John 6:16-25

Jesus Walks on the Water

16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. 18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. 19 When they had rowed about three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, "It is I; don't be afraid." 21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. 23 Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

Jesus the Bread of Life

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"



Dig Deeper

Who doesn't love Christmas time as a kid? It was always my favorite time of year. I loved everything about Christmas including the music, the decoration, and days spent smelling and eating the baked goodies that mom was making. And, of course, there was the great hope of Santa coming and brining gifts. Before we went to sleep on Christmas Eve we would make all kinds of special preparations for Santa's arrival. The most important components of that preparation were the milk and cookies that were left out for Santa to give him a little extra energy on his long trip that night. We would then go to bed every Christmas Eve so full of anticipation and adrenalin that was it was difficult to actually sleep that night. I remember one year in particularly waking up and going downstairs and getting so excited. He had been there! Santa was in our house. Oh, I didn't actually see him, but I knew. How you may ask? Because someone had done things that only Santa could do. The glass door on the fireplace was open, the milk and cookies were gone, and the ground underneath the Christmas tree was full of presents. These were not things that some mere mortal could do, I reasoned in my young mind. Clearly this was evidence of Santa himself. Of course, now I know better, but at that time, it seemed pretty clear.

It's not too difficult to fool a young child into thinking that things had been done that only Santa Claus could do, but as I get older and have more time to reflect on those things, I understand how silly my reasoning and logic were. What is perhaps amazing is that as the early Christians had time to reflect upon the things that they saw and heard Jesus do, they begin to understand even more deeply who he was and what he was doing, rather than realize that they were somehow fooled and that he was just an ordinary human after all. No, they understood that this wasn't a situation of them being fooled like a child believing in Santa Claus. This was a man who was doing things that only Israel's God could do. Time after time, he said things that only God would say, and even more impressively, he did things only God could do.

Compared to many of the people around them, the Israelites were never a sea-faring people. If anything, they were a sea-fearing people. Oh, there were plenty of fishermen and people who made their living on the sea, but for the most part, they stayed away from the sea. Going back to ancient times, the sea became one of the most powerful symbolic elements in all of the Jewish culture. Going all the way back to the dark abyss of pre-creation in Genesis 1 when the earth was void and filled with water, and the Egyptians drowning in the Red Sea in the book of Exodus, the sea became a symbol for evil and destruction. It was the place the evil came from or would be sent to be destroyed. (Is. 17:12; Is. 23:4, 11; Is. 27:1; 42;10; 57:20; Jer. 6:23; 50:42; 51:42; Ezek. 26:3; 27:32-34; Dan. 7, etc.; See also Rev. where the Beast comes from the sea and things like the great millstone are cast into the sea to be destroyed.) The sea was wild untamable only fit for evil, symbolically speaking. God's people would not go near the sea for only God could handle chaos and evil of that magnitude.

No one could tame the seas except for YHWH Himself, the creator and ruler of the world. When the Israelites were trapped on the precipice of the sea, with the Egyptians bearing down on them, it was only the arm of the Lord that could part the sea, allow them to pass through, and then cover over the Egyptians with water. The evil hordes, in the eyes of the Israelites, went back to where they belonged. It was God along who controlled the seas. "The seas have lifted up, LORD, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea—the LORD on high is mighty (Ps. 93:3-4)." No human being, regardless of how great they might have been could be thought to control the great abyss of the sea. It was only the Lord God who "gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses (Ps. 33:7)."

When I was a kid, I thought there were certain things that only Santa could do. Accounts like this one of Jesus miraculously walking on water are quite different from that. First of all, I only thought that certain things, like someone coming down the chimney were done, but I was wrong. Jesus really did walk on water, and there is simply no way that this is anything other than a sign of the new creation (During the first creation, the Spirit hovered above the waters, but now the son will physically walk across them). Many have tried to find logical explanations for this event but they simply won't do. Jesus wasn't walking on a sand bridge, nor were the disciples simply seeing him on land but thought he was out in the sea. This brings us to the second difference. I didn't actually see Santa or any of the things I thought had happened. John was there. He saw and he testified that it was fact.

The disciples went down to the lake and set off across the lake for Capernaum without Jesus. The fact that they left without Jesus seems to indicate that Jesus had told them to leave if he didn't join them right away. Jesus knew what was coming and he knew what he was going to do. A strong wind blew up as they can do quickly in this part of the world which made the waters rough. This is when they saw Jesus approaching the boat. Mark's account of this story fills in the details that they were afraid when they saw Jesus because they thought he was a ghost of some type. When they realized that it was him, they were left with a real quandary. This was not, perhaps, something that they could come to grips with immediately, but with later reflection they had to face reality. Jesus had tamed the sea. He was "mightier than the thunder of the great waters" and had put the sea "into jars." Who could do this but God alone? This was no ordinary man. This was no ordinary Messiah (if there is such a thing). He was doing things that only the God of Israel could do. He didn't just have the ability to control the seas, but he could control the forces of evil and chaos that the seas represented as well. John clearly wants his readers to take this all in and reflect upon the fact that this is the same God who controls the seas and made a world out of watery chaos. This is that same God, and this is another moment of creation, the new creation when God is setting about restoring the world to the way things were supposed to be.

Verse 21 presents an interesting end to this sign. Was there another aspect of this miracle? All the text tells us is that they were willing to take him into the boat, but not that he ever got in. Then it says that immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. The word rendered "immediately" can also be translated "instantly." It seems that it could indicate that the boat miraculously and instantly reached the land after they recognized that it was Jesus. The synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) tell nothing of this aspect of Jesus' walking on water, but they may have simply chosen not to include it. Ultimately, we do not have enough material to determine definitively whether or not there was a miraculous landing, but it is a very distinct possibility.

John gives us a fair amount of detail to make the point that the crowd was every bit as puzzled by what had happened as we might expect. They likely didn't know exactly what had happened, as did his disciples, but they apparently did figure out that he had somehow arrived in Capernaum quicker than would have been expected, especially considering that they were all aware that he had not gotten on the boat with the disciples. What we will discover in the next section is that Jesus leaves them confused, in a sense, with an answer that is far more profound challenging than they could have ever imagined.



Devotional Thought

Have you ever had times in your life when you feel like you are on a wind and wave-swamped boat? Sometimes during rough spots like that, Jesus' presence can initially be more disconcerting than comforting. We should remember his words to his disciples to not be afraid. If we are willing to trust him and let him climb him aboard, we might find that the storm abates and we get to our desired destination faster than we had hoped. It is, after all, only God who can truly handle those kinds of situations.

John 6:1-15

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

1 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

7 Philip answered him, "It would take almost a year's wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"

8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, 9 "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"

10 Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.



Dig Deeper

When I was a high school basketball coach, I was also the president of the athletic conference of which we were a part. This was usually a hectic but fairly enjoyable job. One year, though, it became a major headache. We had had a problem with one team for years. They simply would not live up to the expectations of a team in our conference. Their fans were very poorly behaved and caused constant security problems, everything from rowdy behavior, to major fights, to one of them pulling a gun on me in the parking lot because I had escorted him out of the gym. It didn't stop there, however. We constantly had to warn the cheerleaders for performing lewd routines, which caused their faculty advisor to scream at me for being prudish. On top of that, we had to sanction the coach several times for unsportsmanlike behavior and for intentionally using ineligible players. As the new season began, the entire school was on probation. They were warned about what was going to happen if they didn't fall in line with the expectations, but that didn't seem to deter them much, even after a meeting with the principle of their school who claimed that the problem was our expectations rather than their behavior. Two games into the season, their fans caused a major disturbance after the game and it was discovered that the star player on their team was actually a twenty-two year-old security guard who had been given fake paperwork and a fake report card by the school. With that, we removed the school from our conference. We had a waiting list of schools that were independent at the time but that wanted to join our conference. Because of the unusual action of having to remove a team from the conference, we took the equally unusual step of asking the top school on that list to join our conference. They completely took the place of the old school on the schedules and in every other way. For that season they became, in essence, the wayward school and fulfilled the obligations that were supposed to belong to the other team.

In a similar, but far more profound way, Israel had been given a role to play. They were God's covenant people but they failed to meet the expectations of that covenant over and over again. God warned them all along what would happen if they continued to fail in meeting their obligations. One thing was for sure; they had consistently and willingly failed. God did, in some sense, what we did with that failed basketball team. He didn't just boot Israel out, but He sent a replacement. He sent a true Israel that would fulfill the role and obligations that had been intended for Israel all along. What they had failed to do, Jesus would do. He would be the true Israel. This, in fact, is one of the major themes of the Gospel of John that is woven throughout the entire book. Jesus did not just come to be the Messiah to Israel, he came to be the true Israel. John will show us this reality in many ways as he depicts Jesus fulfilling roles, types, expectations, and surpassing figures and elements of Israel. Each of those instances add up to the clear conclusion that Jesus is the fulfillment of the people of God.

The list of ways that John demonstrates that Jesus is the new Israel is impressive. Israel was called God's son (Ex. 4:22-23), but John has made it clear that His true and unique Son is Jesus (1:49; 3:16; 5:25; 11:27; 19:7; 20:31). Israel was designed to be the light of the world (Isa. 42:6; 49:6; 51:4), but had systematically failed in that endeavor, so Jesus is described repeatedly as the true light (1:4-9; 3:19-21; 8:12; 9:5; 12:35-36, 46). Jesus said it as clearly as one could, when he took one of Israel's primary names and images from the Old Testament, God's vine (Ps. 80:8-9; Hos. 10:1; Isa. 5:1; Jer. 2:21; Ezek. 15:6)) and boldly declared himself to be the "true vine" (15:1-7). But it wasn't just the names of Israel that John wants us to see now apply to Jesus. Elisha fed the masses miraculously (2 Ki. 4:42-44) and the Israelites were fed by God in the wiilderness (Num. 11) but Jesus far surpassed that as the true manna (ch. 6). Moses led the Israelites across the Red Sea (Ex. 14) but Jesus walked on water (6:17-24). Wisdom was the source of proverbial wisdom (1 Ki. 3:9-12) but John applies many of the features of wisdom from the book of Proverbs to the Word that has become flesh (1:1-18). Moses lifted up the bronze serpent but that merely pointed to what Jesus would do (3:14-15). Jesus was the new and complete Jacob's ladder (1:51); He was God's Temple, the place of God's presence (2:19-21); he was the new Passover (1:29, 36; 2:23; 4:45; 6:4; 11:55; 12:1; 13:1; 18:28, 39; 19:14; 6:60-71; 13:1-11; 18:38-40; 19:31). He was the Prophet that Moses had predicted and everyone was expecting one day (6:14). He was the one on whom God's Spirit would remain, and of course, it was no small coincidence that Jesus chose twelve apostles (John 6:70) to replace the twelve tribes of Israel.

More than anything else, John wants us to see in this passage, the image of God feeding His people. This is precisely what God had done with Israel in Numbers 11 and now this is what Jesus is doing in this passage. Just as god provided for manna in the wilderness and Elisha fed a hundred men miraculously (2 Ki. 4:42-44), Jesus will provide for the masses that are following him. He is again doing things that only God could do, demonstrating that he and those who follow him are the true Israel.

The problem as we begin this scene, however, is that most of the crowds following Jesus seem more like the old Israel than the new Israel. They are following Jesus because of the signs that he performed and following Jesus' incredible feeding miracle here, they are about to jam Jesus into their own God-shaped boxes as they will try to make him become the sort of king that they imagined the Prophet would be. They are, in reality, following Jesus because of the signs rather than faith.

John doesn't waste details, though, and so we need to ask why he stresses here that this is Passover time. This is now the second of three Passovers that we, his readers will spend with Jesus. Here we have the crowds that seem to be a good representative of all of Israel coming to Jesus who will feed them in a manner quite reminiscent of Numbers 11 when God provided for the Israelites with manna. But John also wants us to see this as a new Passover. This is far more than God providing food for His people, though. The Passover was the ultimate event in Israel's history when God freed Israel from slavery and bondage. That is where this is all going. Jesus will not just provide bread for the people, he is the bread (which he will make clear later in the chapter) that will provide freedom from the true bondage of slavery to sin and separation from God.

The disciples like so many others in John's Gospel don't quite grasp the heavenly proportions of what Jesus is doing yet. They're still thinking firmly in earthly terms as Philip can't possibly imagine how he could answer Jesus' query about how to feed all these people. Philip has apparently already forgotten that Jesus has bread that they don't know about. He has bread that comes from heaven and that, like the living water, will never run out. His bread is to do God's will. To demonstrate that, he will feed a crowd of five thousand men (which might mean there were about twenty thousand, including the women and children). Heaven has opened up through Jacob's ladder once again. This is what it looks like when the Word becomes flesh. So, Jesus takes up five small barley loaves and two small fish and turns them into a feast for as many as twenty thousand people (This is now the fourth sign that John has given us. Are you still counting?). This should serve as a great reminder for us that when we offer up the smallest of our resources and bring them to Jesus, there's no telling what he will do with them, but it's almost always incredible, if we truly give them over to him.

When they are all done eating, Jesus orders his disciples to gather the pieces that were left over which was customary Jewish practice to ensure that no food would be wasted. As they gather up the food, it is enough to fill twelve baskets. John has been so cognizant of showing us imagery that Jesus was the new Israel and gathering followers into him that would make up this new Israel, that we can't help but think that he intends us to see more of the imagery in the fact that there were twelve baskets, a number that was highly symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Truly this is the new Israel, the Father's unique representative who is feeding the children of Israel in the wilderness once again. The new creation was breaking into their own world, if they would only look and see it. The same could be said of us. Have you seen the new creation? Have you entered into it? Do you actively point to it and call those around you to it?



Dvotional Thought

Imagine for a moment what the young man in this account must have been feeling when he was first brought to Jesus. He had virtually nothing to offer in comparison to the problem facing them, yet he gave it to Jesus nonetheless. The boy did nothing more than give what he had to Jesus. Are you willing to do the same? What small resources or gifts or talents do you have that you have withheld because you didn't think that it would do any good? Try turning it over to Jesus and see what he can do with it.

John 5:39-47

39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you possess eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

41 "I do not accept glory from human beings, 42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

45 "But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?"



Dig Deeper

My first several years coaching high school basketball were always a bit challenging. The main challenge for us to be competitive was that we simply didn't have the kind of talent that the other teams in our conference had. We were always shorter, slower, and less physically talented than the other teams we were playing. Because of this, I developed a coaching style that caused our team to be very physical, focus on defense, and really try to slow the game down. We did this well and we were never a great team but we were always difficult to play, difficult to score on, and always had the potential to upset anyone on any given night. A few years later, though, we suddenly had some incredibly talented players. In fact, we may have had the most talented and deep team in the league. We started winning games, but not as many as our talent might dictate. We started the season winning four games but losing three. This would have been great for the previous teams, but not this one. We were simply too talented. At halftime of our eighth game, it took one of my players to make me realize what the problem was. He told me that the slow-down style and rugged physical defense that I had always coached simply didn't work for the players we had. He was right. I had forced them to play my system rather than adjusting my system to the players I had. My preconceived notions of how we should play limited us from playing as well as we should have. At that moment we changed everything. We opened the game up and let the players use their athletic ability to make it a fast-paced game. We went from a four-point lead to a forty-point win and we did not lose another game during the regular season of that year.

The Jews of Jesus' day were well known for their commitment to studying the Scriptures. They had built the whole life of their country, in many ways, around it. They took the study of the Torah very seriously and had very rigid systems in place for how it should be studied and lived out. Yet, they had also created a very rigid system of how those same Scriptures were to be read and understood. So much so that they had a religious system that was just exactly the way they liked it and they shaped God to fit their system. Rather than seeking the way of God and then adjusting their own beliefs and practices according to His will, they worked out their own patterns and system of religious observance and the tried to fit God into that. The result was not just that they kept God from realizing His full potential the way I had with my basketball team. The result was that they missed God altogether.

There is an old saying that talks about not being able to see the forest through the trees. The point of that saying is something along the lines of it being possible to so focus on details that we forget or fail to see the larger truth or point. The Jewish leaders of Jesus' time pored over every possible detail of the Scriptures. They knew them inside and out. They knew every little detail and they were quite good at filling in all of the blanks where Scripture might have left some things up to interpretation. They certainly, above all else, knew who wasn't following Scriptures to the jot and tittle. They were, we must understand though, quite serious and sincere about all of this. But the problem was that they lost sight in most respects as to who this was all about.

Human beings are more than capable of getting obsessed with the wrong things, and this was certainly the case with the Jewish leaders that Jesus was so apt to criticize. They had lost sight of the fact that all of this study of Scripture should have been about God and seeking out His will. Instead it had become all about themselves. They became far more interested in impressing one another and being important than they were in genuinely finding God's will in the Scriptures. They quickly became fare more interested in reading the Scriptures like a rule book and setting themselves up as the rule keepers rather taking part in God's plan to reconcile His creation back to himself. This is exactly the problem that God, through the prophet Hosea, pointed out to the Israel of Hosea's day, when he declared that He desired "mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings" (Hos. 6:6). In other words, God wanted a people that care about the letter of the law but not to the point of ignoring the spirit.

The Jewish leaders studied the Scriptures diligently, believing that the study and knowledge of Scripture itself was what would set them apart as people who would gain the life of the age to come. Yet, they missed the larger whole, because the study of Scriptures does not get us anywhere if we do not apply and embrace the heart and action of the Scripture. This is why James declared, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says" (James 1:22). The charge that Jesus is leveling is that they have held so woodenly to the letter of the Scriptures that they have absolutely missed what the Scriptures were all about. If they had been more concerned with fitting themselves to God's agenda rather than fitting Him inside of theirs, they would have realized that all the Scriptures of the Old testament were pointing to the Messiah. They were all about Jesus.

This should all stand as a stern warning for us who can so easily fall prey to the same thing. Certainly doctrine is important, but doctrine that is not stressed for its own ends. It is easy to get so obsessed with the letter of New Testament doctrines and Scriptures that we can lose sight of the overall intention. We cannot become so focused on individual convictions and doctrines that we do damage to the overall heart of the New Testament which is forming a community that teaches the world how to live in a state of reconciliation with God. The Scriptures are always about Jesus brining life to a dead world not about excluding people who fail to meet every rule and standard. This is not to say that we just throw out doctrine or the things that the Scriptures say. It means that we must find a balance between studying the Scriptures diligently and living them out in the real world. We must never lose the heart or the spirit of the Scriptures because we are holding so tightly to the letter of the law.

These leaders in fact, claimed Jesus, were so enamored with following rules and excluding those that didn't that this was evidence that they did not really have the love of God in their hearts. They might assert that Jesus is claiming that they have missed the heart of the Scriptures, though, because it is in his own self-interest to do so. Jesus anticipates that and says that this is not the case. He has come in His Father's name, which meant his way of life and in His authority. They failed to see that, though, because they would rather fit God into their box rather than fitting themselves into His. Because of this, they do not accept him. Why? Because they do not truly want to fulfill God's agenda. God's agenda is often uncomfortable for the most religious among us, because He shows such grace and mercy to the unlovable. They far prefer false prophets who come in their own name because those types came from their world and appealed to the things that appealed to them. Jesus, on the other hand has come from heaven and speaks the things of heaven. They fell into the classic danger of desiring the glory that comes from other humans rather than the glory that comes from the only God.

If Jesus has come from the Father, will he return to the Father and accuse them before Him? He doesn't need to do that because Moses will stand as their accuser. It is true that all humans will stand and be judged according to the Word one day, but Jesus is making a point here. They have held tightly to the writings of Moses but they have missed the fact that Moses wrote about Jesus. Jesus is not claiming that if you scour through the writings of Moses, you can find a passage or two that predict the coming of the Messiah. His point is that everything that Moses wrote pointed to the coming of the Messiah. The entire witness of the Old Testament, in fact, was pointing people towards Jesus. But they were so worried about who was and who was not following the law, that they missed God's entire plan. If they wouldn't adjust their own preconceived notions and conceptions of what Moses said, someone whom they claimed to revere, then they certainly weren't going to believe what Jesus was saying. He knew the true purpose of the law, they didn't, so when he talked of the true purposes of God, they simply would not recognize it.

It's easy to begin to approach the Scriptures in a purely academic fashion or to become so attracted to the "rules" of the Bible that we miss the heart of what God is doing in the world. This is where we must constantly make efforts to find the tension between studying the text of the sacred Scriptures but making sure that we allow that knowledge to turn into personal experience, passion, adoration, and genuine worship. That passion and adoration should, in turn, cycle back around and inspire us to gain even more knowledge which will further fuel our passion. It is only when find the proper balance between the head and the heart that we will find the true will and agenda of the living God.



Devotional Thought

Do you ever get so committed to the "rules" that you lose sight of the reconciliation that God wants to bring about for the entire world through His people, the community formed in the life of Christ? What steps can we take to make sure that God's agenda is our agenda?

John 5:30-38

30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

Testimonies About Jesus

31 "If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true.

33 "You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

36 "I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.



Dig Deeper

Many years back I was still trying to decide where I wanted to go to college. Mind you, I didn't use the kind of criterion that normal people should use like the academic strength of the university or the reputation of the professors. No, I was judging solely on where I thought I might like to play basketball. So, I went and visited a college in Indiana to meet the coach and the players. I took a friend with me who was also out of high school and was considering going to college somewhere, although she wasn't really considering that college in Indiana as her first choice. We were in the gym warming up and playing around a little bit, and the fact was, I was a decent player, but she was a phenomenal women's player. She could, in fact, hold her own with most guy players. As we were shooting around, the women's coach walked through and saw her playing. She immediately began to come over and recruit my friend. She asked her all kinds of questions and began to judge whether or not she could play for that school. Eventually she offered her a full scholarship on the spot. What was interesting is that the coach thought all along that she was judging my friend and giving her an opportunity to possibly come to that school. What was really happening, though, was that the whole time she was really judging the coach and the school to see if they would match up to her expectations. In reality, they needed her a lot more than she needed them. They thought the issue was whether or not my friend measured up, but in the end, she decided that they did not measure up.

Throughout his Gospel, John almost seems to be presenting a court case of sorts. The Jewish leaders certainly thought that when they went to confront Jesus, they were in the position of judging Jesus. They wanted to determine who he was, what he thought he was doing, and whether he was the sort of Messiah that they were waiting for. In fact, John has recorded all of these events in such a way that we too can evaluate who Jesus is and come to believe that he is the Son of God (20:31). What we will find out, though, is the same surprising truth that Jesus hints at here to the Jewish leaders. All the while that they think they are judging him, it is Jesus' words that are really judging them. This is the startling reality. Jesus is not really the one on trial, we all are.

The concept of witnesses was very important to the Jewish culture. Old Testament passages like Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15 laid out clearly the need for two or three witnesses in order to establish something as true or someone as trustworthy. If someone were claiming to be something or someone important, they needed to have another witness. Going simply by their own word would just not be acceptable. Jesus knows this which is why he says that if all he can muster up is testimony about himself, then everyone can rest assured that his testimony is not true. This is an interesting concept that should not be overlooked in our day. Nearly every major religion or Christian offshoot such as Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, or the Mormon church are all belief systems that are established by one witness making claims about their own revelation. They have no way to verify whether their claims of Godly revelation are authentic or not.

With Jesus, however, that is not the case. He did not expect anyone to take his own testimony alone, nor does he try to give one without verification. Although, since everything Jesus says and does is the will of the Father, if he would have offered a self-testimony, then we can know that it would have come from God. There is another who testifies in his favor. At first glance, it might appear that Jesus is referring, in verse 32, to John, but verse 34 makes it clear that that is not the case. Jesus' other witness is none other than his Father. It is quite likely that Jesus refers to his baptism with John with this. John's Gospel seems to assume that his readers are already familiar with what happened at that baptism and so merely alludes to the fact that God declared that Jesus was His beloved Son with whom He was well pleased. Since Jesus was claiming to perfectly represent the will of the Father, his witness would only be true if it was supported by the Father. The moment of his baptism was just such an occasion.

When it comes down to it, the testimony of the Father is the only that he cares about. Solely for the benefit of the Jews who did not receive this witness or would have a difficult time comprehending it, though he mentions that they did have another witness, a powerful human witness so that they would have no excuse. John was a powerful prophet that was sent to them by God and he also testified to the truth. Jesus didn't himself base his convictions or the truth of his message on the human testimony of John, but John's witness could lead them down the path to find the testimony that really mattered, that of the Father. If they would but only listen to John's testimony, they would truly find the way as some of John's disciples already had.

John was, after all, a lamp. Jesus uses the past tense in verse 35 which might indicate that John was already in prison or dead. Ultimately, however, the point was that John's witness was temporary. John was a lamp but was not the light himself. Lamps in Jesus day didn't burn indefinitely the way they do today. They burned for a short time and then went out. John was a lamp that burned for a short time to show people the way. He pointed down the right path but people didn't like the path he was illuminating. Many of them liked the idea of having a genuine Old Testament style prophet among them during their lifetimes, but they didn't like the direction that he was pointing to.

John's testimony would hopefully point them down the road of salvation, but it was simply a pointer. The truly weighty testimony came from God. But in verse 36 Jesus says that that testimony is the works that he was doing? Isn't this him testifying to himself? How could his works be considered the testimony of the Father? Because the works that he was doing were works that only the Father could do. He was, after all, the apprentice Son, doing exactly what he had seen the Father doing. The works that Jesus were doing were not something that an ordinary human could do on their own volition. They were the works that the Father had given him to do. He was bringing about the signs of the new creation, something that only God could do. One need only look at what someone is doing to see where it is that they are truly coming from. When people saw Jesus doing the works of heaven on earth, then it stands to reason that Jesus had come from the very presence of the Father.

Jesus knows that he has come from the Father and that the Father has testified concerning him because he is the one that has heard God's voice. He has seen his form. God's word does dwell in him. Jesus is not worried by the lack of support or the opposition of humans because he has the witness of the Father. Despite the witness of the Father, the Jews will in large part reject it. They have never heard God's voice as Moses had (Ex. 33:11), but they have failed to be true followers of Moses. They had never seen the form of God as Jacob had (Gen. 32:30-31) but they have failed to be true descendants of Jacob. They do not have God's word dwelling in them the way the Psalmist did (Ps. 119:11), but they have failed to be true followers of the word. For all of these reasons they do not believe the one that was sent by the Father. They have, in nearly every respect, failed to be true Israelites, but John points out once again, that Jesus has. He is the true Israel.

It all comes down to the fact that Jesus was sent by the Father and does exactly what the Father wants him to do. He can do nothing by himself. He has come to bring the judgment of the word of the Father and to please him. All along, the Jewish leaders thought that they were judging the veracity of Jesus, and they certainly do need to make a decision whether they will believe in him or not, but in reality, they were not the ones doing the real judging. The Son was the one that has come in judgment. He is the one that will carry out God's work and His just judgment (v. 30). Jesus is not the one that is really on trial here. God has already spoken and vindicated him. The ones listening to Jesus' words and witnessing his works but are rejecting him are the ones that are on trial. We are the ones that will have to answer according to his word. The question for us is when the time comes will we accept the testimony of the Father through the life of the son or will we be like Belshazzar in Daniel 5, having been weighed, measured, and found wanting?



Devotional Thought

We can often approach the word of God as though the role of judge belongs to us. Will we follow this aspect of God's word or obey that part? Has God made a good enough case in our minds to be worthy of being followed? The reality, however, is that we are the ones on trial. What will you do with the word of God? Do you obey it or do you weigh it like it's evidence in a case in which you are the judge?

John 5:19-29

19 Jesus gave them this answer: "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

24 "Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

28 "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.



Dig Deeper

A few weeks ago I had to go into my eldest son's school for a regular yearly conference with his counselor. He is in his last year before starting high school so this conference focused a great deal on his portfolio and his future both in high school and beyond. One of the things that the students begin to do with their portfolios is to determine what they might want to do for a career and then start thinking about the types of classes, experiences, and college education that they might need to achieve that. As we were looking through his portfolio on the computer in the counselor's office, we came to the page that had a question concerning what career they might like to pursue as an adult. I was quite encouraged to see that my son had listed that he would like to be a biblical teacher and biblical scholar. In his mind, he wants to follow in the footsteps of his dad. That's a pretty uncommon thing in our world today, but it was the usual course of events in the ancient world. A son would take up the career of his father, watching him, mimicking him, and learning from him. Under those circumstances, the best way to get good at what your father did was to do exactly what the father did and to listen to his every instruction.

This idea of apprenticeship between a father and son is the common imagery upon which Jesus draws to explain why he was claiming to be sharing in the same work as the Father. What the Jewish leaders could only understand as blasphemy or the wild ravings of a lunatic were actually quite understandable. He was simply doing what most any son would do in their culture. He had learned His Father's way of doing things, and was now going about copying that, carrying out the work of His Father in the precise way that His Father would do it.

John tells us in verse 19 that Jesus gave them this answer, which seems a bit puzzling because he hasn't recorded any specific question in the previous verse. What John likely means is that there was a general question or misunderstanding which evoked a great deal of rage and anger about Jesus' claims to be doing the work of his Father. A claim that made himself equal to God in their eyes. His response is important, as John has set it up as the definitive reason for what he is doing. It is further emphasized by Jesus saying "Very truly I tell you." This was a claim to be telling the truth without need for a further witness, which in Jewish culture was something only God could rightly do.

So how could Jesus claim to be doing the same work that the Father was doing, which is another level above just doing what the Father sent him to do (he certainly was also doing that but there was more to it than just being a messenger)? Jesus could share in the same work and be exempt from Sabbath regulations because the son can do nothing by himself. Jesus wasn't just going around making up this Messiah stuff as he went along. He certainly wasn't acting according to his own will. He was doing the work of his Father. He was doing exactly what he had seen the Father do all throughout history (again John demonstrates as he did in the prologue that the Son and the Father share an essence and purpose but are still distinct beings from one another). So what is that the Son had seen his Father doing? Without pressing the point beyond its intention, it's likely that Jesus is referring to the work of reconciling the world back to God. Jesus had been right there as the Father set about to reconcile a world marred by sin back to Himself and restore the full image of God to men. Jesus was now here partaking in that same work.

They should not be amazed then when they see the Son doing incredible things and demonstrating the new creation. The Father, after all was the creator of the universe. He was the only one with the power to raise the dead and give them life (Deut. 32:39; 1 Sam. 2:6; 2 Ki. 5:7). Only the Father can give life to the dead, whether it be the physically dead or the spiritually dead (Ezek. 37). John has already made it clear in chapter 3, that the world stands condemned in darkness already because of their sin. In that sense, it could rightly be said that all have sinned (Rom. 3:23), all stand condemned already (3:18), and thus, all humans are dead in their sins (Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13).

The Father has the power to raise the dead and give them life, and so does the Son. The Son has life in himself and gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. In this one short incredible explanation that Jesus gives in this passage, John gives us nearly every major theme of his entire Gospel. Jesus is the true Son of God that has replaced Israel (5:19; cf. 15:1), the faithless son (Ex. 4:22). It is he who serves as Jacob's ladder connecting the earthly life of the present age to the heavenly realm of the the life of the age to come, eternal life 5:24). This life, however, is available only to those who hear the logos (the word) of Jesus and believe (5:24). It is to those who believe in the logos who will enter into the life of Christ where life is found (5:26). Only those in Christ will share in the new creation that Jesus is bringing both now, in the present age, and in the resurrection that is yet to come (5:29).

The ministry of Jesus is all about bringing the dead to life. Those who hear his word and believes will have eternal life. If people believed in God, truly believed in Him according to His word and not their own vision of what He is and should be doing, then they will believe in the life that He has sent. Many people in our day view the concept of eternal life as something that happens to us after we die, as though we die, go off to another location called heaven, and then and only then do we experience everlasting life there. This is not exactly what Jesus means, however. Eternal life was the life of the age to come. It was the life of God's restored creation and His complete presence with His people. Those who enter into the life of Christ have that life available to us now, in the present age, pointing people ahead to the time when heaven and earth will be brought together completely forever (Eph. 1:10), which will happen when Christ appears and resurrects those in him.

Most Jews during the first century absolutely believed that God would one day bring an end to the present age. He would send the Messiah who would bring an end to evil in the world by defeating Israel's enemies and exalting Israel to her rightful place in the world. The righteous would be resurrected from the dead and would reign with God forever. This would be the end of the present age, the end of time, so to speak. In verses 28 and 29, then, when Jesus says that they should not be amazed at what he has just said because a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out. The righteous will rise to live while the unrighteous will receive their full condemnation, this was not the surprising part. It might sound a bit unusual or shocking to us, but this was the part that they all understood and believed in. Jesus describes their common belief in order to verify the shocking part for them that they were not expecting.

The shocking part that Jesus would reveal little by little was that this passage from death to life and entrance into the age to come was available now. The time was coming, they all knew that and believed that, but that the time has now come? Now that was hard to swallow. He was telling them that those who believed in the life of Christ and entered into could share in the life of the age to come now. How could that possibly be? How could that make any sense at all?

This is the great power of the new creation. It's not just some run-of-the-mill spiritual experience that someone can have. It is new life welling up inside of you from God's own Spirit. If everyone could believe in a future resurrection, then why could God not offer that in the present age? What Israel expected of all the righteous at the end of time would take place for the One righteous human in the middle of time. Israel would be exalted to rule the nations, but Jesus is the true Israel. The righteous would be resurrected and enter into the age to come, but Jesus is the only righteous one. Yet, he has made that life and that resurrection life available now to those who would only believe in his life, die to themselves, and enter in. The shocking thing for Jesus' original audience, and perhaps still for us in different ways, was that they could have that life in the present as it anticipated and guaranteed the full consummation of the resurrection life in the age to come.



Devotional Thought

People in the first century had a tendency to believe in God's future age more than they did of having spiritual life in the present age. Although we often have a much different conception of the age to come, we tend to focus much more on "going to heaven" than we do with realizing the life of the age to come in the present age. Are you truly doing your best to grab hold of eternal life now and demonstrate to the world around you what it looks like to live in a community that is reconciled to God.

John 5:9b-18

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."

11 But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' "

12 So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"

13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

The Authority of the Son

16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working." 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.



Dig Deeper

I had a wonderful childhood. I really did, and there's not too much I could even think to complain of, but I do remember one part of my childhood that was particularly traumatic. You see I had a rhythm to my week. I went to school all week and Sundays were set aside for church, but Saturdays were supposed to be different. To me, Saturday mornings were for nothing more than laying around and watching cartoons (this was back when they were still making good cartoons) from whenever I woke up until about noon. My dad seemed to be operating in a different world, though. He always wanted to get up early on Saturday mornings and do some work. That might sound bad enough, but what was even worse was the fact that he wanted to always bring me into his disturbed world of hard work and no cartoons. He was simply operating in a whole different reality than I was and it made me angry. Saturdays were about self-absorption not hard work. No matter how many times he tried to explain the whole theory behind doing work on Saturday mornings, it sounded like crazy talk because Saturdays were a completely different thing for a different purpose in my world than they were in his.

This seems to be something of the problem with Jesus and the leadership of the Jews. It wasn't so much that they didn't understand the things that he was doing, it was that they were living in a whole different world with a entirely different reality than Jesus. They still think that it's time to rest and wait around for God to something, but Jesus knows that that time has passed. It is time to get up and start working. God is doing something new and the time to be a part of it is right now. Waiting anymore would just be wasting time.

John has waited until verse 9 to give us a vital piece of information. Jesus has healed this man on the Sabbath. By Jesus' day, the Sabbath had become something far different than what is actually described in the Scriptures. It was intended to be a day of rest that both reminded the Jewish people of the fact that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh and that pointed ahead to the true rest and healing that God would bring to the world one day. Israel, through time and tradition, however, had gone far beyond the call to keep God's day holy and focused on Him, and had added all kinds of rules and regulations that people had to follow. The Lord had told the Israelites not to work on the Sabbath and not to carry loads (Ex. 31:12-17; Jer. 17:12-17; Neh. 13:15-19) but tradition had defined that down to the point that you could not carry any object from one domain into another on the Sabbath, so you could carry a man on a mat, but not the mat itself. In reality, the man did not break any biblical Sabbath regulations, only the traditional oral law that attempted to interpret biblical passages.

The specific issue that Jewish leaders jump all over the man for is that he should not have been carrying his mat on the Sabbath. The man wants no part of this issue and does not attempt to defend Jesus in anyway. He seems more than happy to pass responsibility off to Jesus. He only carried his mat because Jesus told him to.

The question that we really need to ask though, is why would Jesus heal the man on this day? There were six other days in the week. This man had been in his condition for nearly forty years, why couldn't it wait for one more day and avoid all of the controversy. The answer is far more subversive than might at first appear. What seems to be happening is that Jesus is bringing the life of the new creation into a world that still wants to cling to the old creation. The old world still wanted to lay around and watch cartoons, the way they always had, but Jesus was already up and working. It was time to get moving, God's new creation was here. The new creation was replacing the old one for those who wished to follow Jesus but this simply made no sense to the Jewish leaders. Yet, this is precisely the picture that John has painted for us. From the first verse of the Gospel, he told us that this was an event of new creation. He has left clues all throughout, such as pointing out that Jesus' opening week of ministry was seven days, mimicking the seven days of creation. Everywhere Jesus went, he was bringing forth signs of the new creation (still wondering how many of those signs John will describe?).

As Jesus opens the veil separating heaven and earth further and further, the forces that stand opposed to the new creation react in increasing fiercer levels. The new creation was being unveiled further as John shows another instance of the angels ascending and descending on the son of man (cf. 1:51). The Sabbath was always a day to rest and remember the original creation week, but Jesus sees things quite differently. The Sabbath is no longer a time of rest, it's a time of opening up the world to the new creation. God was restoring things that were sick and broken and devastated by a world caught in sin. All humans are born into that world with no way out on our own. The only hope for the world was for God to do something. This is precisely what the new creation is all about. It is God fixing what sin has done to the world.

The man who was healed, though, is like so many of us. He had walked right into the new creation but he had no idea who Jesus was or what he was doing. In fact, we are never told that this man really ever understood the full implications of what Jesus had done. He had tasted of the new creation but still seemed far more in fear of being in trouble with the powers-that-be rather than standing boldly in the new reality which had reached out and touched him. When Jesus tells him to stop sinning or something worse may happen to you, he isn't necessarily implying that sin caused the man's condition (Jesus, in fact, denies that sin is a factor in cases like this is 9:3). Being stuck in a world of sin with no way out, even if part of your condition in that world is to be crippled, pales in comparison to the reality of being brought into the new creation and not embracing it. There is no place for sin in the age to come which is why Christians are called to enter into the sinless life of Christ and fully embrace it as we are transformed into his image (Col. 3:10). If this man continued to fail to realize what was going on and walked back into a life of sin, it would be far worse than being stuck there in the first place with no knowledge of the new thing God was doing. Those who have never entered the new creation, have hope. Those who have entered and then willingly walked away from it, have no hope (cf. Heb. 6:4-6). The fact was that the time for those in Israel to choose between the new thing being brought into the world through Christ and the old way was running short and if this man didn't embrace the new creation while he still had a chance, the prospects were dire. Having hope is always better, no matter how dire your circumstances, than having no hope.

Sadly, verse 15 seems to indicate that he still didn't get. Whereas the man healed of blindness (ch. 9) defended Jesus and would not distance himself from Jesus, this man was more than happy to distance himself. So, the anger and hatred of the leaders is quickly transferred from this man to Jesus. In response to the persecution of the Jewish leaders, Jesus said that his Father was always at His work, and so was he. In saying this, Jesus has pushed the door between heaven and earth open just a little bit farther, claiming that his work and the work of the Father were on an even plane. Jews of Jesus' day had understood that, although God rested from creation on the seventh day, he continued to work by sustaining the entire creation. They explained that since the entire universe was God's domain, He was not breaking any Sabbath ordinance by moving an object from one domain into another. In other words, only God could work on the Sabbath because the entire universe was His (this was all Jewish reasoning and tradition, not Scripture mind you). Jesus' point was that, just as God was above normal Sabbath regulations, so was he. There were only two possible responses when someone claimed equality with God in ancient Israel. Either he could be taken at his word, or he would be killed for blasphemy. Clearly, the Jewish leaders rejected Jesus' word. They did not want the logos that he was bringing. They wanted to remain in their old reality. They simply didn't want to get up and get to work, helping to bring about God's new creation. This meant that, in their eyes, Jesus had to go. He would have to be killed.



Devotional Thought

God's new creation is all about healing, forgiving, and bringing life and light into the darkness. What signs of God's new creation have you seen in your life? Take some time to really think and pray about signs of the new creation in your own life. This should not only fill you with gratitude but should also give you a determination to share with others what God has done in your life.

John 5:1-9a

The Healing at the Pool

1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3-4 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"

7 "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."

8 Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.



Dig Deeper

The Greek philosopher Plato told a story about a man in cave. The man was chained up in a cave and the only thing he had to look at was the shadows of cut-outs of trees and animals and various other objects. The objects were held up behind him and two other men who were also chained up and a the light from a fire reflected shadows of the objects on the wall in front of them. It was all of reality that they knew. After a time, one of the men escaped and made it out of the cave into the real world. He was amazed at the realities that he saw. They were overwhelming and breathtaking, far beyond anything he knew had existed. When all you know is shadow outlines, you cannot even imagine the depth and beauty of the real world. The man eventually decided to go back into the cave to tell the others about the real world that he had experienced, but they simply couldn't understand. They thought that he had gone mad and didn't want to hear any of what he had to say. Eventually the other men in the chains killed the man who came to free them because even the idea of the world he described was so frightening that they could do nothing other than to eliminate him.

John has given us, in many different ways, examples of people who were living with knowledge of mere shadows. They are living, to varying degrees, in the shadowy darkness of a world trapped in sin with no genuine knowledge of what God's created world is supposed to be like. John has described for how Jesus confronted each person he encountered with the reality of God's new creation and it is fascinating to watch the variety of responses. Some have grabbed on to the little bit they understood immediately, some have been a bit stand-offish at first, only then to embrace it finally. Some have not understood it at all, and seemed to reject the reality that Jesus is trying to showing them. In the end, some will reject it just like the two captives in Plato's cave, grabbing and killing the man that is trying to tell them that there is a whole new reality outside if they will just break free from their captivity and chains.

A pool that was near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem doesn't sound like a likely place for a prison, but human beings can find themselves enslaved and imprisoned almost anywhere, even in the most unlikely of situations. As Jesus approaches Jerusalem for the second time during his ministry (at least that John has recorded), he is going during an unnamed festival, although the original text implies that it was the Feast of Tabernacles as it calls it the "festival of the Jews," which was a common nickname for Tabernacles. As he enters into the city, Jesus encounters a man who had been crippled for thirty-eight years. As promising as the pool near the Sheep Gate sounds, John lets us know that this place has become a prison for this man.

Great lore, legend, and superstition had developed about this pool in Jerusalem. Apparently it was believed that from time to time the waters of this pool would get stirred up. This may have been the result of springs in the pool or some other natural phenomenon, but regardless of what caused the occasional stirring, a belief grew that angels were the cause. It was also believed that the first, and only the first person into the pool would be healed. Because of this belief, the pool would be surrounded daily with people who were ill and crippled waiting for their chance, although we are never told how often the waters were believed to have been stirred. (All of this is explained in verse 4, which is missing in most modern translations because it seems to have been a later explanatory addition to the original manuscripts and so, has been taken out).

All of this angels stirring the waters and selective healing business sounds much more like the pagan cults that surrounded Israel rather than authentic Judaism. In fact, apparently, just the Jews didn't regard this pool as a healing place. It appears that pagans also regarded it as a place of healing, and at one point, it was even dedicated to the healing god Ascelpius. Certainly the priests and Jewish officials didn't approve of this sort of superstitious behavior, yet they seemed to have turned a blind eye to it for the most part, due no doubt, to the negative public opinion that would come with ending such a practice that seemed to not harm anyone. Although it doesn't seem that this place was very successful. It was more legend than reality. The man described here had made it his life to come to this place everyday and it had never done anything for him.

This had become his reality, even his prison. He blindly clutched to the sliver of hope that this place really did have healing powers and he would be able to benefit from them. This is the sort of place that always winds up being the hope of the pagan world. Here it was the rumor that there might be healing powers in angel-agitated waters. Today it's that we can find happiness in wealth, possessions, power, or personal fulfillment. Whatever the promise is, it never seems to turn out to be what it is cracked up to be. That's why Jesus asked this man if he wanted to get well. Jesus wasn't implying that he didn't really want to get well. Nor was he insinuating that the man wasn't make a good enough effort to get into the water, so Jesus was now going to help him if he really wanted to.

This is not about effort, it's about coming out of the world of shadows. This man had bought into the the shadows that the pagan world clings to. The healing at this pool was a remote, rare, and random event at its best, but a fanciful dream at its worst. He no longer had to cling to the empty hopes of a world stuck in darkness. Jesus was about to do for him what the world could only promise but never seem to deliver. He could do what the pool only promised and all it would take was a word from the Word. This was a moment of new creation, demonstrating what it looks like when people are brought into the life of God's age to come. That doesn't mean that everyone who enters in will become physically healed in the present age, the healing was simply a sign of what everyone will experience in full one day when all things are restored (Matt. 19:28). What Jesus did in bringing to reality the shadowy wishes of the pagan world, he can do for everyone now.

We should note that this is another example of people understanding Jesus at an earthly level when he is speaking of heavenly things. When he asked the man if wanted to get well, it was an invitation to leave behind the world of shadows and enter into the new creation. The invalid, however, can as yet only think of his reality in the cave of his own experience. He does want to get healed and could only do so if he could get in that water. Similarly people in our day could be happy if they could only get that one thing that desire. He, and the people of our time, never stop to consider that perhaps the problem is not in their ability to get the thing they desire but the problem is that that thing can never deliver on what they truly need. Jesus can.

One word from the master was all it took for him to enter into the light. He was carried to the pool and laid down in his usual darkness, but today he got up and walked as he encountered the light. A word from the Light is all it ever takes. What is rendered "get up" by the TNIV is actually one word, egeiro, which means "rise." In that one word, John perhaps expects us to catch a glimpse of what the new creation will look like. The word can simply mean "to raise up," but it was a word that the early church of John's day used regularly to refer to the resurrection of the new creation. Jesus' word to him, then was much more than a simple command to get up off the ground. It was an invitation into the new world that he had just been invited. It was an invitation to come out of the cave and into the real world.

John doesn't tell us that this is the third sign, but he has already given us the first two. From here on out, we are on our own. Have you guessed yet how many signs John will give us in his Gospel?



Devotional Thought

Take a look at the people around you that are not Christians. What is their pool at the Sheep Gate? What are they holding to on, looking for healing, that will turn out to be nothing more than an empty hope? It is our job, given to us by Jesus, to share in relevant ways the availability of the new creation. It is only in God's new world, available in the life of Christ that people can find true healing of their souls. What are you doing to spread that message with those that need it most?

John 4:43-54

Jesus Heals the Official's Son

43 After the two days he left for Galilee. 44 (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that prophets have no honor in their own country.) 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.

46 Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

48 "Unless you people see signs and wonders," Jesus told him, "you will never believe."

49 The royal official said, "Sir, come down before my child dies."

50 "Go," Jesus replied, "your son will live."

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, "Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him."

53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." So he and his whole household believed.

54 This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.



Dig Deeper

When I was teaching high school history a few years back, I used to love to take the kids to the public museum in Milwaukee. There was much to see and it was a pretty good history museum. I really wanted the kids to see some of the incredible displays that they had there. In order to facilitate that, I would often give them a scavenger hunt list of things to look for and questions to answer as they went through the museum. The point was for the list to lead them through the museum so that they would hit important parts of it and take the time to read, learn, and appreciate the history in that part of the museum. One year, though, the kids got it in their head that the scavenger hunt was more of a race and that there was going to be a prize at the end for the group that got the most information. They began racing through the clues and running from one area to the next without stopping and appreciating the history that they were witnessing. They were paying more attention to the clues and had lost interest in what they were intended to point to.

As we open this scene in Galilee, we realize that something is quite different from the previous scene in Samaria. The people here are not soaking up Jesus and learning to believe in him, rather they seem to be more like those students racing around in the museum. They are far more interested in the signs themselves than in where they are leading. They are not, it seems, truly interested the truth or in any sort of new creation, they simply want to see a good show. It's like people today who would rather go to a church that puts on an entertaining show with music, charisma, and maybe even some exciting "miracles," rather than one with solid, biblical teaching that will actually lead them to the truth. Looking for entertainment or excitement over the truth can be dangerous, but when someone comes along who is truly looking for the truth, they are far more concerned with the truth than with the show.

Jesus heads back into Galilee and John gives us the important side note that Jesus himself had pointed out that prophets have no honor in their own country. There seems to be a bit of difficulty, though, between verses 44 and 45. Which is it? Is a prophet without honor in his own country or did they welcome him? Why would he be without honor when many of them were in Jerusalem during the Passover and had seen all that he had done there? What could John possibly mean?

Not only had they seen some of the incredible things that he had done in Jerusalem, surely by now word had leaked out about his having turned the water into wine at the wedding in Cana in Galilee. It's hard to imagine that some of the servants wouldn't have spread around the incredible sign that they saw. It's true that some people may have been a bit skeptical about the rumors of that event, but surely the events in Jerusalem would have confirmed that something like that could have at least been plausible. With all of the eyewitnesses and rumors swirling about, how could it be that Jesus was without honor?

Verse 48 gives us the vital clue that we need to understand what John is talking about. The Word has become flesh, but these people seem far more interested in the flesh part than the Word itself. They're not looking for the truth, they want the show. They were willing to treat Jesus like a celebrity that could do some incredible things but apparently had no interest in honoring him or the message that he was brining from heaven itself. Jacob's ladder in the flesh was pointing to the fact that heaven was breaking into the earthly realm, but all they were interested in was the entertainment, not the message. Jesus says straight out that unless they see signs and wonders, they will never believe. Jesus' point wasn't that they needed to see a couple of signs and then they would become solid believers, they had already seen signs. His point was that their level of belief would always (unless they seriously repented, but there is no evidence that they had much interest in that) tie their belief to more and more signs. It was all about them, not the truth. They needed to be constantly fed and entertained and pleased. Sadly, we still see people like this filling out churches in our world today. These are the people that are not very interested in the long, hard work of studying the Bible, serving others, and living by faith. No, they will only be around as long as things are fun, interesting, and pleasing to their concept of what church should be.

In contrast to the type of heart that responds to the signs for the show and the spectacle that appeals to their own flesh, a royal official, probably a Gentile, though not definitively stated, demonstrates the sort of attitude and response that is necessary. If he is a Gentile, as would seem likely, then John has followed the progression at the opening of Jesus' ministry of him ministering to Jew (Nicodemus), Samaritan (the woman at the well), and now Gentile. This is the same progression of the Gospel described on a larger scale in the book of Acts. This royal official doesn't need to see any show, he simply believes that Jesus has the power to heal his son before he dies.

Jesus does something quite unusual in that he doesn't go see the boy, he doesn't do anything that might give an opportunity for the crowds to follow him and see another show. He heals the boy who is ill about 14 miles away with the simple words, go, your son will live. This royal official continues to have faith in Jesus' word alone, for once Jesus says that, he took Jesus at his word and departed. He needed nothing more than the word of Jesus to believe that he had received what he came for. He believed on the basis of the word, something that those looking for the genuine truth will always do. Once they encounter the genuine word of God, they don't need anything more. Signs may confirm their faith but they do not establish it. This is the case with this official. He had spent half the day traveling to see Jesus and he simply takes Jesus at his word. He immediately turns around to travel back to Capernaum but could only make it part of the way back before night fall. The next day, as he approaches Capernaum, his servants meet him to tell that his son was healed at the same time that he was talking to Jesus. The sign that Jesus had indeed healed his son miraculously did not induce faith in the official, it was already there. The miracle confirmed the faith that he already had in the Word.

The problem with miracles is that they were designed as signs to point to truth and lead people to the truth, but some people don't want the truth as much as they want to be amazed. Remember that the idea of the logos, the Word, was a common one in the Greco-Roman circles of Jesus' day. John takes that concept and shows that the word of God from the Old Testament is the true logos, and that the Word has become flesh. For the Greeks, the logos was the centering and organizing force that kept the universe together. Those who possessed the logos for themselves would find themselves in harmony with that order but those that did not would find themselves in chaos. John has shown that the Word is indeed the person that keeps the universe in order. People who believed in the Word found themselves harmonizing with his ordering principles as he brought the universe to rights. Throughout the Gospel of John there is a clear distinction between those who believe on the strength of Jesus' words and those who believe because they saw something impressive.

As you continue to read the Gospel of John, don't be amazed by the signs and miracles that Jesus will perform nearly as much as you are amazed at what they point to. The signs in and of themselves are only important because they confirm what Jesus said. The new creation had arrived as Jesus went about doi



Devotional Thought

Do you respond at the hearing of the word of God alone, or do you need more to keep you coming back? Spend some time really thinking about whether you are genuinely interested in hearing and following the truth or whether you are just looking for a beneficial experience? Determine that you will be one of those that will respond to the Word and his word alone.

John 4:27-42

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"

28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?" 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."

32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."

33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"

34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don't you have a saying, 'It's still four months until harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now those who reap draw their wages, even now they harvest the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."

Many Samaritans Believe

39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.

42 They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."



Dig Deeper

For the longest time I used to laugh at people who bought merchandise because they had seen an infomercial late night on television. Most of those infomercials were so funny and cheesy that I couldn't imagine why anyone would buy anything from them. Then, one night I couldn't sleep and there was nothing else on TV so I started watching one. I still thought it was cheesy, but it was strangely fascinating to watch too. From that point on, for a while, I watched all of the infomercials whenever I couldn't sleep. One night, though, I found one that wasn't cheesy. It seemed like a good product, and then it happened. I did the unthinkable. I ordered this powdered cleaning product that seemed like it was wonderful. When it arrived in the mail, I was perhaps surprised to discover that it was that good. It really worked as well as they claimed it would. After that, I took great joy in not only telling people about the produce, but whenever someone came over to our house, I would pour some Kool-Aid on our carpet so that they could see this product take the stain out easily. When you've really found something that works, telling people about it is one thing, and it might gain their interest for a moment, but they really need to see it and experience it for themselves in order to believe in it.

Oftentimes, when people are first confronted with the truth of Jesus, as the Samaritan woman was, they are confrontational or want to resist it, just as she did. Yet, for many people there is a point when they suddenly break into the realm of belief and they understand, at lest to some level, that which they previously could not or would not. Once people have truly broken through their unbelief and moved into belief, a drastic change takes place. Suddenly, rather than not wanting to talk about spiritual things, they actually want to tell everyone about them. That witness is a wonderful and irreplaceable thing, yet they must still have their own encounter with Jesus in order to truly come into a belief of their own. This was as true for the other Samaritans in the village as it is for us today.

One thing we learn from the Gospels is that Jesus was never a careless person. He never haphazardly did things without thinking them through carefully. About a year ago, I read an article from a pastor on the West coast that claimed that Jesus was reckless and so should his followers be. He, quite frankly, couldn't have been more wrong. So when Jesus did things that went so strongly against social convention, we can only assume that he was doing them on purpose. His disciples, though, seem no less shocked to find Jesus having a conversation with a woman in public, a Samaritan woman at that. Yet, whether it was out of fear, respect, or the fact that they knew Jesus had a penchant for challenging certain customs that they just didn't always understand, they didn't question him on the unseemly conversation. We get the feeling that they sure wanted to though.

Just as we are beginning to wonder about why the disciples may not have questioned Jesus, though, John turns our attention to the turning point of this whole account. He left us hanging a bit with the interlude of verse 27, following Jesus' revelation that he was the Messiah. Perhaps it was to give us a moment to catch our breath and take in that truth, so that we can identify with this woman, who must have been taken aback. She came to get water and, in the process, avoid people if she could, yet now this encounter with Jesus has caused her to leave her water jar, and to run back to town to tell the people about Jesus. She's still in doubt a bit as she asks, could this be the Messiah? But it seems that, even in her sate of not being totally sure, the faith that has taken root has overcome her doubt. Her reaction demonstrates an absolute truth about a true encounter with Jesus Christ. When we really have an encounter with him and come to a realization of who he is, it turns our doubt to faith and it changes our priorities. This woman came for water, but all she could think about was telling others about Jesus. For those of us who have been Christians for awhile, we need to remember that truth just as much as a new Christian. Sometimes there are things that we get focused on apart from Jesus and we just need to have an encounter with him, leave our water jar and go tell people about him and what he has done for us.

Just as Nicodemus and the woman at the well, were focused on earthly things and couldn't immediately grasp the deeper, heavenly things that Jesus was talking of, so it goes with his disciples as they return. They want him to eat as it was customary for disciples to attend to the physical needs of their teacher. Jesus, though, as he so often does, takes the opportunity to teach them something about his relationship with God. People need food to provide sustenance, but Jesus' food, the thing that gave him sustenance and kept him going was doing the will of God who sent him and to finish his work. The primary spiritual battle can be boiled down to a pull between doing our own will and doing God's will. Adam and Eve brought sin into the world by doing their own will and rejecting God's. In fact, humans were made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27) to do God's will but have all sinned and failed to be fully human by failing to do God's will. Sin is the exaltation of our own will and the failure to do God's. Jesus came to be the perfect human being, though. He came to be the one that would do the will of the Father. This is why he often declared that he came to do the work that the Father had for him to do (cf. 5:30; 6:38; 7:18; 8:50; 0:4; 10:37-38; 12:49, 50; 14:31; 15:10; 17:4).

What is the specific aspect of God's will to which Jesus is referring? The fact that he came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), sacrificing for the benefit of others rather than meeting his own needs. Jesus is not implying that it's somehow wrong to eat, but that doing God's will should take primary importance in someone's life. To make his point, Jesus appeals to what was probably a local saying. It's still four months until the harvest, which probably was a local idiom that got across the point that you can't rush things. Growth is slow sometimes and it cannot be forced. Yet, this was not going to be true for them. There was no time to worry about themselves because all they had to do was open their eyes and look at the fields that were ripe for harvest. Perhaps, when Jesus said that, he looked up and saw the harvest, the Samaritans that had heard from the woman at the well, coming towards them. It's hard to tell exactly what Jesus had in mind as he referred to the sower and the reaper, but his point is probably that all of the prophets, including John the Immerser, have done the hard work of sowing, and now he and his disciples were going to reap the harvest. It wouldn't be a matter of earthly priorities where the sower might get angry that someone else is reaping because this crop is the life of the age to come. They sowed knowing that others would reap and that time has now come. The Messiah is here and they get to share in that work. He has sent his disciples to reap what they have not worked for. Others did the hard work and they will reap the benefits of their labor.

The Samaritan women that just a few minutes earlier, was likely ostracized and wanted as little as possible to do with the people in her own town, now has run towards them with the most exciting news that she has ever encountered in her entire life. She may have met the Messiah. In her excitement, she seems to have overstated things a bit by saying that Jesus told her everything she ever did. We shouldn't view this as being deceptive at all though. It's simply a case of excited hyperbole which gets her point across well. This man knows things that average human beings do not. At the behest of her testimony they are intrigued and want to here more so they run and keep asking Jesus to stay with them until he agrees. He spends not one day but two days. Once you think you may have finally found the light you don't want to let go. They need to spend time with him for themselves, after all. Hearing the testimony of someone else can be important and lead us towards Christ, but faith is not faith if it continues to rely on the testimony or beliefs of someone else. We must experience Christ for ourselves if it is to become our own faith and our own testimony.

While Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, continued to blindly feel around in the dark, looking for the truth that he just couldn't seem to find, the hated Samaritans have had the truth revealed to them and they have embraced it. This man that spent two days with them, really is the Savior of the world.



Devotional Thought

When is the last time that you had a personal encounter with Jesus during your prayer, your worship, or your Bible reading time that you "left your water jar at the well"? When is the last time you went running off and didn't care about your old worries anymore, but wanted to tell whoever would listen about Jesus? Perhaps it's worth pondering the direct correlation of the first situation to the second one.

John 4:16-26

16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

17 "I have no husband," she replied.

Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

21 "Woman," Jesus replied, "believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth."

25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

26 Then Jesus declared, "I, the one speaking to you—I am he."



Dig Deeper

Many years back I spent a couple of summers directing a teen camp for a local branch of the YMCA. On one particularly hot day we took all of the campers to a nature preserve to go on a hike. The hike was going to be several hours long and through some fairly difficult terrain, at least it was difficult for this area. Normally I came quite prepared for whatever we were going to do that day, but this was a Monday after a particularly busy weekend. I had my lunch prepared as normal but I hadn't thought about my water bottle. I hurried off to the YMCA and got in the van with the kids, ready to take off. Once we got there and got ready to leave, I realized that the only water bottle that I had with me was one that had sat open in the hot van all weekend. It wasn't much, but it was all I had so I grabbed it. There was no water where we began the hike, but there was a water pump, according to the map, several miles in. All I could really think about as we progressed on our hike was getting to that water because the water I had was stagnant, warm, and it tasted funny (and drinking out of the kid's bottles wasn't much of an option in my mind either). It really didn't refresh anything, but like I said, it was all I had. Once we finally got to the water pump, I realized that in order to fill my bottle up with the new, clean, cold water, I had to dump out the old water. Once I saw that cold water, though, it really wasn't any sort of a difficult choice at all.

Human beings can be like the stagnant, bad-tasting water in that water bottle. In fact, the water inside of us can become a whole lot worse than the water in that water bottle. That's certainly the case for the Samaritan woman that was confronted by Jesus at the well. Her life had become stagnant and downright repugnant, but here Jesus is offering her living water that will bubble up from inside of her from a source that will never end or run out. The reality that she is about to find out though, is that if you want that fresh, living water you have to get rid of that old water. Every bit of it has to be dumped out before you can be filled up.

John is telling us the story of the new creation that has broken into the world through the life of Jesus Christ, an event that will culminate with his death, burial, and resurrection. During his ministry, however, pieces of that new life, the new world that God was bringing about begin to break through in almost every action that Jesus takes. This account is no different. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" That's the funny thing about the new creation, we can only enter into it in as much as the old is let go of. As we see in this scene that's not always the easiest of things to do. Throughout this conversation, in fact, the Samaritan woman will try to deflect what Jesus is saying and shut the conversation on no less than three separate occasions.

Jesus asks her to call her husband, to which she replies, I have no husband. Her answer is terse and uninformative, almost to the point of being misleading. Clearly she doesn't want to talk about her personal situation. That only makes sense with a woman who has come to the well in the middle of the day to intentionally avoid human contact. The new creation is necessarily confrontational with the old though. Jesus responds, like he did with Nathanael, giving her information that he simply should not have known, details that perhaps no one else other than her knew. Jesus' response that she has had five husbands, is open to interpretation. The word aner, can mean either" husband", or simply "man." It seems to actually fit the conversation a bit better, if Jesus is saying that she has lived with five men, and even the man she is now living with is not her husband. Either way she would have been an outcast because Jewish, and quite likely Samaritan traditions at the time, didn't permit more than three marriages for any reason. The point that Jesus was probably making, however, was that she was a serial fornicator. He confronted her with her sin and she knew he was right.

In fact, she quickly tries to shut down that line of conversation and changes the subject quickly. Prophets were thought of, at the time, as people with great insight into the nature of others, so she can see that he is a prophet. But she still changes the subject with an age-old technique. She brings up a religious argument in order to divert the conversation away from the uncomfortable. The Jews accepted the entire cannon of what we call the Old Testament and worshiped in the Temple built in Jerusalem. The Samaritans only accepted the first five books of the Old Testament (the Torah) and worshiped in a Temple that they had built on Mt. Gerizim. They had been fighting over those issues for hundreds of years. Perhaps if she can bring up a topic like that, she'll distract the prophet from directing the conversation at her. Jesus, though, doesn't take the bait. Oh, he takes up the subject of worship but not in the way that she expected. He continues to confront her with the new creation as he says that, in short, the Samaritans don't understand what they are worshiping, they don't have the full story. Salvation, the new creation, is coming through the Jews, but the clock is ticking on even the Jewish way of worship, for a time is coming and has now come when people will be able to worship God beyond the limitations of a certain place or Temple. God is spirit, Jesus says, which means that in the new creation, worship is spiritual but also emanates from knowing the complete truth. It is not connected with a certain location or bits of knowledge about God.

In the ancient pagan world, it was believed that a god could only be worshiped in the land in which he was revered. It was thought that his power was limited to that region, with other gods having the power in other regions. 2 Kings 5 tells of a story that happened in this same region of Samaria about 800 years earlier. The mighty warrior Naaman had leprosy and went to see the Jewish prophet Elisha, as nothing else had helped him. When Elisha finally did help, he had an incredible breakthrough, realizing that there was no God in all the world except in Israel. Yet, he still didn't get it all, as he asked Elisha for the earth that two donkeys could carry so that he could worship God properly when he returned to his homeland. Naaman thought that worship was strictly connected to the land on which one stood. So here in the same region, eight hundred years later, we have another instance of someone struggling with and coming to terms with the location of worshiping the one, true God.

In a sense, the Samaritan woman was locked in that old way of thinking. Jesus, however, doesn't spend too much time discussing what of that is true or not true, beyond intimating that the Samaritans certainly don't have all the information they need. His basic point is that something new is here, the new creation, which brings it all back around to her. If she wants part of this new living water, she is going to have to get rid of the old.

The beleaguered Samaritan woman is feisty, though, and will give one more shot at turning the conversation away from an uncomfortable direction. Maybe there are all of these confusing issues regarding worship, location, God's people, and on and on and on. But, she says, it doesn't really matter. She didn't have to worry about those things or try to figure them out because when the Messiah comes, he will explain everything to us. The Samaritans did believe in a Messiah, based on their reading of the Torah, but their vision of the Messiah was more of a teaching figure than the political savior that the Jews envisioned. We've all probably heard conversation enders like the ones that the Samaritan woman has used. First, she tried to give vague answers, then she tried to engage in a religious argument and take Jesus off track. When that didn't work she uses the old tried and true, "well, I guess you have your thoughts and I have mind and we'll never really know who's right until some point down the road when I'm far away from you." In saying that the Messiah will explain everything when he comes, she has basically stated the conversation is over because they were speaking of unknowable things.

She thought the conversation was over. And in fact it would have been, except for one small detail. That mysterious Messiah that she believes will come one day, is standing right in front of her. He says, the one speaking to you—I am he. Despite what some modern commentators claim, Jesus knew that he was the Messiah, but it was risky to proclaim that in the presence of the Jews with all of their political and kingly expectations. The role had to be redefined before they could grasp it properly. In the presence of this woman, though, there was no such danger. In fact, Jesus not only proclaims his Messiaship, but also seems to be claiming more than that as he literally says, "I that speak to you, I am," using the term (I am) that was connected with God's personal name (YHWH) in the Old Testament. The new creation has come, and for yet another person, it is far more than she had bargained for.



Devotional Thought

She didn't know it, but this Samaritan woman was being confronted about her life by God, the very being she desired to worship. Yet, she was quite hesitant to actually have the conversation turn to the truth of her own life. She wanted the worship without too much of the truth. We can do the same thing. When confronts things in your life, whether it's through prayer or through the discerning eye of another Christian, do you try to turn the topic of conversation or focus or do you humbly listen and learn? How can you be like the woman in this passage? What could you gain by truly confronting the areas in your character that need more light shed on them?