John 14:15-24

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

15 "If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. Anyone who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them."

22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"

23 Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.



Dig Deeper

I have a great mother, one who will do whatever she has to in order to help me be the best I can be. That was especially true growing up. I remember one day when I was nine years old and I was supposed to start Peanut League baseball at a field a couple of miles from our house. I was pretty excited, but when I got there I looked around and realized that I didn’t know anyone. On top of that, I was pretty shy growing up and the thought of going into this mass of players and coaches that were spread all over different parts of this massive field was too much. I began to cry and tell my mom that I didn’t want to go. I was sure that she would let me go back to the safe confines of my home and play baseball in the sideyard by myself like I had always done (believe me, it can be done if you have a big enough imagination). My mom urged me to get out of the car, but I was done. There was no way I was going to get out and play. So, she suggested that we both get out and walk up there and check it out. I agreed to that, but I knew I wasn’t going to play. As I got out of the car, glove in hand, my mom yelled that she would be back to pick me up when baseball was over and she drove off on me. I have to say, to be fair, that my mother is getting older and wants to get to heaven and so she denies certain crucial details of this event, but I remember it like it was yesterday. What she did, though, worked. I had no choice but to walk up towards the field. An adult asked me my name and then told me what team I was on, and even walked me over to the team. My coach was warm and friendly and I had a great time playing baseball that day and for the rest of the season. It didn’t feel like it at the time, but my mom knew that the best thing for me in the long run was to be left alone for a little awhile. I had to do it without her.

As Jesus prepares his disciples for his quickly approaching departure. They are clearly disturbed and deeply troubled at the prospect of going it alone and they certainly have no concept of how all of the things that Jesus had told them would happen could happen without him there. How could evil be defeated and the great project of setting the world to rights take place if Jesus was going to leave them? When my mom left me, I felt alone but I wasn’t really. In a far grander way, Jesus promises his followers that not only will they be fine, they will be better off because he is going to send them his own Spirit to guide, comfort, protect, and counsel them. They had to do it without Jesus, but they would never be alone.

A lot of religious people throughout the centuries have claimed to be a Christian and to love Christ with little regard for Jesus actually said concerning that topic. Being Jesus’ disciple doesn’t just mean having warm feelings for him or throwing his name around in conversation. It doesn’t even mean that one is fiercely religious when in private or for a certain amount of time each morning. Jesus reminds his eleven disciples with him in that upper room, and all of his subsequent disciples that to love him means to keep his commands. This isn’t some sort of legalistic adherence to the law such as the Old Covenant demanded. Keeping Jesus’ commands is about the holistic ability to love God and do His will. How can this be done when the entire history of the Old Testament showed that people could not do God’s will? Jesus promises them the thing that so many Christians today still seem to struggle with. If we obey his commands, we will be loved by the Father. There’s no question or doubt to it. They will be able to do God’s will precisely because Jesus is leaving them. He’s pushing them out and letting them do it on their own.

But the key is, they won’t really be on their own. Jesus is going to send them an advocate, the Spirit of Truth. Jesus isn’t leaving them at all. In Jesus’ day, being left as an orphan was a term that could apply to a teacher leaving his disciples just as much as it could refer to parents with children. But he’s not going to leave them on their own. He identifies so closely with this advocate that he can tell them that through the Spirit, he will continue to be with them. Just as the Father and the Son are one, so the Son and the Spirit are one. The word that is translated as "advocate" can also mean "helper" or "comforter." He is the helper that gives believers the ability, the strength, the wisdom, and the energy to be God’s kingdom announcers to the world and to be transformed into the image of Christ. He is the comforter that strengthens and provides solace to those believers so that we have the necessary resources to face whatever comes our way. God never promises to make life easy for those who follow him but Jesus here promises that the Spirit will give comfort and strengthen his disciples through whatever circumstances life may bring. Finally, He is the advocate. In Jesus’ day, the advocate was the one who went and explained their client’s case and point of view to the judge. The Spirit serves that roles for us, constantly pleading on our behalf to the Father.

Jesus makes one important thing clear concerning the Spirit. The world does not know him, recognize him, nor does He work for their benefit at all. Only those who have been cleansed through the blood of Christ, died to self, and entered into the life of Christ at that baptism of death will receive the gift of this Counselor (Rom. 6:3-4; Acts 2:38). And therein lies the irony of the whole situation. In order to have the life that Jesus provides, he must die. Yet, he will live and because he is going into death and out the other side, they will also live by sharing in that death and life.

Those who love Jesus and follow his commands by walking according to the guidance of the Spirit rather than our own flesh, will know that Jesus will show himself, meaning his very life, to them. Judas (not Judas Iscariot, which if my name was Judas back then, I’d want to make sure that was made clear as well) asks a great question. Why would Jesus only show himself to those who obey him? Why not show his true power to the whole world? Why just to them and not to the world? Judas’ mistake is that he is still thinking in terms of worldly displays of power. In that frame of thinking, it would only make sense that Jesus display his power and identity to the whole world. Why not humble all those who reject him and force them into submission? That’s not how love works, though. The great Christian theologian and philosopher, C.S. Lewis answered that question a generation ago, stating that "You must have wondered why [God] does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to over-ride a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest . . . degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo."

Jesus’ presence and the presence of the Father will not come in a way that Judas could expect. It is subtle and based on faith. This stands in stark contrast to so many of us who have believed at one time or another how great it would be if we could have lived during Jesus’ time. If we could just see Jesus, or some manifestation of the Father, or some great display of power, then it would be easy to believe. Yet, a quick look at the Gospels tell us a very different story. Many who saw Jesus did not believe. Countless individuals saw him do miraculous works of the Father and refused to follow and obey him. Jesus will be with his disciples but, and this is the surprising part, in a much more subtle but better way. The Spirit will be the fulfillment of the Ezekiel’s declaration, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws," (Ezek. 36:26-27), and Jeremiah’s pronouncement that "I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart" (Jer. 24:7). That new heart came in the form of the Spirit.

It is the Spirit that will enable those who believe to know God and to obey Jesus’ teachings. Those are the ones that the Father will love. It’s easy to read passages like verses 23 and 24 and think that this sounds suspiciously like God’s love is based on our effort but that would be to completely misunderstand his point. God reveals Himself to us because of His grace. The life of Christ is available to us because of God’s grace. We receive the Spirit who enables us to love God and follow the life of Christ because of the Father’s grace. The love that we have for God is because He has allowed us to have it. This doesn’t remove responsibility or free will at all; we still have to respond in faith to God’s grace. But those who do not will not have love for God and will not obey Jesus’ word (his logos). There is simply no room in Jesus’ mind for anyone who claims to love God and belong to God but who has not willingly laid down their life and obey Jesus’ teachings which are summed up in his life. To live the life of Christ is to belong to the One who sent that life. To these, Jesus says, he and the Father will come and dwell or make their home with them. God first made his dwelling among His people in the Tabernacle, then in the Temple, but because of Jesus’ cleansing work on the Cross, God’s people will be the temple of God (1 Cor. 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Pet. 2:5). This points to and anticipates the time when heaven and earth will be one (Eph. 1:10) and men will dwell with God in His full presence (Rev. 21:3).



Devotional Thought

Jesus laid out a pretty simple formula that equated love for him with obedience to his commands, which can be summed up in living his life rather than our own. Here’s a simply question: How much do you love him? How are you doing, if you judge yourself by Jesus’ standard? If you take an honest stock of yourself and find yourself lacking in your obedience to the life of Christ, there is always room to embrace it more fully. The life of Christ is about God’s grace and the opportunity that He has given us rather than guilt about not measuring up. Take advantage of the gift that God has given you. Grab every bit of the life to the full that you can right now.

John 14:8-14

8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."

9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, all who have faith in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.



Dig Deeper

My very first year as a high school teacher was unique because it was not only my first year as a teacher, it was also the first year of the high school. It’s one thing to be a new teacher at a school that has been around for awhile with systems that are firmly in place and other teachers and administrators who know what they’re doing. That’s not exactly the case in a new school. Everything was new, everything had to be developed and put together, and no one had any experience in running or teaching at this particular school. On top of that, I was hired as the basketball coach and athletic administrator, which meant that it was my job to build the program from the ground up. In being given the charge to do so, I was given a certain budget, but then I was told that I had the power to do anything that I needed to do in order to get that mission accomplished. They had given me the power to act in the name of the school and do anything that was in keeping with the mission of the school and the mission that they had given me. Now that meant that I could order uniforms, create game and practice schedules, buy equipment, secure referees, and many many other things. I could use any of the school resources that I needed for my mission without question or limitation. However, if I had, say, ordered a television set for my home from the athletic budget, started to order textbooks for the English department, or gave a bunch of teachers extra vacation days, I would have been in a lot of trouble. I had complete authority given to me to act, but only to act in a way that was consistent with the purpose for which I was hired.

Jesus knew that his time on the earth had come. He knew that he was returning to the Father and that meant that his relationship with his disciples was about to change drastically. No longer would they have him with them in the way that they had grown accustomed to. This wasn’t going to be a bad thing, though. He wanted to assure them of that. In fact, the presence of God would be with them in a whole new way. They weren’t going to be interns any longer. They would be the stewards of the mission that Jesus was entrusting to them. They were going to be given a great amount of authority in that mission, and so would those who would follow in their footsteps. Since that time, many people have read Jesus’ charge to his disciples that they would be taking over the mission and have misunderstood or twisted the meaning of his words. They were being given a mission and they could do whatever they needed to do to accomplish that mission. They could use all of the resources that would be put at their disposal, but only when it comes to accomplishing that mission. Their authority and resources were unlimited in that realm, but they shouldn’t attempt to apply that authority to anything outside of that call.

Jesus has just finished telling his disciples that they can believe that he is not about to abandon them and that he will enable them to be part of the Father’s family forever. They can trust this because the Father and the Son are one in essence, mission, and purpose. They have seen the Father, because they have seen the Son, his perfect representative. Philip seems a bit confused by this and asks that Jesus allow them to have a vision of the Father himself, perhaps looking for the sort of theophany that Isaiah had (Is. 6). Jesus is patient and loving but also a bit incredulous. Philip has seen what Jesus has done. He has been with him for such a long time and still asks that question? How could he not realize that the works that Jesus had performed were the works of the Father and that his words were the Father’s words? Jesus has been clear throughout the Gospel of John, that he has not done or said one thing on his own authority. Everything he does comes from the Father and is the Father’s will. He is the image of God. Thus, whenever he acts, it is the acts of the Father. This is the mission that the Father had given to Jesus and he has fulfilled it perfectly.

They have see all of these things, but the time of watching Jesus do God’s will is coming to an end. Soon he will return to the Father and the mission will become theirs. In fact, Jesus’ words of verse 12 must have been quite stunning: "all who have faith in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these." It must have been shocking to hear that they were going to do greater things than Jesus, but that they were going to do greater things precisely because he was going to the Father must have been thoroughly confusing. How could they, with all of their weaknesses do greater things than Jesus without him there? In saying that they would do greater things than he, Jesus is not referring to anything like miracles, signs, or wonders. Jesus had announced the onset of the new creation that would be available through his death and he could point to it through miracles. With his completed work on the Cross, however, the life of the age to come, the life of Christ would actually be available to all who believed. The disciples would be able to announce Jesus’ victory over evil and death and that all those who would die to themselves could now enter into his life. They would indeed do greater things, but it would be Jesus’ leaving and death that would make those things possible. They wouldn’t just point people to the new creation, but invite them to become a part of it.

It has become increasingly popular in our day to claim that, in giving the mission of the Gospel to his disciples, Jesus had great faith in them. He believes strongly in mankind, says this view, and so we should believe in ourselves. If Jesus believed that humans could be like him and do greater things than him, then we should believe it. This is a great and dangerous re-imagining of what Jesus actually said and did. They will do greater things because he is leaving and returning to the Father and when he does so, he will send the Counselor. It is the Holy Spirit that will enable their ability to carry out the mission to which he is entrusting them. The events of the crucifixion, particularly their coming failures, would serve to remind the disciples that they could not follow Jesus anywhere on their own strength. They tried that and Jesus allowed them to experience the fact that they would fail miserably without the power of the Spirit. They would need the power of the Holy Spirit to truly follow him. This is why, after his resurrection, Jesus sternly charges his disciples with the task of staying put in Jerusalem until the Spirit came upon them (Lk. 24:29; Acts 1:4). They would change the world, but they needed the Spirit to do it. We can follow Jesus, but we must never forget that we need the Spirit to do it. The idea that God has faith in humans is rank humanism that leads us to the dangerous position of thinking that we can accomplish things apart from the power of God and His Spirit, or have some special status or ability on our own. Jesus did not have faith in the disciples; he knew that they were weak and would fail on their own, just as he knows that of us. Jesus had faith in the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that allows us to follow Christ and be transformed into his image.

There is another great misunderstanding that has arisen concerning this passage, particularly in 20th and 21st century American churches. It has to do with Jesus’ statement that his disciples will be able to call on him and he will do whatever they ask in his name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Jesus goes on, in verse 14, to say that they may ask him for anything in his name, and he will do it. This statement has been twisted in recent years into an unbiblical view of faith. This view, often called "the word of faith" movement, teaches that faith is a force to be accessed and that what Jesus was promising was that his followers would receive absolutely anything they wanted if they simply have enough faith. You want to receive a luxury car, a multi-million dollar home, a new promotion, etc. Whatever it is, you just have to ask and you will receive. If you don’t receive it then it is because you didn’t have enough faith.

This is just not the case, however. Jesus was not telling his followers that he was about to go to the Cross and take the full wrath of god onto himself, being crushed for our sake so that we could have access to material wealth and health. That is not at all what Jesus was talking about. To say as much is as legitimate as it would have been for me to take the access, authority and power I was given as an athletic director and charge a new whirlpool spa for my home to the school. The key is that Jesus says he will do whatever they ask "in my name." In biblical language, "name" meant far more than an identifying word. It was used to signify all that came with who that person was. It was virtually synonymous with "life." So, what Jesus is saying here is that whatever his disciples ask in accordance with his life, he will do. What does that mean? It means that Jesus constantly stressed that he did nothing but the express will of God. Those who take up that same vocation, because we have had our sins forgiven and entered into his life, are called to do the same. Jesus has given the authority of his life to those who will enter into it, but he calls us to do God’s will and only ask for things consistent with his life. Jesus is not at all referring to those who would exalt their own materials desires and selfish wants. Jesus died on the Cross so that his disciples could share in his life, be forgiven of sin, and do God’s will, not so that we could have eight cars and a mansion.



Devotional Thought

Are you busy doing the work that the Father gave his children to do? Some of us need to ask ourselves if we spend more time in prayer asking things in Jesus’ name or in our own interests. Some of us, however, perhaps need to spend some time if we have even been asking anything in Jesus’ name. Are you about the Father’s work in the name of his Son at all? It’s never too late to start.

John 14:1-7

Jesus Comforts His Disciples

1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 My Father's house has plenty of room; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going."

Jesus the Way to the Father

5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"

6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."



Dig Deeper

About four years ago my wife and I saved up a little money and got some incredible deals that my wife found online and so we decided to take our two boys to Orlando, Florida. It was the first and only full-scale vacation that we’ve taken as a family and it was a very enjoyable time. While we were there, we spent our first couple of days going to Universal Studios, but it finally came time to go Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Our boys were completely stoked about going to the Magic Kingdom and I wanted to make sure that we got to the park early so that we could get in. I was convinced that it was going to be so crowded that there would barely be room to move around once we got there. As we arrived, I discovered something that surprised me. There was only on way into the Magic Kingdom. You actually have to take a train from the parking lot across a little lake to get to where the theme park is located. We might have tried other ways to get there, but that train was the only way. I thought we could walk quickly to the park and beat the crowds, but I didn’t feel condescended to or judged when my wife told me that I was wrong, we couldn’t walk and would have to ride the shuttle train with everyone else. That was just the way it was. Once we got there, I discovered that I was wrong again. There was plenty of room of in the Magic Kingdom. The place was far larger than I could ever have imagined.

Of course, I’m not trying to compare God’s presence or the age to come with the Magic Kingdom. In fact, one problem with the world today is that many people go about trying to create their own little make-believe kingdoms based on false beliefs and philosophies, their own magic kingdoms, rather than seeking after the only true Kingdom. My point is that just as I discovered that day that there was plenty of room within the Magic Kingdom and that there was only one way through which people could enter into the park, Jesus points out those same truths when it comes to the Kingdom of God. There is only one way, and you best believe, there is plenty of room.

One thing that we must keep firmly in mind to keep the present passage in context is the previous section that leads up to Jesus’ words here. Peter has just boldly declared that he will go anywhere and do anything to follow Jesus, even if it means laying his life down in that pursuit. Nothing will keep him, in Peter’s mind, from following where Jesus is going to go. Peter may have viewed Jesus’ words that they could not follow where he was going as a test. Wasn’t it their entire vocation, after all, to be his disciples, to follow him wherever he went and learn to be like him? If it was a test, then Peter was determined to answer. He would follow, but Jesus’ words must have been disheartening not only to Peter but to the entire group. Not only could Peter not follow, but he would deny Jesus three times. We can only imagine the blow that these words would have struck to Peter and the other disciples. Peter would fail? What could possibly be coming that would cause that? What would that mean to the rest of them. It was one thing for them to hear that the Jews couldn’t follow Jesus where he was going (7:34), that might have even been encouraging. But to hear that they were seemingly in the same boat?

Jesus wants them to face the reality that in the short term, God has other plans for them. They were clearly and deeply distressed about all of this, though, so Jesus comforts them. What Jesus is about to do, he must do alone, but they will follow in time. What is true of the king is true of his people. He will not abandon them. If they trust in God, which Jesus does not at all call into question, then they should trust also in him. Jewish people never doubted that God would protect, comfort, and be with His people, so Jesus comforts them that they can have that same confidence in him. The Father has sent him, his words are the Father’s, Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in him, so if they trust in God’s provision, they can have faith that Jesus’ provision for them will be that of the Father Himself.

In short, Jesus is reassuring them that they will be part of the Father’s family. A major part of what Jesus came to do was to call his followers to a new reality, a new family centered around himself and comprised of those who did the Father’s will (Mk. 3:35). Just because he is leaving and they cannot follow doesn’t mean that all of that has gone away. They will still be part of the family. Jesus is comforting then about their situation on earth when he is no longer with them more than he is trying to encourage them about what will happen to them when they die.

In Jewish families, in fact, it was common that sons, once they were married, would build on a new portion to the Father’s house and his wife and subsequent children would all be part of the larger family. After being betrothed, the husband-to-be would go to the Father’s house and begin to add on a room for his new portion of the family. When he was completed, he would go and get his wife and bring her into the home. The houses could get quite large, with dozens of rooms as the families got bigger and bigger. This is the imagery that Jesus uses here. There is plenty of room in the Father’s house for them. What Jesus has to do is go to prepare their place, to enable them to be able to enter into the Father’s family. His sacrifice on the Cross will enable them to become the children of God and be part of His family. Jesus will leave but not to abandon them, it will be to bring them into the family of God. His words here, then, have much more to do with identity as the people of God rather than specifics about a location. They know that he is returning to the presence of the Father to sit down next to Him as His Son, and they know the way to life and the family of God because he has already told them.

Thomas has missed the point, though. Perhaps Jesus is speaking literally, Thomas thinks, but whether he is or not, Thomas is confused and wants a clear answer. He wants clear directions on the way so that they do not get lost. But Jesus has already told them that he is the resurrection and the life (Jn. 11:25). This wasn’t philosophy, it was reality. Jesus is the true Son of God and the only One that has kept God’s covenant and deserved his place in the resurrection and the age to come. Jesus affirms this with words that are so simple and yet so profound. He is the way and the truth and the life. There is simply no access to the Father except through his life. It is only through Jesus’ life that people can be counted as righteous and enter into the Father’s family. We can never earn our way in, be good enough, or do enough to gain access. Try as humans might, we will never be worthy of being part of God’s family. It is only in dying to self and entering into the life of Christ that we can truly say that we belong to the King and what is true of him is true of us (cf. Rom. 6:3-14).

Above all, this will be a statement that will demand faith on the part of the disciples. Very shortly they will wonder how he can be the way when he is being led to his death. They will wonder how he can be the truth when he will be ingloriously killed at the hands of the Romans rather than being shown to be God’s Son as he claimed to be. They will wonder how he can be the life when his lifeless body is lowered from the Cross. Yes, it will take faith. But soon, the Counselor (as he is about to tell them) will show them and lead them into the kind of faith necessary to see the truth. The way is the way of the Cross and the act of dying to self. The truth is that one can gain access to the Father and do His will by entering into the life of the King. And the the life is his life, the only one that will ever bring us reconciliation with God (2 Cor. 5:16-21). The way, the truth, and the life; truer words were never spoken.

Jesus reminds them that knowing him and knowing the Father are the same thing. If they really know Jesus, then they know the Father. They should be doubly comforted because they might feel like they know Jesus but don’t really know the Father, and they might have trust in the provision of the Father but unsure about Jesus’ ongoing provision for them. If they trust the Father, they can trust Jesus, and if they know and trust Jesus then they can realize that they do know the Father. They will be brought into His eternal family. They have seen Jesus, his works, and his character, and so they have seen the Father. They don’t ever have to doubt that. There is only one way to the Father and they know it because they have spent the last three years watching it and being a part of it.



Devotional Thought

Jesus was going to lay his life down for others so that they could enter into God’s family. That wasn’t arrogance, it was self-sacrificing love. Many in our world today, though, aggressively challenge the belief that Jesus is the only way, truth, and life. Perhaps the reason they challenge verse 6 so much and reject is because we, as Jesus’ people, haven’t embraced doing what he did. We haven’t truly embraced the foot-washing and the laying down of our lives for others that showed the true nature of Jesus. When we do what Jesus did and become what Jesus was for those around us, perhaps they will be able to swallow a little easier the idea that he is the only way.

John 13:31-38

Jesus Predicts Peter's Denial

31 When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

33 "My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

36 Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?"

Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later."

37 Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you."

38 Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!



Dig Deeper

In my home state of Wisconsin, we have a very popular vacation location called the Wisconsin Dells. When I was a kid, the attraction of the Dells had more to do with the beautiful landscape and incredible lakes in the area. Since becoming an adult, thought, it has been built up into a tourist town full of theme parks, cheesy tourist sites, and the largest water park in America. I went there a time or two as a young adult in college and even went once when my wife and I were dating and I found the place to be okay. It was kind of fun but there was nothing particularly special. We didn’t go back for quite a few years until our first son was about five years old. Mind you, I had been to this town many times, but going there with my own child made it a whole new place. Suddenly I was able to see the attractions there through his eyes and enjoy things through his reality. What was just an okay place to go, became one of my favorite places. I had been there so many times and had now discovered that going as a parent made it something different entirely. In fact, I had to go back a few years ago without my children. It was part of a field trip for the school at which I was a teacher and I found the place to be completely boring without my own boys. My own children, I found, opened up what was old into a whole new possibility.

It’s funny how something that you have done over and over again can suddenly take on new meaning and become an entirely new experience. Jesus knows that he is about to leave his disciples and things for them will never be the same. Oh, they will still do many of the things that they have done before and in most respects, the world will still seem like the same old place that they have lived in their entire lives, but something will be different. Beginning in this section, and carrying all the way through Jesus’ incredible prayer to the Father in chapter 17, Jesus is about to prepare the disciples for what lies ahead, showing them how the same world that they have been living in is suddenly going to become a very new experience. It’s going to be the same, yet very different.

There are several spots in Jesus’ life where a specific incident seems to have served as a sign for him or induce him to begin to introduce a new level of teachings to his disciples (cf. Mk. 8:31; Jn. 12:23). Jesus has predicted that Judas would betray him and urged Judas privately to get up and get about his business. As Judas leaves, Jesus knows that the wheels have been set irrevocably in motion. There is no turning back now. With Judas’ departure, though, it almost seems as if Jesus can dispense some final private teaching and instructions to his disciples that he would not in Judas’ presence. We can only speculate at the full extent of the reason, but it seems clear that now that Jesus’ followers are cleansed of the betrayer amongst them, they will be challenged and encouraged in a whole new way. This section that extends all the way to chapter 17 has some of the most intimate and heartfelt, yet also deeply theological material in all of the Gospels. That’s really the way that it should be. Passion and theology should never be separated out from one another, but should always serve to complement and inform one another.

Judas’ departure doesn’t just provide Jesus the opportunity for in-depth teaching, first he points out that his leaving has indeed set things in motion. Things are going headlong now and now is the time when the Son of Man is glorified through his death on the Cross, but even more important in Jesus’ mind is that God is glorified in him and will glorify the Son in himself. Just has Jesus taught all the disciples, even Judas, that his act of servanthood on the Cross as demonstrated through his foot washing was the full extent of his love, so will his sacrifice show the full extent of God’s glory. These are really two ways of saying the same thing. "Glory" is, in essence, the full extent or demonstration of a thing, so if God is love (1 Jn. 4:17), then the full extent of His love on the Cross will be the moment of His complete glory. It is the moment when the complete demonstration of who God is, will be in full view of the world. This all makes perfect sense because the Son of Man, of course, is the figure from Daniel 7 that is surrounded by evil, but then exalted by God and seated in God’s own throne. It will be the Cross and subsequent resurrection and ascension that will show Jesus to be the Son of Man, the glory of God.

What Jesus wants to tell them, in light of his coming glorification, that he will be with them only a little while longer. Where he is going they cannot come. Jesus doesn’t tell them precisely what he means with all this business of leaving and going where they cannot follow but perhaps, as John so often does, he writes these words of Jesus down intending for us to see a double meaning. He will leave them for the Cross and it is not yet their time to follow him there, but after that he will be returning to the presence of the Father, and it’s not the time for them to follow him there either.

Following his departure, though, they will need to become a community, the new family of Jesus built on the foundation of his love. That leaves us with a bit of question. Jesus tells them to Love on another but then says that this is a new command. But Leviticus 19:18 says to "love your neighbor as yourself," and love for others was not only a well established part of Jesus’ teaching (Matt. 5:43; 19:19; 22:39; Mk. 12:31; Lk. 10:27), but was also a highly valued ethic amongst many Jewish groups of Jesus’ day, including the Qumran community. So how can this be new? The answer comes in that Jesus says "as I have loved you." What makes this a new command is not the act of loving others, but the quality, nature and source of that love. Jesus’ self-giving love that finds it’s fullest expression in his laying down of his own life for others will not only demonstrate the type of love that he is calling us to but will also create the very community where that type of love will be possible.

It is this type of love that will not only be the true identifying characteristic of Jesus’ new family but will be the strongest evangelistic component of that very community. This is how others will be able to identify Jesus’ true disciples and distinguish them from other communities of people. It is striking that Jesus says the defining characteristic of his people will not be how much they love God, or how much they serve him, or how much they do in his name, or how much they pray, or how holy they are, but in the servant-like, self-sacrificing love that they have for one another.

That Jesus waited until Judas left to call his disciples to this sort of love for one another is not surprising. This is not the kind of love that can include those outside of the community. Even though Judas had spent three years with Jesus and the other disciples, he had removed himself from that community on the very grounds that he loved himself more than others and valued his own will over God’s. Jesus is talking about loving those within the family, not loving those outside of the family. The kind of love that Jesus is calling them to must emanate from within the community and only then, will it overflow out into the world at large.

Peter, we should notice, almost seems to not have even heard Jesus’ simple, yet incredibly challenge to love as he loves. He immediately returns to Jesus’ thought of only being with them for a little while. He won’t have that kind of talk. Peter boldly declares that he will go wherever Jesus will go because he is his true disciple. He will become like his teacher and do what he does. In fact, says Peter, he will lay down his life for Jesus. Jesus understands the irony of all of this and his reply is in essence, "Oh really, you’re going to lay your life down for me?" Peter had it exactly backwards. It was Jesus who was about to lay his life down for Peter. And all the while he was doing that, Peter would be out denying that he even knew Jesus. Maybe it’s because Peter so readily skipped by Jesus’ call to love one another as he had, that Jesus so firmly calls him to do just that as he restores Peter after denying Jesus three times (Jn. 21:15-17).

Jesus certainly predicted for Peter that he was going to betray his beloved teacher, but Jesus didn’t do it to benefit himself or to try to keep Peter from doing it. Jesus didn’t predict to show that he was really smart or could read the future. Just as he warned them of Israel’s rejection of him and Judas’ betrayal, Jesus predicted Peter’s denials so that it wouldn’t completely destroy his faith or that of the others once it happened. Only later would Peter understand that Jesus knew this was coming and he still loved him. It shows us that Jesus only predicted things for their benefit and what they needed to know to keep them faithful when those things happened.



Devotional Thought

How would you rate if people judged the status of your relationship with God solely based on your love for others? Do you have the genuine type of love for other Christians that demonstrate to the world around you that you are part of Jesus’ family?

John 13:18-30

This will be the last post of this week. We will resume on Monday, February 9th.

Jesus Predicts His Betrayal

18 "I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: 'He who shared my bread has lifted up his heel against me.'

19 "I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. 20 Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me."

21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, "Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me."

22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, "Ask him which one he means."

25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?"

26 Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

So Jesus told him, "What you are about to do, do quickly." 28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Festival, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.



Dig Deeper

"You’re going to fall behind. It’s going to happen," our coach told us before the basketball game began. "This team always starts out well and jumps out to a big lead." We were playing a big game in their gym, a rather hostile environment and things were going to get tough, especially early on. He wasn’t trying to frighten us or induce us into playing poorly, he was actually doing quite the opposite. He had a pretty good feeling based on his knowledge of his own team and the team we were about to face that they would jump out on a wave of emotion and energy and sprint out to an early lead. He was preparing us so that when that happened we didn’t begin to think that we were in real trouble and start to doubt ourselves and our coach. Thus, when things happened precisely as he predicted and the team did come out with a great deal of energy and pressure and tore out to an early lead, he could simply call a timeout and calmly remind us that we knew this was going to happen. We didn’t have anything to worry about. We had survived their best shot and now we had seen what they were going to do. We could collect ourselves, follow our game plan, and reel them back in. That’s exactly what happened and we won the game. What made all of the difference, I am convinced, was that warning ahead of time. He was right, we might well have panicked had he not told us that was going to happen. When it did, we could respond to it and not get freaked out.

Jesus was far more wise than any basketball coach and he really did know what was going to happen, he wasn’t just making an educated guess. To top it off, he cared far more about his disciples and the stakes were much bigger than a simple game of basketball. Jesus knew that times were going to get tough. Evil was swirling about them in a level of force that they could never imagine, nor could they stand up to on their own. Not only was Jesus going to be betrayed, it would come from one of his inner circle. The twelve had no inkling that this was gong to happen and Jesus knew that they needed to be prepared. They needed to know what was coming so that when it did, they wouldn’t panic or see it as a sign of God’s approval.

Those who are washed by Jesus and the full expression of his love, as he has just made clear in the previous passage, would be blessed. They would be the first of those who would remain in him, a concept that Jesus will discuss at length in chapter 15. Yet, Jesus was the Good Shepherd, and a wise shepherd at that. The Good Shepherd not only lays down his life for his sheep, but he also knows how to feed, lead, and prepare his sheep (cf. Jn. 21:15-17). This passage is a perfect demonstration of that. Jesus knows that his time has come and that he is about to suffer, die, and return to the Father. Yet, he does not focus on himself. He thinks constantly about what his disciples will need in his absence. He has taught them the importance of the self-giving love of a servant that he will show to them and that they need to emulate if they are truly going to be like him. He will soon tell them of the Counselor that will allow them to be like him, but before he does that, he gives them one more gift. The gift of being prepared. One of them is going to betray Jesus. Jesus knows that this could shatter the faith of his disciples to see the man that they thought was the Messiah, betrayed, killed, and seemingly defeated by the forces of evil. So Jesus prepares them. One of them will not take part in those blessings because the one who has shared his bread has lifted up his heel against Jesus. Commentators are split over the precise origins of the figure of speech of lifting up one’s heel against another, but it is clear that it referred to some sort of betrayal or aggressive act.

The act of dipping bread and giving it to someone next to you to eat was usually a sign of special friendship, but it instead will serve as a sign of Judas’ betrayal. This was, evidently, such a vague reference that the disciples did not understand who he was referring to. Was this going to be someone on the outside that would betray him? Surely it couldn’t be one of them. The fact was that they didn’t really need to know who it was. The vital information was that it was going to happen. Just as John was careful to point out that Isaiah had predicted that most Jews would reject the true Messiah (Jn. 12:39-41) so that believers would not be damaged in their faith by that rejection but see it as something that actually confirmed Jesus as the Messiah, so Jesus lets his followers know that when he is betrayed, they shouldn’t be rocked in their faith, it will confirm it. When it does happen, it will be one more sign that Jesus was who he showed them all along that he was, the Messiah, the Son of God.

The choice will be clear, however. If someone accepts Jesus, they accept God. If they reject or betray Jesus they reject God. The disciples should not see any betrayal as some sort of sign that God disapproved of or did not protect Jesus. No, if anyone turned against Jesus, it wasn’t because they were serving God, quite the opposite.

As Jesus continues to prepare his disciples for what is to come much sooner than any of them can imagine, they are at a complete loss. We can easily look on this situation with some degree of indignation and wonder how the disciples could not figure out what was going on, but we must remember a few things. One is that Jesus is speaking somewhat cryptically of things that would only become clearer after they happened. Jesus had loved Judas as much as he loved any of the rest and Judas had apparently covered up his duplicity quite well in the eyes of the others. They had no way of suspecting Judas.

The next thing we need to remember is that verse 26 seems to make things as obvious as they could be, but it appears that Jesus’ statement was not a public declaration, but was, most likely, a quiet reply to John alone. To understand this fully, we have to recall that it seems likely that Jesus was on one end of a u-shaped collection of couches around a central table. To the right of Jesus was John, while Judas appears to have been on his left. All the way around on the other end of the u-shaped configuration was Peter. When the men reclined at the table, they would have laid on their stomachs or sides and rested their weight on their left forearm, making it difficult to look behind them over their right shoulder. Thus, when John talks to Jesus, he would have leaned back against him, which, assuming that he was speaking somewhat quietly, means that no one else would have heard his request. But why did the youngest disciple ask Jesus about who would betray him? Because Peter, who was quite possibly the oldest disciple (cf. Matt. 17:26) had motioned to John across the table from his end of the "u" to the other, asking him to inquire of Jesus as to who was the betrayer. Could it possibly be someone in the room? It is likely then that Jesus’ response was heard by John alone and John does not tell us whether he immediately understood that Jesus was speaking of Judas at the moment or whether he only understood that later. It’s quite possible that John took Jesus’ words that the betrayer would be one with whom he would dip and give the bread to as a metaphor of some type and still didn’t put two and two together that he was referring to Judas Iscariot.

John has already told us that Judas was already being prompted by Satan (Jn. 13:2) and he doesn’t say exactly what he means by noting that Satan entered into him, but the point is clear enough. Jesus’ sign of friendship and brotherhood, the passing of the bread, did not sway Judas. If anything, it cemented his resolve. Jesus is under no delusion that he might be able to change Judas’ mind. The die has been cast. Judas will be the one that betrays Jesus, so Jesus tells him to go about his work. There is no point in delaying. Jesus knows that his time has come and that the will of the Father must be done. I wonder how many of us, even knowing the will of the Father, would be so quick to urge someone on to hurry on with their persecution of us. It seems to me that most of us might try to delay the inevitable even if we knew that it was God’s will that we were delaying.

Verses 28-30 seem to affirm the theory that Jesus quietly pointed to Judas so that only John heard him (and we still cannot know whether John even understood things at the time that Judas left). Judas held the spot of honor, the holder of the money bag, in the eyes of the world. He was the one who was always concerned with the poor, and it would have been quite normal during a feast to go out and give a donation to the poor on behalf of the group. Jesus had warned them that it was Judas but not so that they could stop him. He didn’t warn them for his good but for their own. Only after the deed was done would they all fully understand what had happened.

John gives us one final detail of a master storyteller in verse 30. In chapter 3, John tells us that Nicodemus had come to Jesus in chapter 3 in literal and spiritual darkness and was unable to see the light of the world. In a similar brilliant stroke of symbolism, he tells us that Judas has gone out into the night. He has entered the darkness and completely rejected the light.



Devotional Thought

John tells us that Jesus was troubled in Spirit at the prospect of being betrayed by Judas and his impending death, yet he still acted in a way that put the interests of his disciples ahead of his own. What can you learn from that? In what ways does that challenge you? When you are troubled by things, do you tend to become consumed with your own problems and issues or do you stand firm in putting the interests of others first, even in those challenging times?

John 13:12-17

12When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. 13"You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. 15I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.



Dig Deeper

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a true handyman that can fix almost anything. Okay, that’s not really true. If there is a handyman gene somewhere, I missed it. If it’s something that calls for more than a basic screwdriver or hammer, I have little chance of success. The funny thing is, I certainly did not get that lack of ability from my dad. He’s very handy. He can fix things around the house, build things, fix cars, and all of those other things that the man’s man can do. I simply cannot do those things. The main reason is that I just didn’t pay attention when he was fixing things around the house. I didn’t want that information. To me, that stuff was just information, it wasn’t who my dad really was. When I spent time with my dad, I think who he was rubbed off on me more than what he knew. I may not be able to fix a leaky sink, but I followed him closely and learned the things that made him who he is. I learned about having a hard work ethic, being responsible, taking care of other people, serving whenever there is a need, and the importance of being humble. From being close to him and being a witness to those aspects of his character, I didn’t just see that that was who he is, it became part of who I am. What I saw him do and be, I now carry on in my life and hopefully pass those things on to my sons.

The world of first century Judaism had a concept of the teacher and disciple relationship that was much like the relationship described between my dad and I. We tend to view teachers in our day as reserves of information that dispense that knowledge to their students. In Jesus’ day, however, disciples followed their teachers around with the goal of not so much just gleaning information from them but to become like them. They wanted to see what their teachers did, be like they were, and learn to live life and be the kind of person that their teacher was. This concept is behind much of Jesus’ teaching of his disciples, which is nowhere more clear than the powerful scene of his foot washing. Jesus humbled himself and showed the disciples what God’s true character was all about. He also demonstrated for them the full extent of his love that was displayed in that act but that ultimately would be displayed on the cross. As Jesus calls his disciples, in this scene, to do for others what he has done for them, we must realize that he is not just calling them to do what he did or take some information away. Rather he is calling them to be what he was, which will cause them to act as he acted.

To truly understand Jesus in this solemn moment, we need to realize that he is far more concerned with the meaning of his actions than the actions himself. He has taken on the lowest possible task, the job of a servant or slave, but it’s not the act of washing feet that is the most important thing. It is the demonstration of his nature and the light that is shed on what he is about to do on the Cross and why he is doing that. He is the Good Shepherd that will lay down his life for his sheep (Jn. 10:11) because he is by his very nature a servant (Phil. 2:7). Perhaps passages like this one wouldn’t be so challenging if Jesus just left it at that. We could pretty easily accept a savior who came as a servant, performed the ultimate act of laying down his life in our place and the said, "Here, enjoy this wonderful gift. Go live your lives and enjoy the freedom I have provided. Don’t give it a second thought."

Of course we’d like that sort of thing, but Jesus’ actions here remind us that there’s more to it than that. He definitely wants us to have freedom and enjoy the gift of grace that he provided through the Cross, but the only way to do that is to become like him, to do what he did. He wasn’t just passing on some information about himself and his own character to the disciples so that they could stand back and marvel at what a good sport Jesus was. That’s why Jesus asks them if they understand what he has done for them. He’s not trying to tell them that in washing their feet he has performed some great physical act that they will only understand down the road. The great thing that he has done that they need to understand was not the foot washing but the example that that action has set. The word hypodeigma, which is translated here as example, was a common word in the Greco-Roman world that denoted a specific act of setting a pattern for future behavior.

This is what Jesus was up to. He was showing them his true nature in a symbolic fashion so that they could go and do likewise. He modeled a pattern that they could emulate. Although the word he uses (hypodeigma) was a common word, the nature of the pattern that he set would not have been so common at all. In a Greco-Roman world that valued things like power, courage, and wealth, Jesus set down a pattern of humility, self-sacrifice, and self-giving love. These were the things that they should pattern their lives after.

And don’t make the mistake of thinking that this was all just a suggestion or something that Jesus thought would be a nice idea if they followed. If they wanted to be his disciples in that world, then they must strive to be like him. He wasn’t passing along mere information, remember, he was showing them how to live. They called him Teacher and Lord (A word that could simply mean ‘sir’ but also was the term used in the Septuagint, the translation of the Old Testament that Jesus used, for God Himself), and that was a good thing. They weren’t mistaken in following him, in fact everyone who loves God will follow him. In reminding them, though, that he was their Teacher and Lord, he is reminding them of the principle that they adhered to when they answered the call to follow him. Their first reaction might have been to exempt themselves from such demeaning behavior and maybe they could have if he had just told them to serve others, but he went beyond that. He humbled himself to the level of a servant and served them in the most humble way available at that moment. That was a pattern that they could see and remember and not ignore. No servant was greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. They were not to go off and use the Gospel to create their own little kingdoms or accrue power, prestige, and attention for themselves. They were to do what Jesus was demonstrating to them. They were to be like him and lay down their lives for others.

This passage must stand as a stern reminder to those of us who would dare call ourselves his disciples today. There is always a temptation available to us to take the Gospel and use it as a tool of power rather than a call to death to self and service to others. We must beware of and at all costs avoid the siren’s call to shirk back from the demanding call of service, avoiding the things that we think are beneath us and hoping someone else will do them, and grasping onto the things which will bring us attention and praise. There seem to be endless possibilities in the human spirit that we have found to take the Gospel and somehow use it to our own personal advantage. We want to create little spheres of influence and power and conveniently forget that, above all, Christ has set a pattern of laying down our lives for others. Or we can even fall into a trap of being willing to serve as a way of demonstrating what a great servant we are and how humble we are. It is quite possible to become proud of our ‘humility’. The one thing that we must never forget is that when Jesus knelt down to wash their feet, taking him one step closer to his ultimate act of service on the Cross, he wasn’t thinking of himself at all. That’s the key to truly becoming a servant in nature. It’s easy to do acts of service all the while keeping an eye on ourselves. Someone who is a servant in their nature, someone who has followed Christ’s pattern and become like him, has taken their eyes off of themselves altogether and keeps them on the world that we are called to serve and lay down our lives for.

We must understand some things in our world today, though. We live in a world where acts of benevolence are lauded, not the one that Jesus lived in where those sorts of things were virtually unheard of. We must be realistic about the types of service and benevolence that we typically see in the world today, however. What happens in those cases, for the most part, is that people serve because they are desperately looking to find peace and happiness without God in their life. They are looking to fill a void. You see, their service, at its core, is still really about them. That’s not to say that we can’t enjoy serving others, but truly laying our lives down for others does not come from a desire to feel good, nor does it generate from wanting better for others. Truly laying down our lives for others is what we become in response to what Jesus did for us, not something we do to try to fill a void in our lives.

Becoming a true servant by following the pattern of Jesus will bring blessings, Jesus said, but when you’re really focused on dying to self and living his life for others, you probably won’t even notice, and that’s a good thing. It is only then that you will discover the true meaning of Paul’s words from Philippians 1:21: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."



Devotional Thought

Can you really say that your life is characterized by self-giving love? Does your first thought go to how you can help, love, and serve others or does it usually go to how things will impact you? There is not one of us who does not need to grow in the pattern that Jesus laid down for us here. Spend some time praying today that God will help you to mature and grow in this area.

John 13:6-11

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"

7 Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."

8 "No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet."

Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."

9 "Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"

10 Jesus answered, "Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you." 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.



Dig Deeper

Many years before Abraham Lincoln became the sixteenth president of the United States, he worked as a lawyer in the state of Illinois. Throughout his years as a lawyer Lincoln developed a reputation as one of the leading experts in the entire Midwest on railroad law. During that time, a case came up in New York that had national implications but involved a rail company in Illinois. The primary lawyers would be some high powered attorneys from New York but the firm for which they worked felt that it would be good to hire a local lawyer from Illinois who was familiar with the issues there. Abraham Lincoln was that lawyer but the attorneys in New York did not really appreciate having Lincoln work with them. The lead lawyer on the case was Edwin M. Stanton. Stanton was particularly harsh with Lincoln, calling him an uncouth country hick and telling him basically that he should sit down, be quiet, not get in the way, and watch real lawyers work. At the end of the case, the firm sent Lincoln a check for his fees, but Lincoln refused the pay, citing the fact that he did not wish to take money for a job that he did not do. Years later, Lincoln, much to the surprise of many, became President. Shortly into his presidency, Lincoln needed to pick a new Secretary of War. He asked who the best man for the job would be and someone replied that an attorney from New York, Edwin M. Stanton would be the best. One of Lincoln’s old aides who was familiar with the earlier meeting between the two men quickly said that Stanton wouldn’t be an option. Lincoln stopped him, though, and asked again if he would be the best man for the job. When the reply was again, "yes," Lincoln said that he would be hired.

I’ve always admired that story about Lincoln. It shows a great deal of his character, coupled with the fact that when he died four years later, no one in the country admired Lincoln more than Stanton. It’s difficult enough to imagine ourselves treating someone, who has mistreated us, with the ultimate respect and kindness of the type that Lincoln gave Stanton. Imagine, though, if Lincoln would have known before it happened that Stanton was not just going to disrespect but that he was going to betray Lincoln to his death. Imagine that rather than just forgiving a past humiliating hurt and hiring Stanton, if Lincoln would have hired him knowing that he would help John Wilkes Booth cause his death in the future (which, of course, did not happen). Can you imagine doing something like that yourself? Can you imagine anyone doing that? I can. In fact, we don’t have to imagine it because it happened.

John doesn’t give us many details about this supper itself but he does give us a few that the other Gospel writers do not that help us possibly understand some interesting things about this significant evening meal. What John seems to be indicating to us, though, is that Jesus apparently came to Peter last, meaning he had taken the lowest seat at the meal (The host would have sat at one end of the u-shaped table, with the first guest of honor to his left and the other guest of honor to his right. The seats would then have gone all the way around to the other side of the u-shape, with the last seat being the lowest spot). The room sat in stunned and solemn silence as Jesus slowly made his way around the room, washing, scrubbing, and gently drying first one foot, then the other of each and every disciple present. They must have all wondered why he was doing this. They had certainly seen him sharing table fellowship with outcasts and sinners. They had been there when he had steeped far outside of normal social convention and touched lepers and the diseased. He had talked with a Samaritan woman in public. In short, it wasn’t that unusual for Jesus to do extremely unusual things, but at least those things made some sense. Those things were part of his mission as the Messiah they had learned throughout the course of their time with him. Those things showed the world the life and ethic of the new creation. But this? What could possibly be served by Jesus doing something that a slave would do for the men that had dedicated their life to serving and becoming like him? What he could possibly be teaching them?

These things were likely all swirling around in the air, but the room evidently remained in an awkward silence until, as was so often the case, Peter spoke out. Not him, he was reclining at the lowest position at the table. Peter had taken on the position of being the least of all the disciples. Surely Jesus was not going to wash his feet. At first, it seems that this was a genuine display of humility on Peter’s part, yet he did not understand. Jesus does promise him, though, that he would understand later, presumably through the clarity of the Holy Spirit. For now, however, he would remain clouded a bit on what was happening. Yes, Peter’s reluctance to have Jesus wash him like a servant seems like humility but when we really look at it, it was an act of arrogant humility. If that sounds like an oxymoron or a contradiction, it is not. Peter was trying to display his humility and respect for his teacher, but in his haste, he arrogantly was dictating to Jesus what Jesus should and should not be doing. In the process he was missing the very heart of who Jesus was.

Peter was beginning to understand the implications that Jesus had come from God and was the Son of God but he thought that that meant that one such as Jesus should never stoop so low as to serve him. What Peter was missing was the truth that John has already revealed for his readers in verses 3 and 4, "Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up." Jesus wasn’t serving despite his exalted status and nature, he was serving precisely because of it. Jesus had declared loudly that "When they look at me, they see the one who sent me" (Jn. 12:45). This was never more true than here. If you want to see God, take a look at Jesus on his knees, wrapped in a towel, gently washing the feet of others. That’s who God is. But even more than that, Jesus was doing this to teach them about the need for him to lay down his life for them. He would do that to wash them as well, and that would be the ultimate act of his servant’s nature. That would show them who God was. If we want to know who God is, take a look at Jesus on the cross, dying in humanity’s place. That event was the true Passover. That’s what this event was all about it. It was a striking act of symbolism, showing them what the coming events were all about.

The humble nature of a servant that Jesus displays here is truly stunning and challenging, but we haven’t even considered the full picture yet. If you really want to be blown away by all of this, return briefly to verse 2 and remind yourself that Judas, having already decided to betray Jesus, was right there during this whole event. He knew what he was going to do and Jesus knew that he knew. Yet, no one else knew. Let’s be honest, if I knew that someone was going to betray me to my death and I was in a room with eleven other guys, even if I didn’t say anything, I’ll bet you that the other eleven guys would know something was wrong. But they didn’t. Jesus knelt down at Judas’ feet and washed them. It’s almost beyond words. Being a humble servant is one thing, but doing it for him? It leaves me speechless and truly in awe of our king. Who else would do that? Who else could do that?

Back to Peter, though. He doesn’t feel worthy to have Jesus do something for him that they would not even do for Jesus. He can’t imagine Jesus taking on the very nature of a servant. It’s beyond his realm of thinking, yet he has determined to follow this man wherever Jesus might take him. So when Jesus responds by saying that unless Peter allows Jesus to wash him, he has no part with him, Peter, in his typically extreme style, asks for a complete sponge bath. He will take an entire ritual washing if the alternative means having no place with his Lord. This becomes clear if we remember that Jesus is using this act of foot washing to teach them about his very nature, the nature of God, and what he is ultimately going to do for them when he goes to the Cross, the full extent of his love. He is going to wash them through the Cross, that’s what the foot washing is teaching them about. If they don’t take part in that, then they will never be in Christ and they will never have a part in his life. It is the only way.

What of this business of those having a bath needing only their feet washed because the whole body is clean? After walking around dusty roads back then, a guest would need his feet washed but not his entire body. He didn’t need a bath just a foot washing. Jesus’ point is that once he washes them in his death, they won’t need to return to that time and again. I believe that Jesus, through this statement, is referring to the significance of the meal itself of which they are about to partake. This meal would be the model and pattern for communion meal that Jesus wanted his followers to continue. Those who are connected with Christ are washed already but we need that continued daily foot washing to clean those parts of our lives that get dusty as we go through the day. Nowhere is that act more perfectly captured than in the meaning of the very meal of which they are taking part and which we continue to partake in at the Lord’s Supper.



Devotional Thought

When we look at a stunning act of service like this scene, our first thought might be that we could never do that. We could never humbly kneel before and serve someone whom we knew was about to betray us. That’s part of Jesus’ whole point about needing to be washed by him and continuing to have our "feet washed" by him. We can’t be like Jesus on our strength but if we stay in his life and allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit we will do more in him than we could ever imagine. Are you allowing yourself to be led by the Spirit or do you spend more time worrying about the things that you cannot do on your own strength?

John 13:1-5

Jesus Washes His Disciples' Feet

1It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

2The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. 3Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.



Dig Deeper

I grew up always having at least one dog in our house. Before I left for college, in fact, we owned two different dogs. I always liked dogs and I recently got one for my own sons, although I don’t think I like dogs as much now as I did then. It’s one thing when a dog messes up your parents house, you don’t really think about it. But it’s something else when he messes up your house. Somewhere along the line in the last few years, however, my parents switched over from owning dogs to now owning three cats and no dogs. I’m not even going to try to be sensitive here. I don’t like cats. I don’t see the point of owning an animal that won’t even come when you call it. My dad tells a poignant little anecdote, though, that perfectly captures the difference between cats and dogs. He says that a dog looks at the fact that humans feed him, take him outside, clean up after, and care for him, and thinks, "They must be God." A cat, on the other hand, looks at the fact that humans feed her, let her outside and inside, clean up after her, and take care of her, and thinks, "I must be God." That’s really the difference between dogs and cats in my opinion. Dogs see the service that humans lovingly provide for them as evidence that the human is higher than they are. Cats, though, see the service that humans lovingly provide for them as evidence that the human is lower than they are.

In John 1:14, John tells us that the "Word became flesh." Jesus left the glory, splendor and perfect peace of being in heaven, the place where God’s will is done perfectly for frailty of the human condition. He made it clear throughout his ministry that he did not come to be served or revered as God, he came to serve humanity. Everything he did, everything he was about was loving service and humility. The questions that Jesus followers wrestled with during his life are the same ones we must wrestle with. Do Jesus’ acts of service provide evidence that he is who he said he was, the Son of God, sent directly from the Father or do those acts show that he’s quite the opposite, because no Son of God should be humbling himself like he did? God is clearly the master, but the question is, are we cats or dogs? Does Jesus’ humble servanthood show that he is God or stand in contradiction to that fact? As we will see tomorrow, Peter struggled with that very same question.

John begins by telling us that it was just weeks before the Passover Feast. We should be familiar enough by now with John’s penchant for mentioning Jewish festivals that he doesn’t just use them as time markers, but also likes to show how the true and full meaning of that festival finds its complete fulfillment in Jesus. The Passover was the feast that commemorated the time in Israel’s history when God had promised to free Israel from the slavery of Egypt by bringing death to every firstborn in the country. The people of God would escape that death by killing an unblemished lamb and spreading the blood of that lamb on the top and sides of their doorposts in the pattern of a cross. It was the blood of the lamb that would keep the people from the death that would come to everyone else. John has already told us that Jesus is the lamb of God (Jn. 1:29) and now he will show us how that will work out. The full meaning of the Passover will find its truest expression in Jesus.

Jesus knows that his time had come and that it was time for him to leave this world and return to the Father who sent him. Everything that he had done was an expression of his love for his own who were in the world, but now Jesus has gathered them together for a final Passover meal (John doesn’t gives us all the details of the meal but assumes that his readers are familiar with the other Gospels accounts of the details). It is through this time that Jesus wants to demonstrate the full extent of his love. He could tell them, but all the better to demonstrate for him what he is about to do. Jesus wants to demonstrate in a vivid and memorable way, just exactly how his love would be manifested for them. But before John tells us about that, he will remind us that evil is always lurking about Jesus and has even entered into one of his inner circle. Judas had opened himself up to the devil by his refusal to truly believe and has already determined to betray Jesus. Thus we have a stark difference between the full extent of Jesus’ self-giving love and the evil that Judas has embraced.

It is easy to think that Jesus, in this scene, lowers himself despite the fact that he is God, to show humans the necessity of being a servant, yet that would be to miss a major part of the point. John says that Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God. . . so he got up. What Jesus was doing was not in spite of who he was but was a direct result of it. If you want to see God, Jesus said, take a look at Jesus, and to truly see who Jesus is, we must see him on his knees as the feet of men who were about to fail, abandon, and betray him, serving them and showing them his love. This scene shows us in action what Paul tells us in words about Jesus in Philippians 2, mainly that because of his nature as God, Jesus was a servant when he took on the flesh of a man. Being a servant is not something God does, not something that Jesus did, a servant is who he is. That is the full expression of God’s nature, the full extent of His love.

The act of washing their feet must have been stunning to the disciples and, in fact, it seems that the room remained in deafening silence until Peter’s voice shattered the air. It was a common part of the Jewish culture to expect that a disciple would perform a whole host of serving and even menial tasks for their teacher. The one act that was considered even too lowly for a disciple to perform was that of washing feet. It was customary for the feet of everyone at the meal to be washed before the meal but that was left to servants and slaves. Jesus picks out the one task that was too low for even a disciple to perform and lovingly washes the feet of each of his disciples, including Judas.

It speaks of Jesus’ true unconditional love that he knew that Judas was going to betray him to his death and yet none of the others knew. He kneels at the feet of Judas and washes his feet with the same love and humility that he washes all of the others (we’ll discuss this action in more detail in the next pasage). That is genuine, self-giving love. That is the full extent of his love.

When Jesus met Nathanael, he told him that "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that. I tell you the truth, you [all] shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man" (Jn. 1:51) Jesus informed Nathanael that he was Jacob’s ladder in the flesh. He was the place where heaven would open and manifest itself in the earthly realm. As the disciples followed Jesus, he assured them, they would see greater things than an impressive demonstration of knowing what Nathanael was doing when Jesus couldn’t have possibly seen him physically. Surely the disciples were excited beyond belief at those words. What things were they going to see? What kind of great things were in store for them as they followed this man? Who could doubt that the blind being given sight, the lame being healed, the religious power structure of their time being challenged, thousands fed with a few loaves and a couple of fish, and the dead being raised were great things that all showed aspects of God’s nature and the new creation that Jesus was unveiling? What none of them could possibly imagine was that the greatest display that there were going to see was Jesus shedding his outer robe, tying a towel around his waist and washing the feet of a group of unschooled, ordinary men who had dedicated themselves to being his students.

Was this the full extent of his love, though? Was this foot washing the fullest extent of Jesus’ character and love? Is this how he would love his disciples to the very end? Yes and no. In a very real sense, this act of service and revelation of God’s nature was the greatest thing that they would see. In another very real sense, though, this was a moment when Jesus was only teaching them about the greatest thing they would see. In chapter ten, Jesus declared that he was the Good Shepherd, and that the primary attribute of the Good Shepherd was that he would lay down his life for his sheep. What Jesus did with a wash basin and a towel was show them them the very heart, reason, and purpose of the Cross. He showed them that he would serve them by stooping to death not because that’s what God would do for them but because that’s who He is.



Devotional Thought

Do you view humble service as who you are in Christ or do you reduce it to something you do? When we see things like Christian service, humility, evangelism, or any other aspect of the Christian life as merely things we do, they will eventually become tiresome and feel like something we have to do. What we are called to realize, though, is that to live is Christ, and those things are part of who we are. We are part of the new creation and that is who we are not what we do.

John 12:44-49

44Then Jesus cried out, "When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. 46I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

47"As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. 48There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. 49For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say."



Dig Deeper

What if they’re telling the truth? That’s a question that we probably find ourselves asking more often than we might even think. A few years ago I was up late one night, not able to sleep so I flipped on the television set. As I scrolled through the channels I realized that there was not much of anything to watch. I eventually settled on a channel that was airing an info-mericial. The claims they were making were amazing, in fact almost too good to be true. Anyone, even me, could make hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, with just a few hours of work a week. Imagine that. I could become a millionaire in a few short years and only had to work a few hours here and there. As I watched on, I began to think about how ridiculous these claims were. I could buy access to this sure-fire method of becoming rich and I only had to pay $169 (US) in order to get the system. I had almost completely dismissed this half-hour commercial as a ridiculous get-rich-quick scheme that would not work, when a thought flashed through my mind. What if it’s true? What if I could earn that kind of money with virtually no work or effort required? What would that mean for my family? Dare I consider the implications of their claims being true? Now I was left with the choice of simply dismissing the claims or looking into them. Although I did not ever believe that there was any credibility to this system, I decided to do a little research before I summarily dismissed it. It took just a few minutes online to discover that this was indeed a ridiculous scam, but at least I had checked it out.

John has shown us time and again how the religious and political leaders of Jesus’ day rejected him, his words, and his claims time and again. They simply knew that he couldn’t be right. He couldn’t possibly be telling the truth. There was no way that he was one with the Father, perfectly doing His will and work for which Jesus was sent. I can’t help but wonder if they ever stopped, if even for a moment, and allowed themselves to wonder. What if he’s right? What’s if he’s telling the truth? What if he is who he says he is and can do what he says he can do? What would be the implications of that? Sadly, John also makes it clear that they never really considered that to the point of seriously checking out Jesus’ claims. The haunting thought hovers just above this entire passage, and in fact the entire book: What if hearing and rejecting Jesus’ words, his logos, really would mean being judged by those very words?

Some commentators point out that Jesus’ words in this passage are probably some sort of summary statement in John’s mind of Jesus’ teaching. They are likely correct in that view. John has reported in verse 36 that Jesus hid himself from the crowd and so it seems unlikely that he would return to public teaching here. What is probably the case is that John has taken these words from Jesus from an earlier time and used them here as a fitting summary of Jesus’ public teaching. It is a fitting and emphatic end to the first section of John’s Gospel. The rest of the Gospel will switch focus from the seven signs to Jesus’ final week, final instruction to his disciples, his crucifixion and resurrection.

Jesus cries out to those around him that the defining issue concerning Jesus is faith in God. If Jesus was simply running around putting forth his own ideas and teachings, then people would simply be having faith in him or rejecting him. Yet, it is not that simple. Jesus has said time and again that he is sent from the father, is doing the Father’s will, and sharing in the Father’s work. Thus, his words are the Father’s words. He only speaks what the Father has told him to say, so when they reject his words, they are really rejecting the words of the Father. When a man believes in me, says Jesus, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me.

Jesus represents the Jewish idea of identification quite will here, where the one being sent represents the one who sent him. If one accepts Jesus, they accept the Father. Conversely, to reject faith in Jesus is to reject the Father. They are so closely aligned in mission, work, and in every other way, that to see the Son is to see the Father. We can know what the Father is like and what he does, because we know can see the works of the Son.

Before Jesus came, the whole world was in a state of darkness with no hope or possibility of removing ourselves from the darkness in which we live. It is into that darkness that the light has come. Jesus isn’t just a teacher of light or someone that brought light with him. Jesus is the light, and he came into the world as a light so that no one who believes in him should stay in darkness. My youngest son likes to sleep with a very dim nightlight into his room. It makes everything in the room kind of murky, with long, dark shadows all over the room. A dim and shadowy light like that doesn’t distinguish much between the light and dark parts of the room. But when his light switch is turned on, a bright light shines on the whole room. Jesus is the bright light that came into the world and clearly demonstrated the new creation of God so when people shrunk back from that light and crawled into the darkness, there was no question that they desired and wanted the darkness. It doesn’t take much effort to get out of a dim light, but it takes concerted effort to get away from a bright and powerful light.

Jesus was the light of God and he was the word, the logos, the very ordering principle of the universe. When someone hears Jesus’ words, but does not keep them, he does not judge them. Jesus did not come to condemn the world, it stands condemned and dead in sin already (cf. Jn. 3:17-21). Jesus came to offer salvation not judgment, but that very declaration will be the standard by which the world will be judged. His point is that he is not arbitrarily going around condemning those who reject his words as though he is simply angry when people don’t believe him. Jesus speaks the words of the Father; the word of the Father is the absolute standard between light and darkness in the world, so when people reject the words of Jesus, they reject the absolute will and standard of the Father. They have rejected His salvation and stand already condemned and judged by the very word they rejected.

Jesus’ command, which is really the command of the Father, leads to eternal life because the Father’s command is eternal life. The words of God are the life of the age to come because they are the revelation of His will. Those who believe and accept those words have eternal life based on their mere belief in those words.

Jesus has stressed again and again, and John brings it out here one more time, that Jesus has never been about self-exaltation or drawing attention or even converts to himself. He has always said just what the Father has told him to say. His mission, his words, his entire ministry is not human in origin, but heavenly. It all comes from the Father and is directed towards the Father. You simply cannot separate the Father from the Son, so when the Jews rejected the Son, claiming it was because they embraced the Father, they were dead wrong and making the choice to remain in darkness.

Then it all comes back around to the logos. Is it the logos of God or the logos of man? Whose words does Jesus speak and what does it mean if he was who he said he was? What if those were the words of the One he said they were? The one thing that those who rejected Jesus had refused to consider was the fact that he could do what he said he could do. They could see the signs and wonders, yet would not accept that he was the Son of God. The question that they would apparently not consider, but that John clearly wants his readers to ponder is this: What if those very words of Jesus that he has recorded were the words of God? What if those very words will stand as our judge one day? What if?




Devotional Thought

Do you accept the words of Jesus as the very words of God by which we will be judged one day or do you show contempt for them based on your actions? Before you answer that question, think about this question: Do you accept ALL of the words of Jesus as the very words of God by which we will all be judged one day. It is very easy for us today to declare and even believe that we have accepted Jesus’ teachings, but in reality, we marginalize the most challenging parts and appease ourselves by embracing the rest of it. If that sounds like something you do on occasion, think of this: partial obedience is disobedience.

John 12:37-43

The Jews Continue in Their Unbelief

37Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:

"Lord, who has believed our message

and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"

39For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:

40"He has blinded their eyes

and deadened their hearts,

so they can neither see with their eyes,

nor understand with their hearts,

nor turn—and I would heal them." 41Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him.

42Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.



Dig Deeper

I had literally done it a hundred times before, but not today. Today of all days, they wouldn’t let me do it. You know how those kinds of days go sometimes. I was finally done after a long day at work. I was tired, hungry, and hot and I needed to hurry into the bank to stop and get some money. After that I had just enough time to get my son from school, grab a quick bite to for us to eat and make it to a midweek service at church. I had made a regular habit of stopping at the bank to withdraw money in the drive-thru and had never once been asked to show my identification. Today of all days, the woman teller asked for me to send my identification through the automatic dispenser. There was just one problem. You guessed it. Today of all days, I had forgotten my wallet at the high school at which I taught at that time. I had taken out my license to make a photocopy of it (the reason I needed a photocopy escapes me), and I had left my license and my wallet at my desk. That’s why I needed to stop and get some money. I told her that I had forgotten my wallet but that I did happen to have a photocopy of my license with me. She snappily responded that that would not do. I tried to explain to her my dilemma and pointed out that I had been coming to that bank for six years and had never needed to show my identification. She still refused and I had to leave without any money. I was very frustrated that even after I told her who I was, I showed her proof of who I was, and explained the situation, she still refused to believe me. Looking back on it, I suppose she was right to refuse me, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make with this story. The point is she had all of the evidence she needed to verify that I was who I said I was but she simply refused.

Well over a thousand years before Jesus, Moses boldly stepped into the presence of the mighty Pharaoh and directed him to let God’s people go. The children of Israel were not slaves, they were intended to be far more than that and it was time for Pharaoh to release the Israelites. Pharaoh would not bend his will for anyone, however, and quickly refused. Moses warned him time and again that great disasters in the form of signs and plagues would befall Egypt if the Pharaoh did not acquiesce to Moses’ demands. We might understand that Pharaoh refused to give in after the first sign or two, but as the plagues continued to pile up, it becomes more and more difficult to identify with him. Time and again, he steeled himself up and hardened his heart against the possibility that there was any being greater than he, any God greater than the gods of Egypt. He was determined to do his own will rather than any God’s will. After a while, the Exodus text switches and tells us as the plagues continued, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. "Chazaq " is translated "harden" as the action that God takes on Pharaoh’s heart, but it has the meaning of "steeled" (like you would steel someone or prepare them for battle) or "encourage." The point is not that God forced Pharaoh to take a certain action but that God encouraged him to act on the rebellion that he had already committed himself to, so that God’s purposes could be completed. Pharaoh had already made up his mind and his heart and each successive sign, rather than having the purpose of turning his heart, exposed it and drew it out further. Despite everything that Pharaoh saw, he simply refused to believe.

This phenomena cannot be solely ascribed to Pharaoh, though. Just as he refused to believe despite all that he saw, the Exodus generation did the same thing. They saw the plagues, they walked through the Red Sea, yet they constantly wavered in their belief and repeatedly grumbled against the Lord. Just like those Israelites and the Egyptian Pharaoh, there were many who saw Jesus’ miracles and would not believe. John has shown repeatedly the crowds who had already hardened their hearts against the concept that Jesus was the Messiah. They were not looking for the truth wherever it led them, they were looking for a confirmation of their expectations. John tells us, and we can almost feel his exasperation, that Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, but they still would not believe in him.

John quotes liberally from Isaiah, as he says this was all to fulfill the of Isaiah the prophet. The first passage referenced is Isaiah 53:1, which says, "Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?" Isaiah is referring to the Servant of the Lord who is soundly rejected by the people but raised, lifted up, and exalted by God (Isa. 52:13). John says that Jesus was the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah’s words. Just as Isaiah’s message was rejected by the Jews, so was Jesus’, the Servant of the Lord.

John continues to draw from Isaiah, saying that the Jews could not believe because God has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them" (Isa. 6:10). If we read those words through the eyes of Western philosophy and thought, it is easy to suppose that John is using Isaiah’s words to present the case that the Israelites didn’t believe because God had not elected them to believe. Yet, that is not the case. If we look at what John is saying, from his Jewish perspective, it is much more likely that his point has to do with God’s sovereignty but not concerning God electing certain individuals for faith and some for unbelief with no regard for human free will. His point is that we should not take the unbelief of the Jew as a sign that God is not in control of events in history or that their unbelief is a sign that the Jews’ lack of belief might thwart God’s plans. God has turned them over to their own rebellion, or as Paul puts it, he gave them over (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28) to their own sinful and rebellious hearts. Signs and miracles don’t develop belief, they reveal it. Thus, the signs brought the belief out of those who genuinely and humbly sought the truth of God but it cause blindness, deadness and rebellion to those who preferred their own will over that of God’s. When God’s initiative and call meet our humility and search for the truth, the result is faith. When God’s initiative and call meet our arrogance and rebellion against any master other than ourselves, the result is spiritual blindness and a hardening of the heart that can rightly be said to be a result of our own actions as well as God’s. This was not a surprise or a wrench in God’s plan, though, it was something that had been prophesied all along.

Isaiah 6 goes on to say that the Jews would reject God’s way, "Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken" (Isa. 6:11-12). The rejection of God by His people would continue and eventually result in their utter destruction. This was about to happen from Jesus’ perspective and had likely already happened as John is writing his Gospel (the destruction of the Temple took place in 70 AD while John is likely writing one or even two decades after that). The light had shined on the mud of Israel’s rebellious heart had caused it to become hard like mud bricks.

But God’s purposes are not thwarted or even frustrated by rebellious people, quite the opposite. Isaiah had foretold of the effects of God’s Servant on the hearts of His people. This would serve as a sign of confirmation for those who would truly believe rather than serve as an alarming indicator that their rejection of Jesus was somehow legitimate.

The rejection of Jesus by the people of God and his subsequent exaltation by God Himself that Isaiah saw was not a mark against Jesus but a sign of his glory. God promised Jesus that He would glorify His name (Jn. 12:28). This would come through the rejection of the Cross. Some came to a nominal faith in Jesus, says John, but he links that the idea of Jesus’ glory to that as well. John said that Isaiah saw the rejection of Jesus as part of his glory. The word translated "glory" is "doxa" which can also mean "praise." Those who had come to some level of faith were still deeply influenced by the rabid opposition of the majority of Pharisees. They would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue. They loved doxa from men more than doxa from God, John tells us in verse 43. John tells us that Isaiah could easily see a rejection of Jesus as a sign of his glory and then tells us that those who "believed" in Jesus valued the glory of men over the glory of God. They could not, in other words, embrace persecution as something that might come in following Jesus. Perhaps this is understandable for men who did not yet have the strengthening of the Holy Spirit but John likely intended this to be a stern warning for his readers in the latter decades of the first century (when John likely wrote his Gospel), who were under a systematic threat of being expelled from the synagogues themselves. Could they embrace rejection as a natural cause of God’s light on the heart of the rebellious or would they cower in fear and value the glory and acceptance of man over God’s glory? The point is clear, oftentimes God’s glory will cause those who follow Christ to be persecuted by men who reject him.



Devotional Thought

In the opening line of Johnny Cash’s "Folsom Prison Blues," he says "I hear the train a comin’, it’s rollin’ ‘round the bend." If you listen closely, it’s not hard to hear the train of persecution for God’s people rolling down the tracks of Western civilization. Are you prepared if you suddenly find yourself living in a culture that persecutes Christians, expelling them from normal life? Which do you truly value more, man’s acceptance and praise or God’s?