25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, "Woman, here is your son," 27 and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
Dig Deeper
One thing that we will all have to face is the specter of getting older and once again needing to be taken care of. The question of who is responsible for that care has been increasingly questioned in our society, a question that didn’t even come up a few short generations ago. The basic assumption was that one’s family would care for them if they needed such care. When I was about twelve years old, my grandma was badly weakened by cancer, so she came to live with us for almost a year until she passed away. She wanted to die at home (or as close to it as she could get) surrounded by her family and she did that. Other people need more care and are put into care facilities as were both of my mother’s parents before they passed on. The family still took care of them, visited them frequently, and took a massive amount of responsibility for them and the oversight of their care. That’s just not always the case, though. There are many elderly people that are basically dumped off in these types of facilities and never really visited and never cared for. Who is responsible for them? Should their families be forced to care for them? Is it the government’s responsibility? What does it say about a society that even asks those questions?
In Jesus’ day and culture, this sort of question would not have even come up. The general assumption was that the families would take care of the older parents, especially older widows (although some Pharisees did try to get out of that by claiming that the money they would use for that was given to God but still in their care, so they couldn’t give it for the care of their parents). Family was the primary source of comfort, identity, and support in Jewish society. The entire society, in fact, was built around the primacy of the family. That’s what makes Jesus words here all the more confusing at first glance. Why would Jesus ask someone from outside of his family to take care of his widowed mother, especially when he had other brothers and sisters who could this (Jesus had four brothers: James, Joses, Simon, and Judas)? Why would he call on someone outside of the family, unless that was the whole point. He didn’t see family in the same way that everyone else in his society did. Even as his life is coming to a close, Jesus is still teaching his disciples and thinking about what will benefit them in the long run.
Before we consider why Jesus did something that would have been somewhat shocking in his culture, we have to wonder why anyone was at the foot of the cross to here that statement in the first place. His other disciples scattered because they didn’t want to get rounded up by the authorities and share the same fate as their leader, something that was quite common in the first century when someone was being put to death as the leader of a rebellion. The women were different, though. No one worried about women engaging in any such activities so they could pretty much come and go as they pleased without any worries. But John, though, why was John there? Why wasn’t he in fear of being connected with Jesus? After all, when they were in the high priests courtyard, Peter seemed to have some reason to be afraid, but John did not. The most logical answer, and one that coincides with early church traditions was that John was very young. He was certainly under the age of twenty and possibly even looked younger than he was. Apparently no one considered John much of a threat.
In Luke 8:19-21, we are told of a scene in which Mary and her other sons have become disturbed by the things Jesus is teaching and so they come to see him. Jesus’ response is shocking in a society that was built on family solidarity and loyalty (In fact, in the Jewish society, honoring family was part of honoring God. Their entire culture was built around honoring family. A son would usually work with and live with, or near his parents, until they died. The family was the source of your occupation, your security, your comfort, and your identity.) Jesus does not rush out to show respect, as would have been expected. He says that his "mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice." Was this a one-time social gaff on Jesus’ part or was this an intentional aspect of Jesus’ teaching? An examination of Jesus’ teaching throughout the gospels shows us that Jesus deliberately and systematically redefined the concept of family for those who would follow him. This is what lies behind Jesus’ declaration that John should care for his mother.
There are numerous examples in the gospels where Jesus implies that, for those who would follow him, a redefinition of family was necessary. No longer would his followers seek and find their identity and comfort from the things of the world, including their biological families. No, they would define their family as those who would follow Jesus’ teachings, in other words, those who would be his disciples. In Luke 8 (and Mark 3:31-35) Jesus said that his family was defined by those who do the will of God. We see Jesus teaching the same sentiments in a scene recorded in Luke 11:27-28. A woman shouts out a standard Jewish greeting to bless his mother. Rather than simply graciously accepting the intended blessing, Jesus uses it as another opportunity to teach that those who "hear the word of God and obey it" are the ones that will be blessed. Obedience to God, in Jesus’ mind, is what constitutes God’s family, not human birth.
Jesus continued this call for his followers to redefine their concept of family in Luke 9:57-60 as he tells a young man to leave the duties of burying his father to someone else. This challenging statement would only make sense if Jesus was completely redefining the concept of family for those who would follow him. Jesus is not banning his disciples from burying their relatives, but is, in the context of his immediate mission to Jerusalem, telling this man that if he wanted to follow him, he needed to prioritize the needs of the Kingdom of God over those of his normal familial obligations.
Jesus’ call for redefined family is seen further in Luke 14:25-27 when Jesus tells those that would follow him that they must "hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life." Without meeting this standard, says Jesus, no one can be his disciple. This teaching from Jesus is puzzling until we understand that ‘hate’ (miseo in Greek) was a common Hebrew figure of speech for ‘reject’ (particularly when it came to matters of inheritance; For Example: Malachi 1:2-5 where Esau and Jacob are mentioned as representatives of the people who would be accepted or rejected as the people of God). Jesus was telling his would-be followers that they must be willing to redefine what would be the source of their identity, comfort, and security. It would no longer be their biological family, or anything else in their lives. It would be in the new family that Jesus was forming around himself.
Jesus wanted his followers to know that to truly live the life of a disciple, it would be necessary to redefine their family (this does not mean that they would not care for or love their biological families but was a matter of identity and priority). In Mark 10:28-30, Jesus tells his disciples, who have given up everything for him, that they will receive, in return, families and homes a hundred times over, both in the present age and the age to come. Was this an early form of prosperity gospel? Was Jesus telling his followers that after an initial period of giving things up for him, they would then get rich? No, he was redefining family once again. When his followers mentally (and often physically) left their families as their source of identity and means of honoring God, they would receive a new family that would be a hundred times (metaphorically speaking) larger than their biological families.
Jesus then, is sending a clear signal of all of this when he asked John to consider Mary as his mother and care for her. Mary had other sons that could have done this, but Jesus wanted to send a clear message to his followers that the Kingdom of God involved new boundaries and new definitions of what it meant to be in God’s family. This act would continue, throughout Mary’s life, to send a strong message to Christians, as early church tradition tells us that Mary did go with John and eventually died in Ephesus many years later.
Finally, we should consider whether or not the early church actually followed Jesus’ teachings on this. We know from Acts 2:42-47, that the first Christians certainly began to act like a family. An often-missed detail from the first Jewish Christians, though, is that as part of their early practice they sold off land (Acts 4:34, 5:1). It would have been quite disturbing for traditional Jews to see an entire group like the followers of Christ selling off their lands. This would have been deeply concerning to Jews who saw their land as an inheritance from God (Psalm 135:12). Why would the early church have been so eager to sell their land? Certainly they wanted to be able to care for one another and give to those in need, but there is more to it than that. The land was a sign of their family inheritance and their status as the people of God. Selling that land was a strong statement to the rest of the Jewish world that they had rejected that standard of being God’s family and His people, and would, instead, embrace the new family of believers that Jesus created around himself.
This all had to be quite shocking and difficult for Mary. Jesus had told her at that wedding in Cana that his time had not yet come but she never could have imagined that it would come like this. She didn’t understand then that his time hadn’t yet come and still probably didn’t understand how this could possibly be his time. How could him dying like this change everything and create an entirely new concept of family? That’s the question that is still hanging in the air and that probably wasn’t answered for Mary until after Jesus’ resurrection. It was the resurrection that would cause people decidedly unrelated to embrace one another as their own family.
Devotional Thought
Jesus radically changed the view of family that we are to have. He defined family as those who entered into his life and followed the will of God rather than mere biological relations. Have you radically changed your view of family in way that is consistent with Jesus’ view of family? That doesn’t mean that we don’t honor, respect, or care for our biological families, but Jesus called his followers to put a priority of relationship, time, effort, and loyalty to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
John 19:16-24
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
The Crucifixion of Jesus
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews."
22 Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."
23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 "Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it."
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
"They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment."
So this is what the soldiers did.
Dig Deeper
I hate to admit this, but I really like the 1990’s action television show, Walker Texas Ranger. I know it’s a bit cheesy but I like the show nonetheless. One of my favorite episodes is one in which Walker, played by the brilliant actor Chuck Norris, is injured apprehending a criminal. In order to rest and recuperate, his fiancee takes him on what is supposed to be a relaxing white water canoeing trip down a river. What Walker doesn’t know, however, is that the leader of the trip is actually an escaped convict who has killed the real guide and taken his identity to try to escape the manhunt that is on for this criminal. After a while, Walker figures out who this guide leader really is. As he confronts the man and prepares to subdue him as only Walker can do, Walker is struck from behind in the head by a canoe paddle from the bad guy’s up-to-this-moment unknown accomplice. The antagonist rolls the unconscious Walker into the river and he seems to be dead. For the next half hour of the show, the criminal and his accomplice make themselves known, pull out some guns and intend to take the rest of the group to a place where they can finally make their complete escape. Walker’s fiancee is torn because she has always relied on Walker as an almost superhuman individual who would always save her, but now the bad guy tells her that Walker is dead. What does she do now? What hope is there now? All hope seems lost, but those of us who have watched this show many times should know better than that. After we’ve been led to believe that he was dead, we are now shown that he only seemed that way. He had survived, climbed out of the river, and is now on the hunt. We should have seen that coming all along.
Jesus is about to be led to one of the most brutal forms of death ever devised by man. The Romans were good at crucifixion and they used it as a weapon of terror and intimidation. It was a repugnant and reviled institution, one that mannerly people would not even speak of in the presence of others. It was reserved for the vile, slaves, revolutionaries, bandits, the worst of criminals. Jewish historian Josephus said that it was the "most pitiable of deaths." Yet, John has spent his entire Gospel showing us that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the true word and representation of the Father. He was the one, John has shown, through whom the Father was acting to restore his fallen creation and deal with the problem of sin. So, how can he be all of that and do all of that if he is about to be put to a very cruel death? In one sense, we can certainly say that if we’ve read the rest of the Bible that we should know better, but John has given us more than just that. He has given us very subtle clues that should tip us off that this is a story of someone that everyone thought was dead at the hands of those who intended evil, but whose seeming death will actually be the very means of the salvation of God’s people. We’ll get to all that in a moment, but first let’s look at the picture that John has painted for us.
Pilate has given into fear and self-preservation and hands Jesus over to the will of the Jews. He will be taken off for the vicious verberatio beating which could leave bones and organs exposed, sometimes even killing the criminal before he could be taken to crucifixion. After being stripped, tied to a post and beaten within an inch of his life, Jesus was given his own crossbeam of the cross to carry to a place outside of the city where crucifixions took place. The other Gospels tell us that Simon of Cyrene was needed to help a badly weakened Jesus finish the journey to Golgotha, but John , stressing the isolation of Jesus, doesn’t add that detail, likely assuming that his readers are already well aware of it. Jesus is now nailed to the cross and hoisted up to suffer the excruciating pain of a punishment that was so brutal that Roman citizens, regardless of their crime, could not be punished to crucifixion unless Caesar himself gave specific permission.
In describing the horrors of crucifixion, biblical commentator, Anreas Kostenberger says, "For hours (if not days), the victim would hang in the heat of the sun, stripped naked and struggling to breathe. In order to avoid asphyxiation, he had to push himself up with his legs and pull with his arms, triggering muscle spasms that caused almost unimaginable pain. The end would come through heart failure, brain damage caused by reduced oxygen supply, suffocation, or shock. Atrocious physical agony, length of torment, and public shame combined to make crucifixion a most horrible form of death."
Having given into the demands and threats of the Jews, Pilate knows that he no longer need fear anyone going to Tiberius Caesar with anything that he would have to fear. With that threat removed, Pilate returns to his defiance and desire to take every opportunity to snub the Jews. He puts a sign on top of Jesus’ cross that confirms that Jesus has been officially crucified for the treason of claiming to be king, but it also show that Pilate gains a small measure of petty revenge. He has given into their demands, but he will bite back with a sign that basically says this is the only king you’ll every be worthy of. Look at him, this is your king, and this is what Rome will do to any of you that thinks he is worthy of being king. There is a third purpose in the sign, though. It is the ironic symbolism that John no doubt sees in it. The irony in all of this is that the sign is true. He is the king of the Jews, in fact he is the true king of the whole of creation. The Jews protested this insult from Pilate, but Pilate is not in the mood to listen to any of their petty complaints. They can hardly run back to Caesar and cry that Pilate was mean to them so the the sign will stand, written in the three major languages of this area of the world, declaring the true logos to all who could see it. The very act of his death on the Cross is how he would come into his glory and fulfill his own words, " lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself" (Jn. 12:32).
As the crucifixion wears on, four of the soldiers take Jesus’ clothes and divide them among him. His under garment, a seamless robe, was nice though (although not a luxury item that demonstrated massive wealth as some prosperity gospel preachers have falsely claimed). There was no point in tearing it so they would cast lots to see who wins this gruesome lottery.
John believed that this all happened as a fulfillment of the Scriptures, Psalm 22 in particular. Psalm 22, a passage which Jesus would refer to himself as he died on the cross (Matt. 27:46; Mk. 15:34). Psalm 22 is the song of God’s suffering servant. The one who was reviled, encircled by his enemies, and then done the indignity of watching his tormentors gamble for his clothes. Yet, the servant appeal to God for delivery, something that seems hinted at in the end of the Psalm: "They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!" (Ps. 22:31).
Certainly in referring to this passage, John has left us a very subtle hint of what might be to come, but there is an even clearer, though still quite subtle hint here. John specifically tells us of the robe that was stripped from him but not torn to pieces. What biblical story does that seem to echo? If you thought of Joseph and his robe (Gen. 37:3, 23, 31-33) then you’re right. In that account, Joseph was encircled by his brothers who had become his enemies, stripped of his robe and was dead, at least in the mind of his father. For all intents and purposes in the minds of those who know him, Joseph has suffered the indignity of death. Evil has overtaken him and he is gone. Yet, as we read on in Genesis, we know that is not the end of the one who had his robe stripped from him. He was off preparing a place for his family as the people of God. They didn’t know this, of course. They thought he was dead.
This was perhaps particularly problematic for his father who was no doubt haunted by memories of a dream that he believed God had given to Joseph in which his entire family would bow down to him. How could this happen now if he was dead? Later, however, when Joseph’s family was suffering from drought, they sought relief, only to discover that Joseph is not dead he is alive. In the very act that his brothers had taken against, an act that caused everyone to believe he was dead, had actually led to there very salvation. The account culminates in Genesis 50:20, which declares that "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."
In the little details of the robe and the reference to Psalm 22, John has clued us into what God is up to in all of this. The Messiah will be surrounded, he will be mistreated and shamed by his enemies, which will culminate in his death. Or so it seems. In this case, however, he really will die, but that’s that not the end of the story. In that very act that man has intended for evil, God has planted the seeds of the saving of many lives.
Devotional Thought
John gives us the detail that Jesus was hung on the cross between two insurrectionists. A popular song written from the perspective of one of those men asks the question, "who is this man, this man beside me." How would you answer that question to someone who has lived their entire lives in rebellion against God? How could you explain to them that the man that died on that cross is really the king of the whole world?
The Crucifixion of Jesus
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews."
22 Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."
23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 "Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it."
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
"They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment."
So this is what the soldiers did.
Dig Deeper
I hate to admit this, but I really like the 1990’s action television show, Walker Texas Ranger. I know it’s a bit cheesy but I like the show nonetheless. One of my favorite episodes is one in which Walker, played by the brilliant actor Chuck Norris, is injured apprehending a criminal. In order to rest and recuperate, his fiancee takes him on what is supposed to be a relaxing white water canoeing trip down a river. What Walker doesn’t know, however, is that the leader of the trip is actually an escaped convict who has killed the real guide and taken his identity to try to escape the manhunt that is on for this criminal. After a while, Walker figures out who this guide leader really is. As he confronts the man and prepares to subdue him as only Walker can do, Walker is struck from behind in the head by a canoe paddle from the bad guy’s up-to-this-moment unknown accomplice. The antagonist rolls the unconscious Walker into the river and he seems to be dead. For the next half hour of the show, the criminal and his accomplice make themselves known, pull out some guns and intend to take the rest of the group to a place where they can finally make their complete escape. Walker’s fiancee is torn because she has always relied on Walker as an almost superhuman individual who would always save her, but now the bad guy tells her that Walker is dead. What does she do now? What hope is there now? All hope seems lost, but those of us who have watched this show many times should know better than that. After we’ve been led to believe that he was dead, we are now shown that he only seemed that way. He had survived, climbed out of the river, and is now on the hunt. We should have seen that coming all along.
Jesus is about to be led to one of the most brutal forms of death ever devised by man. The Romans were good at crucifixion and they used it as a weapon of terror and intimidation. It was a repugnant and reviled institution, one that mannerly people would not even speak of in the presence of others. It was reserved for the vile, slaves, revolutionaries, bandits, the worst of criminals. Jewish historian Josephus said that it was the "most pitiable of deaths." Yet, John has spent his entire Gospel showing us that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the true word and representation of the Father. He was the one, John has shown, through whom the Father was acting to restore his fallen creation and deal with the problem of sin. So, how can he be all of that and do all of that if he is about to be put to a very cruel death? In one sense, we can certainly say that if we’ve read the rest of the Bible that we should know better, but John has given us more than just that. He has given us very subtle clues that should tip us off that this is a story of someone that everyone thought was dead at the hands of those who intended evil, but whose seeming death will actually be the very means of the salvation of God’s people. We’ll get to all that in a moment, but first let’s look at the picture that John has painted for us.
Pilate has given into fear and self-preservation and hands Jesus over to the will of the Jews. He will be taken off for the vicious verberatio beating which could leave bones and organs exposed, sometimes even killing the criminal before he could be taken to crucifixion. After being stripped, tied to a post and beaten within an inch of his life, Jesus was given his own crossbeam of the cross to carry to a place outside of the city where crucifixions took place. The other Gospels tell us that Simon of Cyrene was needed to help a badly weakened Jesus finish the journey to Golgotha, but John , stressing the isolation of Jesus, doesn’t add that detail, likely assuming that his readers are already well aware of it. Jesus is now nailed to the cross and hoisted up to suffer the excruciating pain of a punishment that was so brutal that Roman citizens, regardless of their crime, could not be punished to crucifixion unless Caesar himself gave specific permission.
In describing the horrors of crucifixion, biblical commentator, Anreas Kostenberger says, "For hours (if not days), the victim would hang in the heat of the sun, stripped naked and struggling to breathe. In order to avoid asphyxiation, he had to push himself up with his legs and pull with his arms, triggering muscle spasms that caused almost unimaginable pain. The end would come through heart failure, brain damage caused by reduced oxygen supply, suffocation, or shock. Atrocious physical agony, length of torment, and public shame combined to make crucifixion a most horrible form of death."
Having given into the demands and threats of the Jews, Pilate knows that he no longer need fear anyone going to Tiberius Caesar with anything that he would have to fear. With that threat removed, Pilate returns to his defiance and desire to take every opportunity to snub the Jews. He puts a sign on top of Jesus’ cross that confirms that Jesus has been officially crucified for the treason of claiming to be king, but it also show that Pilate gains a small measure of petty revenge. He has given into their demands, but he will bite back with a sign that basically says this is the only king you’ll every be worthy of. Look at him, this is your king, and this is what Rome will do to any of you that thinks he is worthy of being king. There is a third purpose in the sign, though. It is the ironic symbolism that John no doubt sees in it. The irony in all of this is that the sign is true. He is the king of the Jews, in fact he is the true king of the whole of creation. The Jews protested this insult from Pilate, but Pilate is not in the mood to listen to any of their petty complaints. They can hardly run back to Caesar and cry that Pilate was mean to them so the the sign will stand, written in the three major languages of this area of the world, declaring the true logos to all who could see it. The very act of his death on the Cross is how he would come into his glory and fulfill his own words, " lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself" (Jn. 12:32).
As the crucifixion wears on, four of the soldiers take Jesus’ clothes and divide them among him. His under garment, a seamless robe, was nice though (although not a luxury item that demonstrated massive wealth as some prosperity gospel preachers have falsely claimed). There was no point in tearing it so they would cast lots to see who wins this gruesome lottery.
John believed that this all happened as a fulfillment of the Scriptures, Psalm 22 in particular. Psalm 22, a passage which Jesus would refer to himself as he died on the cross (Matt. 27:46; Mk. 15:34). Psalm 22 is the song of God’s suffering servant. The one who was reviled, encircled by his enemies, and then done the indignity of watching his tormentors gamble for his clothes. Yet, the servant appeal to God for delivery, something that seems hinted at in the end of the Psalm: "They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!" (Ps. 22:31).
Certainly in referring to this passage, John has left us a very subtle hint of what might be to come, but there is an even clearer, though still quite subtle hint here. John specifically tells us of the robe that was stripped from him but not torn to pieces. What biblical story does that seem to echo? If you thought of Joseph and his robe (Gen. 37:3, 23, 31-33) then you’re right. In that account, Joseph was encircled by his brothers who had become his enemies, stripped of his robe and was dead, at least in the mind of his father. For all intents and purposes in the minds of those who know him, Joseph has suffered the indignity of death. Evil has overtaken him and he is gone. Yet, as we read on in Genesis, we know that is not the end of the one who had his robe stripped from him. He was off preparing a place for his family as the people of God. They didn’t know this, of course. They thought he was dead.
This was perhaps particularly problematic for his father who was no doubt haunted by memories of a dream that he believed God had given to Joseph in which his entire family would bow down to him. How could this happen now if he was dead? Later, however, when Joseph’s family was suffering from drought, they sought relief, only to discover that Joseph is not dead he is alive. In the very act that his brothers had taken against, an act that caused everyone to believe he was dead, had actually led to there very salvation. The account culminates in Genesis 50:20, which declares that "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."
In the little details of the robe and the reference to Psalm 22, John has clued us into what God is up to in all of this. The Messiah will be surrounded, he will be mistreated and shamed by his enemies, which will culminate in his death. Or so it seems. In this case, however, he really will die, but that’s that not the end of the story. In that very act that man has intended for evil, God has planted the seeds of the saving of many lives.
Devotional Thought
John gives us the detail that Jesus was hung on the cross between two insurrectionists. A popular song written from the perspective of one of those men asks the question, "who is this man, this man beside me." How would you answer that question to someone who has lived their entire lives in rebellion against God? How could you explain to them that the man that died on that cross is really the king of the whole world?
Monday, March 09, 2009
John 19:7-15
7 The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God."
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 "Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said. "Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?"
11 Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin."
12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar."
13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.
"Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews.
15 But they shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!"
"Shall I crucify your king?" Pilate asked.
"We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered.
Dig Deeper
I was recently watching a police show on television in which a police officer had arrested a suspect and brought him in for questioning. Normally, you would expect the police officer to be in control of a situation like that and the suspect to be the nervous one, but this was not the case. The suspect was smart, calm, and completely in control. He seemed, in fact, to be one step ahead of the police, even knowing personal things about his arresting officer. As the questioning progressed, rather than him breaking down, getting scared, and giving up any information that he didn’t want to, it became apparent that he was more in control of the situation than the situation would seem to dictate. As the scene moved on, however, and the suspect remained cool, calm, collected, and in control, the police officer got more and more agitated. It eventually got to the point that as he tried repeatedly to shake the suspect and couldn’t do it, the officer was the one that became unnerved. Each conversation began a new clash between these two men, and with each scene, the man who should have been shaking was a rock and the man who should have been in control was obviously less and less so with each passing word.
As the questioning and conversation between Pilate and Jesus continues, we get the sense that this is more and more the case. Jesus is the one that should be scared, scattered, unnerved, and breaking down. Yet, he handles the scene with a calm, collective control that seems to unnerve Pilate. Pilate, on the other hand, has all the power, yet he can feel it slipping away between the political pressure, thinly veiled threats of his opponents, and the stately dignity of this man who should be begging for his life. The contrast between the two men clearly raises a question. Who really has the power here, just who exactly is in control?
The Jews officially want Jesus put to death for sedition against Caesar, because they know that this is a charge that will resonate in Rome and put Pilate in a position where he has to declare sentence against Jesus. Yet, in verse 7, they tip off the real reason that they want him dead. It was for blasphemy. Jesus had claimed, in no uncertain terms, that he was the Son of God, and according to their law, blasphemers like that needed to be put to death.
This son of God thing is a claim that deeply disturbs Pilate. Something about Jesus has already bothered him, including the dream that his wife had concerning this man (Matt. 27:19), but this nearly sends him over the edge. Romans were quite comfortable with the thought of their gods having union with a human woman and creating a son that was half human and half divine. This is a claim that would have disturbed Pilate deeply. He already senses that something is different about this man. Could this be it? He certainly doesn’t want to put himself in the position of angering any gods.
This mixture of fear and superstition drive Pilate back into to question Jesus, as we can imagine in a fearful and fevered pitch at this point. Where does he come from? Pilate wants to know if there is something to Son of God thing. Jesus’ response is puzzling at first, seeing as how he has been quite open with Pilate up to this point. Why does he not respond? Likely for the same reason that he wouldn’t answer the Jews directly as to whether or not he was the Messiah (Jn. 10:24). He simply couldn’t give a straight answer to that question based on their current understanding of the Messiah. In a similar way, Pilate was not in any position to understand if Jesus had answered him plainly. There was no way to answer that question under these circumstances and with the understanding that Pilate had.
This clearly annoyed Pilate, but we don’t get the sense of his power rising up within him, it seems more like desperation. Pilate is becoming increasingly unnerved by the control that Jesus has in this situation. We can imagine the voice in Pilate’s head screaming, "Who is this man? Why isn’t he afraid. Doesn’t he know I’m in charge here, not him?" Doesn’t he realize, Pilate asks Jesus directly, that He has the power to free or crucify him. Pilate has to pass off the responsibility of this case to others, but he ultimately knows that it rests with him. Jesus needs to just stop being in in so much control. He’s not playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played and it’s clearly getting to Pilate.
Once again, Jesus doesn’t play by the rules. He doesn’t humbly acknowledge Pilate’s power and ask for forgiveness for his unwarranted boldness in not answering this powerful man. He does acknowledge Pilate’s position of authority, but only in so much as it has been given him from God. Jesus strikes the same balance between God’s authority and governmental authority that Paul does in Romans 13:1-7. This should remind us to constantly seek to do God’s will but also to recognize that regardless of how evil or inept we might think a government is, it still has the authority to organize and rule that God has allowed it to have. Pilate has authority, but only that given him by God. He bears responsibility for that, but not as much Caiaphas, who has handed him over to Pilate. Pilate has been thrust into this position because of the authority given to him. Caiaphas ran headlong into that position by his own conscious decision.
We can only speculate what it was in Jesus’ response in verse 11 that made Pilate determined to free Jesus and John doesn’t tell us what measures he took in trying to free him, but evidently those efforts pushed the Jewish leaders into a corner and they come out swinging. They have been pushed to desperate measures and so they pull out their trump card. If Pilate frees this man, then they will take their case all the way to Caesar. The concept of being a friend to Caesar was a big thing in the ancient world. To not be a friend of Caesar was to be liable to any sort of reprisal that Caesar wished. With the execution of Senjus, Pilate’s mentor in 31 AD, Pilate was already on shaky ground in Rome, no doubt. He might have been afraid of the idea of Jesus being a Son of God, but he was more afraid of Caesar. The Jews had made their position clear and it was a powerful one. If he went against them and freed this blasphemer, they would go straight to Caesar and report that Pilate had freed a rebel leader who was claiming to be a king. That would surely put someone who was already in a tenuous position in a place that he did not want to be. Pilate did not choose to have this situation thrust in front of him, but he faced the same position that Jesus’ life puts all of humanity in. Would he choose the Messiah, the king that had come from the Creator or the ruler of the physical world? Jesus or Caesar? Would it be Jesus’ life or his own? If he chose to believe Jesus, he would lose everything, a position that Pilate was not prepared to make. Pilate’s personal feelings and fears may have led him to desire to free Jesus, but in the end, his love of his own life overcame his personal feelings and hesitations.
The final play of the Jews worked. Pilate is done with this whole situation. He has made up his mind. He brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat, a raised seat in the governor’s palace that overlooked spectators that would be outside in the courtyard, and gave Jesus over to the Jews wishes although it was the Romans who would carry out the execution. Here is your king, he says, in what we can only take in a mocking tone, as if to say, "this pathetic and bloodied individual is the closest thing to a king that you people will ever have. John is careful to connect this whole scene once again with the meaning and significance of Passover.
Pilate’s move of derision and disgust can only be seen by John as another one of his ironic statements. In declaring Jesus to the be the king of the Jews, he has spoken truly and prophetically. Is this really the king of the Jews? This statement ironically puts the Jews in a place that exposes the level of their opposition to Jesus and ultimately the God that they claim to serve. The Jewish Old Testament held that only God (Judg. 8:23; 1 Sam. 8:7) or his anointed representative was the king of Israel. The Shemoneh Esre (eighteen benedictions), a prayer recited by the Jews of Jesus’ day, declared "May you be our King, you alone [oh God]." The Jews, in John’s eyes, have been exposed. They boldly stand before the seat of judgment and deny the Lord’s anointed king. The choice was put to them plainly and they have defiantly answered, "We have no king but Caesar." The question that John turns directly towards us his readers is this, who is the world’s true ruler? The Jews, in his mind, have given their answer. What’s yours?
Devotional Thought
When faced with whom you are really going to follow, with who is really be your king, do you ever feel like you can identify with Pilate who is moved into a dangerous position of compromise, motivated by his own drive for self-preservation. Or can you identify with the chief priests, trying to push your own agenda, all the while unwittingly pushing yourself further away from the true God. Or do you identify with Jesus. Silently and calmly allowing God’s light to shine through your actions, firmly committed to His will regardless of the cost?
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 "Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said. "Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?"
11 Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin."
12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar."
13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.
"Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews.
15 But they shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!"
"Shall I crucify your king?" Pilate asked.
"We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered.
Dig Deeper
I was recently watching a police show on television in which a police officer had arrested a suspect and brought him in for questioning. Normally, you would expect the police officer to be in control of a situation like that and the suspect to be the nervous one, but this was not the case. The suspect was smart, calm, and completely in control. He seemed, in fact, to be one step ahead of the police, even knowing personal things about his arresting officer. As the questioning progressed, rather than him breaking down, getting scared, and giving up any information that he didn’t want to, it became apparent that he was more in control of the situation than the situation would seem to dictate. As the scene moved on, however, and the suspect remained cool, calm, collected, and in control, the police officer got more and more agitated. It eventually got to the point that as he tried repeatedly to shake the suspect and couldn’t do it, the officer was the one that became unnerved. Each conversation began a new clash between these two men, and with each scene, the man who should have been shaking was a rock and the man who should have been in control was obviously less and less so with each passing word.
As the questioning and conversation between Pilate and Jesus continues, we get the sense that this is more and more the case. Jesus is the one that should be scared, scattered, unnerved, and breaking down. Yet, he handles the scene with a calm, collective control that seems to unnerve Pilate. Pilate, on the other hand, has all the power, yet he can feel it slipping away between the political pressure, thinly veiled threats of his opponents, and the stately dignity of this man who should be begging for his life. The contrast between the two men clearly raises a question. Who really has the power here, just who exactly is in control?
The Jews officially want Jesus put to death for sedition against Caesar, because they know that this is a charge that will resonate in Rome and put Pilate in a position where he has to declare sentence against Jesus. Yet, in verse 7, they tip off the real reason that they want him dead. It was for blasphemy. Jesus had claimed, in no uncertain terms, that he was the Son of God, and according to their law, blasphemers like that needed to be put to death.
This son of God thing is a claim that deeply disturbs Pilate. Something about Jesus has already bothered him, including the dream that his wife had concerning this man (Matt. 27:19), but this nearly sends him over the edge. Romans were quite comfortable with the thought of their gods having union with a human woman and creating a son that was half human and half divine. This is a claim that would have disturbed Pilate deeply. He already senses that something is different about this man. Could this be it? He certainly doesn’t want to put himself in the position of angering any gods.
This mixture of fear and superstition drive Pilate back into to question Jesus, as we can imagine in a fearful and fevered pitch at this point. Where does he come from? Pilate wants to know if there is something to Son of God thing. Jesus’ response is puzzling at first, seeing as how he has been quite open with Pilate up to this point. Why does he not respond? Likely for the same reason that he wouldn’t answer the Jews directly as to whether or not he was the Messiah (Jn. 10:24). He simply couldn’t give a straight answer to that question based on their current understanding of the Messiah. In a similar way, Pilate was not in any position to understand if Jesus had answered him plainly. There was no way to answer that question under these circumstances and with the understanding that Pilate had.
This clearly annoyed Pilate, but we don’t get the sense of his power rising up within him, it seems more like desperation. Pilate is becoming increasingly unnerved by the control that Jesus has in this situation. We can imagine the voice in Pilate’s head screaming, "Who is this man? Why isn’t he afraid. Doesn’t he know I’m in charge here, not him?" Doesn’t he realize, Pilate asks Jesus directly, that He has the power to free or crucify him. Pilate has to pass off the responsibility of this case to others, but he ultimately knows that it rests with him. Jesus needs to just stop being in in so much control. He’s not playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played and it’s clearly getting to Pilate.
Once again, Jesus doesn’t play by the rules. He doesn’t humbly acknowledge Pilate’s power and ask for forgiveness for his unwarranted boldness in not answering this powerful man. He does acknowledge Pilate’s position of authority, but only in so much as it has been given him from God. Jesus strikes the same balance between God’s authority and governmental authority that Paul does in Romans 13:1-7. This should remind us to constantly seek to do God’s will but also to recognize that regardless of how evil or inept we might think a government is, it still has the authority to organize and rule that God has allowed it to have. Pilate has authority, but only that given him by God. He bears responsibility for that, but not as much Caiaphas, who has handed him over to Pilate. Pilate has been thrust into this position because of the authority given to him. Caiaphas ran headlong into that position by his own conscious decision.
We can only speculate what it was in Jesus’ response in verse 11 that made Pilate determined to free Jesus and John doesn’t tell us what measures he took in trying to free him, but evidently those efforts pushed the Jewish leaders into a corner and they come out swinging. They have been pushed to desperate measures and so they pull out their trump card. If Pilate frees this man, then they will take their case all the way to Caesar. The concept of being a friend to Caesar was a big thing in the ancient world. To not be a friend of Caesar was to be liable to any sort of reprisal that Caesar wished. With the execution of Senjus, Pilate’s mentor in 31 AD, Pilate was already on shaky ground in Rome, no doubt. He might have been afraid of the idea of Jesus being a Son of God, but he was more afraid of Caesar. The Jews had made their position clear and it was a powerful one. If he went against them and freed this blasphemer, they would go straight to Caesar and report that Pilate had freed a rebel leader who was claiming to be a king. That would surely put someone who was already in a tenuous position in a place that he did not want to be. Pilate did not choose to have this situation thrust in front of him, but he faced the same position that Jesus’ life puts all of humanity in. Would he choose the Messiah, the king that had come from the Creator or the ruler of the physical world? Jesus or Caesar? Would it be Jesus’ life or his own? If he chose to believe Jesus, he would lose everything, a position that Pilate was not prepared to make. Pilate’s personal feelings and fears may have led him to desire to free Jesus, but in the end, his love of his own life overcame his personal feelings and hesitations.
The final play of the Jews worked. Pilate is done with this whole situation. He has made up his mind. He brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat, a raised seat in the governor’s palace that overlooked spectators that would be outside in the courtyard, and gave Jesus over to the Jews wishes although it was the Romans who would carry out the execution. Here is your king, he says, in what we can only take in a mocking tone, as if to say, "this pathetic and bloodied individual is the closest thing to a king that you people will ever have. John is careful to connect this whole scene once again with the meaning and significance of Passover.
Pilate’s move of derision and disgust can only be seen by John as another one of his ironic statements. In declaring Jesus to the be the king of the Jews, he has spoken truly and prophetically. Is this really the king of the Jews? This statement ironically puts the Jews in a place that exposes the level of their opposition to Jesus and ultimately the God that they claim to serve. The Jewish Old Testament held that only God (Judg. 8:23; 1 Sam. 8:7) or his anointed representative was the king of Israel. The Shemoneh Esre (eighteen benedictions), a prayer recited by the Jews of Jesus’ day, declared "May you be our King, you alone [oh God]." The Jews, in John’s eyes, have been exposed. They boldly stand before the seat of judgment and deny the Lord’s anointed king. The choice was put to them plainly and they have defiantly answered, "We have no king but Caesar." The question that John turns directly towards us his readers is this, who is the world’s true ruler? The Jews, in his mind, have given their answer. What’s yours?
Devotional Thought
When faced with whom you are really going to follow, with who is really be your king, do you ever feel like you can identify with Pilate who is moved into a dangerous position of compromise, motivated by his own drive for self-preservation. Or can you identify with the chief priests, trying to push your own agenda, all the while unwittingly pushing yourself further away from the true God. Or do you identify with Jesus. Silently and calmly allowing God’s light to shine through your actions, firmly committed to His will regardless of the cost?
Friday, March 06, 2009
John 19:1-6
Jesus Sentenced to Be Crucified
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they slapped him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him." 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!"
But Pilate answered, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him."
Dig Deeper
As a young teacher, one of the jobs that I took on with a great deal of zeal was that of decorating my classroom. Teaching is certainly the most important part of being a teacher, but don’t underestimate the power of a well organized and decorated classroom. It sets the atmosphere and ambiance of the classroom and it demonstrates to the students what sorts of subjects and concepts will be valued in that classroom. One of favorite topics to teach about in my United States history classes was the time period of the U.S. Civil War. Out of that time, no one stands taller than President Abraham Lincoln. In fact, while I was on my honeymoon, we went to shop at a few antique stores because I was going to start my first year teaching in a matter of days after our honeymoon. I found a large and incredible bust of Lincoln and immediately bought it with designs on making it the centerpiece of my new classroom. From that time on, whenever I would see Lincoln memorabilia, busts, or even that of other important historical figures like George Washington, I would get them for my room. Other people took up that cause as well and would, from time to time, give me Lincoln or Washington busts that they had found. The thing that I like the most about having these busts and pictures, these images, of famous and important people in American history was that when the kids came into the room they could look and see that these are the people that were important in our history. These were the men and women that made our nation what it is. These were the representations and reminders of the people that gave us the country we have.
Throughout history, that same concept has been embraced in most cultures. This was particularly true of the Roman Empire. Throughout the Roman Empire you would find statues of the Emperors and the gods that they worshiped. These were the beings that made Roman life what it was. These were representations of who they were and what they were accomplishing. Believe it or not, Judaism and Christianity have a similar concept. In Genesis 1, we are told that God made man in his image. The Hebrew word used, tselem, means "idol" or "representative". That was the point that Genesis is conveying. I used to set up images of Abraham Lincoln around my classroom to remind students who he was, what he accomplished, and what he was like. God put his own idols in the world to accomplish the same thing. He created man, in his image, and told them to fill the earth. They were to serve the purpose of demonstrating to the entire creation, in their image and the dominion they were to have over the creation.
Yet, as a result of sin, something went terribly wrong. Mankind surrendered something of that image by marring ourselves with sin. No longer could we fully reflect the image of God and no longer could we properly represent him by exercising his dominion over the earth (cf. Gen. 5:3). This is much of the story of the Bible in many respects. Mankind had lost the glory of what he was intended to be, a thought clearly captured by the Psalmist as he declared that "You have made them a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas" (Ps. 8:5-8). Man was God’s image, His idol, but sin had marred that. Jesus, said the early Christians, was the fulfillment of Psalm 8. He was, as the New Testament writers went on to declare, the true image of God (Col. 1:15; 2 Cor. 4:4), and that only by dying to self and entering into the life of Christ (Rom. 6:1-4) could believers be restored to the image of God (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10).
Yet, this true human being, perfect from the disease of sin and without fault before God, stands before the Roman governor as a man charged with a crime that would lead to his death. We see all throughout this scene, however, that something is bothering Pilate. He has rejected the truth of this man but is still evidently haunted by it. Otherwise, he could easily wave his finger, have this man killed, and be done with it. But he didn’t want to do that. Instead, he has him flogged. There were three types of Roman floggings that were used in Jesus’ day: the fustigatio, a beating given for minor offenses, the flagellatio, a more intense beating given for more serious crimes, and the verberatio, the most brutal flogging that was given before crucifixion. It is likely that Pilate first orders the fustigatio, administered here in an attempt to appease the Jews. After the official sentence of crucifixion was passed down, he was probably taken and given the verberatio, a second beating which would have left him as weakened as the other Gospel accounts seem to indicate.
The Roman soldiers were no fans of the Jews amongst whom they lived and they seem to relish the chance to mock this man that they view as less than human (certainly another irony all its own). Their hails and actions mimicked those which were paid in homage to Caesar, as well as apparently copying the type of mocking a fake king that they would have been seen in Roman plays or circuses. They jam a crown of thorns, that could have contained spikes that were several inches, into his skull. They clothed him in a purple robe and mockingly hailed him as the king of the Jews, repeatedly striking him in the face. The thorns and the repeated strikes would have caused much bleeding, swelling, and disfigurement.
Pilate returns to the Jewish leadership, hoping that the beating will be enough to satisfy them. He found nothing in this man to indicate that he was any sort of threat to Rome. All the Jewish leaders needed to do was look at this man mocked, beaten, bloodied, and bruised to see that he was no royalty by any of the world’s standards. He wasn’t the image of a king. He was barely the image of a man anymore. Pilate presents Jesus to the chief priests and says, "here is the man." Truer words were never spoken, but Pilate had no idea of the depth that John likely found in those words. The phrase in the Roman vernacular meant something like "here is this poor creature." How could anyone think that this man was anything more than pathetic? Why not just let him go at this point and let good be well enough.
There is little doubt, though, that John wants us to see so much more behind Pilate’s words. It is another example of Johannine irony. Here is the man, indeed. The only true man. The true human being. He is not what anyone would think of as a king or an important person by the world’s standards, but he was, in reality, the very image of God. The image of the true God wasn’t a statue, or a piece of wood and bronze. People didn’t have to look at something like that to be reminded of who their God was. No, this human man, beaten, bloodied, and bruised was the image of God in the flesh. In John’s recapitulation of the Genesis 1 account, his opening prologue in chapter 1, verse 14 echoes Genesis 1:26-28. The image of God is the word become flesh. This is how man was supposed to be. This is how God will use flesh made in His image to rule wisely over His creation (cf. Ps. 8:4-8).
Here is the man. Despite what anyone standing there that day might have thought, this was the man. The image of God. He was the true embodiment of God’s wisdom, character, and nature. This was how God’s wisdom and His will were breaking into the world. He was the living, breathing, statue of flesh of the Creator of the universe showing people that this is who God is and this is how He is acting to begin the process of setting things in His fallen creation back to the way they were intended to be. And more than that, this the image of God that we all need to become.
But the false Adams will have none of that. Just as Adam rejected God’s will for his own will, so do they. They want nothing to do with God’s will in the flesh. If they do that, they will have to lay down their own lives and take up his. Instead they will cling to their own wills and demand the crucifixion of the Son of God.
Pilate’s response is biting and ironic. Pilate speaks sarcastically because he knows full well that the Jews did not have the authority under Roman rule to enact a death sentence by crucifixion. He finds no basis for a charge against the man. He’d rather just let him go, but if they insist on continuing down this path (and Pilate doesn’t need the trouble of resisting if they are absolutely insistent on it), then they need to be clear that this is on their head. Pilate doesn’t openly reject and call for the death of the man, but he won’t stand up for the truth and seek it either. In the end, there is little difference between his position and theirs. There is always little difference between fighting the truth and compromising it.
Devotional Thought
Have you ever thought about yourself as God’s idol? What does it mean to think of yourself as a living, breathing, statue of sorts, showing the world what God is like. Read 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 and spend some time thinking about that concept today.
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they slapped him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him." 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!"
But Pilate answered, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him."
Dig Deeper
As a young teacher, one of the jobs that I took on with a great deal of zeal was that of decorating my classroom. Teaching is certainly the most important part of being a teacher, but don’t underestimate the power of a well organized and decorated classroom. It sets the atmosphere and ambiance of the classroom and it demonstrates to the students what sorts of subjects and concepts will be valued in that classroom. One of favorite topics to teach about in my United States history classes was the time period of the U.S. Civil War. Out of that time, no one stands taller than President Abraham Lincoln. In fact, while I was on my honeymoon, we went to shop at a few antique stores because I was going to start my first year teaching in a matter of days after our honeymoon. I found a large and incredible bust of Lincoln and immediately bought it with designs on making it the centerpiece of my new classroom. From that time on, whenever I would see Lincoln memorabilia, busts, or even that of other important historical figures like George Washington, I would get them for my room. Other people took up that cause as well and would, from time to time, give me Lincoln or Washington busts that they had found. The thing that I like the most about having these busts and pictures, these images, of famous and important people in American history was that when the kids came into the room they could look and see that these are the people that were important in our history. These were the men and women that made our nation what it is. These were the representations and reminders of the people that gave us the country we have.
Throughout history, that same concept has been embraced in most cultures. This was particularly true of the Roman Empire. Throughout the Roman Empire you would find statues of the Emperors and the gods that they worshiped. These were the beings that made Roman life what it was. These were representations of who they were and what they were accomplishing. Believe it or not, Judaism and Christianity have a similar concept. In Genesis 1, we are told that God made man in his image. The Hebrew word used, tselem, means "idol" or "representative". That was the point that Genesis is conveying. I used to set up images of Abraham Lincoln around my classroom to remind students who he was, what he accomplished, and what he was like. God put his own idols in the world to accomplish the same thing. He created man, in his image, and told them to fill the earth. They were to serve the purpose of demonstrating to the entire creation, in their image and the dominion they were to have over the creation.
Yet, as a result of sin, something went terribly wrong. Mankind surrendered something of that image by marring ourselves with sin. No longer could we fully reflect the image of God and no longer could we properly represent him by exercising his dominion over the earth (cf. Gen. 5:3). This is much of the story of the Bible in many respects. Mankind had lost the glory of what he was intended to be, a thought clearly captured by the Psalmist as he declared that "You have made them a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas" (Ps. 8:5-8). Man was God’s image, His idol, but sin had marred that. Jesus, said the early Christians, was the fulfillment of Psalm 8. He was, as the New Testament writers went on to declare, the true image of God (Col. 1:15; 2 Cor. 4:4), and that only by dying to self and entering into the life of Christ (Rom. 6:1-4) could believers be restored to the image of God (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10).
Yet, this true human being, perfect from the disease of sin and without fault before God, stands before the Roman governor as a man charged with a crime that would lead to his death. We see all throughout this scene, however, that something is bothering Pilate. He has rejected the truth of this man but is still evidently haunted by it. Otherwise, he could easily wave his finger, have this man killed, and be done with it. But he didn’t want to do that. Instead, he has him flogged. There were three types of Roman floggings that were used in Jesus’ day: the fustigatio, a beating given for minor offenses, the flagellatio, a more intense beating given for more serious crimes, and the verberatio, the most brutal flogging that was given before crucifixion. It is likely that Pilate first orders the fustigatio, administered here in an attempt to appease the Jews. After the official sentence of crucifixion was passed down, he was probably taken and given the verberatio, a second beating which would have left him as weakened as the other Gospel accounts seem to indicate.
The Roman soldiers were no fans of the Jews amongst whom they lived and they seem to relish the chance to mock this man that they view as less than human (certainly another irony all its own). Their hails and actions mimicked those which were paid in homage to Caesar, as well as apparently copying the type of mocking a fake king that they would have been seen in Roman plays or circuses. They jam a crown of thorns, that could have contained spikes that were several inches, into his skull. They clothed him in a purple robe and mockingly hailed him as the king of the Jews, repeatedly striking him in the face. The thorns and the repeated strikes would have caused much bleeding, swelling, and disfigurement.
Pilate returns to the Jewish leadership, hoping that the beating will be enough to satisfy them. He found nothing in this man to indicate that he was any sort of threat to Rome. All the Jewish leaders needed to do was look at this man mocked, beaten, bloodied, and bruised to see that he was no royalty by any of the world’s standards. He wasn’t the image of a king. He was barely the image of a man anymore. Pilate presents Jesus to the chief priests and says, "here is the man." Truer words were never spoken, but Pilate had no idea of the depth that John likely found in those words. The phrase in the Roman vernacular meant something like "here is this poor creature." How could anyone think that this man was anything more than pathetic? Why not just let him go at this point and let good be well enough.
There is little doubt, though, that John wants us to see so much more behind Pilate’s words. It is another example of Johannine irony. Here is the man, indeed. The only true man. The true human being. He is not what anyone would think of as a king or an important person by the world’s standards, but he was, in reality, the very image of God. The image of the true God wasn’t a statue, or a piece of wood and bronze. People didn’t have to look at something like that to be reminded of who their God was. No, this human man, beaten, bloodied, and bruised was the image of God in the flesh. In John’s recapitulation of the Genesis 1 account, his opening prologue in chapter 1, verse 14 echoes Genesis 1:26-28. The image of God is the word become flesh. This is how man was supposed to be. This is how God will use flesh made in His image to rule wisely over His creation (cf. Ps. 8:4-8).
Here is the man. Despite what anyone standing there that day might have thought, this was the man. The image of God. He was the true embodiment of God’s wisdom, character, and nature. This was how God’s wisdom and His will were breaking into the world. He was the living, breathing, statue of flesh of the Creator of the universe showing people that this is who God is and this is how He is acting to begin the process of setting things in His fallen creation back to the way they were intended to be. And more than that, this the image of God that we all need to become.
But the false Adams will have none of that. Just as Adam rejected God’s will for his own will, so do they. They want nothing to do with God’s will in the flesh. If they do that, they will have to lay down their own lives and take up his. Instead they will cling to their own wills and demand the crucifixion of the Son of God.
Pilate’s response is biting and ironic. Pilate speaks sarcastically because he knows full well that the Jews did not have the authority under Roman rule to enact a death sentence by crucifixion. He finds no basis for a charge against the man. He’d rather just let him go, but if they insist on continuing down this path (and Pilate doesn’t need the trouble of resisting if they are absolutely insistent on it), then they need to be clear that this is on their head. Pilate doesn’t openly reject and call for the death of the man, but he won’t stand up for the truth and seek it either. In the end, there is little difference between his position and theirs. There is always little difference between fighting the truth and compromising it.
Devotional Thought
Have you ever thought about yourself as God’s idol? What does it mean to think of yourself as a living, breathing, statue of sorts, showing the world what God is like. Read 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 and spend some time thinking about that concept today.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
John 18:28-40
Jesus Before Pilate
28 Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, "What charges are you bringing against this man?"
30 "If he were not a criminal," they replied, "we would not have handed him over to you."
31 Pilate said, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law."
"But we have no right to execute anyone," they objected. 32 This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.
33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"
34 "Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?"
35 "Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"
36 Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place."
37 "You are a king, then!" said Pilate.
Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."
38 "What is truth?" retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him. 39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release 'the king of the Jews'?"
40 They shouted back, "No, not him! Give us Barabbas!" Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.
Dig Deeper
There is a funny dichotomy in human nature that we all probably can readily identify with. We hate to be lied to. There is nothing that angers people more than to be deceived. We want the truth, or so we think. But on the other hand, most of us don’t care to hear the truth when it is directed at us. How many times have you had someone say something difficult and challenging, but true to you, and your first response was to get angry. This is particularly true of myself. I talk about the importance of truth all the time, and it is one of the primary concepts that I teach my sons. You have to tell the truth, embrace the truth, and live for truth. Yet, let my wife tell me something that she sees in my character and my first response is to get irritated. I want to make excuses, pass the buck, and not face the truth. I would rather deny the truth in cases like that or pass the blame or responsibility on to someone else. The truth is, I have found, most difficult for us to accept when it stands in opposition to us. It’s at those times that we suddenly don’t like truth as much as we might like to think.
There are so many things swirling around Jerusalem at this point that one might think the one thing that couldn’t possibly be found was the truth. How could a man like Pilate have a chance of wading through all of the competing forces and political pressures that he was dealing with to find truth? How could he possibly come out of the darkness of the world, his world, to find anything like truth? Truth was something that a man in his position had given up hope of finding or having any kind of belief in a long time ago. Truth simply didn’t have much purchasing power in his world. Yet, here we find Pilate, more than any man in history, at the crossroads between light and darkness. With an incredibly touchy and difficult situation swirling about him, Pilate looks up and finds himself face to face with the truest thing he will ever know. The Word has become flesh (Jn. 1:14) and he is truth (Jn. 17:17).
Pilate is a somewhat enigmatic figure in history. He ruled as governor of Jerusalem for about ten years, and had likely been the governor for about 7 of those years at this point when Jesus is brought to him. He was appointed to the position by his mentor, Sejnus, the commander of the praetorian guard in Rome. He ruled things in Jerusalem with a harsh and iron fist, but it seems that after Sejnus’ execution in 31 AD, Pilate’s position with Rome was much shakier. Rome wanted no problems in Jerusalem which might affect the smooth importation of corn from Egypt. From the point of Sejnus’ death, Pilate had to balance his disdain for the Jews and apparent glee in snubbing their leadership, with a need to not have any more problems in Judea. He simply was on thin ice and knew it.
As the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor, the scene is dripping with irony. The Jews did not have the power under Roman rule to put someone to death. They have no problem, though, with violating their own rules and their own law to have an innocent man put to death, while at the same time scrupulously worrying about becoming unclean for Passover by entering into the dwelling of a pagan. They wanted Pilate to do their dirty work for them and have this man crucified that they cannot even formulate a specific and legitimate charge against, yet they won’t even enter his house. This is exactly the sort of attitude that Jesus charged the Jewish leadership with, they were missing the big parts of God’s will while obsessing over the minor points of the law, something that he unforgettably called straining out a gnat but swallowing a camel (Matt. 23:24).
One thing is obvious in this whole scene. Pilate just doesn’t want to deal with this. He is in the position of power, but this issue has nothing but trouble written all over it. There seems to be no good that comes from this situation but there is plenty of danger. If he angers the Jewish leadership too much, they might cause problems or report him to Rome as not being loyal to Caesar. On the other hand, if he summarily puts someone claiming to be king to death, if that man had a large following, they might revolt. This determines the two things Pilate needs to know then, the one thing that he cares about. Is this man claiming to be king? Was he a threat to start a rebellion? Pilate’s actions and attitude towards this whole situation will largely hinge, at least initially, on the determination of those two questions.
Jesus’ response to Pilate’s inquiries of him being king seem confusing for a second, but they make perfect sense in context. Why is Pilate asking him if he is king? If he is asking for himself, from a Roman perspective? If so, then he wants to know if Jesus is leading a rebellion that Caesar needs to worry about. The answer to that question would be "no". If he is asking at the prompting of the Jewish leaders, then the question is concerning his alleged Messiahship. If it was strictly a religious issue, then that would not be something that Rome would be immediately concerned about. The answer to that question would be "yes". Clearly, though, Pilate doesn’t want to get involved in what he sees as silly Jewish religious internal disputes. Pilate is not instigating this arrest or this trial. The Jews are the ones that have the issue.
With that established, Jesus can answer the question firmly. His kingdom is not of this world. If it were, his servants would have continued to walk down the wrong road that Peter started when he cut off the ear of Malchus. This is not that type of kingdom. Jesus doesn’t mean, however, that his kingdom is not for the world. In fact, his disciples are to pray that the kingdom comes into this world as it is in heaven. His point is that the kingdom of God, the rule or reign of God does not have a worldly origin or character. It does not derive from this world for it is, in its essence, the will of God realized in the world; it is for the world in no uncertain terms.
Pilate finds himself somewhere he never thought he would be. He stands in his world of darkness and the bright shining light of truth is blazing away in his eye. He is challenged to accept or reject the truth that Jesus has revealed in his very life. He is truth, the one thing everyone wants, but that we all tend to avoid when it challenges who we are or what we are doing. We don’t know to what personal level Pilate was challenged by Jesus, but it does seem that he knew there was something to this man. Yet, the truth was simply too costly for him. How could he give up everything that he had worked for and built up to follow this lowly Jew who was standing before him rejected by his own people? It was absurd, but yet. . . there was something to this man. Is he a king? Certainly not the kind that could be considered any sort of serious rival to Caesar. That’s not what Jesus is about. He doesn’t want to be king of the false Adams in the realm of darkness. He came into the world to testify to the truth because he is truth. Everyone, says Jesus, who is on the side of truth listens to him. There it is. What will Pilate do? With the true Adam standing before him on the precipice of the New Creation, what will he do? The truth for Pilate is too costly, it’s too unattainable. He has chosen a life that has left him disillusioned and bitter. What is truth? Nothing that he will ever find, if it even exists at all. The only truth he knew was power and power has little concern for any other kind of truth.
So, Pilate has made up his mind. He has no interest in confronting himself with the difficult truth before him, but on a pragmatic level he knows Jesus is no threat but he cannot just let him go. He comes up with a seemingly brilliant solution. He will take advantage of the custom of releasing one Jewish prisoner during Passover as a sign of goodwill (a practice that is understandably not recorded in history outside of the biblical record). This solution would solve everything for Pilate. He would technically find Jesus guilty but then would let a man that he sees as no real threat to go free.
The plan is perfect except that the Jewish leaders throw a wrench in it. Pilate offers them the choice between Jesus, an innocent man, and Barabbas, a true rebel against Rome. The Jewish leaders want Barabbas. The name "Barabbas" literally means "son of the father." He represents every man. He is a rebel just like all the sons of Adam who stand in rebellion against God. Pilate doesn’t want to stand up, make a choice, and embrace truth. He has passed that decision on to the Jewish leadership. Do they want the false Adam or the real Adam? Do they want the real rebel or the man of peace that will bring reconciliation and the new creation to the world? They firmly declare their choice. They choose the false Adam. They will remain in darkness.
Devotional Thought
What do you do when confronted with truth about yourself? Do you get angry? Do you try to blame others or pass responsibility off from yourself onto others? Or do you seek the truth and embrace it when you find regardless of how difficult and challenging it is? Make a decision that from here on out you will be a person who is sincerely open to the truth in whatever form it might come.
28 Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, "What charges are you bringing against this man?"
30 "If he were not a criminal," they replied, "we would not have handed him over to you."
31 Pilate said, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law."
"But we have no right to execute anyone," they objected. 32 This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.
33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"
34 "Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?"
35 "Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"
36 Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place."
37 "You are a king, then!" said Pilate.
Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."
38 "What is truth?" retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him. 39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release 'the king of the Jews'?"
40 They shouted back, "No, not him! Give us Barabbas!" Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.
Dig Deeper
There is a funny dichotomy in human nature that we all probably can readily identify with. We hate to be lied to. There is nothing that angers people more than to be deceived. We want the truth, or so we think. But on the other hand, most of us don’t care to hear the truth when it is directed at us. How many times have you had someone say something difficult and challenging, but true to you, and your first response was to get angry. This is particularly true of myself. I talk about the importance of truth all the time, and it is one of the primary concepts that I teach my sons. You have to tell the truth, embrace the truth, and live for truth. Yet, let my wife tell me something that she sees in my character and my first response is to get irritated. I want to make excuses, pass the buck, and not face the truth. I would rather deny the truth in cases like that or pass the blame or responsibility on to someone else. The truth is, I have found, most difficult for us to accept when it stands in opposition to us. It’s at those times that we suddenly don’t like truth as much as we might like to think.
There are so many things swirling around Jerusalem at this point that one might think the one thing that couldn’t possibly be found was the truth. How could a man like Pilate have a chance of wading through all of the competing forces and political pressures that he was dealing with to find truth? How could he possibly come out of the darkness of the world, his world, to find anything like truth? Truth was something that a man in his position had given up hope of finding or having any kind of belief in a long time ago. Truth simply didn’t have much purchasing power in his world. Yet, here we find Pilate, more than any man in history, at the crossroads between light and darkness. With an incredibly touchy and difficult situation swirling about him, Pilate looks up and finds himself face to face with the truest thing he will ever know. The Word has become flesh (Jn. 1:14) and he is truth (Jn. 17:17).
Pilate is a somewhat enigmatic figure in history. He ruled as governor of Jerusalem for about ten years, and had likely been the governor for about 7 of those years at this point when Jesus is brought to him. He was appointed to the position by his mentor, Sejnus, the commander of the praetorian guard in Rome. He ruled things in Jerusalem with a harsh and iron fist, but it seems that after Sejnus’ execution in 31 AD, Pilate’s position with Rome was much shakier. Rome wanted no problems in Jerusalem which might affect the smooth importation of corn from Egypt. From the point of Sejnus’ death, Pilate had to balance his disdain for the Jews and apparent glee in snubbing their leadership, with a need to not have any more problems in Judea. He simply was on thin ice and knew it.
As the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor, the scene is dripping with irony. The Jews did not have the power under Roman rule to put someone to death. They have no problem, though, with violating their own rules and their own law to have an innocent man put to death, while at the same time scrupulously worrying about becoming unclean for Passover by entering into the dwelling of a pagan. They wanted Pilate to do their dirty work for them and have this man crucified that they cannot even formulate a specific and legitimate charge against, yet they won’t even enter his house. This is exactly the sort of attitude that Jesus charged the Jewish leadership with, they were missing the big parts of God’s will while obsessing over the minor points of the law, something that he unforgettably called straining out a gnat but swallowing a camel (Matt. 23:24).
One thing is obvious in this whole scene. Pilate just doesn’t want to deal with this. He is in the position of power, but this issue has nothing but trouble written all over it. There seems to be no good that comes from this situation but there is plenty of danger. If he angers the Jewish leadership too much, they might cause problems or report him to Rome as not being loyal to Caesar. On the other hand, if he summarily puts someone claiming to be king to death, if that man had a large following, they might revolt. This determines the two things Pilate needs to know then, the one thing that he cares about. Is this man claiming to be king? Was he a threat to start a rebellion? Pilate’s actions and attitude towards this whole situation will largely hinge, at least initially, on the determination of those two questions.
Jesus’ response to Pilate’s inquiries of him being king seem confusing for a second, but they make perfect sense in context. Why is Pilate asking him if he is king? If he is asking for himself, from a Roman perspective? If so, then he wants to know if Jesus is leading a rebellion that Caesar needs to worry about. The answer to that question would be "no". If he is asking at the prompting of the Jewish leaders, then the question is concerning his alleged Messiahship. If it was strictly a religious issue, then that would not be something that Rome would be immediately concerned about. The answer to that question would be "yes". Clearly, though, Pilate doesn’t want to get involved in what he sees as silly Jewish religious internal disputes. Pilate is not instigating this arrest or this trial. The Jews are the ones that have the issue.
With that established, Jesus can answer the question firmly. His kingdom is not of this world. If it were, his servants would have continued to walk down the wrong road that Peter started when he cut off the ear of Malchus. This is not that type of kingdom. Jesus doesn’t mean, however, that his kingdom is not for the world. In fact, his disciples are to pray that the kingdom comes into this world as it is in heaven. His point is that the kingdom of God, the rule or reign of God does not have a worldly origin or character. It does not derive from this world for it is, in its essence, the will of God realized in the world; it is for the world in no uncertain terms.
Pilate finds himself somewhere he never thought he would be. He stands in his world of darkness and the bright shining light of truth is blazing away in his eye. He is challenged to accept or reject the truth that Jesus has revealed in his very life. He is truth, the one thing everyone wants, but that we all tend to avoid when it challenges who we are or what we are doing. We don’t know to what personal level Pilate was challenged by Jesus, but it does seem that he knew there was something to this man. Yet, the truth was simply too costly for him. How could he give up everything that he had worked for and built up to follow this lowly Jew who was standing before him rejected by his own people? It was absurd, but yet. . . there was something to this man. Is he a king? Certainly not the kind that could be considered any sort of serious rival to Caesar. That’s not what Jesus is about. He doesn’t want to be king of the false Adams in the realm of darkness. He came into the world to testify to the truth because he is truth. Everyone, says Jesus, who is on the side of truth listens to him. There it is. What will Pilate do? With the true Adam standing before him on the precipice of the New Creation, what will he do? The truth for Pilate is too costly, it’s too unattainable. He has chosen a life that has left him disillusioned and bitter. What is truth? Nothing that he will ever find, if it even exists at all. The only truth he knew was power and power has little concern for any other kind of truth.
So, Pilate has made up his mind. He has no interest in confronting himself with the difficult truth before him, but on a pragmatic level he knows Jesus is no threat but he cannot just let him go. He comes up with a seemingly brilliant solution. He will take advantage of the custom of releasing one Jewish prisoner during Passover as a sign of goodwill (a practice that is understandably not recorded in history outside of the biblical record). This solution would solve everything for Pilate. He would technically find Jesus guilty but then would let a man that he sees as no real threat to go free.
The plan is perfect except that the Jewish leaders throw a wrench in it. Pilate offers them the choice between Jesus, an innocent man, and Barabbas, a true rebel against Rome. The Jewish leaders want Barabbas. The name "Barabbas" literally means "son of the father." He represents every man. He is a rebel just like all the sons of Adam who stand in rebellion against God. Pilate doesn’t want to stand up, make a choice, and embrace truth. He has passed that decision on to the Jewish leadership. Do they want the false Adam or the real Adam? Do they want the real rebel or the man of peace that will bring reconciliation and the new creation to the world? They firmly declare their choice. They choose the false Adam. They will remain in darkness.
Devotional Thought
What do you do when confronted with truth about yourself? Do you get angry? Do you try to blame others or pass responsibility off from yourself onto others? Or do you seek the truth and embrace it when you find regardless of how difficult and challenging it is? Make a decision that from here on out you will be a person who is sincerely open to the truth in whatever form it might come.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
John 18:15-27
Peter's First Denial
15 Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest's courtyard, 16 but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in.
17 "You aren't one of this man's disciples too, are you?" she asked Peter.
He replied, "I am not."
18 It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.
The High Priest Questions Jesus
19 Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
20 "I have spoken openly to the world," Jesus replied. "I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. 21 Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said."
22 When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. "Is this the way you answer the high priest?" he demanded.
23 "If I said something wrong," Jesus replied, "testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?" 24 Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
Peter's Second and Third Denials
25 Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, "You aren't one of his disciples too, are you?"
He denied it, saying, "I am not."
26 One of the high priest's servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, "Didn't I see you with him in the garden?" 27 Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.
Dig Deeper
Almost ten years ago now, my wife and I took her teenage cousin and our then five year-old son to the zoo. It was a late summer day and it was rainy so the zoo was nearly deserted. As we strolled through looking at the different animals, my son really wanted to go see the big cats. We finally made our way to the area where the lions were kept. Disappointingly, there were no lions in sight. We soon realized that because of the drizzling, the lions had gone inside so we went into the building where we could see the lions inside. As we went in, we were the only ones in the entire building. I came up to the lion’s area and saw a big male laying down next to the glass, looking out with his face about two inches from the quarter-inch safety glass. I walked up to the railing and realized that I was not much more than a foot away from this lion’s face, albeit we were separated by the glass. I was mesmerized by his sheer beauty and the rare opportunity to get that close to a real lion. I leaned over the railing to get closer and closer, looking at him intently. Now, I have to interject that I always had the thought in the back of my mind that if I ever had to confront a lion, I could probably take one with my bare hands if it was absolutely necessary. I had even thought about my attack plan just in case something like that ever happened. As I continued to stare at this lion, I forgot something quite important. In the animal kingdom, staring into the eyes of an animal is an attempt to take dominance over that animal. In a lightning flash, that lion sprung up on his back legs, pounded at the glass with both front paws and roared an intensely loud roar that reverberated even through that thick glass. My response was . . . to run, leaving my family behind. I thought that I was ready for a lion but I discovered that that animal was quicker, more powerful, and fiercer than I had ever imagined. When my chance came, at least sort of, I found that I wasn’t ready at all. I was completely overmatched.
Jesus’ disciples were not quite sure what was going to happen in Jerusalem, but they knew that it wasn’t going to be good. They had trouble wrapping their minds around all that Jesus had told them, but the one thing they seemed to be sure of was that they were going to stand with him to the end. If he faced trouble, so would they. They were ready to follow their teacher wherever he might go. They were ready to face whatever he was going to face. The time has now arrived, though, and they find out that the enemy they are up against seems to be quicker, more powerful, and fiercer than they had imagined. Jesus, firmly rooted in doing the will of the Father, is quite ready for what he is about to face, but his disciples are not. The response of most of them was . . . to run. Even those who followed at a safe distance will find that in stark contrast to Jesus’ calm control in the situation, they will fail in ways they never thought imaginable.
As this scene opens, the other disciples have scattered just as Jesus knew that they would. Following behind at a safe distance are Peter and an unnamed disciple, presumably John. We have clues in the other Gospels that John’s family had some wealth (Mk. 1:20) and thoughts of having an important place came quite naturally to him (Matt. 20:20-28). Throughout John’s writings he seems quite familiar with the Temple and priestly functions, so it should not come as that surprising that he was known to the high priest and had access to the high priest’s courtyard. We don’t know for sure but it seems quite probably that Annas, who had been high priest and still wielded much power, and was seen by many as the legitimate high priest, and Caiaphas, the current high priest and son-in-law of Annas, lived in the same palace. If this is the case, then they would have lived in separate wings that were connected by this common courtyard, which would have kept the somewhat illegal happenings fairly private.
We simply don’t know what was going through Peter’s mind as he attempted to make his way into the courtyard, but the servant who gave or denied access seems to have caught him off guard. Peter’s mind had to be racing. If he was exposed as a disciple of Jesus would he be denied entry, would he be seized and put next to his teacher? He quickly denies that he is anything of the sort and makes his way over to the fire on this cold spring night in Jerusalem. John is the only Gospel writer that gives us the detail (which is not preserved in the TNIV translation) that this fire was specifically a coal fire. Coal fires have a very distinct smell to them, a smell which no doubt stayed in the minds of Peter and John. I used to go to my grandparents house when I was a boy where they burned similar fires and to this day I am still reminded of those times every time I smell one of those fires. We won’t discuss the smell of that fire any further here, but keep it in mind as we move through the events surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Meanwhile, John takes us inside where he has likely gone to watch the proceedings between Jesus and probably Annas, who was not technically the high priest, but could still easily be referred to as such by Jews (the high priest position was supposed to be a lifetime position so many Jews rejected the priestly appointees made by the Romans after removing Annas from the position). What John describes throughout this scene is the irony of the Jewish leadership accusing Jesus of breaking the law by being a false prophet worthy of death (Deut. 13:1-11), yet at every step of the way, they are the ones guilty of violating the Jewish law.
The first violation of the law was the entire proceeding itself. This first meeting with Annas seems to be an informal trial before Jesus is sent to an official trial of some sort before the Sanhedrin, but whatever the details, the whole thing was strictly illegitimate in Jewish law where there were not supposed to be trials of this nature at night. They are working under the cover of darkness, a detail that was no doubt highly symbolic for John.
As the questioning opens, it seems that Jesus is being resistant or even obstinate, but that would be a misunderstanding of Jewish law and custom. In Jewish law, the authorities should have gathered eyewitnesses whose stories matched up with one another before ever even questioning an accused person. Only if their testimony matched and a case was established could a trial begin. Jesus’ point in charging them to find eyewitnesses serves three purposes. First, he consistently draws all attention to himself, protecting his disciples. Second, he confirms that he didn’t have two levels of teaching. He wasn’t saying one thing in public all the while teaching something revolutionary in private. What people heard in public was the same sorts of things he was saying in private. Third, and most importantly, he wasn’t being obstinate, he was urging them to follow the law. They shouldn’t be questioning him without corroborating witnesses. What they were doing did not meet the standards of the law. If they were going to continue then it would be in willful violation of what they knew to be Jewish law.
The response of those present was not to humbly realize that Jesus was right, that they were breaking the law. Instead, one of the officials near Jesus gave him a sharp slap. This was yet another illegal action. Matthew (26:67) describes even further abuse during these proceedings. All physical abuse of an accused person, however, was strictly forbidden in Jewish law. Again, Jesus gently challenges the illegal actions. If he has actually said something wrong, then someone should charge him with such an act. Annas doesn’t stop or condemn this action, though, evidently allowing it. Instead, he sends Jesus over to Caiaphas, which was likely a simple walk across the courtyard to the other side of the palace.
Outside, at the same time, John tells us that Peter has denied Jesus for a second and third time. When the rooster crows, Peter realizes what he has done. He has failed Jesus just as Jesus had told him he would. He was so sure that he would be up to the challenge, but when the lion leaped, he ran. He had denied knowing his beloved teacher three times. Don’t miss the parallels here between Peter and Jesus. Jesus is on the inside telling the high priest the truth, laying down his life for others. Peter is on the outside lying to servants and doing his best to preserve his own life for his own benefit. Jesus is putting everything out in the open while Peter is doing his dead level best to hide. Yet, before we are too harsh on Peter here, let’s not forget that he’s there. He’s failing, but he’s trying. He and John are the only ones who have even followed Jesus this far. From here on out, though, Jesus will be completely alone. They have made a rather feeble attempt to follow him, but he must face this lion all by himself.
Devotional Thought
The failure of the disciples when Satan roared during these events was that they were relying on their own strength. They were discovering (once again Jesus was teaching them something for their own benefit) that they would always fail if that was the case. They needed the Holy Spirit to guide them through their struggles. When hard times comes, do you turn to the Spirit and His strength appealing in prayer for His guidance or do you trust in your own strength?
15 Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest's courtyard, 16 but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in.
17 "You aren't one of this man's disciples too, are you?" she asked Peter.
He replied, "I am not."
18 It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.
The High Priest Questions Jesus
19 Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
20 "I have spoken openly to the world," Jesus replied. "I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. 21 Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said."
22 When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. "Is this the way you answer the high priest?" he demanded.
23 "If I said something wrong," Jesus replied, "testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?" 24 Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
Peter's Second and Third Denials
25 Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, "You aren't one of his disciples too, are you?"
He denied it, saying, "I am not."
26 One of the high priest's servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, "Didn't I see you with him in the garden?" 27 Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.
Dig Deeper
Almost ten years ago now, my wife and I took her teenage cousin and our then five year-old son to the zoo. It was a late summer day and it was rainy so the zoo was nearly deserted. As we strolled through looking at the different animals, my son really wanted to go see the big cats. We finally made our way to the area where the lions were kept. Disappointingly, there were no lions in sight. We soon realized that because of the drizzling, the lions had gone inside so we went into the building where we could see the lions inside. As we went in, we were the only ones in the entire building. I came up to the lion’s area and saw a big male laying down next to the glass, looking out with his face about two inches from the quarter-inch safety glass. I walked up to the railing and realized that I was not much more than a foot away from this lion’s face, albeit we were separated by the glass. I was mesmerized by his sheer beauty and the rare opportunity to get that close to a real lion. I leaned over the railing to get closer and closer, looking at him intently. Now, I have to interject that I always had the thought in the back of my mind that if I ever had to confront a lion, I could probably take one with my bare hands if it was absolutely necessary. I had even thought about my attack plan just in case something like that ever happened. As I continued to stare at this lion, I forgot something quite important. In the animal kingdom, staring into the eyes of an animal is an attempt to take dominance over that animal. In a lightning flash, that lion sprung up on his back legs, pounded at the glass with both front paws and roared an intensely loud roar that reverberated even through that thick glass. My response was . . . to run, leaving my family behind. I thought that I was ready for a lion but I discovered that that animal was quicker, more powerful, and fiercer than I had ever imagined. When my chance came, at least sort of, I found that I wasn’t ready at all. I was completely overmatched.
Jesus’ disciples were not quite sure what was going to happen in Jerusalem, but they knew that it wasn’t going to be good. They had trouble wrapping their minds around all that Jesus had told them, but the one thing they seemed to be sure of was that they were going to stand with him to the end. If he faced trouble, so would they. They were ready to follow their teacher wherever he might go. They were ready to face whatever he was going to face. The time has now arrived, though, and they find out that the enemy they are up against seems to be quicker, more powerful, and fiercer than they had imagined. Jesus, firmly rooted in doing the will of the Father, is quite ready for what he is about to face, but his disciples are not. The response of most of them was . . . to run. Even those who followed at a safe distance will find that in stark contrast to Jesus’ calm control in the situation, they will fail in ways they never thought imaginable.
As this scene opens, the other disciples have scattered just as Jesus knew that they would. Following behind at a safe distance are Peter and an unnamed disciple, presumably John. We have clues in the other Gospels that John’s family had some wealth (Mk. 1:20) and thoughts of having an important place came quite naturally to him (Matt. 20:20-28). Throughout John’s writings he seems quite familiar with the Temple and priestly functions, so it should not come as that surprising that he was known to the high priest and had access to the high priest’s courtyard. We don’t know for sure but it seems quite probably that Annas, who had been high priest and still wielded much power, and was seen by many as the legitimate high priest, and Caiaphas, the current high priest and son-in-law of Annas, lived in the same palace. If this is the case, then they would have lived in separate wings that were connected by this common courtyard, which would have kept the somewhat illegal happenings fairly private.
We simply don’t know what was going through Peter’s mind as he attempted to make his way into the courtyard, but the servant who gave or denied access seems to have caught him off guard. Peter’s mind had to be racing. If he was exposed as a disciple of Jesus would he be denied entry, would he be seized and put next to his teacher? He quickly denies that he is anything of the sort and makes his way over to the fire on this cold spring night in Jerusalem. John is the only Gospel writer that gives us the detail (which is not preserved in the TNIV translation) that this fire was specifically a coal fire. Coal fires have a very distinct smell to them, a smell which no doubt stayed in the minds of Peter and John. I used to go to my grandparents house when I was a boy where they burned similar fires and to this day I am still reminded of those times every time I smell one of those fires. We won’t discuss the smell of that fire any further here, but keep it in mind as we move through the events surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Meanwhile, John takes us inside where he has likely gone to watch the proceedings between Jesus and probably Annas, who was not technically the high priest, but could still easily be referred to as such by Jews (the high priest position was supposed to be a lifetime position so many Jews rejected the priestly appointees made by the Romans after removing Annas from the position). What John describes throughout this scene is the irony of the Jewish leadership accusing Jesus of breaking the law by being a false prophet worthy of death (Deut. 13:1-11), yet at every step of the way, they are the ones guilty of violating the Jewish law.
The first violation of the law was the entire proceeding itself. This first meeting with Annas seems to be an informal trial before Jesus is sent to an official trial of some sort before the Sanhedrin, but whatever the details, the whole thing was strictly illegitimate in Jewish law where there were not supposed to be trials of this nature at night. They are working under the cover of darkness, a detail that was no doubt highly symbolic for John.
As the questioning opens, it seems that Jesus is being resistant or even obstinate, but that would be a misunderstanding of Jewish law and custom. In Jewish law, the authorities should have gathered eyewitnesses whose stories matched up with one another before ever even questioning an accused person. Only if their testimony matched and a case was established could a trial begin. Jesus’ point in charging them to find eyewitnesses serves three purposes. First, he consistently draws all attention to himself, protecting his disciples. Second, he confirms that he didn’t have two levels of teaching. He wasn’t saying one thing in public all the while teaching something revolutionary in private. What people heard in public was the same sorts of things he was saying in private. Third, and most importantly, he wasn’t being obstinate, he was urging them to follow the law. They shouldn’t be questioning him without corroborating witnesses. What they were doing did not meet the standards of the law. If they were going to continue then it would be in willful violation of what they knew to be Jewish law.
The response of those present was not to humbly realize that Jesus was right, that they were breaking the law. Instead, one of the officials near Jesus gave him a sharp slap. This was yet another illegal action. Matthew (26:67) describes even further abuse during these proceedings. All physical abuse of an accused person, however, was strictly forbidden in Jewish law. Again, Jesus gently challenges the illegal actions. If he has actually said something wrong, then someone should charge him with such an act. Annas doesn’t stop or condemn this action, though, evidently allowing it. Instead, he sends Jesus over to Caiaphas, which was likely a simple walk across the courtyard to the other side of the palace.
Outside, at the same time, John tells us that Peter has denied Jesus for a second and third time. When the rooster crows, Peter realizes what he has done. He has failed Jesus just as Jesus had told him he would. He was so sure that he would be up to the challenge, but when the lion leaped, he ran. He had denied knowing his beloved teacher three times. Don’t miss the parallels here between Peter and Jesus. Jesus is on the inside telling the high priest the truth, laying down his life for others. Peter is on the outside lying to servants and doing his best to preserve his own life for his own benefit. Jesus is putting everything out in the open while Peter is doing his dead level best to hide. Yet, before we are too harsh on Peter here, let’s not forget that he’s there. He’s failing, but he’s trying. He and John are the only ones who have even followed Jesus this far. From here on out, though, Jesus will be completely alone. They have made a rather feeble attempt to follow him, but he must face this lion all by himself.
Devotional Thought
The failure of the disciples when Satan roared during these events was that they were relying on their own strength. They were discovering (once again Jesus was teaching them something for their own benefit) that they would always fail if that was the case. They needed the Holy Spirit to guide them through their struggles. When hard times comes, do you turn to the Spirit and His strength appealing in prayer for His guidance or do you trust in your own strength?
Monday, March 02, 2009
John 18:1-14
Jesus Arrested
1 When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.
2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.
4 Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, "Who is it you want?"
5 "Jesus of Nazareth," they replied.
"I am he," Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) 6 When Jesus said, "I am he," they drew back and fell to the ground.
7 Again he asked them, "Who is it you want?"
"Jesus of Nazareth," they said.
8 Jesus answered, "I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go." 9 This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: "I have not lost one of those you gave me."
10 Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant's name was Malchus.)
11 Jesus commanded Peter, "Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?"
12 Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him 13 and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. 14 Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.
Dig Deeper
Whose side are you on? That was the question of the hour. The teachers of the school at which I taught had been debating for weeks and now had to decide and vote upon whether or not we would stay with a traditional schedule or go to a year-round schedule. That probably doesn’t sound like a big deal, but to some teachers it was more like a matter of life and death. Sides were taken and the whole thing got a bit heated and intense. I definitely had some feelings on the whole thing, but I had stayed quiet on the matter, preferring to listen to both sides and keep my opinion close to the vest. Now that the day had come, though, I had to finally take sides. It was going to be clear on whose side I stood.
John’s opening prologue told us that the light had come into the darkness. His vocation was to make clear that there was a new way available to mankind, a new life. As Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley and into the garden, the time had come. John wants us to be clear that sides must be taken and choices made. There is no turning back now. In forming this incredibly layered and beautiful tapestry, John has woven in strands from the very first time that humankind made a choice, the wrong choice at that. Now, for the first time since then, mankind truly has another option. John has masterfully created a bridge from one garden to the other.
Evil was afoot, the time had come. The choice had been made and he wanted to go to the place that was comfortable, the place he had met with them many times before. So, he went into the garden, where they had walked together, talked together and enjoyed each other’s company. Now sin and the serpent were about to separate them. Whose will were they going to follow. Their own will, encouraged on by the serpent every step of the way, or would they remain loyal and do God’s will. Here he was and here they were in the garden, deciding on whose side they would be.
So, what garden scene were we just describing? Is it the garden at Gethsemane of the garden of Eden? That’s part of John’s whole point. Everywhere we turn in this scene, the echoes are so loud that we can see the events of the garden of Eden almost as clearly as we can the garden where Jesus stands with his disciples, able to hear his betrayer coming, but quite unwilling to run away. No, the time has come. Decisions must be made, sides chosen.
Here in the garden where he had met many times with his disciples, the new Adam, the true Adam stood. Surrounding him is a detachment of soldiers and officials who have come with Judas, one of the false Adams. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had fallen prey to the whispers of the serpent. They had chosen to do their own will rather than God’s. They had robbed themselves of the image of God, the very thing that sets men apart from the rest of God’s creation. This collection of false Adams makes their way through the darkness that has enclosed the whole world with their futile attempts to bring light as pictured by the torches and lanterns. But here they stand before the true light of the world. What side are they going to take? Who is this man?
Before we look at the answer to that question we should note that from the opening verse of this Gospel, John has tipped his hand that this would be an account of new creation. The Word has become flesh and will right what Adam wronged so long ago. God was betrayed in the garden of Eden by Adam, who chose his own will over God’s. Now, God has taken Adam’s flesh and is about to be betrayed again. But this is a reversal of the original betrayal. This time God has taken the place of man and will take his rightful punishment. What John doesn’t describe here, but no doubt expects his readers to be familiar with is the intense prayer that the other Gospels tell us Jesus offered up in this very Garden. Where Adam and Eve failed to do God’s will in the garden, Jesus succeeded. He wrestled with his own will, but was eternally determined to do the Father’s will not that of his flesh.
So, we return to question of who this man really is. Jesus himself asks who they want, careful to draw attention to himself and away from his disciples. It is not yet their time, so the good shepherd will intentionally die for the sheep. He will not lose one of them. But who do they want? Who is he? Jesus of Nazareth, they don’t really know much more than that, but that’s who they want. Jesus’ response is utterly simple and yet pregnant with deeper meaning. "I am he", Jesus responds. His response is a simple answer to the question yet worded in such a way that John intends for us to see so much more. It is the sacred name of YHWH that enraged his opponents when he declared that "before Abraham was born, I Am" (Jn. 8:58 which is rooted in Ex. 3:14)). He is the the Bread of life (6:35, 41), the sustenance of the true Israel (the true Adam). He is the Light of the world (8:12, 9:5), the function and purpose of the true Israel. He is the Gate (10:7, 9), the entrance into the true Israel. He is the Good Shepherd (10:11, 14), the leadership, the servant and the model of the true Israel. He is the Resurrection and the Life (11:25), the hope of the true Israel. He is the Way, the Truth, and The Life (14:6), the existence of the true Israel. He is the True Vine (15:1), the embodiment of the true Israel. In short, he is, or to put it into his own words, "I Am."
The guards response is unwitting, yet John, no doubt, wants us to see that it is the proper response biblically when one stands face to face with the great "I Am" (Ezek. 1:28; 44:4; Dan. 2:46; 8:18; 10:9; Acts 9:4; 22:7; 26:14; Rev. 1:17; 19:10; 22:8), they fell to the ground. They have taken the side of the darkness, they have listened to the whispers of the serpent and his mouthpiece, Judas, and have fallen before the God of the universe, although they certainly didn’t realize that’s what they were doing and likely didn’t even fully know why they fell to the ground. They believe that they are in charge, but when standing before the power of God, they are exposed as truly powerless. They will do their work and think that they have won, but in reality, God is firmly in control.
Peter will have none of this. Poor Peter is doing his best without the guidance of the promised Holy Spirit, but at this point he still has in mind the things of Satan rather than God (Matt. 16:23; Mark 8:33). It’s not that Peter has chosen to side with Satan, quite the opposite, but he is still without the Spirit and unable to do God’s will. Jesus’ work in the garden is not yet complete, so Peter’s actions are a sad reminder of humans still stuck in the Edenic clutches of the fallen garden called Earth. Just as Cain killed Abel because of sin’s influence, so Peter strikes out at Malchus. But no, Jesus’ people will not behave like that. They are being called out of that existence. There will be no death on their hands, so Jesus takes note of this servant, a status that would have made him insignificant in the eyes of his society, and restores him to wholeness (a fact that John once again assumes that we already know from reading the other Gospels). Jesus commands Peter in no uncertain terms to put away his sword. This is not the way of the Kingdom. This is not the work that the Father has sent him to do. He will drink the cup the Father has given him. Bloodshed and violence are the way of mankind since the Fall in the garden of Eden. Man has been passing on evil ever since with no end in sight. But here, in this garden, in these events, with this man, it will finally come to an end. A different way will be opened. A new creation will inaugurated. The cup in the Old Testament was the cup of God’s wrath that those who opposed God would drink (Ps. 75:8; Isa. 51:17, 22; Jer. 25:15-17; Ezek. 23:31-34; Hab. 2:16). The true Adam would be betrayed by the false Adam but would not pass that evil on as mankind had always done. He would take the full punishment and brunt of sin and God’s wrath upon himself. He would be crushed for our iniquities" (Isa. 53:5).
The sides have been drawn clearly now. Judas has ceased to lurk in the shadows and has openly aligned himself with the enemies of the light. This is the last that John mentions him, but John expects that we know his fate from here on out. Jesus, though, is brought before Annas, who was the high priest between 6 and 15 AD, and was still seen by many as the true high priest rather than his son-in-law Caiaphas, an appointee of Rome. Caiaphas, John reminds is the one who made the unwitting prophecy that one man should die for the people. This is how it will happen. The true high priest of the new creation and the world will be brought before the false high priest. The true Adam brought before another false Adam.
Devotional Thought
Take some time today, right now if you can, and go back over this passage. Read it through several times and meditate on each verse. Think about the situation and the setting, as well as the background imagery that John so clearly brings to the foreground. What do you see? What do you notice? What do pick up on that you’ve never caught before? Just take some time to enter into this scene and become part of it. When you do, you can’t help but stand in awe of the almighty God.
1 When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.
2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.
4 Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, "Who is it you want?"
5 "Jesus of Nazareth," they replied.
"I am he," Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) 6 When Jesus said, "I am he," they drew back and fell to the ground.
7 Again he asked them, "Who is it you want?"
"Jesus of Nazareth," they said.
8 Jesus answered, "I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go." 9 This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: "I have not lost one of those you gave me."
10 Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant's name was Malchus.)
11 Jesus commanded Peter, "Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?"
12 Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him 13 and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. 14 Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.
Dig Deeper
Whose side are you on? That was the question of the hour. The teachers of the school at which I taught had been debating for weeks and now had to decide and vote upon whether or not we would stay with a traditional schedule or go to a year-round schedule. That probably doesn’t sound like a big deal, but to some teachers it was more like a matter of life and death. Sides were taken and the whole thing got a bit heated and intense. I definitely had some feelings on the whole thing, but I had stayed quiet on the matter, preferring to listen to both sides and keep my opinion close to the vest. Now that the day had come, though, I had to finally take sides. It was going to be clear on whose side I stood.
John’s opening prologue told us that the light had come into the darkness. His vocation was to make clear that there was a new way available to mankind, a new life. As Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley and into the garden, the time had come. John wants us to be clear that sides must be taken and choices made. There is no turning back now. In forming this incredibly layered and beautiful tapestry, John has woven in strands from the very first time that humankind made a choice, the wrong choice at that. Now, for the first time since then, mankind truly has another option. John has masterfully created a bridge from one garden to the other.
Evil was afoot, the time had come. The choice had been made and he wanted to go to the place that was comfortable, the place he had met with them many times before. So, he went into the garden, where they had walked together, talked together and enjoyed each other’s company. Now sin and the serpent were about to separate them. Whose will were they going to follow. Their own will, encouraged on by the serpent every step of the way, or would they remain loyal and do God’s will. Here he was and here they were in the garden, deciding on whose side they would be.
So, what garden scene were we just describing? Is it the garden at Gethsemane of the garden of Eden? That’s part of John’s whole point. Everywhere we turn in this scene, the echoes are so loud that we can see the events of the garden of Eden almost as clearly as we can the garden where Jesus stands with his disciples, able to hear his betrayer coming, but quite unwilling to run away. No, the time has come. Decisions must be made, sides chosen.
Here in the garden where he had met many times with his disciples, the new Adam, the true Adam stood. Surrounding him is a detachment of soldiers and officials who have come with Judas, one of the false Adams. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had fallen prey to the whispers of the serpent. They had chosen to do their own will rather than God’s. They had robbed themselves of the image of God, the very thing that sets men apart from the rest of God’s creation. This collection of false Adams makes their way through the darkness that has enclosed the whole world with their futile attempts to bring light as pictured by the torches and lanterns. But here they stand before the true light of the world. What side are they going to take? Who is this man?
Before we look at the answer to that question we should note that from the opening verse of this Gospel, John has tipped his hand that this would be an account of new creation. The Word has become flesh and will right what Adam wronged so long ago. God was betrayed in the garden of Eden by Adam, who chose his own will over God’s. Now, God has taken Adam’s flesh and is about to be betrayed again. But this is a reversal of the original betrayal. This time God has taken the place of man and will take his rightful punishment. What John doesn’t describe here, but no doubt expects his readers to be familiar with is the intense prayer that the other Gospels tell us Jesus offered up in this very Garden. Where Adam and Eve failed to do God’s will in the garden, Jesus succeeded. He wrestled with his own will, but was eternally determined to do the Father’s will not that of his flesh.
So, we return to question of who this man really is. Jesus himself asks who they want, careful to draw attention to himself and away from his disciples. It is not yet their time, so the good shepherd will intentionally die for the sheep. He will not lose one of them. But who do they want? Who is he? Jesus of Nazareth, they don’t really know much more than that, but that’s who they want. Jesus’ response is utterly simple and yet pregnant with deeper meaning. "I am he", Jesus responds. His response is a simple answer to the question yet worded in such a way that John intends for us to see so much more. It is the sacred name of YHWH that enraged his opponents when he declared that "before Abraham was born, I Am" (Jn. 8:58 which is rooted in Ex. 3:14)). He is the the Bread of life (6:35, 41), the sustenance of the true Israel (the true Adam). He is the Light of the world (8:12, 9:5), the function and purpose of the true Israel. He is the Gate (10:7, 9), the entrance into the true Israel. He is the Good Shepherd (10:11, 14), the leadership, the servant and the model of the true Israel. He is the Resurrection and the Life (11:25), the hope of the true Israel. He is the Way, the Truth, and The Life (14:6), the existence of the true Israel. He is the True Vine (15:1), the embodiment of the true Israel. In short, he is, or to put it into his own words, "I Am."
The guards response is unwitting, yet John, no doubt, wants us to see that it is the proper response biblically when one stands face to face with the great "I Am" (Ezek. 1:28; 44:4; Dan. 2:46; 8:18; 10:9; Acts 9:4; 22:7; 26:14; Rev. 1:17; 19:10; 22:8), they fell to the ground. They have taken the side of the darkness, they have listened to the whispers of the serpent and his mouthpiece, Judas, and have fallen before the God of the universe, although they certainly didn’t realize that’s what they were doing and likely didn’t even fully know why they fell to the ground. They believe that they are in charge, but when standing before the power of God, they are exposed as truly powerless. They will do their work and think that they have won, but in reality, God is firmly in control.
Peter will have none of this. Poor Peter is doing his best without the guidance of the promised Holy Spirit, but at this point he still has in mind the things of Satan rather than God (Matt. 16:23; Mark 8:33). It’s not that Peter has chosen to side with Satan, quite the opposite, but he is still without the Spirit and unable to do God’s will. Jesus’ work in the garden is not yet complete, so Peter’s actions are a sad reminder of humans still stuck in the Edenic clutches of the fallen garden called Earth. Just as Cain killed Abel because of sin’s influence, so Peter strikes out at Malchus. But no, Jesus’ people will not behave like that. They are being called out of that existence. There will be no death on their hands, so Jesus takes note of this servant, a status that would have made him insignificant in the eyes of his society, and restores him to wholeness (a fact that John once again assumes that we already know from reading the other Gospels). Jesus commands Peter in no uncertain terms to put away his sword. This is not the way of the Kingdom. This is not the work that the Father has sent him to do. He will drink the cup the Father has given him. Bloodshed and violence are the way of mankind since the Fall in the garden of Eden. Man has been passing on evil ever since with no end in sight. But here, in this garden, in these events, with this man, it will finally come to an end. A different way will be opened. A new creation will inaugurated. The cup in the Old Testament was the cup of God’s wrath that those who opposed God would drink (Ps. 75:8; Isa. 51:17, 22; Jer. 25:15-17; Ezek. 23:31-34; Hab. 2:16). The true Adam would be betrayed by the false Adam but would not pass that evil on as mankind had always done. He would take the full punishment and brunt of sin and God’s wrath upon himself. He would be crushed for our iniquities" (Isa. 53:5).
The sides have been drawn clearly now. Judas has ceased to lurk in the shadows and has openly aligned himself with the enemies of the light. This is the last that John mentions him, but John expects that we know his fate from here on out. Jesus, though, is brought before Annas, who was the high priest between 6 and 15 AD, and was still seen by many as the true high priest rather than his son-in-law Caiaphas, an appointee of Rome. Caiaphas, John reminds is the one who made the unwitting prophecy that one man should die for the people. This is how it will happen. The true high priest of the new creation and the world will be brought before the false high priest. The true Adam brought before another false Adam.
Devotional Thought
Take some time today, right now if you can, and go back over this passage. Read it through several times and meditate on each verse. Think about the situation and the setting, as well as the background imagery that John so clearly brings to the foreground. What do you see? What do you notice? What do pick up on that you’ve never caught before? Just take some time to enter into this scene and become part of it. When you do, you can’t help but stand in awe of the almighty God.
Friday, February 27, 2009
John 17:20-26
Jesus Prays for All Believers
20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
Dig Deeper
What’s the true measure of success when it comes to creating a religious community or any sort of organization or community for that matter? It’s not really how big of a movement you can create, although there is something to be said for that. A lot of people can do that, though. There are a lot of charismatic or talented folks that can create a big following. That’s usually the easy part, believe it or not. The true measure of success, however, is the ability to pass it on to the next generation. Can what you have created be passed on after it’s founder is no longer around? If it can’t, it’s exposed as a flash-in-the-pan that was based on little more than the charisma or ability of the founder. If it can, though, then you’ve got something that was probably well built and formed. I’ve seen this a lot in ministry or community organizations over the years. One person will start a movement, church, or organization that is very small and build it up to an impressive force and following, but as soon as they retire or pass away the organization begins to fall apart and slowly disintegrates. This is a testament to something that was built on the abilities of one person rather than a lasting and transcending movement. Failure to keep something going well after you are gone is a sure sign that what you built wasn’t really that well built after all.
On a personal level, parents know this concept well. We want nothing more than to pass on our beliefs to our children, especially when it comes to our faith in Christ. If we cannot pass that on to them and build up a subsequent generation of believers (both our children and new converts), then the church of which we are a part will slowly gray, fade, and eventually blow away in the winds of time. Jesus knew this concept well. He prays for his disciples that are about to be set out into the world to share his mission without him physically with them any longer, but he knows that what he is building must go beyond that. He wants the Father to protect those disciples but now his thoughts and prayers turn beyond that. What about those who come after these disciples? These people will be the fruit of these disciple’s mission, people that will never physically meet Jesus. Can the faith be passed on to them? Will they understand Christ’s glory? Will they live it out and then pass it on themselves to the next generation?
Because Jesus knows all too well the need to create a multi-generational legacy of those in Christ, his prayer is not for his current disciples alone. He prays for those who will believe in him through their message. Jesus didn’t just come to gather a bunch of followers around himself for his own glory, creating a comfortable life for himself in which he is adored and revered throughout his lifetime. He is creating the new people of God, a people that will last forever. A community that is built on the disciples message. This is why it is so important that the Holy Spirit lead them into all truth and testify about the Son (Jn. 14:26; 15:26). The community built around the truth of Jesus will be built on the message that is guided and preserved by the Holy Spirit. And here’s the really amazing part. What, do you suppose, is the Greek word that is translated "message" in verse 20? You guessed it. It’s the logos. It is the word of God, the ordering principle of the universe that is not just some abstract force, but has become flesh. The Logos has given his logos, the logos of the Father, to his disciples and it will be up to them to pass this logos on to future generations. They will, in other words, build communities that are built on the word of God.
But simply knowing this word will not be good enough. We can’t just "know" the word of God, it has to be lived out. That’s the whole point with the true logos. It became flesh. It can only be fully revealed when it is lived. This logos that is passed on to us must be lived out. The way to truly live it out is walk the path of glory that Jesus has revealed and to be unified in the same sort of unity that he has demonstrated in his relationship with the Father.
"If we say we love God yet hate a brother or sister, we are liars. For if we do not love a fellow believer, whom we have seen, we cannot love God, whom we have not seen. And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love one another" (1 Jn. 4:20-21). John’s words from his first letter show exactly why Jesus prayed that his future disciples will be one as he and the Father are one. We have to live out the word. We cannot just say we love God without the accompanying unity that it produces. Our unity is based on the unity within the Trinity. God does not show his wisdom throughout the heavenly realms in the reality of the church (Eph. 3:10-11) by taking a bunch of people that have things in common and would normally blend together anyway and crafting them into a community. The world is full of communities of people who share commonalities. What displays God’s wisdom and power is to take a bunch of disparate people with different interests, different backgrounds, from different cultures, races, and nations and to make them one despite their serious differences. The unity of the church is best displayed in its diversity. A monolithic church that is made up mostly of one type of person does not display God’s full glory.
But how is that kind of unity going to be achieved? By displaying the glory that Christ has given to his communities. John says in chapter 13 that Jesus displayed the full extent of his love by laying his life down in service for others and the Father confirmed that he would be glorified and glorify the Son by sending him to the Cross (Jn. 12:28). The full expression of God’s character, God’s glory is seen through the sacrificial act of Jesus laying down his life for his friends and that is exactly what he has called us to do (Jn. 15:12-13). The kind of unity through diversity, the community that Jesus was masterfully building, we must never forget, takes effort and hard work, and being led by the Spirit. These relationships must be built on the foundation of being one in Christ, rather than worldly ideas of what constitutes friendships and communities, things like sharing common interests and backgrounds. It takes the constant act of us choosing to lay down our lives for the benefit of others. It takes nothing short of self-sacrificial love. These will be, after all, communities built on the love we have for one another (Jn. 13:34-35).
It is through this genuine self-giving love that the world will know that the Father has truly sent the Son and that those communities are authentic disciples of the Son. We must realize, however, that this doesn’t mean that the world will admire and even hold us in esteem. It just means that they will know we are his disciples. Those who are truly seeking God will find themselves drawn to the love of God manifested in the genuine Christian community. But those who love the darkness may very well hate disciples and reject them all the more based on that very love. This is a love that does not pattern itself after the world’s parody of love which says that I love when I accept you just as you are, but after a true love that calls each one of us to lay down our lives, enter into the life of Christ and then continue to lay down our lives for others and love them the way that Christ loved all of us.
We must never be swayed by the world’s version of love or their opinion of how God’s people should behave because the world does not know the Father. In Christ alone do we stand on the rock, able to know the Father because he and he alone knows the Father, was sent by the Father and has made the Father known. And how will we know the Father and make him known to the world? By mirroring the self-giving love and complete unity that the Son and the Father share. We will not demonstrate the love of the Father and the Son by backbiting and breaking down into selfish consumption. Every time we run behind another Christian’s back and say something negative about them that is not said in love rather than lovingly talking to them and forging a genuine unity, we preach a powerful sermon to the world about who the Father is. We must constantly ask ourselves then if we are preaching an accurate sermon with our lives? Is "the manifold wisdom of God [being] made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord"? When it comes down to it, I can seek worldly friendships and communities that appeal to my flesh but all they will ever get me is satisfaction of the flesh, they will never demonstrate the wisdom and power of God through my life.
Devotional Thought
What have you been building your friendships on lately? Has it been the desires of the flesh or a genuine desire to be unified in Christ and bring glory to God? Spend some time thinking about that today and pray about your heart in this matter.
20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
Dig Deeper
What’s the true measure of success when it comes to creating a religious community or any sort of organization or community for that matter? It’s not really how big of a movement you can create, although there is something to be said for that. A lot of people can do that, though. There are a lot of charismatic or talented folks that can create a big following. That’s usually the easy part, believe it or not. The true measure of success, however, is the ability to pass it on to the next generation. Can what you have created be passed on after it’s founder is no longer around? If it can’t, it’s exposed as a flash-in-the-pan that was based on little more than the charisma or ability of the founder. If it can, though, then you’ve got something that was probably well built and formed. I’ve seen this a lot in ministry or community organizations over the years. One person will start a movement, church, or organization that is very small and build it up to an impressive force and following, but as soon as they retire or pass away the organization begins to fall apart and slowly disintegrates. This is a testament to something that was built on the abilities of one person rather than a lasting and transcending movement. Failure to keep something going well after you are gone is a sure sign that what you built wasn’t really that well built after all.
On a personal level, parents know this concept well. We want nothing more than to pass on our beliefs to our children, especially when it comes to our faith in Christ. If we cannot pass that on to them and build up a subsequent generation of believers (both our children and new converts), then the church of which we are a part will slowly gray, fade, and eventually blow away in the winds of time. Jesus knew this concept well. He prays for his disciples that are about to be set out into the world to share his mission without him physically with them any longer, but he knows that what he is building must go beyond that. He wants the Father to protect those disciples but now his thoughts and prayers turn beyond that. What about those who come after these disciples? These people will be the fruit of these disciple’s mission, people that will never physically meet Jesus. Can the faith be passed on to them? Will they understand Christ’s glory? Will they live it out and then pass it on themselves to the next generation?
Because Jesus knows all too well the need to create a multi-generational legacy of those in Christ, his prayer is not for his current disciples alone. He prays for those who will believe in him through their message. Jesus didn’t just come to gather a bunch of followers around himself for his own glory, creating a comfortable life for himself in which he is adored and revered throughout his lifetime. He is creating the new people of God, a people that will last forever. A community that is built on the disciples message. This is why it is so important that the Holy Spirit lead them into all truth and testify about the Son (Jn. 14:26; 15:26). The community built around the truth of Jesus will be built on the message that is guided and preserved by the Holy Spirit. And here’s the really amazing part. What, do you suppose, is the Greek word that is translated "message" in verse 20? You guessed it. It’s the logos. It is the word of God, the ordering principle of the universe that is not just some abstract force, but has become flesh. The Logos has given his logos, the logos of the Father, to his disciples and it will be up to them to pass this logos on to future generations. They will, in other words, build communities that are built on the word of God.
But simply knowing this word will not be good enough. We can’t just "know" the word of God, it has to be lived out. That’s the whole point with the true logos. It became flesh. It can only be fully revealed when it is lived. This logos that is passed on to us must be lived out. The way to truly live it out is walk the path of glory that Jesus has revealed and to be unified in the same sort of unity that he has demonstrated in his relationship with the Father.
"If we say we love God yet hate a brother or sister, we are liars. For if we do not love a fellow believer, whom we have seen, we cannot love God, whom we have not seen. And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love one another" (1 Jn. 4:20-21). John’s words from his first letter show exactly why Jesus prayed that his future disciples will be one as he and the Father are one. We have to live out the word. We cannot just say we love God without the accompanying unity that it produces. Our unity is based on the unity within the Trinity. God does not show his wisdom throughout the heavenly realms in the reality of the church (Eph. 3:10-11) by taking a bunch of people that have things in common and would normally blend together anyway and crafting them into a community. The world is full of communities of people who share commonalities. What displays God’s wisdom and power is to take a bunch of disparate people with different interests, different backgrounds, from different cultures, races, and nations and to make them one despite their serious differences. The unity of the church is best displayed in its diversity. A monolithic church that is made up mostly of one type of person does not display God’s full glory.
But how is that kind of unity going to be achieved? By displaying the glory that Christ has given to his communities. John says in chapter 13 that Jesus displayed the full extent of his love by laying his life down in service for others and the Father confirmed that he would be glorified and glorify the Son by sending him to the Cross (Jn. 12:28). The full expression of God’s character, God’s glory is seen through the sacrificial act of Jesus laying down his life for his friends and that is exactly what he has called us to do (Jn. 15:12-13). The kind of unity through diversity, the community that Jesus was masterfully building, we must never forget, takes effort and hard work, and being led by the Spirit. These relationships must be built on the foundation of being one in Christ, rather than worldly ideas of what constitutes friendships and communities, things like sharing common interests and backgrounds. It takes the constant act of us choosing to lay down our lives for the benefit of others. It takes nothing short of self-sacrificial love. These will be, after all, communities built on the love we have for one another (Jn. 13:34-35).
It is through this genuine self-giving love that the world will know that the Father has truly sent the Son and that those communities are authentic disciples of the Son. We must realize, however, that this doesn’t mean that the world will admire and even hold us in esteem. It just means that they will know we are his disciples. Those who are truly seeking God will find themselves drawn to the love of God manifested in the genuine Christian community. But those who love the darkness may very well hate disciples and reject them all the more based on that very love. This is a love that does not pattern itself after the world’s parody of love which says that I love when I accept you just as you are, but after a true love that calls each one of us to lay down our lives, enter into the life of Christ and then continue to lay down our lives for others and love them the way that Christ loved all of us.
We must never be swayed by the world’s version of love or their opinion of how God’s people should behave because the world does not know the Father. In Christ alone do we stand on the rock, able to know the Father because he and he alone knows the Father, was sent by the Father and has made the Father known. And how will we know the Father and make him known to the world? By mirroring the self-giving love and complete unity that the Son and the Father share. We will not demonstrate the love of the Father and the Son by backbiting and breaking down into selfish consumption. Every time we run behind another Christian’s back and say something negative about them that is not said in love rather than lovingly talking to them and forging a genuine unity, we preach a powerful sermon to the world about who the Father is. We must constantly ask ourselves then if we are preaching an accurate sermon with our lives? Is "the manifold wisdom of God [being] made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord"? When it comes down to it, I can seek worldly friendships and communities that appeal to my flesh but all they will ever get me is satisfaction of the flesh, they will never demonstrate the wisdom and power of God through my life.
Devotional Thought
What have you been building your friendships on lately? Has it been the desires of the flesh or a genuine desire to be unified in Christ and bring glory to God? Spend some time thinking about that today and pray about your heart in this matter.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
John 17:9-19
9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Dig Deeper
In just a very little while now, my wife and I will be leaving the United States for a nearly three week trip to South Africa. South Africa is truly one of the most beautiful places I have been to in my life, if not the hands down most beautiful. We went there last August and absolutely fell in love with the place. Not just the sites and the country itself, but even more importantly the people. We spent enough time there that we felt like we genuinely got to know the people there. We care about them, miss them, and look forward to seeing them again soon. Yet with all of that, going to see them and be with them is a bit of a struggle and we’re torn a bit (although we’re definitely still going) because we are leaving our sons behind. They will not be making this trip and the thought of leaving them for nearly three weeks is challenging. While we are gone, we plan to leave them with some great friends of ours who have graciously agreed to stay in our house and take care of the boys. They will watch them them for half of the trip and then my parents will come and get the boys and keep them for the other half. When we leave, though, you can believe that we will leave lots of lists and instructions and ask them to take the very best care of our sons as they possibly can. This doesn’t signal a lack of trust in our friends or my parents, just the opposite. We wouldn’t be leaving if we didn’t trust them. Rather, what it does demonstrate is how much we love our boys. It shows that even though we love going to Africa and greatly look forward to seeing our friends there, and we know that we have been called by God to go, nothing can overwhelm the love that we have for our boys. When we are gone, we want to make sure to the very best of our ability that they are cared for and watched over as best as is humanly possible.
As we have seen over the last several chapters of John, Jesus is about to leave his disciples. Up to this point, he has watched over them, cared for them, and nurtured them. But now is the time to go. Jesus knows that this departure will be the cause of great anguish for him and the disciples for a time, but that grief will soon turn to joy as they will see him again. After that, though, he is leaving them physically for good. He is going to return to the Father, yet he loves them very much. Despite all that, he knows he has to leave and in his absence, because he loves them so much, he wants them to be taken care of as much as is possible. It’s not that Jesus doesn’t trust the Father, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s just that he loves his disciples so very much. He’s going to leave them and he wants them watched over. That’s, in its essence, what this prayer is all about.
Jesus’ prayer turns to the real subject of his prayer, the disciples that he is leaving behind. He will eventually pray for those disciples that will come later on, but right now he puts his attention on those that have walked with him and that he is about to leave. He prays for them not the world. That is not to say that Jesus never prays for the world, but they are not the subject of this prayer of preservation and protection. Jesus loves the world (Jn. 3:16), taught his disciples to pray for them (Matt. 5:44), and prayed for the world himself (Luke 23:34), but his prayer here is that the world will converted through the protected mission of his followers. True prayer for the world can only be that they come to the life of Christ and cease to be the world. Any prayer for the world other than that is largely unfruitful. The world does not need preservation or protection from itself, rather they need conversion, but Jesus’ disciples will need protection after he is gone.
Jesus declares in his prayer a rather bold statement concerning the Father as he appeals to the Father to preserve those that He has given him. All I have, says Jesus, is yours, and all you have is mine. Saying that everything he had was the Father’s is not that remarkable of statement only insomuch as it is completely true in the case of Jesus rather than an ideal. What is remarkable is that Jesus says that all that is the Father’s is his. No one else could presume to make such a statement except Jesus. What belongs to the Father, belongs to him, including his disciples. Jesus’ disciples didn’t have to hope that the Father would continue to watch over them once Jesus had left. They actually belonged to the Father. They would be protected in the very name, the very life that God had given to his eternal son. They would be able to enter into that life and so be preserved in the world even though they would remain in the world. Jesus had protected them through the power and authority of his life while he was with them and the only exception to that was Judas. That, as Jesus is careful to point out, was not because Jesus was careless or incapable of doing so. The Father knew that the one would betray Jesus. He was doomed to destruction, which doesn’t mean that this was a fate that Judas had from which he could not escape, rather it means that his character was as such and he chose such a path that doomed him to reject God’s will. Scripture had foretold that, so they need not question God’s provision or power. He is, after all, the Holy Father, stressing both His immutable nature, His holiness, as well as his tender provision as the Father.
Jesus’ time had come and he would soon be returning to the glory of the Father’s presence. As he continues his prayer, Jesus reveals that part of the purpose of his prayer and all of his words to his disciples during his farewell discourse have been for the benefit of the disciples. He wanted to assure them both in the present and in the future when he is gone. Everything that Jesus did for his disciples and everything he does for us, we can rest assured, is for our benefit that we may have the full measure of his joy within us. In Jewish thought, complete joy would only come in the age to come, so Jesus says no small thing here. His words, prayers, and subsequent actions will allow them and us to enjoy in the life of God’s age to come now through the life of Christ.
If we remember that John, in using the term "logos", or "word," was likely appealing to both the Old Testament concept of the Word of God that proceeded from God and carried out His will, and the Greek logos, the ordering principle of the Universe. Jesus has surely given his disciples that word, that logos, and because of it the world has hated, and will continue to hate them, just as it has hated him, and by implication, hated the Father. The fact that any disciple of Jesus must come to terms with is that we will be in the world and the world’s values will always reject the values of Christ. Jesus didn’t pray that they be taken out of the world, that would be contrary to the whole point of creating communities of faith in the life of Christ. His prayer is that they be protected from falling prey to the evil one. The values of the life of Christ simply do not and never will match with the world, so Jesus’ disciples will never be part of the world’s system any more than he is.
This is such an instructive point for the Christian church today. Everywhere we turn in American Christianity, we see so-called Gospel appeals that are designed to appeal to the world through the values of the world. We’ll pull them in, so goes this line of thinking, with a series or an approach that is built on worldly ideals and values but that has a veneer, perhaps of Christian Gospel on it. The world’s values will never match with the values of Christ and Christians need to stop trying. Instead, we must realize that our call is to call the world out of the world. We are to be in the world but not of the world so that we can help the world to stop being the world. We must not give into the temptation to become like the world and think that this will somehow attract them to the Gospel.
The people of God are sanctified by the the truth, as Jesus prayed that we would be. To sanctify something is to cleanse it and set it apart for holiness. Jesus is about to set himself apart by going to the Cross, the very means that will enable those who enter his life to be set apart as God’s people. We are sanctified and set apart by the logos, which is truth. God’s people don’t need to take on the values of the world to win the world. We are to be set apart. We may need to act in such a way as to remove any barriers to people hearing the Gospel (which is what Paul was talking about in 1 Cor. 9:20) but that is a far cry from the attempts many Christian groups have made recently to become like the world or be perceived in a positive light by the world.
Jesus knows that his disciples have been set apart so that their work might closely parallel his. Just as he was sanctified and set apart and sent into the world (Jn. 10:36) by the Father, so Jesus now sanctifies them and sends them into the world The whole purpose of this mission is that they might change the world rather than having the world determine who they are going to be. Jesus will die so that his followers might be sanctified and sent not sullied and absorbed.
Devotional Thought
Jesus says that he sanctified himself for his disciples so that they may be sent into the world for the sake of the world. Have you ever thought of it in those terms? Jesus died for us, sanctifying himself, so that we might be set apart for God’s purposes and sent into the world. Do you go about doing that mission or do you spend more time shrinking back from it and seeking your own will.
13 "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Dig Deeper
In just a very little while now, my wife and I will be leaving the United States for a nearly three week trip to South Africa. South Africa is truly one of the most beautiful places I have been to in my life, if not the hands down most beautiful. We went there last August and absolutely fell in love with the place. Not just the sites and the country itself, but even more importantly the people. We spent enough time there that we felt like we genuinely got to know the people there. We care about them, miss them, and look forward to seeing them again soon. Yet with all of that, going to see them and be with them is a bit of a struggle and we’re torn a bit (although we’re definitely still going) because we are leaving our sons behind. They will not be making this trip and the thought of leaving them for nearly three weeks is challenging. While we are gone, we plan to leave them with some great friends of ours who have graciously agreed to stay in our house and take care of the boys. They will watch them them for half of the trip and then my parents will come and get the boys and keep them for the other half. When we leave, though, you can believe that we will leave lots of lists and instructions and ask them to take the very best care of our sons as they possibly can. This doesn’t signal a lack of trust in our friends or my parents, just the opposite. We wouldn’t be leaving if we didn’t trust them. Rather, what it does demonstrate is how much we love our boys. It shows that even though we love going to Africa and greatly look forward to seeing our friends there, and we know that we have been called by God to go, nothing can overwhelm the love that we have for our boys. When we are gone, we want to make sure to the very best of our ability that they are cared for and watched over as best as is humanly possible.
As we have seen over the last several chapters of John, Jesus is about to leave his disciples. Up to this point, he has watched over them, cared for them, and nurtured them. But now is the time to go. Jesus knows that this departure will be the cause of great anguish for him and the disciples for a time, but that grief will soon turn to joy as they will see him again. After that, though, he is leaving them physically for good. He is going to return to the Father, yet he loves them very much. Despite all that, he knows he has to leave and in his absence, because he loves them so much, he wants them to be taken care of as much as is possible. It’s not that Jesus doesn’t trust the Father, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s just that he loves his disciples so very much. He’s going to leave them and he wants them watched over. That’s, in its essence, what this prayer is all about.
Jesus’ prayer turns to the real subject of his prayer, the disciples that he is leaving behind. He will eventually pray for those disciples that will come later on, but right now he puts his attention on those that have walked with him and that he is about to leave. He prays for them not the world. That is not to say that Jesus never prays for the world, but they are not the subject of this prayer of preservation and protection. Jesus loves the world (Jn. 3:16), taught his disciples to pray for them (Matt. 5:44), and prayed for the world himself (Luke 23:34), but his prayer here is that the world will converted through the protected mission of his followers. True prayer for the world can only be that they come to the life of Christ and cease to be the world. Any prayer for the world other than that is largely unfruitful. The world does not need preservation or protection from itself, rather they need conversion, but Jesus’ disciples will need protection after he is gone.
Jesus declares in his prayer a rather bold statement concerning the Father as he appeals to the Father to preserve those that He has given him. All I have, says Jesus, is yours, and all you have is mine. Saying that everything he had was the Father’s is not that remarkable of statement only insomuch as it is completely true in the case of Jesus rather than an ideal. What is remarkable is that Jesus says that all that is the Father’s is his. No one else could presume to make such a statement except Jesus. What belongs to the Father, belongs to him, including his disciples. Jesus’ disciples didn’t have to hope that the Father would continue to watch over them once Jesus had left. They actually belonged to the Father. They would be protected in the very name, the very life that God had given to his eternal son. They would be able to enter into that life and so be preserved in the world even though they would remain in the world. Jesus had protected them through the power and authority of his life while he was with them and the only exception to that was Judas. That, as Jesus is careful to point out, was not because Jesus was careless or incapable of doing so. The Father knew that the one would betray Jesus. He was doomed to destruction, which doesn’t mean that this was a fate that Judas had from which he could not escape, rather it means that his character was as such and he chose such a path that doomed him to reject God’s will. Scripture had foretold that, so they need not question God’s provision or power. He is, after all, the Holy Father, stressing both His immutable nature, His holiness, as well as his tender provision as the Father.
Jesus’ time had come and he would soon be returning to the glory of the Father’s presence. As he continues his prayer, Jesus reveals that part of the purpose of his prayer and all of his words to his disciples during his farewell discourse have been for the benefit of the disciples. He wanted to assure them both in the present and in the future when he is gone. Everything that Jesus did for his disciples and everything he does for us, we can rest assured, is for our benefit that we may have the full measure of his joy within us. In Jewish thought, complete joy would only come in the age to come, so Jesus says no small thing here. His words, prayers, and subsequent actions will allow them and us to enjoy in the life of God’s age to come now through the life of Christ.
If we remember that John, in using the term "logos", or "word," was likely appealing to both the Old Testament concept of the Word of God that proceeded from God and carried out His will, and the Greek logos, the ordering principle of the Universe. Jesus has surely given his disciples that word, that logos, and because of it the world has hated, and will continue to hate them, just as it has hated him, and by implication, hated the Father. The fact that any disciple of Jesus must come to terms with is that we will be in the world and the world’s values will always reject the values of Christ. Jesus didn’t pray that they be taken out of the world, that would be contrary to the whole point of creating communities of faith in the life of Christ. His prayer is that they be protected from falling prey to the evil one. The values of the life of Christ simply do not and never will match with the world, so Jesus’ disciples will never be part of the world’s system any more than he is.
This is such an instructive point for the Christian church today. Everywhere we turn in American Christianity, we see so-called Gospel appeals that are designed to appeal to the world through the values of the world. We’ll pull them in, so goes this line of thinking, with a series or an approach that is built on worldly ideals and values but that has a veneer, perhaps of Christian Gospel on it. The world’s values will never match with the values of Christ and Christians need to stop trying. Instead, we must realize that our call is to call the world out of the world. We are to be in the world but not of the world so that we can help the world to stop being the world. We must not give into the temptation to become like the world and think that this will somehow attract them to the Gospel.
The people of God are sanctified by the the truth, as Jesus prayed that we would be. To sanctify something is to cleanse it and set it apart for holiness. Jesus is about to set himself apart by going to the Cross, the very means that will enable those who enter his life to be set apart as God’s people. We are sanctified and set apart by the logos, which is truth. God’s people don’t need to take on the values of the world to win the world. We are to be set apart. We may need to act in such a way as to remove any barriers to people hearing the Gospel (which is what Paul was talking about in 1 Cor. 9:20) but that is a far cry from the attempts many Christian groups have made recently to become like the world or be perceived in a positive light by the world.
Jesus knows that his disciples have been set apart so that their work might closely parallel his. Just as he was sanctified and set apart and sent into the world (Jn. 10:36) by the Father, so Jesus now sanctifies them and sends them into the world The whole purpose of this mission is that they might change the world rather than having the world determine who they are going to be. Jesus will die so that his followers might be sanctified and sent not sullied and absorbed.
Devotional Thought
Jesus says that he sanctified himself for his disciples so that they may be sent into the world for the sake of the world. Have you ever thought of it in those terms? Jesus died for us, sanctifying himself, so that we might be set apart for God’s purposes and sent into the world. Do you go about doing that mission or do you spend more time shrinking back from it and seeking your own will.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
John 17:1-8
Jesus Prays to Be Glorified
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
"Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
6 "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.
Dig Deeper
I was pretty funny as a young Christian in a lot of ways (that’s funny, "faux pas," not funny, "ha, ha") . One of peculiar things about me at that time was that I did not want to pray with other people. It wasn’t that I was theologically opposed to it or anything quite so noble. When it comes down to it, it was a matter of pride. I felt like I wasn’t very good at praying and didn’t much know what to say and certainly knew that I couldn’t pray with the length and depth in the way that I had had heard some of the older Christians around me do. I actually got pretty creative about avoiding praying in public or with other people because I just didn’t want to do it, even to the point of intentionally asking the person I was having a morning quiet time with a deep biblical question so that they would have to answer and time would run out before we could pray and had to leave for work. In the years since then I’ve discovered that I really missed out in those early days. In a very real sense, you don’t know someone fully, at least concerning the depth of their relationship with God, until you’ve prayed with them. When you pray with someone who is really opening up their heart and soul to God, you discover who they are in a whole new way. You learn who they really are and what is really important to them.
We don’t get to spend time with Jesus the way the first disciples did. We don’t get to walk along the road with him, hear him teach, see what he looks like, or watch him laugh. In a very real sense, we will never know him like that in this present age. Yet, John has done something priceless for us here. He has preserved one of the most incredibly intimate and powerful passages of Scripture in the entire Bible. We are told quite often throughout the Gospels that Jesus regularly spent time alone with the Father in prayer. Yet, there are scant few instances where we are told how he prayed or what he prayed, and when we are it is usually just a few sentences at most. This passage is different, though. John gives us the most complete prayer from Jesus in the entire New Testament and although we’ll never walk with him as John did, we do get to know Jesus through this prayer in a special way. It’s as though John has quietly cracked open the door and quietly motioned us in to observe a quiet and sacred moment with the King himself. We can quietly watch, listen, and learn and feel like, if for only a moment, we were there with him too. We know something special and private about him.
Sometimes you reach a point where there’s nothing left to really say. Everything that you could possibly share with someone else has been said and it’s time to turn to God in prayer. It’s not that prayer is some sort of filler activity once you’ve exhausted all of the other possibilities. It’s that you just get to the point where the Spirit has led you to say what you need to say and there seems to be a solemn moment where the need for prayer becomes evident. Prayer caps things. It is a recognition that everything you’ve been saying or talking about will only happen if it is humbly turned over to God. Jesus knows that that time has come. He has told his disciples everything they need to know for now. He knows that he has reached the point where the only thing he can do is turn his eyes to God and pray.
In the opening prologue to the Gospel, John told us that Jesus was the Word, the logos that had become flesh (Jn. 1:14). He also told us that in the Word was life that would be made available to all men (Jn. 1:4). In the opening verses of Jesus’ prayer, we see both of those themes coming together. Everything that Jesus has done has not come from himself, nor has it been about himself. He seeks no glory for himself, but has done everything for the glory of the Father. His life and ministry have glorified the Father and now as he makes his way towards the Cross, he will glorify God to the fullest extent. The Father has given him a mission and full authority. But that authority was to bring judgment or condemnation, it was to bring eternal life.
The phrase "eternal life" meant something different in Jesus’ day than it tends to in ours. We tend to think of "eternal life" as the duration of time after our deaths when we go off to heaven to live forever. But that is precisely what Jesus and his followers did not mean by that phrase. "Eternal life" is a translation of the Greek phrase "zoe aionios" and it literally means "life of the ages" or "life of the age to come." The age to come was the time when God would restore the creation and return to dwell with His people in a restored world. Jesus does not deny that belief, rather he confirmed in during his life (Matt. 19:28), but what was surprising was that he taught that those who would die to themselves and enter into his life could have that life, could actually enter into the age to come while still in the present age. Those who did so would receive the Holy Spirit as a down payment guaranteeing that they would be part of the resurrection and enter into the full age to come one day.
Jesus came with life, this life of the age to come, within him. Those that were given to Jesus through the calling and grace of the Father would receive eternal life. What is eternal life, though, what is the life of that age in the present age? It is to know the only true God, to know Jesus and his life. Having the life of Christ and living it out, complete with the access that it brings to the Father, is the life of the age to come in the present, a life that anticipates the fully consummated age to come of which those in Christ will be a part one day. It is curious that Jesus would talk of himself in the third person here, praying that his disciples might know "Jesus Christ." Perhaps, we can speculate, that this is one point where John has changed the wording of the original prayer just slightly from "me" to "Jesus Christ" so that we can truly enter into this prayer and take it on as our own.
That eternal life has come in two ways. It has come first through the words that the Father gave him. The Word brought about the reality of the new creation through his words. The Logos has brought the logos that will restore justice and order to the universe. Those who obeyed this logos have come to the life of the Logos and found the life of the age to come. Those who accepted that word and obeyed can actually enter into the life of it. In the ancient way of thinking, the word of God was an oracle. Oracles were actually viewed with great sanctity because they were believed to have come directly from God and carry the power of that God. If we recall that in Greek thought, the logos was the ordering principle of the universe, we begin to see what Jesus is saying here and what John wants us to see. Everything that Jesus has said has come from God and those words were actually bringing about the restoration of the creation. Those who embraced and obeyed those words could become a part of the reconciliation itself (cf. 2 Cor. 5:16-21).
Above all else, what really stands out as we go through this prayer that John has preserved for us is the invitation to catch a glimpse of the relationship between Jesus and the Father. That’s the beauty of praying with someone else, or in this case being able to "hear" Jesus’ prayer. Normally, I don’t truly know what goes on between you and God. But our prayers are a window into the true relationship between someone and God. What we see here is that Jesus’ inner relationship with God is exactly the same dynamic that he has described throughout his ministry. He looks to the Father for guidance. He waits on the Father’s timing, only acting when the hour has come as directed by the Father. Everything he does is about bringing glory to the Father and only asking that he be glorified or allowed to express himself fully so that his own glorification will actually serve the purpose of bringing full glory to the Father. That isn’t just something he claimed to others, it’s something he embraced and celebrated in his relationship with the Father. He has ushered in the new creation, but has done so because it is the work the Father gave him to do. He desperately wishes to return to the presence and relationship that he had with the Father eternally.
It is striking that above all else, Jesus wants nothing more than to be in perfect and intimate relationship with God. John doesn’t try to delve into the theology of how all that works but simply wants to show us the majesty of the eternal and unbreakable relationship between Jesus and the Father. The relationship is so close that Jesus recognizes that everything he has comes from the Father and everything he does is in accordance with the Father’s will. At the most intense and difficult moment of his life, Jesus doesn’t shrink back or stop for one moment because he knows the intimacy that he and the Father share. He knows that he has spoken the words that the Father gave him and that those who accept those words will enter into and enjoy the same relationship with the Father that he has. The very heart of this prayer, though, is more about others than about Jesus himself. As we will see in the next section, this prayer is not just a celebration of the relationship between the Father and the Son but an invitation for us to join into that relationship and share in everything that the Son has with the Father.
Devotional Thought
One thing that we see clearly here is that Jesus’ public life and ministry reflected the same and very genuine relationship that he had with the Father. There was no pretension and no putting on a show for others. Can you say the same about yourself? Are you the same in public, in private, and in prayer? Do you take action on the things that you pray about so that if someone were to listen to your prayers they would see those same things manifested in your life?
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
"Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
6 "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.
Dig Deeper
I was pretty funny as a young Christian in a lot of ways (that’s funny, "faux pas," not funny, "ha, ha") . One of peculiar things about me at that time was that I did not want to pray with other people. It wasn’t that I was theologically opposed to it or anything quite so noble. When it comes down to it, it was a matter of pride. I felt like I wasn’t very good at praying and didn’t much know what to say and certainly knew that I couldn’t pray with the length and depth in the way that I had had heard some of the older Christians around me do. I actually got pretty creative about avoiding praying in public or with other people because I just didn’t want to do it, even to the point of intentionally asking the person I was having a morning quiet time with a deep biblical question so that they would have to answer and time would run out before we could pray and had to leave for work. In the years since then I’ve discovered that I really missed out in those early days. In a very real sense, you don’t know someone fully, at least concerning the depth of their relationship with God, until you’ve prayed with them. When you pray with someone who is really opening up their heart and soul to God, you discover who they are in a whole new way. You learn who they really are and what is really important to them.
We don’t get to spend time with Jesus the way the first disciples did. We don’t get to walk along the road with him, hear him teach, see what he looks like, or watch him laugh. In a very real sense, we will never know him like that in this present age. Yet, John has done something priceless for us here. He has preserved one of the most incredibly intimate and powerful passages of Scripture in the entire Bible. We are told quite often throughout the Gospels that Jesus regularly spent time alone with the Father in prayer. Yet, there are scant few instances where we are told how he prayed or what he prayed, and when we are it is usually just a few sentences at most. This passage is different, though. John gives us the most complete prayer from Jesus in the entire New Testament and although we’ll never walk with him as John did, we do get to know Jesus through this prayer in a special way. It’s as though John has quietly cracked open the door and quietly motioned us in to observe a quiet and sacred moment with the King himself. We can quietly watch, listen, and learn and feel like, if for only a moment, we were there with him too. We know something special and private about him.
Sometimes you reach a point where there’s nothing left to really say. Everything that you could possibly share with someone else has been said and it’s time to turn to God in prayer. It’s not that prayer is some sort of filler activity once you’ve exhausted all of the other possibilities. It’s that you just get to the point where the Spirit has led you to say what you need to say and there seems to be a solemn moment where the need for prayer becomes evident. Prayer caps things. It is a recognition that everything you’ve been saying or talking about will only happen if it is humbly turned over to God. Jesus knows that that time has come. He has told his disciples everything they need to know for now. He knows that he has reached the point where the only thing he can do is turn his eyes to God and pray.
In the opening prologue to the Gospel, John told us that Jesus was the Word, the logos that had become flesh (Jn. 1:14). He also told us that in the Word was life that would be made available to all men (Jn. 1:4). In the opening verses of Jesus’ prayer, we see both of those themes coming together. Everything that Jesus has done has not come from himself, nor has it been about himself. He seeks no glory for himself, but has done everything for the glory of the Father. His life and ministry have glorified the Father and now as he makes his way towards the Cross, he will glorify God to the fullest extent. The Father has given him a mission and full authority. But that authority was to bring judgment or condemnation, it was to bring eternal life.
The phrase "eternal life" meant something different in Jesus’ day than it tends to in ours. We tend to think of "eternal life" as the duration of time after our deaths when we go off to heaven to live forever. But that is precisely what Jesus and his followers did not mean by that phrase. "Eternal life" is a translation of the Greek phrase "zoe aionios" and it literally means "life of the ages" or "life of the age to come." The age to come was the time when God would restore the creation and return to dwell with His people in a restored world. Jesus does not deny that belief, rather he confirmed in during his life (Matt. 19:28), but what was surprising was that he taught that those who would die to themselves and enter into his life could have that life, could actually enter into the age to come while still in the present age. Those who did so would receive the Holy Spirit as a down payment guaranteeing that they would be part of the resurrection and enter into the full age to come one day.
Jesus came with life, this life of the age to come, within him. Those that were given to Jesus through the calling and grace of the Father would receive eternal life. What is eternal life, though, what is the life of that age in the present age? It is to know the only true God, to know Jesus and his life. Having the life of Christ and living it out, complete with the access that it brings to the Father, is the life of the age to come in the present, a life that anticipates the fully consummated age to come of which those in Christ will be a part one day. It is curious that Jesus would talk of himself in the third person here, praying that his disciples might know "Jesus Christ." Perhaps, we can speculate, that this is one point where John has changed the wording of the original prayer just slightly from "me" to "Jesus Christ" so that we can truly enter into this prayer and take it on as our own.
That eternal life has come in two ways. It has come first through the words that the Father gave him. The Word brought about the reality of the new creation through his words. The Logos has brought the logos that will restore justice and order to the universe. Those who obeyed this logos have come to the life of the Logos and found the life of the age to come. Those who accepted that word and obeyed can actually enter into the life of it. In the ancient way of thinking, the word of God was an oracle. Oracles were actually viewed with great sanctity because they were believed to have come directly from God and carry the power of that God. If we recall that in Greek thought, the logos was the ordering principle of the universe, we begin to see what Jesus is saying here and what John wants us to see. Everything that Jesus has said has come from God and those words were actually bringing about the restoration of the creation. Those who embraced and obeyed those words could become a part of the reconciliation itself (cf. 2 Cor. 5:16-21).
Above all else, what really stands out as we go through this prayer that John has preserved for us is the invitation to catch a glimpse of the relationship between Jesus and the Father. That’s the beauty of praying with someone else, or in this case being able to "hear" Jesus’ prayer. Normally, I don’t truly know what goes on between you and God. But our prayers are a window into the true relationship between someone and God. What we see here is that Jesus’ inner relationship with God is exactly the same dynamic that he has described throughout his ministry. He looks to the Father for guidance. He waits on the Father’s timing, only acting when the hour has come as directed by the Father. Everything he does is about bringing glory to the Father and only asking that he be glorified or allowed to express himself fully so that his own glorification will actually serve the purpose of bringing full glory to the Father. That isn’t just something he claimed to others, it’s something he embraced and celebrated in his relationship with the Father. He has ushered in the new creation, but has done so because it is the work the Father gave him to do. He desperately wishes to return to the presence and relationship that he had with the Father eternally.
It is striking that above all else, Jesus wants nothing more than to be in perfect and intimate relationship with God. John doesn’t try to delve into the theology of how all that works but simply wants to show us the majesty of the eternal and unbreakable relationship between Jesus and the Father. The relationship is so close that Jesus recognizes that everything he has comes from the Father and everything he does is in accordance with the Father’s will. At the most intense and difficult moment of his life, Jesus doesn’t shrink back or stop for one moment because he knows the intimacy that he and the Father share. He knows that he has spoken the words that the Father gave him and that those who accept those words will enter into and enjoy the same relationship with the Father that he has. The very heart of this prayer, though, is more about others than about Jesus himself. As we will see in the next section, this prayer is not just a celebration of the relationship between the Father and the Son but an invitation for us to join into that relationship and share in everything that the Son has with the Father.
Devotional Thought
One thing that we see clearly here is that Jesus’ public life and ministry reflected the same and very genuine relationship that he had with the Father. There was no pretension and no putting on a show for others. Can you say the same about yourself? Are you the same in public, in private, and in prayer? Do you take action on the things that you pray about so that if someone were to listen to your prayers they would see those same things manifested in your life?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)