use the term "earth." I used a term that was quite common to Americans for earth, which is "dirt." "Dirt" has always meant "soil" in my mind, and I didn't even give it a second thought. It was only later that I found out that in South Africa, "dirt" means "garbage" or "rubbish." In their culture, I was teaching an amusing lesson about a man healed of leprosy that was requesting that God's prophet give him two donkey loads of garbage to take with him. Lucky thing for me, these people were more intelligent and culturally aware than I was, and either already knew or figured out how Americans use this word. It can lead to great misunderstanding, though, if you are speaking of one thing, and your listeners are hearing something totally different.
John describes this phenomena as a constant problem throughout Jesus' ministry. There is a constant misunderstanding, as we saw in chapter 3 with Nicodemus, as Jesus speaks of heavenly things, things from God's reality, while Nicodemus can only seem to comprehend things from an earthly perspective. In a sense, it is like people speaking two different languages, but in reality it can lead to even more confusion. At least when people speak different languages they know they are different. When people use the same words but mean quite different things by them, it can lead to real confusion because you assume you know what the other person is saying, when the reality is that your missing the point altogether. As John begins his lengthy description of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, it becomes obvious that they are having one of those conversations. Jesus speaks of heavenly things, but she hears an earthly conversation, at least for a while. She is certainly still earthly focused and as in the darkness as anyone else, but perhaps John wants us to see the symbolism in the fact that Nicodemus came in the dark and remained there but this woman will encounter Jesus at high noon, when the light is at its brightest.
Just as surely as we can misunderstand individual words because of culture differences, so we can easily miss the depth or meaning of an entire story because we simply don't understand the culture in which the story takes place. So it is with the account that John gives of Jesus and the woman at this well in Sychar. There are several important cultural things taking place under the surface of this story that are easy to miss. This encounter might not seem that significant to us, but in Jesus' day and culture, it should have never happened for many reasons. First of all, Jews did not care for or generally speak to Samaritans, to the point that they usually would take a longer route on a journey to avoid going into Samaria. Second, Jewish men generally did not speak to women in public, especially women alone, and even more especially to women at wells (because Isaac and Jacob met their wives at wells, they became somewhat of a pick-up spot in Jewish tradition). Third, it would have been highly unusual for this woman to be there at this time of day, about noon. Women avoided the hot times of day and would go to the well in groups in the early morning or evening. That she was there by herself in the middle of the day, indicates that she was not well thought of in her society and was likely trying to avoid people. Thus, in its cultural context, we see that this scene is shocking on many levels. Nonetheless it happened.
As Jesus is traveling through Samaria, he and his disciples stop off to get some food, showing that Jesus and his disciples are a bit more open than most Jews would have been, as most Jews would not even eat food that had been handled by Samaritans. As Jesus sits down at the well for a rest, he sees this forlorn Samaritan women approaching for water. What she does not know is that she is about to have an encounter with the living water that will quench every thirst she has ever had.
For Jesus to even ask for a drink would have been shocking. Not only because she was a Samaritan women by herself and he was a Jewish man, but also because she knew that Jews felt that even the water jugs of Samaritans were unclean, so for him to ask for a drink was highly unusual. Jews, as John points out for his non-Jewish readers, do not associate with Samaritans for any reason. This simple request for water is the beginning of this two-leveled conversation. Jesus speaks of things that this woman does not comprehend. She thinks they are speaking of regular water, but clearly Jesus is talking of something else. She went to the well looking to not have to encounter anyone else, but she will encounter the Son of God. She thinks she is going to Jacob's well, but she will find Jacob's ladder (1:51), the staircase between heaven and earth.
Jesus asked this woman for a drink of water, and perhaps he genuinely was thirsty after a long day of traveling, but he seems to have mostly used the question as a means to open the conversation to the topic that he really wanted to discuss. He used a topic that he knew she would understand in an earthly manner, specifically so he could turn the conversation to spiritual things. For if she knew who she was talking to, she would hardly be worried about social customs, Jews and Samaritans, and why he would talk to her and ask for a drink. In fact, she would ask him for living water.
Living water in the first century referred to spring water or some other type of water that moved as opposed to stagnant water that was more likely to be no good. So when Jesus refers to living water, she is still thinking in earthly terms. Like Nathanael and Nicodemus, she is doing the best she can, but she simply has no idea with whom she is dealing. How can he draw the living water at the bottom of this one-hundred foot well with a bucket of any kind? Is he trying to sell her on some other source for water other than Jacob's well? As John's readers, privy to more information than she had at the time, we know that he is. She simply cannot see anything beyond the old water that comes from Jacob's well, from the old, traditional way of life. Jesus, though, is offering her true water that quenches the real thirst that humans have. He is the water that all water on earth can only point to. She thought that the reality of life was limited to things of this earth, but Jesus is about to open the reality of heaven and quench the real thirst that she has (cf. Ps. 42:2; 63:1; 143:6; Isa. 55:1; Matt. 5:6). Does this man actually think that he has something superior to the things of life that have been passed down since Jacob? In fact, he does. He doesn't merely know the location of a superior source of living water. He is the living water (7:37-38).
There is something else about this water that is rather unique, though. We drink regular water, it nourishes and refreshes us and then it is gone. Before too long we need more. That is true, really with anything that the world has to offer, whether it be food, water, religions, philosophies, or whatever else it may be. It meets a need for a temporary flash and then its gone and we need more and more in order to be satisfied. This living water is different though. It doesn't just meet a temporary need, says Jesus. Once we partake of this water, it becomes part of us. It will itself begin to bubble up inside of us and be a constant source of renewal and refreshment. Drinking this water doesn't just mean getting a taste of the new creation, or a slice of heaven. It means we become the new creation, we have heaven inside of us. Those who take this water will have welling up inside of them the new life that Jesus is bringing to the entire creation.
This woman wanted something. The very fact that she has come to this well in the middle of the day, trying to avoid everyone, demonstrates that she needed something. She knows her life is lacking. She doesn't know what Jesus is talking about fully but if he knows of a place where she can water and not have to be confronted with the shame of her past and the disapproving stares of others then she wants that desperately. Do you need to go to the living well for something? Have you already gone to the well but know many who haven't yet? The life that comes from the living water found in Jesus is, after all, the only thing that can bring life. It is the only thing that quench the thirst inside each one of us. All we have to do is take a drink.
Devotional Thought
One things that can be easily missed in this passage, is the statement in verse 4, that Jesus "had to go through Samaria." We are not told why he had to, but the obvious inference would be that he had to in order to fulfill the will of God and follow the leading of the Spirit. This means that Jesus went out of his way, on many levels, to intentionally talk with this woman. Do you follow the leading of the Spirit and intentionally go out of your way to talk to people about spiritual things? Spend some time praying today that God will lead you to people that He would like you to talk to.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
John 3:22-36
John Testifies Again About Jesus
22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. 24 (This was before John was put in prison.) 25 An argument developed between some of John's disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. 26 They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him."
27 To this John replied, "A person can receive only what is given from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, 'I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.' 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less."
31 The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. 33 The person who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. 34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them.
Dig Deeper
He really wanted to take his girlfriend to the sports banquet that night but he couldn't because he had to work. Because of that, my friend asked me to take her to the banquet. I was going to go and wasn't planning on taking anyone so it made sense. He would get off of work and meet the group of friends that we were going with and then we would all go out and hang out for the rest of the evening. We had a great time and really had a lot of fun, but when the banquet was over, we waited outside the gym where we were all going to meet my friend. Once he got there, his girlfriend went with him and spent the rest of the night with him. I don't think we talked the remainder of the night. That wasn't my job. Imagine, though, if I had begun to think of myself as her real boyfriend, if I began to lose sight of the role that I had been asked to play. Imagine if I started to get jealous when my friend got there and that this young lady went off with him for the rest of the night rather than being enamored with and staying with me.
John had been given a role as the forerunner to the Messiah. There was no mistake in John's mind as to what he was supposed to do. He was to make the way, to prepare Israel for the coming of her king, to point to the Son of Man. John understood that it was never about him, his role was merely temporary. Jesus was the star and was simply the warm-up act. It seems, though, that some around him may have lost sight of that, if only for a moment. They wanted John to step up and be the man rather than turning all of the attention over to another. John understood, however, that that would be as crazy as it would have been for me to try to be the boyfriend when my role was to simply keep the girl company until the true boyfriend arrived.
John gives us some valuable information in this passage that rounds out the information that we have in the synoptic Gospels. He is the only Gospel author who informs us that there was a slight overlap between the ministries of Jesus and John the Immerser before John was put in prison. After having been baptized by John, Jesus takes his followers not far away to a place with plenty of springs and fresh water and Jesus' disciples (we are told in 4:2 that Jesus did not actually do any baptizing himself) begin to baptize people. This is certainly not the Christian baptism that would be unveiled at the day of Pentecost, when those willing to lay down their lives would be baptized into the life of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38). No one could hardly have been baptized into the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ before any of those things happened. Rather, this was apparently a connection and continuation of John's baptism of national repentance and renewal for those willing to identify themselves with the new things that God was doing and about to do.
Not only were Jesus' disciples baptizing, Jesus was evidently drawing rather large crowds and a large number of adherents. This disturbed some of John's disciples who were not as receptive to the coming of the Messiah as were some of the others who had already left John and went with Jesus. They no doubt saw this as an arrogant and disrespectful move on the part of Jesus, to associate himself with John and then go out in the same area, doing a similar thing, and surpass John. They were clearly looking at things from a human point of view and had a lot of misplaced loyalty to their teacher, the great prophet John. They were obviously concerned that large numbers of people, which they hyperbolize by calling them "everyone", were going to Jesus.
John's reply is a continued demonstration of his incredible humility and willingness to be used by God only in manner that God had laid out for him. A person can receive only what is given from heaven. This does not mean that John's ministry didn't come from God, in fact we have already been told that he did (1:6). The point is that he had a specific vocation laid out as a forerunner. To reach beyond what God has given us is to commit the same sin that Eve did in the Garden of Eden when she reached out for the fruit of tree that was not hers to grab. John is not the Messiah, and he never would be. If he tried to keep disciples around himself, get jealous, or try to keep people gathered around himself rather than going to Christ, he would be guilty of selfish ambition and reaching beyond what God had given him.
Showing himself to be quite unique himself among most humans, John doesn't show any envy or even try to make some excuse. In fact, he immediately jumps into a justification of Jesus' actions and his success. John is not, he says, the bridegroom, but he is simply the friend who attends the bridegroom. The friend of the groom in a Jewish wedding was important because he set up all the details and brought the bride to the bridegroom, but once his job was done, he wouldn't think of staying and keeping the bride and the attention for himself. Throughout the Old Testament, Israel was seen to be the bride of YHWH (Isa. 54:5; 62:4-5; Jer. 2:2; 3:20; Ezek. 16:8; Hos. 2:19-20). It was common thought in the first century to talk of the Messiah as the bridegroom of Israel as well. John's point is that Israel is the bride, Christ is the bridegroom, but he is only the friend and it is his time to step aside. The bride, Israel, belongs to Jesus not to John. That doesn't bother John or make him feel envious. In fact, it leaves him full of joy because the bridegroom is now here. Contrary to our society today that is obsessed with self-esteem, John understood that his role, his entire purpose was to become less so that Christ could become greater.
Just as he did in verse 16, John the Apostle, appears to break into his own commentary on the scene in an almost imperceptible manner. One of John's primary objectives is to demonstrate that Jesus is the Christ (20:31), so he continues to emphasize that Jesus' origins are not earthly. As important as the ministry and message of John was, John still came from earth, belonged to the earth, and that was the end of the story. John was certainly sent by God but he was a regular human being. He was not, as Jesus is, the doorway and the ladder between heaven and earth. Only about Jesus could it be said that came from heaven and is above all. This is important because good teachers teach about what they know. At this time, only Jesus could come and teach about heavenly things as things that he knew. When Jesus talked about heavenly things, he talked about things that he had seen and heard.
The person who has accepted (a word that denotes a decisive act where someone determines to embrace Jesus' witness) the testimony of Jesus has certified that God is truthful. John uses language in that sentence that speaks of the seal that someone would use to authenticate or give a personal guarantee to a document or item. His point is that those who accept the words of Jesus are putting their seal of acceptance that Jesus is of heavenly origin and that God has revealed Himself through Jesus Christ.
The prophets of the Old Testament, regardless of how great they were, could only claim that the Spirit came upon them in limited measure. It was only the true Son of God who had been given the Spirit without limit. Only Jesus was the true human being who did God's will perfectly and spoke the words of God wherever he went. We must remember here the importance of the truth of being in Christ when it comes to our own lives. What is true of the king is true of his people. Those in Christ, then, have access to the same Spirit without limit. In fact, the only thing that limits the power of the Spirit in our lives is our own lack of faith or obedience. This shouldn't lead us to guilt or feelings of failure, but rather to determination to truly unleash the power of the Spirit in our lives.
The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands, and He loves those in Christ in the same way. It all comes down, for John, to being in Christ. Whoever believes in the life of the Son, will have eternal life. He is the gateway to freedom. But those who reject that salvation will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them. As John made clear in 3:17-21, all humans are already guilty before God as a result of our sin and rejection of God's will. We already deserve and will receive God's righteous judgment and wrath. That is, and we cannot say it too often, the fate of every single human being that lives and dies in their own life. Only those who choose their death and judgment early can enter into the life of the Son of God and have the life of the age to come and a place in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Life is found only in Him.
Devotional Thought
Those who believe the Son, says John already have eternal life, the life of the age to come. Have you really thought about that lately? Do you really make an effort to spread the life of heaven, of God's reality, to those around you in your neighborhood, school, or job? What would it look like if you really unleashed the power of the Spirit and the life of the age to come in your own life and demonstrated to all those around you what it looks like when someone lives in reconciliation with God and His will?
22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. 24 (This was before John was put in prison.) 25 An argument developed between some of John's disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. 26 They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him."
27 To this John replied, "A person can receive only what is given from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, 'I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.' 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less."
31 The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. 33 The person who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. 34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them.
Dig Deeper
He really wanted to take his girlfriend to the sports banquet that night but he couldn't because he had to work. Because of that, my friend asked me to take her to the banquet. I was going to go and wasn't planning on taking anyone so it made sense. He would get off of work and meet the group of friends that we were going with and then we would all go out and hang out for the rest of the evening. We had a great time and really had a lot of fun, but when the banquet was over, we waited outside the gym where we were all going to meet my friend. Once he got there, his girlfriend went with him and spent the rest of the night with him. I don't think we talked the remainder of the night. That wasn't my job. Imagine, though, if I had begun to think of myself as her real boyfriend, if I began to lose sight of the role that I had been asked to play. Imagine if I started to get jealous when my friend got there and that this young lady went off with him for the rest of the night rather than being enamored with and staying with me.
John had been given a role as the forerunner to the Messiah. There was no mistake in John's mind as to what he was supposed to do. He was to make the way, to prepare Israel for the coming of her king, to point to the Son of Man. John understood that it was never about him, his role was merely temporary. Jesus was the star and was simply the warm-up act. It seems, though, that some around him may have lost sight of that, if only for a moment. They wanted John to step up and be the man rather than turning all of the attention over to another. John understood, however, that that would be as crazy as it would have been for me to try to be the boyfriend when my role was to simply keep the girl company until the true boyfriend arrived.
John gives us some valuable information in this passage that rounds out the information that we have in the synoptic Gospels. He is the only Gospel author who informs us that there was a slight overlap between the ministries of Jesus and John the Immerser before John was put in prison. After having been baptized by John, Jesus takes his followers not far away to a place with plenty of springs and fresh water and Jesus' disciples (we are told in 4:2 that Jesus did not actually do any baptizing himself) begin to baptize people. This is certainly not the Christian baptism that would be unveiled at the day of Pentecost, when those willing to lay down their lives would be baptized into the life of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38). No one could hardly have been baptized into the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ before any of those things happened. Rather, this was apparently a connection and continuation of John's baptism of national repentance and renewal for those willing to identify themselves with the new things that God was doing and about to do.
Not only were Jesus' disciples baptizing, Jesus was evidently drawing rather large crowds and a large number of adherents. This disturbed some of John's disciples who were not as receptive to the coming of the Messiah as were some of the others who had already left John and went with Jesus. They no doubt saw this as an arrogant and disrespectful move on the part of Jesus, to associate himself with John and then go out in the same area, doing a similar thing, and surpass John. They were clearly looking at things from a human point of view and had a lot of misplaced loyalty to their teacher, the great prophet John. They were obviously concerned that large numbers of people, which they hyperbolize by calling them "everyone", were going to Jesus.
John's reply is a continued demonstration of his incredible humility and willingness to be used by God only in manner that God had laid out for him. A person can receive only what is given from heaven. This does not mean that John's ministry didn't come from God, in fact we have already been told that he did (1:6). The point is that he had a specific vocation laid out as a forerunner. To reach beyond what God has given us is to commit the same sin that Eve did in the Garden of Eden when she reached out for the fruit of tree that was not hers to grab. John is not the Messiah, and he never would be. If he tried to keep disciples around himself, get jealous, or try to keep people gathered around himself rather than going to Christ, he would be guilty of selfish ambition and reaching beyond what God had given him.
Showing himself to be quite unique himself among most humans, John doesn't show any envy or even try to make some excuse. In fact, he immediately jumps into a justification of Jesus' actions and his success. John is not, he says, the bridegroom, but he is simply the friend who attends the bridegroom. The friend of the groom in a Jewish wedding was important because he set up all the details and brought the bride to the bridegroom, but once his job was done, he wouldn't think of staying and keeping the bride and the attention for himself. Throughout the Old Testament, Israel was seen to be the bride of YHWH (Isa. 54:5; 62:4-5; Jer. 2:2; 3:20; Ezek. 16:8; Hos. 2:19-20). It was common thought in the first century to talk of the Messiah as the bridegroom of Israel as well. John's point is that Israel is the bride, Christ is the bridegroom, but he is only the friend and it is his time to step aside. The bride, Israel, belongs to Jesus not to John. That doesn't bother John or make him feel envious. In fact, it leaves him full of joy because the bridegroom is now here. Contrary to our society today that is obsessed with self-esteem, John understood that his role, his entire purpose was to become less so that Christ could become greater.
Just as he did in verse 16, John the Apostle, appears to break into his own commentary on the scene in an almost imperceptible manner. One of John's primary objectives is to demonstrate that Jesus is the Christ (20:31), so he continues to emphasize that Jesus' origins are not earthly. As important as the ministry and message of John was, John still came from earth, belonged to the earth, and that was the end of the story. John was certainly sent by God but he was a regular human being. He was not, as Jesus is, the doorway and the ladder between heaven and earth. Only about Jesus could it be said that came from heaven and is above all. This is important because good teachers teach about what they know. At this time, only Jesus could come and teach about heavenly things as things that he knew. When Jesus talked about heavenly things, he talked about things that he had seen and heard.
The person who has accepted (a word that denotes a decisive act where someone determines to embrace Jesus' witness) the testimony of Jesus has certified that God is truthful. John uses language in that sentence that speaks of the seal that someone would use to authenticate or give a personal guarantee to a document or item. His point is that those who accept the words of Jesus are putting their seal of acceptance that Jesus is of heavenly origin and that God has revealed Himself through Jesus Christ.
The prophets of the Old Testament, regardless of how great they were, could only claim that the Spirit came upon them in limited measure. It was only the true Son of God who had been given the Spirit without limit. Only Jesus was the true human being who did God's will perfectly and spoke the words of God wherever he went. We must remember here the importance of the truth of being in Christ when it comes to our own lives. What is true of the king is true of his people. Those in Christ, then, have access to the same Spirit without limit. In fact, the only thing that limits the power of the Spirit in our lives is our own lack of faith or obedience. This shouldn't lead us to guilt or feelings of failure, but rather to determination to truly unleash the power of the Spirit in our lives.
The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands, and He loves those in Christ in the same way. It all comes down, for John, to being in Christ. Whoever believes in the life of the Son, will have eternal life. He is the gateway to freedom. But those who reject that salvation will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them. As John made clear in 3:17-21, all humans are already guilty before God as a result of our sin and rejection of God's will. We already deserve and will receive God's righteous judgment and wrath. That is, and we cannot say it too often, the fate of every single human being that lives and dies in their own life. Only those who choose their death and judgment early can enter into the life of the Son of God and have the life of the age to come and a place in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Life is found only in Him.
Devotional Thought
Those who believe the Son, says John already have eternal life, the life of the age to come. Have you really thought about that lately? Do you really make an effort to spread the life of heaven, of God's reality, to those around you in your neighborhood, school, or job? What would it look like if you really unleashed the power of the Spirit and the life of the age to come in your own life and demonstrated to all those around you what it looks like when someone lives in reconciliation with God and His will?
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
John 3:14-21
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him."
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 All those who do evil hate the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But those who live by the truth come into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Dig Deeper
Having kids with selective hearing is probably not a new scenario to anyone who is a parent, with the possible exception of my own parents (because I never had such a problem). A similar situation has, I'm sure been played out in homes all across the world. I was getting ready to leave for an appointment and my oldest son asked if he could play on his playstation 2 while I was gone. I told him that he could but to make sure that he cleaned up his room and emptied the garbage cans in the house before I got back. Yet somehow, and this might be shocking, when I got home, there he was playing a football game and there the clothes on his floor still were, and sure enough, there were the trash cans still full and sitting there right where they were when I left. How could this be? How could it be that he had heard the part where I said he could play his video games, but missed the parts about cleaning up? The answer, selective hearing. Humans (and this may be a disease that particularly hits the male portions of the human race) have a tendency to hear the parts that we want to hear, embracing them, and conveniently forgetting or just not hearing the parts that we don't like. Sadly, our youngest son seems to have also been born with this potent condition.
Just as surely as humans are prone to selective hearing, we seem also to be susceptible to selective reading. This is especially true of the Bible where people will read verses or passages that they like and simply ignore the ones that they don't. So people latch on to passages that talk about being blessed but ignore when Jesus said that his followers "will have trouble" (John 16:33). Or they cling to Jeremiah 29:11 as a life verse when it says that God has great plans to prosper, but conveniently ignore that within the context of that passage, God is promising His people that they will go into exile and experience difficult times, but that this is all part of His overall plan to bring about the Messiah. John 3 is no exception to the selective reading process. John 3:16 is, perhaps, the most famous verse in our world today and it is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful and encouraging passages in the Bible, yet it is part of a larger context. Loving John 3:16 is fine, but it can also be misleading and even dangerous if we don't keep it in context with the rest of this passage. It is still a wonderful promise for those who would believe in the life of Christ, but it also comes with the stern consequences that come with those who do not accept the life of Christ. One cannot be separated from the other without a big misunderstanding of what John is saying.
Jesus combines the imagery of two primary Old Testament passages to demonstrate that he is the one that Nicodemus was searching for. He is the promised Messiah, God's new thing through whom he would fix the problem of sin in the world. The first allusion is to Numbers 21:9 where Moses lifted up an image of a bronze serpent on a cross so that those who would look to it would be saved and not killed. In the same way, he says, the Son of Man must be lifted up. The terminology of the Son of Man comes primarily from Daniel 7:13. The Son of Man was the enigmatic figure in Daniel 7 that was lifted up into the presence of the Ancient of Days and exalted and vindicated as the one with supreme authority over the earth. Jesus, then applies this clearly Messianic title and passage to himself. His point is that only those who recognize him as God's Messiah and look to him for salvation will be saved from death and receive eternal life, which was the life of the age to come as opposed to life in the present age. Eternal life, then, wasn't just something in the future, but was something to be embraced and realized in the present age through the life of the Son of Man.
Surely this salvation is not limited to a certain few or elect individuals but is available to whoever believes. The 64 million dollar question, though, is to whoever believes in what? John (who has almost imperceptibly slipped into his own commentary beginning in verse 16) certainly does not mean mere mental assent to the fact that Jesus existed and was the Messiah of some sort. He means much more than that. In the ancient world true belief in something meant action, and believing in someone meant that you believed in their way of life, that is was correct, and were willing to follow. This tells us that John means that whoever believes in the life of Christ and will take the action to die themselves, will have the eternal life that comes only to those who have crucified their old selves and entered into the life of Christ.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him. You see, Jesus did not come to stand before men, judge them, and cast them into eternal darkness, even though that is often how he is viewed. They were already in darkness. Men don't need to reject Jesus to enter into darkness. God sent Jesus so through him, meaning those who would enter into his life, people would be saved. John has just effectively further explained Jesus' contention that humans must be born again and from above in order to be a part of the kingdom of God. John says that that is absolutely true, and that this birth comes only through him and his life.
The fact that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it, teaches us an important truth and distinction when it comes to salvation. We tend to think that people that reject Jesus will go to hell. In fact, that leads many sincere people to become troubled and wonder how that can be, especially for those who may have never had the opportunity to hear about Jesus. What abut them? Although we certainly cannot address that topic in full here, we do see an important truth that John has laid out for us. Those who do not believe in the life of Christ and choose not to enter into it are condemned already. Their condemnation is not a result of rejecting Christ. For Christ is not the issue of condemnation. Rejecting God through sin, and standing in rebellion to him by consistently doing our own will rather than his, is what separates us from God and puts us in a state of condemnation as those who have rebelled against the image of God for which we were made to be. Jesus is the door to salvation, the life of reconciliation, not the source of condemnation. That means that each person who has sinned (and that is, of course, all humans) is already condemned. Jesus is the rescue and those who have not believed in the name (a term that was nearly synonymous with "life") of God's one and only Son will remain in their state of condemnation and rebellion against God.
The final verdict is clear. The true Light has come into the world, but because people loved darkness instead of light, they reject the light and close their eyes until it goes away and they can return to their comfortable existence within the murky darkness. This is because their deeds were evil. It is common in our modern society to begin to feel sorry for those in rebellion against God as though the state they are in is not their fault (that is not to imply that people cause everything evil that might happen to them, of course) as though they are just victims. John, though, says that those who reject the life of Christ do so because they hate the light and will not come into it because they fear that their deeds will be exposed. This means that rejection of God's ways is a decision that every human being has made. Judgment and condemnation are already the fate of every human being. Jesus is not the condemning factor, he is the saving gate. Those who enter into his life will be saved from the judgment that they have already deserved and earned.
Those who really want to find the truth and follow God's ways will find that truth, or as John puts it those who live by the truth, will come into the light. This is basically what Paul says in Romans chs. 1-3 where he says that those who respond humbly to the light of creation (ch. 1) and to the light of conscience (ch. 2) will seek out, be given, and respond humbly to the light of Jesus Christ (ch. 3). People who truly want the lights to come on so that they can see and find the truth rather than continuing to stumble around in the dark, will embrace the light when it comes to them. Those who truly want that truth will not fear the gaze of God for they know that when God looks at those who have entered into the light, He will see Christ, for we have been hidden in Christ when we died to self and took up his life of (Col. 3:3). The light is only a fearful thing, after all, for those who don't desire the truth.
Devotional Thought
Those who do not yet have the light of Christ are, says John, still in the darkness. Do you know anyone who is in the dark, stumbling around looking frantically for the truth but just cannot seem to find it? Jesus called to be the light of the world, faithfully reflecting the light of Christ to the world. If that is true, then what is the vocation of Christians when we encounter darkness? Are you truly a light shining brightly in the darkness or do you cover the light so that it doesn't shock or offend anyone? Sudden light coming into the darkness can be blinding for a minute, but it is the only way that people will eventually be able to see the truth.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 All those who do evil hate the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But those who live by the truth come into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Dig Deeper
Having kids with selective hearing is probably not a new scenario to anyone who is a parent, with the possible exception of my own parents (because I never had such a problem). A similar situation has, I'm sure been played out in homes all across the world. I was getting ready to leave for an appointment and my oldest son asked if he could play on his playstation 2 while I was gone. I told him that he could but to make sure that he cleaned up his room and emptied the garbage cans in the house before I got back. Yet somehow, and this might be shocking, when I got home, there he was playing a football game and there the clothes on his floor still were, and sure enough, there were the trash cans still full and sitting there right where they were when I left. How could this be? How could it be that he had heard the part where I said he could play his video games, but missed the parts about cleaning up? The answer, selective hearing. Humans (and this may be a disease that particularly hits the male portions of the human race) have a tendency to hear the parts that we want to hear, embracing them, and conveniently forgetting or just not hearing the parts that we don't like. Sadly, our youngest son seems to have also been born with this potent condition.
Just as surely as humans are prone to selective hearing, we seem also to be susceptible to selective reading. This is especially true of the Bible where people will read verses or passages that they like and simply ignore the ones that they don't. So people latch on to passages that talk about being blessed but ignore when Jesus said that his followers "will have trouble" (John 16:33). Or they cling to Jeremiah 29:11 as a life verse when it says that God has great plans to prosper, but conveniently ignore that within the context of that passage, God is promising His people that they will go into exile and experience difficult times, but that this is all part of His overall plan to bring about the Messiah. John 3 is no exception to the selective reading process. John 3:16 is, perhaps, the most famous verse in our world today and it is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful and encouraging passages in the Bible, yet it is part of a larger context. Loving John 3:16 is fine, but it can also be misleading and even dangerous if we don't keep it in context with the rest of this passage. It is still a wonderful promise for those who would believe in the life of Christ, but it also comes with the stern consequences that come with those who do not accept the life of Christ. One cannot be separated from the other without a big misunderstanding of what John is saying.
Jesus combines the imagery of two primary Old Testament passages to demonstrate that he is the one that Nicodemus was searching for. He is the promised Messiah, God's new thing through whom he would fix the problem of sin in the world. The first allusion is to Numbers 21:9 where Moses lifted up an image of a bronze serpent on a cross so that those who would look to it would be saved and not killed. In the same way, he says, the Son of Man must be lifted up. The terminology of the Son of Man comes primarily from Daniel 7:13. The Son of Man was the enigmatic figure in Daniel 7 that was lifted up into the presence of the Ancient of Days and exalted and vindicated as the one with supreme authority over the earth. Jesus, then applies this clearly Messianic title and passage to himself. His point is that only those who recognize him as God's Messiah and look to him for salvation will be saved from death and receive eternal life, which was the life of the age to come as opposed to life in the present age. Eternal life, then, wasn't just something in the future, but was something to be embraced and realized in the present age through the life of the Son of Man.
Surely this salvation is not limited to a certain few or elect individuals but is available to whoever believes. The 64 million dollar question, though, is to whoever believes in what? John (who has almost imperceptibly slipped into his own commentary beginning in verse 16) certainly does not mean mere mental assent to the fact that Jesus existed and was the Messiah of some sort. He means much more than that. In the ancient world true belief in something meant action, and believing in someone meant that you believed in their way of life, that is was correct, and were willing to follow. This tells us that John means that whoever believes in the life of Christ and will take the action to die themselves, will have the eternal life that comes only to those who have crucified their old selves and entered into the life of Christ.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him. You see, Jesus did not come to stand before men, judge them, and cast them into eternal darkness, even though that is often how he is viewed. They were already in darkness. Men don't need to reject Jesus to enter into darkness. God sent Jesus so through him, meaning those who would enter into his life, people would be saved. John has just effectively further explained Jesus' contention that humans must be born again and from above in order to be a part of the kingdom of God. John says that that is absolutely true, and that this birth comes only through him and his life.
The fact that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it, teaches us an important truth and distinction when it comes to salvation. We tend to think that people that reject Jesus will go to hell. In fact, that leads many sincere people to become troubled and wonder how that can be, especially for those who may have never had the opportunity to hear about Jesus. What abut them? Although we certainly cannot address that topic in full here, we do see an important truth that John has laid out for us. Those who do not believe in the life of Christ and choose not to enter into it are condemned already. Their condemnation is not a result of rejecting Christ. For Christ is not the issue of condemnation. Rejecting God through sin, and standing in rebellion to him by consistently doing our own will rather than his, is what separates us from God and puts us in a state of condemnation as those who have rebelled against the image of God for which we were made to be. Jesus is the door to salvation, the life of reconciliation, not the source of condemnation. That means that each person who has sinned (and that is, of course, all humans) is already condemned. Jesus is the rescue and those who have not believed in the name (a term that was nearly synonymous with "life") of God's one and only Son will remain in their state of condemnation and rebellion against God.
The final verdict is clear. The true Light has come into the world, but because people loved darkness instead of light, they reject the light and close their eyes until it goes away and they can return to their comfortable existence within the murky darkness. This is because their deeds were evil. It is common in our modern society to begin to feel sorry for those in rebellion against God as though the state they are in is not their fault (that is not to imply that people cause everything evil that might happen to them, of course) as though they are just victims. John, though, says that those who reject the life of Christ do so because they hate the light and will not come into it because they fear that their deeds will be exposed. This means that rejection of God's ways is a decision that every human being has made. Judgment and condemnation are already the fate of every human being. Jesus is not the condemning factor, he is the saving gate. Those who enter into his life will be saved from the judgment that they have already deserved and earned.
Those who really want to find the truth and follow God's ways will find that truth, or as John puts it those who live by the truth, will come into the light. This is basically what Paul says in Romans chs. 1-3 where he says that those who respond humbly to the light of creation (ch. 1) and to the light of conscience (ch. 2) will seek out, be given, and respond humbly to the light of Jesus Christ (ch. 3). People who truly want the lights to come on so that they can see and find the truth rather than continuing to stumble around in the dark, will embrace the light when it comes to them. Those who truly want that truth will not fear the gaze of God for they know that when God looks at those who have entered into the light, He will see Christ, for we have been hidden in Christ when we died to self and took up his life of (Col. 3:3). The light is only a fearful thing, after all, for those who don't desire the truth.
Devotional Thought
Those who do not yet have the light of Christ are, says John, still in the darkness. Do you know anyone who is in the dark, stumbling around looking frantically for the truth but just cannot seem to find it? Jesus called to be the light of the world, faithfully reflecting the light of Christ to the world. If that is true, then what is the vocation of Christians when we encounter darkness? Are you truly a light shining brightly in the darkness or do you cover the light so that it doesn't shock or offend anyone? Sudden light coming into the darkness can be blinding for a minute, but it is the only way that people will eventually be able to see the truth.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
John 3:1-13
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him."
3 Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again."
4 "How can anyone be born when they are old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born!"
5 Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.
10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.
Dig Deeper
A couple of years back, my wife and I were out on a date and decided to go to a movie one night. We had been having dinner and decided to go to the movies a little late so by the time we got to the theater the movie had already started a few minutes earlier. We quickly got our tickets and hustled into the movie. We walked into the movie directly from the bright lights of the lobby and were virtually blinded in the darkness. We put our hands on the railing and walked all the way up the steps until we got to an area fairly high up where we could tell that no one was sitting. We still couldn't see very well, but slid in down the aisle and found a seat. As we sat down, I reached for my cell phone to turn the ringer off but realized that my phone had slid out of my pocket as I was sitting down. I now began to feel around and try to look under my seat but my eyes hadn't adjusted yet so I still couldn't see very well and I couldn't find it. After a few minutes, my eyes had adjusted even though it was still fairly dark so I decided to look again. This time I could begin to see a little bit under the seat but I just couldn't put my eyes or my hands on the phone. I had to give up and wait until the movie was over and lights came .. I would finally find my phone. When I did, I could see clearly that the phone wasn't quite where I thought it was, but it had been within my grasp the whole time.
The scene that I described in the movie theater reminds me of Nicodemus in a certain way. Nicodemus was a teacher of Israel, but he was clearly in the dark. Yet, he wasn't satisfied with that. He seems to be a man that at least knows he is in the dark about certain things. He wants the truth and is willing to go around searching for it in the dark. Even though, in this first encounter with Jesus, the truth is right there within his grasp but he just cannot quite place his hands on it. Nicodemus is still in the darkness in this scene both literally and figuratively but he will keep searching, and don't be surprised if he pops up again in John's Gospel, but this time in the light with the truth firmly in his hands.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a member of the Jewish ruling council, and an all-around important guy at the time of Jesus. The Pharisees certainly thought the Temple priests and ruling Sanhedrin were basically corrupt, so they likely would not have had a problem with, and may even have applauded Jesus' actions in the Temple. So it's not unusual at this point that Nicodemus would come to Jesus to ask questions. Yet, there does seem to be something unusual about coming to Jesus at night. This was not the normal way of doing things. We are simply not told why Nicodemus came at night, whether he was afraid of others and did not want to be seen, or he wanted a private audience away from the crowds, or whether there was some other explanation. Regardless of the situation, though, it seems that John wants his readers to catch the symbolism of this man who cannot quite see things clearly, yet has come to Jesus in the darkness, in the cover of night.
He opens his conversation with a typical Jewish greeting of praise, saying that clearly this is a man worthy of respect. He gives him the respect of calling him Rabbi even though Jesus apparently had no formal training. Jews generally believed that signs of the type that Jesus was performing could only come from God, so rather than looking for alternate explanations, as others would do, Nicodemus recognizes that Jesus is from God. He believes that no one could perform the signs that Jesus was doing if God were not with Him. Nicodemus is still in the darkness, but he is feeling around, looking for the light.
Jesus doesn't really engage with Nicodemus in the culturally expected niceties but gets right to the heart of the matter. No one, he says, can see the kingdom of God without being born again. To "see the kingdom of God" referred to participating in the life of the age to come, both in the present through the life of Christ and in full after the resurrection. Jews at that time, however, believed that all Israelites, except for a few exceptional reprobates, would be part of the age to come. What this means is that we have a scene here where Nicodemus has come to Jesus in the dark reaching around looking for the truth and beginning his conversation with normal Jewish customs, but Jesus cuts him off and basically says that all of the old expectations are no longer valid. The kingdom of God is not reserved for those that are born children of Abraham, but is reserved for those that are born again. The word translated "born again" can mean that but can also mean "from above." Jesus probably meant to imply both meanings by using this term, but he confuses his unenlightened questioner.
Nicodemus was a wise rabbinic teacher in many respects and it is likely that his response is not nearly as dense as it appears to be. It is improbable that that Nicodemus actually thought that Jesus was telling him that he must crawl back into his mother's womb and be born over. His response is probably a bit hopeful, even wistful, more along the lines of, "How can we start over again and erase who we are? It would be great if we could, but we can't go crawling back into our mothers and be born again, so what are we to do?"
This is the moment when Jesus is going to introduce a glimpse of the new creation to the darkness of Nicodemus' world, but rather than being able to see it clearly right away, Nicodemus reacts more like someone who has been in the dark and suddenly walks out into a bright sunny day. He is more blinded by the truth momentarily than he was when he was completely in the dark. Entrance into God's kingdom has nothing to do with being born into the nation of Israel, but it has to do with being born of water and the Spirit. It was the prophet Ezekiel who promised that God would renew His people and put new hearts in them with the double action of cleansing them with water and putting His own Spirit into them (Ezek. 36:25-27). This is likely Jesus' primary reference and certainly what Nicodemus would have understood, but John is no fool, and is writing this down decades after Jesus' death. Certainly he, and the early Christian community would have sees a clear foreshadowing to being baptized into Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit at that baptism (Acts 2:38).
This is how God will induct children into His new kingdom. This is a new kingdom and a new creation. The Old Covenant was a physical covenant with physical enemies, physical battles, physical sin, and a physical people of God. Flesh gave birth to flesh under that covenant. But no more. This is the time when God is renewing His people with His own Spirit just as He promised. He is taking away their heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh (Ezek. 11:19; 36:26). Understanding the spiritual nature of the New Covenant as opposed to the physical nature of the Old Covenant helps us understand Jesus' words in verses 8-9. The wind blows and can be heard but it cannot be quantified, it cannot be easily defined and put in a box. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. This spiritual birth cannot be contained or neatly confined within the nation of Israel or any nation.
This seems to blind and confuse Nicodemus to the point of exasperation. "How can this be?" he retorts. Surely God was going to work through Israel not apart from her. What Nicodemus was failing to grasp was something that John has already alluded to and will develop more fully as his Gospel unfolds. Jesus is Israel, the true Son of God.
Jesus chides Nicodemus a bit pointing out that he is supposed to be a teacher of God's people, and yet cannot seem to make room in his mind for the fact that God is doing something new, even though He had promised just that (Isa. 42:9; 43:19; 48:6; 65:17; Ezek. 11:19; 36:26). If Nicodemus cannot grasp the truth when Jesus speaks of earthly things like the fact that God has promised to do something new and that time has arrived, how can he possibly understand if Jesus actually began to explain the deep heavenly truths of those things? This doesn't mean, I don't believe, that Jesus is telling Nicodemus that he won't tell him these things, simply it is a challenge to Nicodemus that he is still feeling around in the dark and had better get his eyes used to the light quickly because it is standing right in front of him. If Nicodemus wants to even think about understanding the things of heaven he had better start paying attention to the one who came from heaven, because he doesn't just have the ability to see the light. He is the light.
Devotional Thought
Jesus talks about birth into the kingdom of God, but there is a funny truth about the fact of birth. Once someone is born they don't spend much time thinking about their birth again, but get busy with the business of living. Taking a little time occasion to honor and be thankful for your spiritual birth is a great thing, but only if you go beyond that rather than thinking that that is the culmination of your spiritual journey. Once you've been born from above, get on with the business of growing and living spiritually.
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him."
3 Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again."
4 "How can anyone be born when they are old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born!"
5 Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.
10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.
Dig Deeper
A couple of years back, my wife and I were out on a date and decided to go to a movie one night. We had been having dinner and decided to go to the movies a little late so by the time we got to the theater the movie had already started a few minutes earlier. We quickly got our tickets and hustled into the movie. We walked into the movie directly from the bright lights of the lobby and were virtually blinded in the darkness. We put our hands on the railing and walked all the way up the steps until we got to an area fairly high up where we could tell that no one was sitting. We still couldn't see very well, but slid in down the aisle and found a seat. As we sat down, I reached for my cell phone to turn the ringer off but realized that my phone had slid out of my pocket as I was sitting down. I now began to feel around and try to look under my seat but my eyes hadn't adjusted yet so I still couldn't see very well and I couldn't find it. After a few minutes, my eyes had adjusted even though it was still fairly dark so I decided to look again. This time I could begin to see a little bit under the seat but I just couldn't put my eyes or my hands on the phone. I had to give up and wait until the movie was over and lights came .. I would finally find my phone. When I did, I could see clearly that the phone wasn't quite where I thought it was, but it had been within my grasp the whole time.
The scene that I described in the movie theater reminds me of Nicodemus in a certain way. Nicodemus was a teacher of Israel, but he was clearly in the dark. Yet, he wasn't satisfied with that. He seems to be a man that at least knows he is in the dark about certain things. He wants the truth and is willing to go around searching for it in the dark. Even though, in this first encounter with Jesus, the truth is right there within his grasp but he just cannot quite place his hands on it. Nicodemus is still in the darkness in this scene both literally and figuratively but he will keep searching, and don't be surprised if he pops up again in John's Gospel, but this time in the light with the truth firmly in his hands.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a member of the Jewish ruling council, and an all-around important guy at the time of Jesus. The Pharisees certainly thought the Temple priests and ruling Sanhedrin were basically corrupt, so they likely would not have had a problem with, and may even have applauded Jesus' actions in the Temple. So it's not unusual at this point that Nicodemus would come to Jesus to ask questions. Yet, there does seem to be something unusual about coming to Jesus at night. This was not the normal way of doing things. We are simply not told why Nicodemus came at night, whether he was afraid of others and did not want to be seen, or he wanted a private audience away from the crowds, or whether there was some other explanation. Regardless of the situation, though, it seems that John wants his readers to catch the symbolism of this man who cannot quite see things clearly, yet has come to Jesus in the darkness, in the cover of night.
He opens his conversation with a typical Jewish greeting of praise, saying that clearly this is a man worthy of respect. He gives him the respect of calling him Rabbi even though Jesus apparently had no formal training. Jews generally believed that signs of the type that Jesus was performing could only come from God, so rather than looking for alternate explanations, as others would do, Nicodemus recognizes that Jesus is from God. He believes that no one could perform the signs that Jesus was doing if God were not with Him. Nicodemus is still in the darkness, but he is feeling around, looking for the light.
Jesus doesn't really engage with Nicodemus in the culturally expected niceties but gets right to the heart of the matter. No one, he says, can see the kingdom of God without being born again. To "see the kingdom of God" referred to participating in the life of the age to come, both in the present through the life of Christ and in full after the resurrection. Jews at that time, however, believed that all Israelites, except for a few exceptional reprobates, would be part of the age to come. What this means is that we have a scene here where Nicodemus has come to Jesus in the dark reaching around looking for the truth and beginning his conversation with normal Jewish customs, but Jesus cuts him off and basically says that all of the old expectations are no longer valid. The kingdom of God is not reserved for those that are born children of Abraham, but is reserved for those that are born again. The word translated "born again" can mean that but can also mean "from above." Jesus probably meant to imply both meanings by using this term, but he confuses his unenlightened questioner.
Nicodemus was a wise rabbinic teacher in many respects and it is likely that his response is not nearly as dense as it appears to be. It is improbable that that Nicodemus actually thought that Jesus was telling him that he must crawl back into his mother's womb and be born over. His response is probably a bit hopeful, even wistful, more along the lines of, "How can we start over again and erase who we are? It would be great if we could, but we can't go crawling back into our mothers and be born again, so what are we to do?"
This is the moment when Jesus is going to introduce a glimpse of the new creation to the darkness of Nicodemus' world, but rather than being able to see it clearly right away, Nicodemus reacts more like someone who has been in the dark and suddenly walks out into a bright sunny day. He is more blinded by the truth momentarily than he was when he was completely in the dark. Entrance into God's kingdom has nothing to do with being born into the nation of Israel, but it has to do with being born of water and the Spirit. It was the prophet Ezekiel who promised that God would renew His people and put new hearts in them with the double action of cleansing them with water and putting His own Spirit into them (Ezek. 36:25-27). This is likely Jesus' primary reference and certainly what Nicodemus would have understood, but John is no fool, and is writing this down decades after Jesus' death. Certainly he, and the early Christian community would have sees a clear foreshadowing to being baptized into Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit at that baptism (Acts 2:38).
This is how God will induct children into His new kingdom. This is a new kingdom and a new creation. The Old Covenant was a physical covenant with physical enemies, physical battles, physical sin, and a physical people of God. Flesh gave birth to flesh under that covenant. But no more. This is the time when God is renewing His people with His own Spirit just as He promised. He is taking away their heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh (Ezek. 11:19; 36:26). Understanding the spiritual nature of the New Covenant as opposed to the physical nature of the Old Covenant helps us understand Jesus' words in verses 8-9. The wind blows and can be heard but it cannot be quantified, it cannot be easily defined and put in a box. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. This spiritual birth cannot be contained or neatly confined within the nation of Israel or any nation.
This seems to blind and confuse Nicodemus to the point of exasperation. "How can this be?" he retorts. Surely God was going to work through Israel not apart from her. What Nicodemus was failing to grasp was something that John has already alluded to and will develop more fully as his Gospel unfolds. Jesus is Israel, the true Son of God.
Jesus chides Nicodemus a bit pointing out that he is supposed to be a teacher of God's people, and yet cannot seem to make room in his mind for the fact that God is doing something new, even though He had promised just that (Isa. 42:9; 43:19; 48:6; 65:17; Ezek. 11:19; 36:26). If Nicodemus cannot grasp the truth when Jesus speaks of earthly things like the fact that God has promised to do something new and that time has arrived, how can he possibly understand if Jesus actually began to explain the deep heavenly truths of those things? This doesn't mean, I don't believe, that Jesus is telling Nicodemus that he won't tell him these things, simply it is a challenge to Nicodemus that he is still feeling around in the dark and had better get his eyes used to the light quickly because it is standing right in front of him. If Nicodemus wants to even think about understanding the things of heaven he had better start paying attention to the one who came from heaven, because he doesn't just have the ability to see the light. He is the light.
Devotional Thought
Jesus talks about birth into the kingdom of God, but there is a funny truth about the fact of birth. Once someone is born they don't spend much time thinking about their birth again, but get busy with the business of living. Taking a little time occasion to honor and be thankful for your spiritual birth is a great thing, but only if you go beyond that rather than thinking that that is the culmination of your spiritual journey. Once you've been born from above, get on with the business of growing and living spiritually.
Monday, November 10, 2008
John 2:13-25
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father's house into a market!" 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."
18 The Jews then responded to him, "What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"
19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
20 They replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. 25 He did not need human testimony about them, for he knew what was in them.
Dig Deeper
I remember one day when I was still in college, I had simply had enough. I stormed into the office of the President and began to knock over the chairs in the waiting area. I quickly strode past the general secretary's desk and knocked the computer off and then went down through the entire office turning over tables and knocking down filing cabinets. The whole time I was doing that I cried out that the school was overcharging us students at an obscene profit and making a mockery of the entire education process. Because of their unfair and unjust actions, I was going to put an end to this kind of predatory behavior if only for a few brief moments by demonstrating that I had the true moral high ground which thus gave me the right and the authority to do all of this. After just a few brief seconds, I had decimated most of the office and created quite a general ruckus. This was a pretty good day considering that it was only my first week in college.
Of course, none of that is true, although admittedly, it would have been just a little bit enjoyable to do at some point, preferably after I had graduated and received all of my grades. As shocking as that example may have been, though, it still falls far short of helping us to understand the shock of Jesus' actions in the Temple. The closest thing that we have in the United States of America to something like the Temple would be the White House. Yet, the Temple was the center of all religious, political, and social activity in the nation of Israel, so even the White House doesn't match up to the importance of the Temple in the Jewish nation. It is into just such a place, a place that stood for all that Israel was as the people of God, that Jesus marched into the middle and declared by his actions, judgment and authority.
Before we even begin to look at this passage, let's first consider a significant difficulty. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all describe a similar event to the one that John has described but with significant differences. In fact, other than the fact that John has described Jesus clearing the Temple, there are almost no other similarities. For starters, John has this event taking place at the beginning of Jesus' ministry while, not only do the other Gospels describe Jesus' clearing of the Temple at the end of his ministry, that is the first time that they describe Jesus as even being in Jerusalem. Without having time to go into all of the details in this format, it would appear that we have two primary options. Either John (or the synoptic Gospels) have moved the timing of this event for theological purposes or there were two Temple clearings. The second option seems like the better choice.
In John's event Jesus uses a a whip and clears out the animals, he quotes no Scriptures, but his actions do remind the disciples of a Scripture. In the synoptic version, Jesus charges those present with turning the Temple into a hide-out cave for rebels (usually translated "den of robbers" which is somewhat misleading), while here in John the charge has to do with turning the Temple into a marketplace. It seems that John has described an event that took place early in Jesus' ministry before he was very well known. It was likely even a smaller event that took place in the Gentile court of the Temple. This event to start his ministry, then, was not described by Matthew, Mark, or Luke, but John added it knowing that it was absent from the other Gospels. The other Gospels, however, describe the action Jesus took at the end of his ministry, one that was a parable of judgment on the nation of Israel and a sign of the destruction that would soon come upon them. If we put these events together, then we have a complete picture of Jesus beginning and ending his ministry with decisive actions in the Temple.
As John begins his description of this event, he is clear to draw our attention to the fact that it was Passover time. Passover was the time when the nation of Israel remembered the actions that God had taken in delivering them from the freedom of slavery in Egypt. An unblemished lamb was slain and the blood was spread on the doorposts in a cross pattern of the households of Israel in order to spare them. John will repeatedly stress the connections between Jesus' activities and the Passover that will finally culminate with Jesus being put to death at the same time that the Passover lambs were being killed in the Temple. Jesus was the true Passover Lamb. John wants his readers to understand Jesus and his actions as the true Passover Lamb that the earlier historical events merely pointed to.
Jesus went up to Jerusalem, John tells us, which makes more sense of certain aspects of Jesus' career than if we only went by the synoptic Gospels which seem to imply that Jesus did not go to Jerusalem until his final week. John has Jesus in Jerusalem several times. Jesus' earlier occasional presence in Jerusalem would explain things such as why people came from Jerusalem to Galilee to observe Jesus' ministry there (Mark 3:22; 7:1) and why the high priest already felt like he had a strong case against Jesus and knew of him well (John 11:47-53).
Jesus' primary problem with the money changers (who exchanged money so that people could pay the Temple tax) was probably more of an issue of location than of action. It appears that they had set up these exchange tables in the court of the Gentiles, the only place open to the Gentiles, rather than going somewhere outside of the Temple complex that was less convenient. The Temple was supposed to be a house of prayer for all nations (Isa. 56:7) not a place where Gentiles were excluded and made to feel inferior. Yet, in the only place that they could worship, the space had been turned into a marketplace.
In response, Jesus takes Messianic action by clearing out the animals and turning over the tables. His actions brings up thoughts of Zechariah's prophecy that "on that day there will no longer be merchants in the house of the Lord Almighty," (Zech. 14:21) and it certainly reminded his disciples that "zeal for your house will consume me," according to Psalm 69:19. Jesus' zeal for his Father's house took precedence over the blind nationalism that had consumed most first century Jews. It would not only consume his attention and passion during his life but would literally consume his life and result in his death.
The response of the Jewish leaders is a bit curious. They don't seem to take issue with his actions so much as his authority to do them. Jews wouldn't have been so surprised by prophetic and Messianic actions like that, but they were much more concerned with the person doing them. Did he have the authority to take that action or not? They want a sign to demonstrate his authority, but in demanding a sign they have shown that they have completely missed the point. They wanted a sign of legitimacy and Jesus had just offered one. They wanted to know if Jesus could perform the signs of a Messiah, and had missed the truth that that was exactly what he had just done.
Jesus then offers them up the ultimate sign of his Messianic ministry. They will destroy the true Temple, but he will raise it in three days. Not only is Jesus the true Passover, he is the true Temple. The Jewish leaders do not understand Jesus' point that he is referring to himself and so respond to the ridiculous notion that a building that had taken 46 years to build to that point could be destroyed and rebuilt in three days.
John wants us to understand that this Temple clearing is another place where heaven and earth have been brought together, Jacob's ladder is opened and the angels are continuing to ascend and descend. God's reality doesn't just bring shocking miracles like turning water into wine, but it also brings authority and justice into the world. This is what would serve as testimony to Jesus' authority. Jesus didn't trust in or need large crowds or the legitimacy that their presence might bring in the eyes of men. He knew that crowds and individuals could be fickle. He did not need human testimony at all. His actions were all that was needed to verify who he was and the authority that he had in himself. If you want to understand Jesus truly, don't look at the crowds following him around, look at him. He is the true Temple and his coming destruction in death and resurrection will be the realities to which the Passover had pointed.
Devotional Thought
Jesus knew that there were times when large crowds were going to follow him, but he didn't trust that or see that as a sign vindicating his ministry. It was his own actions and willingness to do the will of the Father that Jesus trusted in. Is that enough for you? If you're doing the will of God but no one is listening, following, or even respecting you, is that enough?
18 The Jews then responded to him, "What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"
19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
20 They replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. 25 He did not need human testimony about them, for he knew what was in them.
Dig Deeper
I remember one day when I was still in college, I had simply had enough. I stormed into the office of the President and began to knock over the chairs in the waiting area. I quickly strode past the general secretary's desk and knocked the computer off and then went down through the entire office turning over tables and knocking down filing cabinets. The whole time I was doing that I cried out that the school was overcharging us students at an obscene profit and making a mockery of the entire education process. Because of their unfair and unjust actions, I was going to put an end to this kind of predatory behavior if only for a few brief moments by demonstrating that I had the true moral high ground which thus gave me the right and the authority to do all of this. After just a few brief seconds, I had decimated most of the office and created quite a general ruckus. This was a pretty good day considering that it was only my first week in college.
Of course, none of that is true, although admittedly, it would have been just a little bit enjoyable to do at some point, preferably after I had graduated and received all of my grades. As shocking as that example may have been, though, it still falls far short of helping us to understand the shock of Jesus' actions in the Temple. The closest thing that we have in the United States of America to something like the Temple would be the White House. Yet, the Temple was the center of all religious, political, and social activity in the nation of Israel, so even the White House doesn't match up to the importance of the Temple in the Jewish nation. It is into just such a place, a place that stood for all that Israel was as the people of God, that Jesus marched into the middle and declared by his actions, judgment and authority.
Before we even begin to look at this passage, let's first consider a significant difficulty. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all describe a similar event to the one that John has described but with significant differences. In fact, other than the fact that John has described Jesus clearing the Temple, there are almost no other similarities. For starters, John has this event taking place at the beginning of Jesus' ministry while, not only do the other Gospels describe Jesus' clearing of the Temple at the end of his ministry, that is the first time that they describe Jesus as even being in Jerusalem. Without having time to go into all of the details in this format, it would appear that we have two primary options. Either John (or the synoptic Gospels) have moved the timing of this event for theological purposes or there were two Temple clearings. The second option seems like the better choice.
In John's event Jesus uses a a whip and clears out the animals, he quotes no Scriptures, but his actions do remind the disciples of a Scripture. In the synoptic version, Jesus charges those present with turning the Temple into a hide-out cave for rebels (usually translated "den of robbers" which is somewhat misleading), while here in John the charge has to do with turning the Temple into a marketplace. It seems that John has described an event that took place early in Jesus' ministry before he was very well known. It was likely even a smaller event that took place in the Gentile court of the Temple. This event to start his ministry, then, was not described by Matthew, Mark, or Luke, but John added it knowing that it was absent from the other Gospels. The other Gospels, however, describe the action Jesus took at the end of his ministry, one that was a parable of judgment on the nation of Israel and a sign of the destruction that would soon come upon them. If we put these events together, then we have a complete picture of Jesus beginning and ending his ministry with decisive actions in the Temple.
As John begins his description of this event, he is clear to draw our attention to the fact that it was Passover time. Passover was the time when the nation of Israel remembered the actions that God had taken in delivering them from the freedom of slavery in Egypt. An unblemished lamb was slain and the blood was spread on the doorposts in a cross pattern of the households of Israel in order to spare them. John will repeatedly stress the connections between Jesus' activities and the Passover that will finally culminate with Jesus being put to death at the same time that the Passover lambs were being killed in the Temple. Jesus was the true Passover Lamb. John wants his readers to understand Jesus and his actions as the true Passover Lamb that the earlier historical events merely pointed to.
Jesus went up to Jerusalem, John tells us, which makes more sense of certain aspects of Jesus' career than if we only went by the synoptic Gospels which seem to imply that Jesus did not go to Jerusalem until his final week. John has Jesus in Jerusalem several times. Jesus' earlier occasional presence in Jerusalem would explain things such as why people came from Jerusalem to Galilee to observe Jesus' ministry there (Mark 3:22; 7:1) and why the high priest already felt like he had a strong case against Jesus and knew of him well (John 11:47-53).
Jesus' primary problem with the money changers (who exchanged money so that people could pay the Temple tax) was probably more of an issue of location than of action. It appears that they had set up these exchange tables in the court of the Gentiles, the only place open to the Gentiles, rather than going somewhere outside of the Temple complex that was less convenient. The Temple was supposed to be a house of prayer for all nations (Isa. 56:7) not a place where Gentiles were excluded and made to feel inferior. Yet, in the only place that they could worship, the space had been turned into a marketplace.
In response, Jesus takes Messianic action by clearing out the animals and turning over the tables. His actions brings up thoughts of Zechariah's prophecy that "on that day there will no longer be merchants in the house of the Lord Almighty," (Zech. 14:21) and it certainly reminded his disciples that "zeal for your house will consume me," according to Psalm 69:19. Jesus' zeal for his Father's house took precedence over the blind nationalism that had consumed most first century Jews. It would not only consume his attention and passion during his life but would literally consume his life and result in his death.
The response of the Jewish leaders is a bit curious. They don't seem to take issue with his actions so much as his authority to do them. Jews wouldn't have been so surprised by prophetic and Messianic actions like that, but they were much more concerned with the person doing them. Did he have the authority to take that action or not? They want a sign to demonstrate his authority, but in demanding a sign they have shown that they have completely missed the point. They wanted a sign of legitimacy and Jesus had just offered one. They wanted to know if Jesus could perform the signs of a Messiah, and had missed the truth that that was exactly what he had just done.
Jesus then offers them up the ultimate sign of his Messianic ministry. They will destroy the true Temple, but he will raise it in three days. Not only is Jesus the true Passover, he is the true Temple. The Jewish leaders do not understand Jesus' point that he is referring to himself and so respond to the ridiculous notion that a building that had taken 46 years to build to that point could be destroyed and rebuilt in three days.
John wants us to understand that this Temple clearing is another place where heaven and earth have been brought together, Jacob's ladder is opened and the angels are continuing to ascend and descend. God's reality doesn't just bring shocking miracles like turning water into wine, but it also brings authority and justice into the world. This is what would serve as testimony to Jesus' authority. Jesus didn't trust in or need large crowds or the legitimacy that their presence might bring in the eyes of men. He knew that crowds and individuals could be fickle. He did not need human testimony at all. His actions were all that was needed to verify who he was and the authority that he had in himself. If you want to understand Jesus truly, don't look at the crowds following him around, look at him. He is the true Temple and his coming destruction in death and resurrection will be the realities to which the Passover had pointed.
Devotional Thought
Jesus knew that there were times when large crowds were going to follow him, but he didn't trust that or see that as a sign vindicating his ministry. It was his own actions and willingness to do the will of the Father that Jesus trusted in. Is that enough for you? If you're doing the will of God but no one is listening, following, or even respecting you, is that enough?
Friday, November 07, 2008
John 2:1-12
Jesus Changes Water into Wine
1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine."
4 "Woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My hour has not yet come."
5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet."
They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now."
11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples put their faith in him.
12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.
Dig Deeper
Just yesterday I was able to spend the school day at my youngest son's school volunteering. Being two days before Halloween, but the last school day before the 31st, the kids knew that they were gong to have some sort of party. Right away when they got to school they were told that they were going to have some snacks that were a mixture of treats. They were also told that the secret ingredient to make the snack complete had been taken by a mysterious figure named "Frankie." An hour or so into the day, just as promised they were told that, not only had Frankie taken their treats and hid them, but he had left clues in order for the class to find them. The first clue was "left" right on their teacher's desk and was a pretty easy clue leading them to the second clue. After that, though, the clues got harder for the kids to find and they weren't left out in the open and so obvious. The clues were there as had been promised, but they had to look closely to find them. After finding and following all of the clues they finally found the mysterious missing ingredient, a bag of M & M's.
Nathanael and the other disciples had been looking for the missing ingredient. They weren't quite sure where it was or how to find but they were on the lookout. In the last chapter, Jesus told Nathanael that he was going to see things that were beyond his wildest imagination. He was going to see what it looks like when the line between heaven and earth are blurred. He would, in fact, see what can happens when heaven breaks into the physical realm of earth. That was not just an empty promise and John certainly will not leave that as an empty statement. He is about to send us on our own hunt for clues to the missing ingredient. He helps us out with this first sign, and will make the second one obvious as well. After that, though, we're on our own. We will have to keep our eyes open and look for the signs and see where they lead us. As we go along on our search, take special notice as to how many signs John leaves for us, the number might surprise you.
Weddings were huge affairs in first century Israel. The wedding feast itself could last up to a week and would include everyone from the village in which the betrothed lived. This wedding may even have been of a family member of some time of Jesus, or he might just have been invited as a nearby neighbor. It would appear that his mother, Mary, may have had some official role of helping to plan the wedding based on her concern for what was going on and her ability to give orders to the servants.
John says that this was the third day since Jesus' encounter with Nathanael, and if we count that day with Nathanael as the first day (which is how Jews in the first century would have counted), then the second day was not explicitly mentioned (it may have been the Sabbath), then this third day is the seventh day of John's opening week. Both of these numbers would have had high symbolic importance for John. Seven days, of course, were symbolic of the opening of the new creation. Any idea as to what significance John might have seen in categorizing the day of Jesus' first miracle as the third day?
With weddings going on up to seven days, it is likely that by the time Jesus arrived with his disciples (presumably Andrew, Peter, John, Philip, and Nathanael) the wedding had been going on for some time. It would be unlikely that the hosts would run out of wine on the first day, so we can infer that Jesus had been invited to the wedding, but is just now arriving several days into the wedding. Running out of wine was no small thing in this culture. It would have been a disastrous situation that would have brought shame on the entire family; it would likely have caused the couple getting married to view this as a bad sign for their marriage; it even could have led to the family having legal action taken against them for not properly providing what was expected at a wedding.
Whether she was a family member or one of the attendants in charge of the wedding celebration itself, Mary takes specific concern over the situation, and immediately brings the issue to Jesus. There is nothing in her statement, "they have no more wine," that implies that Mary was expecting a miracle of any kind, though there does seem to be some sort of special expectation on her part. Jesus' response in calling her "woman" is a bit terse, but not at all a harsh response. His statement that his hour has not yet come, seems significant in John's mind. It points ahead to other moments in John's Gospel where he will record that Jesus recognized that his time had come (12:23, 27; 13:1; 17:1). The hour, for Jesus, seemed to be the moment when the full glory of God would be revealed through him. (That, we should note, is the time when Jesus is going to the Cross. The miracles are important and hold great significance but if we really want to understand and behold the full glory of God, we must look to the Cross.) Mary, then, may have been gently prodding Jesus to reveal himself as the Messiah. Whether that was her intent or not, Jesus is determined to not be forced into a public manifestation of his full identity before it is time (see also 7:6, 8).
Despite Jesus' tepid response, Mary seems to be convinced that her son will still resolve the situation. Jesus does resolve the situation by revealing his glory through this miraculous moment, but doing so in private. Only a small number of people have any clue what Jesus has done. The master of the banquet and most everyone else at the wedding have no idea what they are taking part in.
With John's affinity for numerical symbolic significance, it is quite possible that he denotes that there were six stone water jars with a specific purpose in mind. In fact, there seems to be much symbolic significance with this scene. Although there may certainly be some debate over specific symbols, it seems that the following explanation is something of what John sees in this account. Seven was the perfect number in biblical thought, and six was usually seen as the number symbolizing falling short of perfection. It was the number of man (which John uses with great importance in the book of Revelation). The stone jars held water and were used for all of the ceremonial aspects of the Law. Water was connected frequently in the Old Testament with the Holy Spirit or the action of God while wine was symbolic in the Jewish culture for God's age to come and that joy that would be abundant in that age. The wedding feast itself was another symbol of the age to come. It seems then, that in this first miracle, John wants us to see a moment in which the emptiness of the Jewish rituals is being filled up with the work of the Spirit and turned into something entirely new, a moment from the new creation.
Whether we agree with all of that symbolism or not, and it does seem rather likely that John intends for us to see at least some symbolism in this event. We do know this for sure; Jesus had promised Nathanael that he would see greater things than he could imagine. This is what it would look like when heaven was opened up and Jesus became the ladder between heaven and earth. His ultimate hour had not yet come, but this was certainly the first step up the mountain. Nathanael, Jesus told him, was going to get far more than he expected. The wine that Jesus was making available was far superior to anything that had been revealed before (as was Jesus' ministry).
We should note that some have criticized this miracle, asking the question if Jesus was contributing to the drunkenness of people by creating so much wine. That criticism simply doesn't hold water though (no pun intended). Jesus did make 120 to 180 gallons of wine, but we must remember a few important details. There would possibly have been several hundred people present at the wedding and it would still have been their responsibility to drink wisely. Plus, there is nothing that even implies that all of the wine was consumed at the wedding. There may have been a great deal of wine left over which would have served as a generous resource and a wonderful gift for the newly married couple. We must be careful, ultimately, not to read our cultural negativity towards wine into this account.
It was through this first sign that the journey has truly begun and God's glory was revealed through the Word that had become flesh. The Old Testament had boldly declared that the true glory of God would be revealed through the Messiah (Ps. 97:6; 102:16; Isa. 60:1-2) and John makes it clear to us that that time had come. This is what it would look like when the Son of God entered into the world, bringing the new creation with him. The exciting thing for us is that the new creation that came through the water turning into wine is not something that happened one time two thousand years ago. The new creation is available to us now (2 Cor. 5:15-21). Jesus can have the same sort of transformational power in our lives as he had on the water. All we need do is to heed Mary's words to do whatever he tells you.
Devotional Thought
How do you compare with the servants in this account? Mary told them to do whatever Jesus told them to do, and certainly John intends for his readers to contemplate what that concept means in our lives. Do you do whatever Jesus says in the Word of God or do you have a tendency to look for only the parts you like? What aspects of the life of Christ have you been selective with in your life?
1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine."
4 "Woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My hour has not yet come."
5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet."
They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now."
11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples put their faith in him.
12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.
Dig Deeper
Just yesterday I was able to spend the school day at my youngest son's school volunteering. Being two days before Halloween, but the last school day before the 31st, the kids knew that they were gong to have some sort of party. Right away when they got to school they were told that they were going to have some snacks that were a mixture of treats. They were also told that the secret ingredient to make the snack complete had been taken by a mysterious figure named "Frankie." An hour or so into the day, just as promised they were told that, not only had Frankie taken their treats and hid them, but he had left clues in order for the class to find them. The first clue was "left" right on their teacher's desk and was a pretty easy clue leading them to the second clue. After that, though, the clues got harder for the kids to find and they weren't left out in the open and so obvious. The clues were there as had been promised, but they had to look closely to find them. After finding and following all of the clues they finally found the mysterious missing ingredient, a bag of M & M's.
Nathanael and the other disciples had been looking for the missing ingredient. They weren't quite sure where it was or how to find but they were on the lookout. In the last chapter, Jesus told Nathanael that he was going to see things that were beyond his wildest imagination. He was going to see what it looks like when the line between heaven and earth are blurred. He would, in fact, see what can happens when heaven breaks into the physical realm of earth. That was not just an empty promise and John certainly will not leave that as an empty statement. He is about to send us on our own hunt for clues to the missing ingredient. He helps us out with this first sign, and will make the second one obvious as well. After that, though, we're on our own. We will have to keep our eyes open and look for the signs and see where they lead us. As we go along on our search, take special notice as to how many signs John leaves for us, the number might surprise you.
Weddings were huge affairs in first century Israel. The wedding feast itself could last up to a week and would include everyone from the village in which the betrothed lived. This wedding may even have been of a family member of some time of Jesus, or he might just have been invited as a nearby neighbor. It would appear that his mother, Mary, may have had some official role of helping to plan the wedding based on her concern for what was going on and her ability to give orders to the servants.
John says that this was the third day since Jesus' encounter with Nathanael, and if we count that day with Nathanael as the first day (which is how Jews in the first century would have counted), then the second day was not explicitly mentioned (it may have been the Sabbath), then this third day is the seventh day of John's opening week. Both of these numbers would have had high symbolic importance for John. Seven days, of course, were symbolic of the opening of the new creation. Any idea as to what significance John might have seen in categorizing the day of Jesus' first miracle as the third day?
With weddings going on up to seven days, it is likely that by the time Jesus arrived with his disciples (presumably Andrew, Peter, John, Philip, and Nathanael) the wedding had been going on for some time. It would be unlikely that the hosts would run out of wine on the first day, so we can infer that Jesus had been invited to the wedding, but is just now arriving several days into the wedding. Running out of wine was no small thing in this culture. It would have been a disastrous situation that would have brought shame on the entire family; it would likely have caused the couple getting married to view this as a bad sign for their marriage; it even could have led to the family having legal action taken against them for not properly providing what was expected at a wedding.
Whether she was a family member or one of the attendants in charge of the wedding celebration itself, Mary takes specific concern over the situation, and immediately brings the issue to Jesus. There is nothing in her statement, "they have no more wine," that implies that Mary was expecting a miracle of any kind, though there does seem to be some sort of special expectation on her part. Jesus' response in calling her "woman" is a bit terse, but not at all a harsh response. His statement that his hour has not yet come, seems significant in John's mind. It points ahead to other moments in John's Gospel where he will record that Jesus recognized that his time had come (12:23, 27; 13:1; 17:1). The hour, for Jesus, seemed to be the moment when the full glory of God would be revealed through him. (That, we should note, is the time when Jesus is going to the Cross. The miracles are important and hold great significance but if we really want to understand and behold the full glory of God, we must look to the Cross.) Mary, then, may have been gently prodding Jesus to reveal himself as the Messiah. Whether that was her intent or not, Jesus is determined to not be forced into a public manifestation of his full identity before it is time (see also 7:6, 8).
Despite Jesus' tepid response, Mary seems to be convinced that her son will still resolve the situation. Jesus does resolve the situation by revealing his glory through this miraculous moment, but doing so in private. Only a small number of people have any clue what Jesus has done. The master of the banquet and most everyone else at the wedding have no idea what they are taking part in.
With John's affinity for numerical symbolic significance, it is quite possible that he denotes that there were six stone water jars with a specific purpose in mind. In fact, there seems to be much symbolic significance with this scene. Although there may certainly be some debate over specific symbols, it seems that the following explanation is something of what John sees in this account. Seven was the perfect number in biblical thought, and six was usually seen as the number symbolizing falling short of perfection. It was the number of man (which John uses with great importance in the book of Revelation). The stone jars held water and were used for all of the ceremonial aspects of the Law. Water was connected frequently in the Old Testament with the Holy Spirit or the action of God while wine was symbolic in the Jewish culture for God's age to come and that joy that would be abundant in that age. The wedding feast itself was another symbol of the age to come. It seems then, that in this first miracle, John wants us to see a moment in which the emptiness of the Jewish rituals is being filled up with the work of the Spirit and turned into something entirely new, a moment from the new creation.
Whether we agree with all of that symbolism or not, and it does seem rather likely that John intends for us to see at least some symbolism in this event. We do know this for sure; Jesus had promised Nathanael that he would see greater things than he could imagine. This is what it would look like when heaven was opened up and Jesus became the ladder between heaven and earth. His ultimate hour had not yet come, but this was certainly the first step up the mountain. Nathanael, Jesus told him, was going to get far more than he expected. The wine that Jesus was making available was far superior to anything that had been revealed before (as was Jesus' ministry).
We should note that some have criticized this miracle, asking the question if Jesus was contributing to the drunkenness of people by creating so much wine. That criticism simply doesn't hold water though (no pun intended). Jesus did make 120 to 180 gallons of wine, but we must remember a few important details. There would possibly have been several hundred people present at the wedding and it would still have been their responsibility to drink wisely. Plus, there is nothing that even implies that all of the wine was consumed at the wedding. There may have been a great deal of wine left over which would have served as a generous resource and a wonderful gift for the newly married couple. We must be careful, ultimately, not to read our cultural negativity towards wine into this account.
It was through this first sign that the journey has truly begun and God's glory was revealed through the Word that had become flesh. The Old Testament had boldly declared that the true glory of God would be revealed through the Messiah (Ps. 97:6; 102:16; Isa. 60:1-2) and John makes it clear to us that that time had come. This is what it would look like when the Son of God entered into the world, bringing the new creation with him. The exciting thing for us is that the new creation that came through the water turning into wine is not something that happened one time two thousand years ago. The new creation is available to us now (2 Cor. 5:15-21). Jesus can have the same sort of transformational power in our lives as he had on the water. All we need do is to heed Mary's words to do whatever he tells you.
Devotional Thought
How do you compare with the servants in this account? Mary told them to do whatever Jesus told them to do, and certainly John intends for his readers to contemplate what that concept means in our lives. Do you do whatever Jesus says in the Word of God or do you have a tendency to look for only the parts you like? What aspects of the life of Christ have you been selective with in your life?
Thursday, November 06, 2008
John 1:43-51
Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael
43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me."
44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
46 "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked.
"Come and see," said Philip.
47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit."
48 "How do you know me?" Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."
49 Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel."
50 Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that." 51 He then added, "Very truly I tell you, you will see 'heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."
Dig Deeper
A few years ago (actually it was almost twenty, but it'll help my ego to say "a few") a group of my friends decided that we were going to play in a major summer basketball tournament for college-aged basketball players. We saw the tournament as an opportunity to have a little fun together, but it really was a pretty serious thing for most teams. Our first game in the tournament we wound up playing a team comprised of players from the University of Marquette. They had a very good team that year, including a center that was 6'10 (2.1 m) and about 280 pounds (127 kilos). We had, of course, heard of this young man but none of us had played against him before. We didn't have anyone nearly that big and we knew that he was strong, so I felt that we needed to send a message to him early that we came to play hard and physical. The first time he caught the ball, I was going to act as an enforcer, of sorts, and foul him hard. As he caught the ball, I came down across his his forearms with everything I had with a karate-style chop. I knew he was big and strong, but I had no clue as to just how strong this guy was. I hit him with a force that might literally have broken some people's arm, but I barely even knocked his arms down more than an inch or two. He looked at me, chuckled, and said, "nice try, son." That was his way of telling me that we had no idea of just how strong and good he was. We went on to lose that game by twelve points, due in large part to the inside power of this one tree trunk of a man.
As John's disciples and others begin to encounter Jesus for the first time, they know that he is a force to be reckoned with. They understood that he was someone special and was someone to be listened to and followed, but they really had no clue what they were in for. Watch John's Gospel as we see individual after individual approaching Jesus, thinking they have a pretty good idea of who he is and what is he about, only to find out that they may be right in a sense, but in full reality, they have no clue just exactly who he is, what he is doing, and what they are in for.
On the fifth day of John's seven-day description of the beginning of Jesus' ministry, Jesus decided to set out for Galilee. What is translated "finding" can also be understood as "found by" which seems to make a little more sense, as in these opening scenes of John's Gospel, everyone else he describes, sought Jesus out. Either way Jesus gives Philip a clear call as he tells Philip to "follow me." Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida, a town that would later be denounced by Jesus as having a great deal of miracles done in it but where evidently not many people repented (Matt. 11:20-24; Luke 10:13-14).
Philip is so impressed with Jesus that, like Andrew, he goes and calls another to come to Jesus. We are not told explicitly whether Philip and the man he went to fetch, Nathanael, were disciples of John, but that is a safe assumption at this point. Philip, like Andrew and John, had been waiting and looking for the one that was to come. This would make sense if he was another of John's disciples that had been taught by the man in the wilderness to be ready for the coming of the Messiah. Philip rushes towards Nathanael, and we can almost hear him breathlessly proclaim that we (he seems to already be including himself in a new community that is forming around Jesus) have found the one written about in the Old Testament Scriptures (commonly referred to as Moses and the prophets, or something similar).
Nathanael, as so many of us were at one time or another, seems to be rather skeptical about this whole situation. Nazareth wasn't much of a town and people wouldn't have really expected that a Messiah would come from there. In addition, there are some historians who assert that there was a bit of small town rivalry between Cana (Philip's hometown) and Nazareth. Whether his skepticism was serious or more good-natured, it is clear that Philip didn't have much of a response. Instead, he offers us a brilliant example of what to do when someone presents a question that is beyond our ability to answer. He bids Nathanael to simply come and see for himself.
As Jesus sees Philip approaching him, he declares that Nathanael is a true Israelite. There is a bit of a play on history here, as the father of the nation of Israel, Jacob's name meant the deceiver. Just as Jacob left his deceit in order to become Israel, there is no deceit in Nathanael, a true Israelite. Basically, Jesus mean's that Nathanael is a straightforward individual who is sincerely seeking God. He is a true son of Israel. The identity of this son of Israel is a bit mysterious as he is not mentioned in any of the other Gospels. It was fairly common in the first century, though, for people to have or go by several different names or nicknames, and that seems to be the key to determining who Nathanael is. It seems that Nathanael and Philip are good friends here and in the synoptic Gospels, and we see the Apostle Bartholomew paired with Philip (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14). Likewise, Bartholomew is mentioned immediately after Thomas in Acts 1:13, while Nathanael occupies that same position in John 21:2. To add to that is the fact that Bartholomew is not a name, it is a term that means "son of Tholomaios." It appears then, that Bartholomew and Nathanael are one in the same, with John using his given name.
Nathanael doesn't just take the compliment from Jesus but continues his skepticism. How can Jesus make a judgment concerning what kind of an individual he is? What Nathanael doesn't know, of course, John expects us as his readers to know already. We know how Jesus knows this, but Nathanael is still in the dark.
As with so many things with Jesus, there seems to be more to his response about the fig tree than would at first meet the eye. The fig tree was a regular symbol of home in the Jewish culture (cf. Isa. 36:16; Mic. 4:4; Zech. 3:10). The shade of a fig tree was typically thought of as a place for prayer and meditation and study (it became a symbol for a place of special encounter with God). Biblical scholar, Leon Morris, writes, "It seems probable that Nathanael had had some outstanding experience of communion with God in the privacy of his own home, and that it is this to which Jesus refers." It is possible, then, that Nathanael had had a recent experience with God that probably only he and God knew about.
Whatever it was, when Jesus references it, it is enough for Nathanael. He is convinced. He calls Jesus the Son of God and the king of Israel. Nathanael certainly meant "Messiah" by using these terms. He doesn't yet understand the full implications of these statements, as John expects his readers to at this point. Yet, in calling Jesus the Messiah and the king of Israel, Nathanael is giving Jesus the highest level of respect that he possibly can. Philip, based on his limited understanding can do no better or use any terms of higher respect. Yet even with that, he is not yet close to understanding the full magnitude of the one with whom he is dealing.
Jesus is not condescending at all but, in effect, says "nice try son." Nathanael has tried to grasp who Jesus is but he has no idea. He will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Jesus uses language here that hearkens us back to Jacob's vision of the stairway or ladder that stretched between heaven and earth (Gen. 28:12). The point of Jacob's vision at Bethel (the house of God) was that God was present. He was spanning the divide between His space (heaven) and Jacob's space (earth) and making Himself known. Jesus himself, he was telling Nathanael, was the new Bethel. He was the new Jacob's ladder. He was the place and the manner through which God was spanning the divide between heaven and earth. Nathanael thought that he had found the Messiah but he never imagined that he had found what it looked like when heaven and earth were opened up to one another. Jesus probably wasn't implying that he would literally see heaven or angels, but he was certainly going to see things happening that would show beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were real and were there. Nathanael had thought he had found God's sent one, but had not the slightest clue that he had found the living, breathing house of God.
Devotional Thought
Do you tend to approach Jesus as a mere source of doctrinal truth or have you approached him as the conduit between heaven and earth? Jesus is more than doctrinal truth, just as he was more than Nathanael's understanding of the Messiah. He is the place between heaven and earth where we can ascend into heaven on a daily basis. Spend some special time with him today and you just might find more than you bargained for.
43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me."
44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
46 "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked.
"Come and see," said Philip.
47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit."
48 "How do you know me?" Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."
49 Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel."
50 Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that." 51 He then added, "Very truly I tell you, you will see 'heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."
Dig Deeper
A few years ago (actually it was almost twenty, but it'll help my ego to say "a few") a group of my friends decided that we were going to play in a major summer basketball tournament for college-aged basketball players. We saw the tournament as an opportunity to have a little fun together, but it really was a pretty serious thing for most teams. Our first game in the tournament we wound up playing a team comprised of players from the University of Marquette. They had a very good team that year, including a center that was 6'10 (2.1 m) and about 280 pounds (127 kilos). We had, of course, heard of this young man but none of us had played against him before. We didn't have anyone nearly that big and we knew that he was strong, so I felt that we needed to send a message to him early that we came to play hard and physical. The first time he caught the ball, I was going to act as an enforcer, of sorts, and foul him hard. As he caught the ball, I came down across his his forearms with everything I had with a karate-style chop. I knew he was big and strong, but I had no clue as to just how strong this guy was. I hit him with a force that might literally have broken some people's arm, but I barely even knocked his arms down more than an inch or two. He looked at me, chuckled, and said, "nice try, son." That was his way of telling me that we had no idea of just how strong and good he was. We went on to lose that game by twelve points, due in large part to the inside power of this one tree trunk of a man.
As John's disciples and others begin to encounter Jesus for the first time, they know that he is a force to be reckoned with. They understood that he was someone special and was someone to be listened to and followed, but they really had no clue what they were in for. Watch John's Gospel as we see individual after individual approaching Jesus, thinking they have a pretty good idea of who he is and what is he about, only to find out that they may be right in a sense, but in full reality, they have no clue just exactly who he is, what he is doing, and what they are in for.
On the fifth day of John's seven-day description of the beginning of Jesus' ministry, Jesus decided to set out for Galilee. What is translated "finding" can also be understood as "found by" which seems to make a little more sense, as in these opening scenes of John's Gospel, everyone else he describes, sought Jesus out. Either way Jesus gives Philip a clear call as he tells Philip to "follow me." Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida, a town that would later be denounced by Jesus as having a great deal of miracles done in it but where evidently not many people repented (Matt. 11:20-24; Luke 10:13-14).
Philip is so impressed with Jesus that, like Andrew, he goes and calls another to come to Jesus. We are not told explicitly whether Philip and the man he went to fetch, Nathanael, were disciples of John, but that is a safe assumption at this point. Philip, like Andrew and John, had been waiting and looking for the one that was to come. This would make sense if he was another of John's disciples that had been taught by the man in the wilderness to be ready for the coming of the Messiah. Philip rushes towards Nathanael, and we can almost hear him breathlessly proclaim that we (he seems to already be including himself in a new community that is forming around Jesus) have found the one written about in the Old Testament Scriptures (commonly referred to as Moses and the prophets, or something similar).
Nathanael, as so many of us were at one time or another, seems to be rather skeptical about this whole situation. Nazareth wasn't much of a town and people wouldn't have really expected that a Messiah would come from there. In addition, there are some historians who assert that there was a bit of small town rivalry between Cana (Philip's hometown) and Nazareth. Whether his skepticism was serious or more good-natured, it is clear that Philip didn't have much of a response. Instead, he offers us a brilliant example of what to do when someone presents a question that is beyond our ability to answer. He bids Nathanael to simply come and see for himself.
As Jesus sees Philip approaching him, he declares that Nathanael is a true Israelite. There is a bit of a play on history here, as the father of the nation of Israel, Jacob's name meant the deceiver. Just as Jacob left his deceit in order to become Israel, there is no deceit in Nathanael, a true Israelite. Basically, Jesus mean's that Nathanael is a straightforward individual who is sincerely seeking God. He is a true son of Israel. The identity of this son of Israel is a bit mysterious as he is not mentioned in any of the other Gospels. It was fairly common in the first century, though, for people to have or go by several different names or nicknames, and that seems to be the key to determining who Nathanael is. It seems that Nathanael and Philip are good friends here and in the synoptic Gospels, and we see the Apostle Bartholomew paired with Philip (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14). Likewise, Bartholomew is mentioned immediately after Thomas in Acts 1:13, while Nathanael occupies that same position in John 21:2. To add to that is the fact that Bartholomew is not a name, it is a term that means "son of Tholomaios." It appears then, that Bartholomew and Nathanael are one in the same, with John using his given name.
Nathanael doesn't just take the compliment from Jesus but continues his skepticism. How can Jesus make a judgment concerning what kind of an individual he is? What Nathanael doesn't know, of course, John expects us as his readers to know already. We know how Jesus knows this, but Nathanael is still in the dark.
As with so many things with Jesus, there seems to be more to his response about the fig tree than would at first meet the eye. The fig tree was a regular symbol of home in the Jewish culture (cf. Isa. 36:16; Mic. 4:4; Zech. 3:10). The shade of a fig tree was typically thought of as a place for prayer and meditation and study (it became a symbol for a place of special encounter with God). Biblical scholar, Leon Morris, writes, "It seems probable that Nathanael had had some outstanding experience of communion with God in the privacy of his own home, and that it is this to which Jesus refers." It is possible, then, that Nathanael had had a recent experience with God that probably only he and God knew about.
Whatever it was, when Jesus references it, it is enough for Nathanael. He is convinced. He calls Jesus the Son of God and the king of Israel. Nathanael certainly meant "Messiah" by using these terms. He doesn't yet understand the full implications of these statements, as John expects his readers to at this point. Yet, in calling Jesus the Messiah and the king of Israel, Nathanael is giving Jesus the highest level of respect that he possibly can. Philip, based on his limited understanding can do no better or use any terms of higher respect. Yet even with that, he is not yet close to understanding the full magnitude of the one with whom he is dealing.
Jesus is not condescending at all but, in effect, says "nice try son." Nathanael has tried to grasp who Jesus is but he has no idea. He will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Jesus uses language here that hearkens us back to Jacob's vision of the stairway or ladder that stretched between heaven and earth (Gen. 28:12). The point of Jacob's vision at Bethel (the house of God) was that God was present. He was spanning the divide between His space (heaven) and Jacob's space (earth) and making Himself known. Jesus himself, he was telling Nathanael, was the new Bethel. He was the new Jacob's ladder. He was the place and the manner through which God was spanning the divide between heaven and earth. Nathanael thought that he had found the Messiah but he never imagined that he had found what it looked like when heaven and earth were opened up to one another. Jesus probably wasn't implying that he would literally see heaven or angels, but he was certainly going to see things happening that would show beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were real and were there. Nathanael had thought he had found God's sent one, but had not the slightest clue that he had found the living, breathing house of God.
Devotional Thought
Do you tend to approach Jesus as a mere source of doctrinal truth or have you approached him as the conduit between heaven and earth? Jesus is more than doctrinal truth, just as he was more than Nathanael's understanding of the Messiah. He is the place between heaven and earth where we can ascend into heaven on a daily basis. Spend some special time with him today and you just might find more than you bargained for.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
John 1:35-42
John's Disciples Follow Jesus
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!"
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?"
They said, "Rabbi" (which means "Teacher"), "where are you staying?"
39 "Come," he replied, "and you will see."
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter).
Dig Deeper
Nicknames are a funny thing. They can be very intimate; they can tell us a lot about a person; they can endear us to those who call us a nickname. When I was in college, there was an upperclassmen on our basketball team who was not only the captain, he was the best player. I quickly discovered after just a day or two as a new player on the team that it was his team, no buts about it. One of the memorable things that he went about each year was to give a nickname to every person on the team. There was a catch, though. We younger players could not figure out when he decided to give someone a nickname. It seemed haphazard, with no rhyme or reason. Mind you, these weren't always the most creative nicknames, but that didn't matter. Getting a nickname from this guy meant a great deal to the younger players. During one game, I got a pass from a teammate and went up and dunked the ball over a defender. A few minutes later, we ran off the court for a timeout and our captain walked over, put his hand on my shoulder and said, "nice play Big Mike." This was huge because until you got a nickname, he only called people by their last name. There it was, he had given me my own nickname. It turned out that you earned a nickname by making a big play, which usually involved dunking on someone. The whole process of his giving nicknames, though, cemented his position of authority on the team, encouraged the younger players, and really made us feel closer to and appreciated by our leader.
There are many quick little scenes throughout the four Gospels where we get to see the wonderfully human side of Jesus. If we slow down and read these scenes and then think about the human reality of the Gospel accounts, we can begin to see why those around Jesus loved him so much and were so loyal to him. As John describes the beginning seeds of Jesus' ministry, this is one of those scenes. Jesus doesn't just woodenly walk around teaching and calling people to follow him intellectually. He creates bonds, build friendships, and shows people how to love one another. This is what is behind his deeply human and endearing act of giving Peter a nickname. In doing so, he establishes his authority and no doubt encouraged Peter. But in the end, what he really did, is create a lifelong friend, and show Peter exactly what the impact their friendship was going to have on Peter's life. Following this teacher was going to make Peter a whole lot more than just a disciple, it was going to make him a rock.
John tells us in 20:31 that the reason that he wrote this Gospel is so that people might read it and believe that Jesus is the son of God. One of the ways that John will demonstrate this is through the recurring theme of new creation. From the opening verse of this Gospel, John made it clear that this was going to be a creation event. The life of Christ was the means through which God would restore His original creation marred by sin. As John moved from the prologue, rich with creation language (terms like "beginning," "life," "light," and "darkness,") he will carefully open his narrative with seven days; the days of the new creation. The first day was John's testimony regarding Jesus (1:19-28), the second was John's encounter with Jesus (1:29-54), and this is the third day.
On this third day of the dawning of the new creation account, John sees Jesus coming once again. Once again he announces that Jesus is the Lamb of God. The true measure of a godly man is his genuine humility, and John is clearly infused with that. This great man doesn't hesitate to point his own followers to a greater man. He is not trying to build his own little castle, but point to the coming of the kingdom of God. We should note that not only was John a great prophet, full of humility, but was apparently a great teacher as well. He had taught his disciples that the true purpose of his ministry was to point to the one that would come. The two disciples (we are told in verse 40 that one is Andrew while presumably the other is John, the beloved disciple) listening to John the Immerser that day had learned well. As soon as John pointed out that the Lamb of God was with them, they knew what to do and immediately began to follow him. This should be instructive to Christians today who usually, at one time or another, have to leave behind our old traditions and religious associations to truly follow the Messiah, just as surely as the Immerser's two disciples did that day.
As they begin to follow Jesus, he turns and asks what they want (it's hard to imagine that as Jesus says to them, "what do you want?" John doesn't mean for his readers to consider that question for ourselves). He hasn't really called them yet so much as they have followed him. He asks them what they want to which they don't really have a a good answer, so they ask him where he is staying, addressing him with the term "Rabbi" (which John has kindly translated for his non-Jewish readers informing us that Rabbi means teacher), a term of respect in that time that had not yet fully become the technical and formal term that it would a century later. They have been waiting and looking for him and, perhaps a little to their surprise, they find that Jesus has been looking for them. If they want to know where he is staying then all they need to do is to follow him, just like their teacher John had prepared them to do.
As they arrive where Jesus was staying, it was already about four in the afternoon. In the first century, people generally did not move around too often after sundown, so when the author tells us that they spent the day with him, the implication is that that went where Jesus was staying and then spent the night there with him.
Whatever they talked about must have been quite enlightening for Andrew and the anonymous disciple (probably John, as mentioned above) because as soon as he got up in the morning, the first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him. Everything that they had been waiting for was not in vain, the Messiah was here (again, John puts the Aramaic "Messiah" into the Greek "Christ" for his readers).
Andrew wastes no time in bringing his brother Simon to see the newly found Messiah. It is noteworthy that Andrew is mentioned three times in the Gospel of John and every single time he is shown to be bringing someone to meet Jesus (cf. 6:8; 12:22). When Jesus meets the young, brash fisherman that everyone knew as Simon, brother of Andrew, son of John, he gives him a new name. Jesus looked square at Peter in the eye and told him that he would be called Cephas (John once again translates for his readers telling us that in Greek the name is "Petros," or as we have it in English, "Peter"). In that nickname, Jesus has not described who Peter is. Surely a quick glance at the other Gospels shows us that as well-meaning as Peter was, he wasn't yet the most reliable of sorts, certainly not the kind of guy you would choose as a leader in a new religious movement. No, Jesus is not describing Peter as he is, but as he would be under the transforming power of walking with Jesus. He would become "the rock," which is what "Cephas" means. In the Old Testament, God usually changed someone's name to specify a new calling (Abram to Abraham; Jacob to Israel) and also to demonstrate authority over an individual (2 Ki. 23:34; 24:17). Jesus accomplishes both of those things as well as telling everyone around exactly who Peter was going to be in Christ.
As we quickly consider this calling of Andrew, John, and Peter we immediately note that there appear to be some differences with the accounts of Jesus calling his disciples in the other Gospels (cf. 4:18-22; 9:9; mark 1:16-20; 2:13-14; Luke 5:1-11, 27-28). It seems that the disciples go with Jesus immediately, and from the start understand that he is the Messiah in John's version, but follow Jesus at a later point and consistently fail to understand his true identity. Are we dealing with divergent accounts that contradict? Not at all. The difference lies in that John seems to be describing the call to general discipleship that took place first while the other Gospels are describing Jesus' climactic call to special discipleship, apostleship if you will. In fact, the encounters that John has given here help to paint the background to the dramatic decision by the disciple stop, drop everything, and follow Jesus. John's account helps us to understand the account of the other Gospels and, quite frankly, makes their accounts more understandable and more plausible. As for the fact that John describes that they believed Jesus was the Messiah right away while the other Gospels consistently describe the failure of the disciples to understand who Jesus was, again we have no contradiction. They may have known or believed from the beginning that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, but, as the other Gospels make clear, they had no idea what that really meant. They were in for a three-year journey of transforming their thinking about who the Messiah was and what God was doing. As we approach the remainder of the Gospel of John, let's try to approach it with the same open mind, willingness to learn, and realization that we have
Devotional Thought
Have you let Jesus rename and redefine you? You have a birth name, but have you ever embraced the new name that he has given each one of us?: Christian. Let the name Christian truly define who you are and see what Jesus has in mind for you to become.
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!"
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?"
They said, "Rabbi" (which means "Teacher"), "where are you staying?"
39 "Come," he replied, "and you will see."
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter).
Dig Deeper
Nicknames are a funny thing. They can be very intimate; they can tell us a lot about a person; they can endear us to those who call us a nickname. When I was in college, there was an upperclassmen on our basketball team who was not only the captain, he was the best player. I quickly discovered after just a day or two as a new player on the team that it was his team, no buts about it. One of the memorable things that he went about each year was to give a nickname to every person on the team. There was a catch, though. We younger players could not figure out when he decided to give someone a nickname. It seemed haphazard, with no rhyme or reason. Mind you, these weren't always the most creative nicknames, but that didn't matter. Getting a nickname from this guy meant a great deal to the younger players. During one game, I got a pass from a teammate and went up and dunked the ball over a defender. A few minutes later, we ran off the court for a timeout and our captain walked over, put his hand on my shoulder and said, "nice play Big Mike." This was huge because until you got a nickname, he only called people by their last name. There it was, he had given me my own nickname. It turned out that you earned a nickname by making a big play, which usually involved dunking on someone. The whole process of his giving nicknames, though, cemented his position of authority on the team, encouraged the younger players, and really made us feel closer to and appreciated by our leader.
There are many quick little scenes throughout the four Gospels where we get to see the wonderfully human side of Jesus. If we slow down and read these scenes and then think about the human reality of the Gospel accounts, we can begin to see why those around Jesus loved him so much and were so loyal to him. As John describes the beginning seeds of Jesus' ministry, this is one of those scenes. Jesus doesn't just woodenly walk around teaching and calling people to follow him intellectually. He creates bonds, build friendships, and shows people how to love one another. This is what is behind his deeply human and endearing act of giving Peter a nickname. In doing so, he establishes his authority and no doubt encouraged Peter. But in the end, what he really did, is create a lifelong friend, and show Peter exactly what the impact their friendship was going to have on Peter's life. Following this teacher was going to make Peter a whole lot more than just a disciple, it was going to make him a rock.
John tells us in 20:31 that the reason that he wrote this Gospel is so that people might read it and believe that Jesus is the son of God. One of the ways that John will demonstrate this is through the recurring theme of new creation. From the opening verse of this Gospel, John made it clear that this was going to be a creation event. The life of Christ was the means through which God would restore His original creation marred by sin. As John moved from the prologue, rich with creation language (terms like "beginning," "life," "light," and "darkness,") he will carefully open his narrative with seven days; the days of the new creation. The first day was John's testimony regarding Jesus (1:19-28), the second was John's encounter with Jesus (1:29-54), and this is the third day.
On this third day of the dawning of the new creation account, John sees Jesus coming once again. Once again he announces that Jesus is the Lamb of God. The true measure of a godly man is his genuine humility, and John is clearly infused with that. This great man doesn't hesitate to point his own followers to a greater man. He is not trying to build his own little castle, but point to the coming of the kingdom of God. We should note that not only was John a great prophet, full of humility, but was apparently a great teacher as well. He had taught his disciples that the true purpose of his ministry was to point to the one that would come. The two disciples (we are told in verse 40 that one is Andrew while presumably the other is John, the beloved disciple) listening to John the Immerser that day had learned well. As soon as John pointed out that the Lamb of God was with them, they knew what to do and immediately began to follow him. This should be instructive to Christians today who usually, at one time or another, have to leave behind our old traditions and religious associations to truly follow the Messiah, just as surely as the Immerser's two disciples did that day.
As they begin to follow Jesus, he turns and asks what they want (it's hard to imagine that as Jesus says to them, "what do you want?" John doesn't mean for his readers to consider that question for ourselves). He hasn't really called them yet so much as they have followed him. He asks them what they want to which they don't really have a a good answer, so they ask him where he is staying, addressing him with the term "Rabbi" (which John has kindly translated for his non-Jewish readers informing us that Rabbi means teacher), a term of respect in that time that had not yet fully become the technical and formal term that it would a century later. They have been waiting and looking for him and, perhaps a little to their surprise, they find that Jesus has been looking for them. If they want to know where he is staying then all they need to do is to follow him, just like their teacher John had prepared them to do.
As they arrive where Jesus was staying, it was already about four in the afternoon. In the first century, people generally did not move around too often after sundown, so when the author tells us that they spent the day with him, the implication is that that went where Jesus was staying and then spent the night there with him.
Whatever they talked about must have been quite enlightening for Andrew and the anonymous disciple (probably John, as mentioned above) because as soon as he got up in the morning, the first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him. Everything that they had been waiting for was not in vain, the Messiah was here (again, John puts the Aramaic "Messiah" into the Greek "Christ" for his readers).
Andrew wastes no time in bringing his brother Simon to see the newly found Messiah. It is noteworthy that Andrew is mentioned three times in the Gospel of John and every single time he is shown to be bringing someone to meet Jesus (cf. 6:8; 12:22). When Jesus meets the young, brash fisherman that everyone knew as Simon, brother of Andrew, son of John, he gives him a new name. Jesus looked square at Peter in the eye and told him that he would be called Cephas (John once again translates for his readers telling us that in Greek the name is "Petros," or as we have it in English, "Peter"). In that nickname, Jesus has not described who Peter is. Surely a quick glance at the other Gospels shows us that as well-meaning as Peter was, he wasn't yet the most reliable of sorts, certainly not the kind of guy you would choose as a leader in a new religious movement. No, Jesus is not describing Peter as he is, but as he would be under the transforming power of walking with Jesus. He would become "the rock," which is what "Cephas" means. In the Old Testament, God usually changed someone's name to specify a new calling (Abram to Abraham; Jacob to Israel) and also to demonstrate authority over an individual (2 Ki. 23:34; 24:17). Jesus accomplishes both of those things as well as telling everyone around exactly who Peter was going to be in Christ.
As we quickly consider this calling of Andrew, John, and Peter we immediately note that there appear to be some differences with the accounts of Jesus calling his disciples in the other Gospels (cf. 4:18-22; 9:9; mark 1:16-20; 2:13-14; Luke 5:1-11, 27-28). It seems that the disciples go with Jesus immediately, and from the start understand that he is the Messiah in John's version, but follow Jesus at a later point and consistently fail to understand his true identity. Are we dealing with divergent accounts that contradict? Not at all. The difference lies in that John seems to be describing the call to general discipleship that took place first while the other Gospels are describing Jesus' climactic call to special discipleship, apostleship if you will. In fact, the encounters that John has given here help to paint the background to the dramatic decision by the disciple stop, drop everything, and follow Jesus. John's account helps us to understand the account of the other Gospels and, quite frankly, makes their accounts more understandable and more plausible. As for the fact that John describes that they believed Jesus was the Messiah right away while the other Gospels consistently describe the failure of the disciples to understand who Jesus was, again we have no contradiction. They may have known or believed from the beginning that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, but, as the other Gospels make clear, they had no idea what that really meant. They were in for a three-year journey of transforming their thinking about who the Messiah was and what God was doing. As we approach the remainder of the Gospel of John, let's try to approach it with the same open mind, willingness to learn, and realization that we have
Devotional Thought
Have you let Jesus rename and redefine you? You have a birth name, but have you ever embraced the new name that he has given each one of us?: Christian. Let the name Christian truly define who you are and see what Jesus has in mind for you to become.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
John 1:29-34
John's Testimony About Jesus
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, 'A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel."
32 Then John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.' 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God's Chosen One."
Dig Deeper
Have you ever seen someone intentionally lose a race? I have. And it was at an important track meet no less. Most athletes train and compete in order to win, so why would someone intentionally lose a race? As crazy as it sounds, it happens all of the time. Usually in a middle distance or longer distance race, you will see someone break out into the lead and run at a pretty good clip for a few laps. Then, suddenly, they will pull up and go to the back, and oftentimes will even stop altogether and step off of the track, quitting the race. Why would they do such a thing? The fact is that many runners will enter a race with every intention of losing. Their purpose is not to win. Their purpose is to set a pace for the race that is comfortable for another runner on their team so that that person can win the race. Once they have set the pace for the appropriate time they will pull out of the race. Their sole purpose is to assist and set things up for the other runner, it is not about themselves.
John the Immerser certainly wasn't a pace-setter but he does share some things in common with them. John came with a distinct purpose that had nothing to do with winning anything, being anything of any lasting importance, or being about himself at all. He had a distinct job, a specific vocation. In fact, he was so consistently willing to point away from himself that it, at times, confused even his own followers and disciples. But John never wavered. He was not the Messiah, Elijah, or the Prophet. He was a voice, just a simple voice, whose job it was to prepare people for the one to come. Once he had completed that job he would pull up and exit the race. After all, once a pace-setter has done his job, he doesn't need to stay in the race anymore, it's time for the primary runner to take over. For John, that time hasn't quite come yet, but he certainly understands that it is coming and that even now, at the height of his career, it isn't about him, it's about the one that is about to take over.
The day after being grilled about just exactly who he was and what he was up to, John looks up and sees Jesus coming. The beloved disciple who has authored this book, doesn't take the time time to describe the baptism of Jesus by John the Immerser. Like many other scenes in Jesus life that are described in the other Gospels, he seems to assume that his readers will already be quite familiar with those stories, so he merely alludes to them. We can probably, then, conclude that John knew of the other Gospels and meant this account to complement them and explain other aspects of Jesus' ministry. John knows that his role is to point to another, but he didn't always know who. Imagine having the faith that John did to begin his ministry, calling Israel to repent and get ready for the coming of the Messiah, when he didn't even know who that Messiah was. As he sees him approaching on this day, however, he now knows that Jesus is the one and he is more than happy to begin the process in which he will step aside, having completed his vocation of making things ready for God's Messiah.
As Jesus approaches, John boldly declares that he is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This is a statement pregnant with imagery, allusions, and meaning. There were many common allusions to lamb imagery at the time of Jesus and John probably intends all of them in his statement. The Lamb refers, no doubt (and as we go on we will see that the Gospel writer clearly has this meaning in mind throughout his book but will come to a head in 19:36) to the Passover Lamb. Through the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb, the people were saved, and this is no doubt what the ultimate Passover Lamb will do. John also likely intends for his hearers to hear echoes of the lamb that was led to slaughter in Isaiah 53:7. Certainly John's reference would have brought to mind the lamb of the daily sacrifices. This lamb was offered every morning and evening in the Temple. Finally, it probably reminded hearers of the lamb of Genesis 22:8.
Each of the previously mentioned lambs had a different function or symbolism attached to it but this Lamb would embody all of those things. He would take away the sin of the world. Whatever the different aspects of lambs were in ancient Jewish thought, they were primarily thought of as the animal who was sacrificed in place of sins. This is God's Lamb, though, the one that He has provided to bear the consequences and deal with the problem of sin for the whole world, not just Israel.
This is the one that John has been talking about all along. The purpose of his ministry was not to draw followers to himself but to point to God's Lamb. John acknowledges that he did not know immediately who this man was. He had been searching and waiting but he did not know him. We should not take this to mean that John and Jesus had never meant. The Gospel of Luke makes clear that John and Jesus were cousins and that their mothers knew each other well. That doesn't guarantee that they knew one another but it does make it likely. Have you ever spent significant time looking for your keys, only to find that they were in your pocket the whole time? Sometimes the very thing we're looking for is right under our nose. John was waiting and looking for the Messiah, the Lamb of God and it turns out to be his cousin. Even before he knew for sure who the Messiah was, though, John was busy with his vocation. This should be instructive to those of us who want to know exactly what God has in store for us before we go about doing His business or acting on faith. John did not even know to whom he was pointing, but began pointing anyway.
John is clear, as the other Gospels bear witness, that his baptism pointed people towards repentance and forgiveness of sins (Mk. 1:4; Lk. 3:3). Here though, John informs us that although that was the result of his baptizing, it was not the reason. He began his ministry of calling the people of Israel to return to God so that the Messiah could be revealed. Part of God's plan was that there would be a forerunner to the Messiah and John knew his job well.
John didn't know that Jesus was the promised one because someone had told him that or because he just figured it out, but he can bear testimony to his identity because he saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. The Jews, of course, understood that heaven was the realm of God's presence, while earth was the dimension of human existence. Thus, he is saying that the Spirit broke into the realm of the physical universe in the form of a dove (we are not told whether it was a literal dove or simply looked like one). The dove was not a common Old Testament symbol for the Spirit, but it was an occasional symbol for Israel. It is possible then, and quite in keeping with one of the themes that will become common in John's Gospel, that Jesus is being set out as the true Israel as he receives the Spirit. In the Old Testament it was not unheard of for people to have the Spirit come upon them to complete a specific task but in Jesus' case, the Spirit came upon him and remained on him. Although this was perhaps not an expected thing to happen to the Messiah it would not have been completely shocking as it was often prophesied that the messianic age would involve the renewal of God's people through the activity of the Spirit (Isa. 32:15; Ezek. 36:26-27; 37:14). The sign of the Spirit coming down and remaining on someone was the very sign that John had been given by God to be able to recognize the one that was to come. John doesn't give us the details of how God told him and what precisely He did tell him when God gave John the clues as to how he could recognize the Messiah, but the fact is that John's knowledge of Jesus as the Lamb of God came from God, not man.
John administered a baptism which would reveal the true Messiah, a baptism which would foreshadow and point to the true baptism of the Messiah. The Messiah would also baptize, but not just symbolically. He would baptize people into his own life and dispense the Holy Spirit, keeping the Old Testament prediction that God would renew His people by pouring out His Spirit (Isa. 32:15; 44:3; Ezek. 36:25-27; Joel 2:28-32).
John saw and boldly bears witness to the fact that this is God's Chosen One. In using this language, John connects his testimony concerning to Jesus to Isaiah 42:1 which says, "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him." Jesus is the Chosen One and now that he is on the scene, John is about to step off the track and let him take center stage.
Devotional Thought
John had a vocation from God to go into the wilderness and preach about and point to the coming of the Messiah, yet he did not even knew who the Messiah was. Do you have that kind of faith? Are you willing to begin to serve God and do His will in your workplace, neighborhood, etc., when you're not even sure of exactly what He has in mind for you to do? Many of us want to know precisely what God's will for our lives is, but oftentimes God won't reveal the full extent of that will until we begin to walk boldly down the path that He has laid out for us.
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, 'A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel."
32 Then John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.' 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God's Chosen One."
Dig Deeper
Have you ever seen someone intentionally lose a race? I have. And it was at an important track meet no less. Most athletes train and compete in order to win, so why would someone intentionally lose a race? As crazy as it sounds, it happens all of the time. Usually in a middle distance or longer distance race, you will see someone break out into the lead and run at a pretty good clip for a few laps. Then, suddenly, they will pull up and go to the back, and oftentimes will even stop altogether and step off of the track, quitting the race. Why would they do such a thing? The fact is that many runners will enter a race with every intention of losing. Their purpose is not to win. Their purpose is to set a pace for the race that is comfortable for another runner on their team so that that person can win the race. Once they have set the pace for the appropriate time they will pull out of the race. Their sole purpose is to assist and set things up for the other runner, it is not about themselves.
John the Immerser certainly wasn't a pace-setter but he does share some things in common with them. John came with a distinct purpose that had nothing to do with winning anything, being anything of any lasting importance, or being about himself at all. He had a distinct job, a specific vocation. In fact, he was so consistently willing to point away from himself that it, at times, confused even his own followers and disciples. But John never wavered. He was not the Messiah, Elijah, or the Prophet. He was a voice, just a simple voice, whose job it was to prepare people for the one to come. Once he had completed that job he would pull up and exit the race. After all, once a pace-setter has done his job, he doesn't need to stay in the race anymore, it's time for the primary runner to take over. For John, that time hasn't quite come yet, but he certainly understands that it is coming and that even now, at the height of his career, it isn't about him, it's about the one that is about to take over.
The day after being grilled about just exactly who he was and what he was up to, John looks up and sees Jesus coming. The beloved disciple who has authored this book, doesn't take the time time to describe the baptism of Jesus by John the Immerser. Like many other scenes in Jesus life that are described in the other Gospels, he seems to assume that his readers will already be quite familiar with those stories, so he merely alludes to them. We can probably, then, conclude that John knew of the other Gospels and meant this account to complement them and explain other aspects of Jesus' ministry. John knows that his role is to point to another, but he didn't always know who. Imagine having the faith that John did to begin his ministry, calling Israel to repent and get ready for the coming of the Messiah, when he didn't even know who that Messiah was. As he sees him approaching on this day, however, he now knows that Jesus is the one and he is more than happy to begin the process in which he will step aside, having completed his vocation of making things ready for God's Messiah.
As Jesus approaches, John boldly declares that he is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This is a statement pregnant with imagery, allusions, and meaning. There were many common allusions to lamb imagery at the time of Jesus and John probably intends all of them in his statement. The Lamb refers, no doubt (and as we go on we will see that the Gospel writer clearly has this meaning in mind throughout his book but will come to a head in 19:36) to the Passover Lamb. Through the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb, the people were saved, and this is no doubt what the ultimate Passover Lamb will do. John also likely intends for his hearers to hear echoes of the lamb that was led to slaughter in Isaiah 53:7. Certainly John's reference would have brought to mind the lamb of the daily sacrifices. This lamb was offered every morning and evening in the Temple. Finally, it probably reminded hearers of the lamb of Genesis 22:8.
Each of the previously mentioned lambs had a different function or symbolism attached to it but this Lamb would embody all of those things. He would take away the sin of the world. Whatever the different aspects of lambs were in ancient Jewish thought, they were primarily thought of as the animal who was sacrificed in place of sins. This is God's Lamb, though, the one that He has provided to bear the consequences and deal with the problem of sin for the whole world, not just Israel.
This is the one that John has been talking about all along. The purpose of his ministry was not to draw followers to himself but to point to God's Lamb. John acknowledges that he did not know immediately who this man was. He had been searching and waiting but he did not know him. We should not take this to mean that John and Jesus had never meant. The Gospel of Luke makes clear that John and Jesus were cousins and that their mothers knew each other well. That doesn't guarantee that they knew one another but it does make it likely. Have you ever spent significant time looking for your keys, only to find that they were in your pocket the whole time? Sometimes the very thing we're looking for is right under our nose. John was waiting and looking for the Messiah, the Lamb of God and it turns out to be his cousin. Even before he knew for sure who the Messiah was, though, John was busy with his vocation. This should be instructive to those of us who want to know exactly what God has in store for us before we go about doing His business or acting on faith. John did not even know to whom he was pointing, but began pointing anyway.
John is clear, as the other Gospels bear witness, that his baptism pointed people towards repentance and forgiveness of sins (Mk. 1:4; Lk. 3:3). Here though, John informs us that although that was the result of his baptizing, it was not the reason. He began his ministry of calling the people of Israel to return to God so that the Messiah could be revealed. Part of God's plan was that there would be a forerunner to the Messiah and John knew his job well.
John didn't know that Jesus was the promised one because someone had told him that or because he just figured it out, but he can bear testimony to his identity because he saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. The Jews, of course, understood that heaven was the realm of God's presence, while earth was the dimension of human existence. Thus, he is saying that the Spirit broke into the realm of the physical universe in the form of a dove (we are not told whether it was a literal dove or simply looked like one). The dove was not a common Old Testament symbol for the Spirit, but it was an occasional symbol for Israel. It is possible then, and quite in keeping with one of the themes that will become common in John's Gospel, that Jesus is being set out as the true Israel as he receives the Spirit. In the Old Testament it was not unheard of for people to have the Spirit come upon them to complete a specific task but in Jesus' case, the Spirit came upon him and remained on him. Although this was perhaps not an expected thing to happen to the Messiah it would not have been completely shocking as it was often prophesied that the messianic age would involve the renewal of God's people through the activity of the Spirit (Isa. 32:15; Ezek. 36:26-27; 37:14). The sign of the Spirit coming down and remaining on someone was the very sign that John had been given by God to be able to recognize the one that was to come. John doesn't give us the details of how God told him and what precisely He did tell him when God gave John the clues as to how he could recognize the Messiah, but the fact is that John's knowledge of Jesus as the Lamb of God came from God, not man.
John administered a baptism which would reveal the true Messiah, a baptism which would foreshadow and point to the true baptism of the Messiah. The Messiah would also baptize, but not just symbolically. He would baptize people into his own life and dispense the Holy Spirit, keeping the Old Testament prediction that God would renew His people by pouring out His Spirit (Isa. 32:15; 44:3; Ezek. 36:25-27; Joel 2:28-32).
John saw and boldly bears witness to the fact that this is God's Chosen One. In using this language, John connects his testimony concerning to Jesus to Isaiah 42:1 which says, "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him." Jesus is the Chosen One and now that he is on the scene, John is about to step off the track and let him take center stage.
Devotional Thought
John had a vocation from God to go into the wilderness and preach about and point to the coming of the Messiah, yet he did not even knew who the Messiah was. Do you have that kind of faith? Are you willing to begin to serve God and do His will in your workplace, neighborhood, etc., when you're not even sure of exactly what He has in mind for you to do? Many of us want to know precisely what God's will for our lives is, but oftentimes God won't reveal the full extent of that will until we begin to walk boldly down the path that He has laid out for us.
Monday, November 03, 2008
John 1:19-28
John the Baptist Denies Being the Messiah
19 Now this was John's testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, "I am not the Messiah."
21 They asked him, "Then who are you? Are you Elijah?"
He said, "I am not."
"Are you the Prophet?"
He answered, "No."
22 Finally they said, "Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"
23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, "I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way for the Lord.' "
24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"
26 "I baptize with water," John replied, "but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie."
28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Dig Deeper
When I was still in high school, I wanted to become more active in my community, so my parents allowed me to begin to volunteer at a local political campaign office. Most of the things I did there were to assist the campaigns of local politicians who were running for small offices like clerk of courts. The campaign office was also responsible for the national presidential election at the time but I didn't do much for that except for delivering a few yard signs for people. One day, though, we were informed that the son of the man running for president of the United States was coming into our town to give a speech for his father. I was assigned the job of going down to where he was arriving and escort him back to the campaign office so he could be taken on to where he was speaking. The problem was, I had no idea at the time who this son was. All I knew back in 1988, was that his name was the same as his father's who was running for president. Because I was expecting him but didn't know who he was, I was preparing to have to ask some questions when I got down there to determine who he was. As it turned out, some older ladies who were connected with the campaign office came and relieved me before he got there because they wanted the prestige of escorting him, but I realized then that when you're expecting someone and don't know who they are, the only way to get around that is to ask questions.
Early first century Israel was full of Messianic expectations. Nearly all of the different groups and factions in Israel at the time were waiting for God's Messiah to come rescue His people. They didn't all agree on what exactly the Messiah would be or what he would accomplish, there was no one common expectation, but virtually everyone believed that they were living in the time when the Messiah would indeed come. When news reached the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, then, that there was someone creating quite a ruckus out in the wilderness around the Jordan river, their ears no doubt perked up. They needed to know who this guy was, what he was doing, and did he think of himself as the Messiah. Of course the best way to determine if he was the one they were waiting for would be to go ask questions.
There were some disturbing things for the Jewish leadership about this man known as John the Immerser (the word translated "baptist" or "baptize" actually means "to immerse," so when people spoke of John the Baptist in the first century, they would have heard "John the Immerser"). Perhaps the most troubling aspect of his ministry was why he was out in the wilderness baptizing Jews. Up to that point, ceremonial washings were used in Judaism for non-Jewish converts to demonstrate the cleansing that they were undergoing in becoming Jewish. This why it would have been puzzling, even troubling that John was baptizing Jews. They were already God's chosen people, set apart to be holy. Why, then, would he be calling them to undergo a baptism? Of course, that was the whole point for John. They weren't God's holy people. They had abandoned God's way long ago, but now the Messiah was coming and they needed to get ready for that. They needed to repent and turn to God's ways and His will so that they would be prepared for what the Messiah was going to do.
The Jewish leaders didn't understand all of that when they went out to question John, though. The major question on their mind was whether John was the Messiah. He was certainly attracting a great deal of attention from people all over Israel. This in itself was dangerous because Messianic movements that caught the attention of the people might become dangerous if rebelling against Rome became one of their ideals. The Jewish leadership didn't want to risk anything like that, so they needed to know quickly, exactly who John thought he was and what he was doing.
John the evangelist, the author of this gospel, gives us something akin to a court scene, with the priests and Levites, as well as some Pharisees who went along with them (as verse 24 would make it seem), questioning John, who seems somewhat uncomfortable with the whole process. They get right to the point with their first question. Is John the Messiah? They probably didn't ask that question actually thinking that he was, but were more interested in knowing if he thought he was. John leaves no wiggle room for misunderstanding as he replied, "I am not the Messiah." He was not, after all, doing any sort of Messianic things.
This leads to the next question, then, which is somewhat of a natural progression. If he's not the Messiah, then who he is. He's still doing some rather unusual and remarkable things. He's doing things that seem more like a prophet, and we should not underestimate the power and impact of his ministry which Jesus said was not surpassed by any other prophet (Matt. 11:11). There was a common expectation that Elijah would come before the Messiah based on passages like Malachi 4:5. Because Elijah had never died (2 Ki. 2:11), many Jews expected for Elijah himself to return and introduce the Messiah. To add to those expectations, John seemed to have the demeanor of prophet like Elijah with his rugged and harsh lifestyle (cf. Matt. 3:4; 2 Ki. 1:8). The leaders want to know if John is Elijah. His answer leaves us with a bit of a mystery. John says clearly that he is not Elijah, but Jesus said that he was Elijah (Matt. 11:14; 17:12; Mark 9:13). How can we harmonize these two statements without seeing a contradiction? It's actually rather simple. In one sense he was Elijah and in another sense he was not. John denied literally being the incarnation of Elijah. He doesn't want anyone thinking anything like that. He is nothing special and he wants everyone to know it. Jesus' point though, was that John's ministry was the typological and prophetical fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy and so could rightly call him an Elijah. It seems, actually, that Jesus understood who John was and his situation even a little better than John did.
The questioning continues down the same path. If John is not Elijah, then is he the prophet? That there would be a prophet raised up by God that was like Moses but even greater than Moses, was predicted by Moses himself in Deuteronomy 18:15, 18. With each question, John's answers get shorter and more terse, and we can almost imagine him becoming quite tired with this entire line of questioning because it is focusing on him and that is not what his vocation is all about. He is to be a witness to another not be the focal point. Is he the prophet? A simple "no" is all they get this time.
Growing frustrated from his repeated denials, and no doubt, being driven by a realization that they needed to take some answers back to Jerusalem, the questioners ask John to tell them who he is then. John's answer is classic and in keeping with his vocation in that he takes all of the focus off of himself and puts it back on the coming Messiah. He is not the Word, but is simply a voice. In fact, he is, he believes, the fulfillment of Isaiah 40:3. He is the one telling everyone that they need to prepare for the coming of the Lord. In Isaiah 40:8, it goes on to declare that people, like grass, wither and fade but the word of God endures forever. John, the Apostle, wants his readers to make the connection between Isaiah 40 and what he has said about the Messiah in the prologue. The enduring Word of the Lord has come and John's role is to announce that and tell people to clear the paths of their heart to prepare themselves for what he is going to say and do.
The Pharisees seem to miss the thrust of John's answer and are more concerned with why he is out here baptizing Jews then if he is not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet. John again throws the focus back to the Messiah. The real question is not who he is or what he's doing, but with who he is pointing to. That one, John says, is one of whom he is not even worthy to untie his sandals. Disciples of rabbis in the first century were expected to perform "all manner of service that a slave must render to his master . . . except that of taking off his shoe" (Rabbi Joshua b. Levi, c. 250 AD reflecting a long-standing tradition). John's point is that the coming Messiah is so beyond anything anyone has ever known, it's not that John wouldn't demean himself to take off his shoes. Quite the opposite. He's not worthy to perform the most menial of tasks. John isn't the light, he's simply giving testimony to the light (1:8). To put it in modern terms, these leaders of Israel came to see if John was the ambulance that they had all been waiting for, or at least though he was, but what John tells them is shocking. He's not the vehicle, he's simply the sound of the siren that one can hear long before they can see the ambulance himself. God's anointed one is coming and they had better be prepared.
Devotional Thought
John's humility is amazing. He was constantly willing and adamant about pushing himself to the back so that the proper spotlight could be focused on Jesus. This is a constant reminder for those of us who teach, preach, or lead in any capacity in the Christian community. Our role, like John's is to exalt Christ not ourselves, our own egos, or our own agendas. This can be quite a challenge sometimes, but it is our vocation. Do you constantly seek to exalt the cause of Christ and push your importance into the background like John did?
19 Now this was John's testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, "I am not the Messiah."
21 They asked him, "Then who are you? Are you Elijah?"
He said, "I am not."
"Are you the Prophet?"
He answered, "No."
22 Finally they said, "Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"
23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, "I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way for the Lord.' "
24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"
26 "I baptize with water," John replied, "but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie."
28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Dig Deeper
When I was still in high school, I wanted to become more active in my community, so my parents allowed me to begin to volunteer at a local political campaign office. Most of the things I did there were to assist the campaigns of local politicians who were running for small offices like clerk of courts. The campaign office was also responsible for the national presidential election at the time but I didn't do much for that except for delivering a few yard signs for people. One day, though, we were informed that the son of the man running for president of the United States was coming into our town to give a speech for his father. I was assigned the job of going down to where he was arriving and escort him back to the campaign office so he could be taken on to where he was speaking. The problem was, I had no idea at the time who this son was. All I knew back in 1988, was that his name was the same as his father's who was running for president. Because I was expecting him but didn't know who he was, I was preparing to have to ask some questions when I got down there to determine who he was. As it turned out, some older ladies who were connected with the campaign office came and relieved me before he got there because they wanted the prestige of escorting him, but I realized then that when you're expecting someone and don't know who they are, the only way to get around that is to ask questions.
Early first century Israel was full of Messianic expectations. Nearly all of the different groups and factions in Israel at the time were waiting for God's Messiah to come rescue His people. They didn't all agree on what exactly the Messiah would be or what he would accomplish, there was no one common expectation, but virtually everyone believed that they were living in the time when the Messiah would indeed come. When news reached the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, then, that there was someone creating quite a ruckus out in the wilderness around the Jordan river, their ears no doubt perked up. They needed to know who this guy was, what he was doing, and did he think of himself as the Messiah. Of course the best way to determine if he was the one they were waiting for would be to go ask questions.
There were some disturbing things for the Jewish leadership about this man known as John the Immerser (the word translated "baptist" or "baptize" actually means "to immerse," so when people spoke of John the Baptist in the first century, they would have heard "John the Immerser"). Perhaps the most troubling aspect of his ministry was why he was out in the wilderness baptizing Jews. Up to that point, ceremonial washings were used in Judaism for non-Jewish converts to demonstrate the cleansing that they were undergoing in becoming Jewish. This why it would have been puzzling, even troubling that John was baptizing Jews. They were already God's chosen people, set apart to be holy. Why, then, would he be calling them to undergo a baptism? Of course, that was the whole point for John. They weren't God's holy people. They had abandoned God's way long ago, but now the Messiah was coming and they needed to get ready for that. They needed to repent and turn to God's ways and His will so that they would be prepared for what the Messiah was going to do.
The Jewish leaders didn't understand all of that when they went out to question John, though. The major question on their mind was whether John was the Messiah. He was certainly attracting a great deal of attention from people all over Israel. This in itself was dangerous because Messianic movements that caught the attention of the people might become dangerous if rebelling against Rome became one of their ideals. The Jewish leadership didn't want to risk anything like that, so they needed to know quickly, exactly who John thought he was and what he was doing.
John the evangelist, the author of this gospel, gives us something akin to a court scene, with the priests and Levites, as well as some Pharisees who went along with them (as verse 24 would make it seem), questioning John, who seems somewhat uncomfortable with the whole process. They get right to the point with their first question. Is John the Messiah? They probably didn't ask that question actually thinking that he was, but were more interested in knowing if he thought he was. John leaves no wiggle room for misunderstanding as he replied, "I am not the Messiah." He was not, after all, doing any sort of Messianic things.
This leads to the next question, then, which is somewhat of a natural progression. If he's not the Messiah, then who he is. He's still doing some rather unusual and remarkable things. He's doing things that seem more like a prophet, and we should not underestimate the power and impact of his ministry which Jesus said was not surpassed by any other prophet (Matt. 11:11). There was a common expectation that Elijah would come before the Messiah based on passages like Malachi 4:5. Because Elijah had never died (2 Ki. 2:11), many Jews expected for Elijah himself to return and introduce the Messiah. To add to those expectations, John seemed to have the demeanor of prophet like Elijah with his rugged and harsh lifestyle (cf. Matt. 3:4; 2 Ki. 1:8). The leaders want to know if John is Elijah. His answer leaves us with a bit of a mystery. John says clearly that he is not Elijah, but Jesus said that he was Elijah (Matt. 11:14; 17:12; Mark 9:13). How can we harmonize these two statements without seeing a contradiction? It's actually rather simple. In one sense he was Elijah and in another sense he was not. John denied literally being the incarnation of Elijah. He doesn't want anyone thinking anything like that. He is nothing special and he wants everyone to know it. Jesus' point though, was that John's ministry was the typological and prophetical fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy and so could rightly call him an Elijah. It seems, actually, that Jesus understood who John was and his situation even a little better than John did.
The questioning continues down the same path. If John is not Elijah, then is he the prophet? That there would be a prophet raised up by God that was like Moses but even greater than Moses, was predicted by Moses himself in Deuteronomy 18:15, 18. With each question, John's answers get shorter and more terse, and we can almost imagine him becoming quite tired with this entire line of questioning because it is focusing on him and that is not what his vocation is all about. He is to be a witness to another not be the focal point. Is he the prophet? A simple "no" is all they get this time.
Growing frustrated from his repeated denials, and no doubt, being driven by a realization that they needed to take some answers back to Jerusalem, the questioners ask John to tell them who he is then. John's answer is classic and in keeping with his vocation in that he takes all of the focus off of himself and puts it back on the coming Messiah. He is not the Word, but is simply a voice. In fact, he is, he believes, the fulfillment of Isaiah 40:3. He is the one telling everyone that they need to prepare for the coming of the Lord. In Isaiah 40:8, it goes on to declare that people, like grass, wither and fade but the word of God endures forever. John, the Apostle, wants his readers to make the connection between Isaiah 40 and what he has said about the Messiah in the prologue. The enduring Word of the Lord has come and John's role is to announce that and tell people to clear the paths of their heart to prepare themselves for what he is going to say and do.
The Pharisees seem to miss the thrust of John's answer and are more concerned with why he is out here baptizing Jews then if he is not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet. John again throws the focus back to the Messiah. The real question is not who he is or what he's doing, but with who he is pointing to. That one, John says, is one of whom he is not even worthy to untie his sandals. Disciples of rabbis in the first century were expected to perform "all manner of service that a slave must render to his master . . . except that of taking off his shoe" (Rabbi Joshua b. Levi, c. 250 AD reflecting a long-standing tradition). John's point is that the coming Messiah is so beyond anything anyone has ever known, it's not that John wouldn't demean himself to take off his shoes. Quite the opposite. He's not worthy to perform the most menial of tasks. John isn't the light, he's simply giving testimony to the light (1:8). To put it in modern terms, these leaders of Israel came to see if John was the ambulance that they had all been waiting for, or at least though he was, but what John tells them is shocking. He's not the vehicle, he's simply the sound of the siren that one can hear long before they can see the ambulance himself. God's anointed one is coming and they had better be prepared.
Devotional Thought
John's humility is amazing. He was constantly willing and adamant about pushing himself to the back so that the proper spotlight could be focused on Jesus. This is a constant reminder for those of us who teach, preach, or lead in any capacity in the Christian community. Our role, like John's is to exalt Christ not ourselves, our own egos, or our own agendas. This can be quite a challenge sometimes, but it is our vocation. Do you constantly seek to exalt the cause of Christ and push your importance into the background like John did?
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