HIS MIRACULOUS TEACHING

The Feast of Booths had begun before Jesus arrived in Jerusalem. He hid in the crowds listening to the people, discerning what His Father was doing in their hearts. Right in the middle of the celebration He went up into the temple and began to teach. His authority was so obvious that no one challenged him. They marveled at His teaching. 

They said, “How has this man come to know so much without studying in one of the rabbinic schools?” 

Jesus proclaimed, “My teaching is not my own, but His who sent me. If you want to do God's will, you will know whether my teaching comes from God, or whether I teach on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own seeks to glorify himself. But the one who speaks for another has no reason to lie. Moses gave you the law and none of you keep it. So why are you trying to kill me?” The people looked nervously around and saw several Pharisees in the crowd. No one dared admit that they wanted to kill him. The leaders of the people had publicly turned against Jesus at a previous feast when He healed a man on the Sabbath.

Someone in the crowd, possibly a Pharisee, shouted, “You must have a demon. Who is trying to kill you?” Most of the people trembled at this denial. Jesus ignored the comment.

“You perform circumcisions on the Sabbath for the law to be observed. Why are you upset that I made a man’s whole body well on the Sabbath? Do not judge by mere appearances but by what is true and right.”

The people began to wonder why the Pharisees had not said more. Some of them began to say, “Is this not the man they want to kill? He is speaking openly and the rulers do nothing to stop him. Could our leaders know in their hearts that he really is the Christ?”

Others were saying, “But we know where this man comes from.” They had heard rabbis teach that no one will know where the Messiah comes from when he appears. 

Jesus responded to this as He taught in the temple. “You know who I am. And you can know who sent me by what I do. I did not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, but you do not know Him. I know Him for I came from Him.” The tension continued to build. The only reason no one laid a hand on Him was because His time had not yet come.

Yet many of the people believed, saying, “When the Christ comes, will He give us more signs than this man?” When the Pharisees heard the people say this they reported to the council. And the chief priests sent officers to arrest Jesus. 

An eerie feeling filled the temple as Jesus said, “I will only be with you a little while. I must return to my Father. You will seek me and will not find me. For where I am going you cannot come.” The people questioned one another about this. “Where was he about to go? The whole crowd was mesmerised as Jesus promised those who would believe that their souls would cease to hunger and thirst. He said rivers of living water would flow from within them. 

As the feast came to an end the officers returned to the council. The chief priests demanded, “Why did you not arrest him?”

The officers looked sheepishly at one another. The ranking officer among them said, “No one ever spoke like this man.” 

The Pharisees scorned them. “Have you been deceived as well? This rabble who do not know the law are cursed.” When Nicodemus, one of their number, said that they had never really given Jesus a hearing, they scorned him as well. “ Are you from Galilee too?” they asked.

 

 

 

This story was taken from John 7:14-46

 

 

Lord, you speak to us like no one ever has. Saturate our lives with your teaching, so that rivers of living water may flow from us.

 

 

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IF YOU DO THESE THINGS

 

After the large group of disciples deserted him Jesus ministered only in Galilee for some time. He did not go at all into Judea because the Jewish hierarchy were threatening to kill him. With the Feast of Booths at hand Jesus went back to his childhood home in Nazareth. There he found his brothers and sisters and their families gathered. His oldest brother, Joseph, welcomed him. 

“Jesus! We are glad to see you. We are preparing to go to Jerusalem for the feast and were expecting to see you there.”

Jesus said, “I sent my disciples on to Jerusalem with their families. I think I would rather stay here where it is quiet.” 

His brother James said, “We have been talking about this, Jesus. You need to go up to Jerusalem. We hear that you are doing amazing miracles. We still cannot figure out how you could have produced wine when they ran out at that wedding in Cana. Some people are saying you turned the water in the stone jars into wine.” 

Joseph said, “Listen, if you really do these things, you need to go where your followers will see what you do. No one who is trying to become prominent should work in secret.”

Jesus answered, “You don’t understand the situation. Timing is crucial for me. The time is always right for you. The world cannot hate you. Your lives reflect the world around us. The world hates me because everything I do and say testifies that their works are evil. You go on to the feast. I am not going up to the feast with you. My time has not yet fully come.”

After the rest of the family left Jesus began to pray. After a few moments he heard someone talking outside the house. He went to the door and saw his mother and his youngest brother talking to his Aunt Susanna and her son David. As Susanna and her son turned to go Jesus stepped out to meet Mary and Simon.

“What is happening? Why have you not started for Jerusalem?” Mary sent Simon into the house with directions to get some things. 

To Jesus she said “We were all meeting at the synagogue to travel together. And Susanna's son Jesse arrived with a donkey cart. That meant we could take a few more things for the journey. Susanna and David returned for a skin of wine. And I came back for some blankets and a round of cheese. Are you sure you won’t go with us to the feast?”

“No, mother. I cannot go until the timing is right.”

“I suppose I understand, son. But you said your time had not yet come at the wedding feast. And God still honored what you did.”

“I know mother. But I would not have done anything then without my Father’s prompting. I am afraid my brothers did not understand that at all.”

“I know, son. They never understood your motivations. Your father and I have not always understood. But your brothers and sisters were not shown God’s plan by an angel as Joseph and I were. It was more than your brothers could understand, when you stood in the synagogue and said the prophecy of Isaiah was being fulfilled in you. It is difficult for them to believe the brother that they have known all their lives came from God.” 

Jesus nodded his understanding. “Be assured that my Heavenly Father is speaking to them. In time, they will come to believe.” As They were talking Simon came out of the house loaded down with blankets, and Susanna and David came back along the road. 

Mary put her hand on his arm and said, “It is not for me to say, but I think God’s time for you is very near. You must pray about coming to the feast in order to be ready when your time does come.” Jesus said goodbye and returned to the house to pray. 

After a while, he too arose and started north on the road to Jerusalem. He did not join a group for the journey. He entered the city secretly to observe what was being said. The people were all whispering about him. But no one dared speak of Jesus openly because the chief priests and rabbis were so angry.

Some of the people were saying, “He is a good man.” 

Others said, “When the messiah comes will he show us more signs than this man?”

Still others argued, “It doesn’t matter how many miracles he does, he is leading the people astray. Don’t all of our leaders oppose him?”

 

 

 

 

This story was based on certain things in John 7:1-13.

 

Father, the world hates us more and more as we draw nearer to You. Help us be sensitive to Your timing and your prompting in our lives.

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JESUS KNOWS

 

(It has been 4 weeks since I posted one of these stories based upon the signs of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John. This story is actually a continuation of a supposed gathering of the disciples who were at table when Jesus first instituted the Lord’s Supper, now a full year later.)

We sat together for a while after we had eaten, all of us reluctant to leave the fellowship. Thomas spoke up.

“I’ve been thinking about those men who quarreled with Jesus the day after He fed the multitude. They all would have said with force that they believed in Jesus. But Jesus knows our hearts. He knew they didn’t really believe. Their faith was in what they wanted. They only believed in Jesus as long as they thought they could control Him. It desturbed them when He said He was the Son of God. He was more than someone they could use to get whatever they wanted.

Philip spoke up. “I suppose the same was true of Judas. I for one never saw that he was about to betray Jesus. But Jesus knew.”

James (the younger) said, “When Jesus gave us the power to heal and cast out demons, he didn’t exclude Judas. I partnered with him when we went from town to town. Judas did everything Jesus told us to do. That included miracles that I hardly had enough faith to attempt. 

Andrew said, “I remember Judas questioning some things Jesus did, but I was questioning too. He once said he wondered how Jesus came from heaven if his parents still lived in Nazareth. But he immediately said, even though we didn’t understand many things, he knew we could trust Jesus.

Matthew said, “When all the others had abandoned Jesus, as John reminded us tonight, Judas stayed with us. He seemed to be quite as stirred as I when Peter said to the Lord, ‘You have the words of eternal life. And we know and believe that you are the Holy One of God.’”

Peter nodded and said, “Of course, Jesus often warned us that one of us was going to betray him. I think Judas must have told himself that if Jesus really knew that he was the betrayer, He would have sent him away. I certainly would have. For that matter, even though I declared then that we believed, I may have been the weakest of all. On the night of the supper he told me I would deny him. And even after I did, he brought me back.”

Thomas said, “All of us wondered why Jesus did not send us away, me most of all in the end.”

John said, “His clearest word about Judas was on the night of the supper. But even though I was leaning on Jesus, I didn’t understand what He was saying. In fact, when He said it was the one sharing the plate with Him, I was afraid it was me. I do think He was warning all of us that our faith was weak.”

Peter said, “I think Judas may have understood on that night. By then he must have thought he had to go through with it. Of course the devil had him by then. This reminds me that Jesus clearly told us that we need God working in us to believe. We cannot do it on our own. I suppose God had to be working in us from before we were born, for any of us to trust Him.

The idea for this story came from John 6:60-71.

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