Bible Reading Challenge Blog

This is the most comprehensive chapter on Jesus proclaiming to the world who he truly is.  You will find no other Scripture that highlights the person of Jesus, from the mouth of Jesus, than this one.  The chapter begins with the healing of a man who is laying by the pool waiting for, as some manuscripts say, an angel of the Lord who would periodically come into the water to bathe and stir up the water.  First one in wins!  The man complains to Jesus that he has no one to help him into the water.  But did you hear the question Jesus asks the man: “Do you want to be made well?”  The implication was: are you sure that you want to enter the mainstream of society when you could remain as you are, crippled, without hope, but also without responsibility and having people serving you on a daily basis.  It is an insulting question with ramifications that are equally disturbing.  Who in their right mind would ever choose the life that he is living, even if not everyone would be equally motivated?  Even if we are not disabled, there are certainly times when we do not want to be healed, at least not just yet.  We want to wallow in our self pity and allow people to see the true difficulties that life holds for us.  It becomes a prison for us then.  Jesus does not address the man’s complaint of there being no one to help him.  He doesn’t even give him a choice or allow him to say either yes or no, I want to be healed.  He just heals him.

Above you can find the pool where Jesus healed the blind man.  It is still there and you can see the five porticoes and you can imagine what it would have looked like with the people draped around it looking and waiting for the healing that they hoped would come.  Did you notice the conversation that takes place when the healed man is confronted by the religious leaders?  They chastise him for carrying his mat on the Sabbath, which is okay, because you were not supposed to do that.  But when he responds that he was healed and that the man who healed him told him to carry it their response is really telling.

Instead of focusing on the fact that this man was healed, which should have stopped them in their tracks since it was a cause for celebration, they asked him who it was who told him to carry his mat.  The question was not: “Who healed you?”  The question was: “Who told you to carry your mat?”  I would think that if I heard that someone was healed I would be focusing on the healing and not on the breaking of the law.  This is what the pastor said this past Sunday.  Sometimes we are so focused on the rules and the regulations that we miss the compassion and the miracle that Jesus provides us in relationships.  

If you then take this chapter and read from vs. 17 all the way through the end you hear Jesus speak about who he is.  This is crucial.  Here he tells those who would listen that he is equal to the Father.  Here he speaks about the raising of the dead and that the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.  He defines himself as greater than John and being directly sent by the Father, in fact that he is equal to the Father.  Only John provides us with such an extensive understanding of who Jesus is.

The Samaritan woman at the well gives us so many insights into who Jesus is.  We hear that Jesus’ popularity is taking hold and so he is forced to leave Judea, and travel north to Galilee.  Look at the map below and you will get an idea of what was all involved in that journey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So you can see that Jerusalem is firmly ensconced in Judea, right above the Dead Sea on the left or Western side.  As you make your way north toward Galilee you can see Sychar on the map.  There were ways to get around Samaria either on the Sea route or inland, but it would have made the voyage so much longer.  The journey from Judea to Galilee was always considered a very dangerous journey.  You remember the story of the Good Samaritan?  Well the Jewish man was beaten along that same route.  

Samaria was not considered a friendly land for the Jews, but the road had to be taken.  Jesus stops right in the middle of the land, which was unusual and he is there at noon, at the heat of the day.  Not a normal time to stop and take a break, normally you would want to push through at this time.  But what was even more strange was a woman going to the well at noon.  This was the worst time of the day and it was assumed that no one else was going to be at the well at that time.  This is crucial.  She assumed that she would be at the well by herself, and that was the way that she wanted it to be.  Except Jesus was there.  He planned to be there so that he could minister to her even as she was asked for water in vs.7.  

Isn’t that what Jesus does, though?  He meets us right where we are, often on our own home turf and addresses our need, even when we aren’t too sure what our needs might be.  The woman is amazed and wonders if this might be the Messiah.  She becomes the first foreign evangelist bringing the men of the village to come and see.  It reminds me that Jesus has always used men and women to bring about the declaration of his Gospel message.  

So for the first time in these 72 days this post is a day late.  I hope it has nothing to do with the coincidence of the beginning of March Madness.  

Has anyone heard of John 3:16 before?  It is a memory verse that I am sure most of the Western world has seen or heard at least one time.  But what is not often matched with John 3:16 is the following verse in 17.  We read in 16 that God loves the world so much that he sent his Son.  That is then matched with the declaration that Jesus came into the world not so that the world would be condemned, but rather that it would be saved.  That is a crucial part of this chapter.  Jesus came not to condemn, but to save.  The verses that follow 17 give a great road map as to how that salvation works.  Those who believe in Jesus are not condemned.  I hope that doesn’t sound too simplistic, but really there is no other path as we will be reading a little later on in John 14.  This is the consistency that we find in this Gospel.  Jesus is the way, he is the only way.  There are no other paths that lead to heaven except through Jesus Christ.  There is only one God and that God is the one who is fully revealed in Jesus Christ.  Any other worshiping community that lifts up the name of God but is not in the name of Jesus Christ as Lord and God, is only following false idols and false gods. 

There is an incredible tension in our culture today to make sure that you take a stand on either inclusivity or exclusivity.  John 3:16 is incredibly inclusive.  God loved the world, the whole world and the purpose of Jesus is so that the entire world can be saved.  But there is no denying an exclusive aspect to our Christian faith.  The salvation of humanity revolves around Jesus.  Even John the Baptist recognizes this as he states in a quote that we use often at First Presbyterian before our Sunday morning worship: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”  The signs that we talked about in the previous chapter all point to Jesus as Lord, Messiah, and God.  

Getting back to the beginning of the chapter we do find ourselves with Nicodemus who asks the question: What does being born again mean?  I do not hesitate to use that term born again even with the negative baggage that comes with it.  I know that from the Greek it could mean literally born from above, but the question that Nicodemus follows up with: “Can one enter a second time into a mother’s womb?”, makes one think that Jesus must have said born again. Nicodemus takes him literally and is completely confused.  Being born again is a result of our desire and our will being put on hold and Jesus coming in and taking full control of our lives.  Nicodemus knew that Jesus was someone special.  No one else could do what he was doing.  That is the same realization that we have.  Only Jesus is able to answer the prayers that we have seen him answer.  

I use Jesus’ first miracle every single time that I do premarital counseling.  Turning water to wine at a wedding is a wonderful symbol of Jesus wanting the celebration of a marriage to continue and not allow it to stop.  I know it may be a bit of a stretch, but there is some real affinity to Jesus knowing that the party would end, and thus bring shame upon the couple, and wanting it to continue, and thus bringing them praise.  But there was also another lesson in this miracle.  If you notice how vs. 11 describes this miracle you will see a theme that will continue throughout the book of John.  John calls this first miracle a “sign”.  If you look later in the chapter you will see in vs.23 that many believed because of the “signs” that he was doing.  If you back up just a little bit you see them asking in vs. 18 for a “sign” that he was capable of doing all that he said he was able to do.  

The word “sign” in Greek is semenion.  What Jesus is wanting to portray and what John allows us to understand is that every single thing that he did on the earth was a sign pointing to His Father.  The signs that Jesus performed can also be called miracles.  The miracles of Jesus all point to who Jesus is.  Jesus was not quite ready to perform his first sign of turning water to wine, but his mom insisted and who can say no to their mom?

His next sign, which wasn’t much of a miracle but sure did leave a mark on the temple, was to drive out the money changers from the temple.  I know, if you were paying attention to the other Gospels then you would have noticed that Jesus normally drives out the money changers at the end of the Gospel and right after he rides triumphantly into Jerusalem.  This is why I’m loving John because it gives us such a different perspective than the other Gospels.  

I’m lying prostrate on the couch.  I just finished running a marathon and every single muscle, joint, toe, and a plethora of other body parts simply hurt.  I’ve been training for 5 months, and what I can’t get out of my mind is that tomorrow starts a life without training for a marathon or for triathlon.  I’ve been in training mode for over a year now, and I think it is time to take a break and move on.  We just finished the Gospel of Luke and as you open the Gospel of John you will feel like you are taking a break from the Gospels, when in fact you are not.  John is different, very different.  John is my favorite Gospel because he is so different.  His emphasis is completely on showing his readers that Jesus is God.  The divinity of Jesus is underlined over and over again.

As Luke was also the writer of the Acts of the Apostles so John is the writer of Revelation and possibly the Letters of I, II, and III John.  Look near the end of Scripture and you will find those three letters.  They are a lot more like Revelation than they are like the Gospel of John.  The Gospel was thought to be the last one written, and so potentially around 80-90AD.  It is thought to be written to a primarily Jewish audience, as we can see with John stressing the Jewishness of Jesus and his disciples.  The temple and the synagogue are the primary places of teachings and most of what happens in the Gospel happens within a Jewish religious context.  Having said that, unfortunately, John has also been used throughout history as anti-semitic fodder.  The term “Jesus Killers” is picked out of John and others have used this Gospel to underline the culpability of the Jewish race while dismissing, if not completely disregarding, the culpability that we all have in our own betrayal of Jesus.  

Now on to the first chapter of John.  There is honestly too much in the first chapter for me to put in this blog.  As you read it I want you to think about what it means that we say that Jesus is God in the flesh.  Jesus is one of us, and yet also totally other.  John 1 gives us the trinitarian theology that tells us that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all present at creation.  Did you hear what I said?  The Son was present at creation.  Our single God never separates from Himself, but rather all three persons are present at the same time at all times.  

As you read this chapter I would love for you to focus on the verses 1-16 and you will find so much of the heart of our Christian theology.  I can’t wait to break into John, I hope you will love it as much as I do.

Luke has a great celebration to end his Gospel.  While at the beginning you find the women terrified and (vs.5) bowing their faces to the ground you find the men amazed and disbelieving that God could act as he had promised all along.  Poor guys, they were absolutely clueless on the road to Emmaus.  Twice we read that the men thought the women were just telling idle tales (vs.11,22).  Now we can excuse them somewhat because Scripture says (vs.16) that their eyes were kept from seeing Jesus.  This is the same concept that we read when God hardened Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus.  We also read Jesus’ words when he states that the Pharisees are kept from seeing as well in John 9:40.  I know that is coming up next but we do find in Scripture that not only are people not understanding but that God actually makes people not understand.  Okay, that’s a bit troubling.  Why would God make people not understand?  That really isn’t fair, is it?  Moses responds that the reason why God closed Pharaoh’s heart was so that God’s glory could be revealed even more powerfully, which in fact did happen.

The road to Emmaus is a classic Scripture and it is one that we will be using for Easter this year.  I have a request for all of you that are reading this.  If you have a smartphone go ahead and download the following App:  Augment (the image should be a white box inside a red border inside a black border).  Just have it handy with you on Easter Sunday and what you will see take place is a bit hokie, but effective in understanding the Scripture that we have before us.  The disciples have no idea that it was Jesus in their midst, and he lets them know what they are missing.   At verse 25 he tells them that they are foolish and slow of heart to believe.  That does sound like us, doesn’t it?  

Starting at vs. 50 you have one of the most genuinely joyful scenes of Scripture even as Jesus is raised in the Ascension.  We read that he lifted his hands and blessed them and they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and every day they were in the temple blessing God.  Now that sounds good!  We get a hint that there are greater things to come with this body of people.  Remember that Luke is the author of the Acts of Apostles so we know that the early church has really just begun.   

Luke gives us an image of what an innocent Pilate could look like.  If you read these verses carefully you will see the pains to which the Gospel writer goes to show how Pilate did everything in his power to free Jesus.  Three times (vs.22) he tells the religious leaders that he sees no fault in Jesus and that he is going to just torture him and then let him go free.  But he was so swayed by the people that he could not stand up to them and eventually allowed them to have his way.  A reticent Pilate becomes an enabler.  

How often do we see things that we just know are not the way that God had planned them to be in our families, or in our neighborhoods, or in our churches and we just don’t think that we have any power or any control over  what happens next so we do nothing, we just remain quiet.  If nothing else, Pilate is a great case study for someone like us who knows what the right thing to do is and yet don’t do it because we don’t trust that God has our back. 

I find it interesting that Herod and Pilate have their own little love story in this Scripture.  We rarely see a personal touch as Luke includes in vs.12 and it almost seems as if they were having fun.  

What is not fun to read is what happens to Jesus in all of this.  It is interesting that Luke does not have Jesus being whipped and beaten like the other Gospels.  Instead we have this Via Dolorosa that Jesus takes, which literally means the way of pain or suffering.  He has an interaction with Simon of Cyrene who is compelled to carry Jesus’ cross.  He didn’t volunteer, I just think he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Jesus addresses a group of women, probably hired, who were mourning Jesus’ eventual death.  He turns to them and tells them to knock it off.  Well, not really, but he does tell them not to worry about him, but rather about themselves as the future does not look promising.

The two thieves are good cop and bad cop with the good cop chastising the bad cop for not realizing the position in which they were in.  I wanted to include a link to Monty Python’s “Always look on the bright side of life” but there is a bad word in the song and I couldn’t do it.  But whenever I get to the story of the thieves I can’t help but see that scene.  What we often forget in that scene is Jesus’ promise to the good thief that this day he shall join him in paradise.  

The death of Jesus allows those who are witnessing to realize that they missed the opportunity and this was truly, as the centurion stated, an innocent man.  Joseph of Arimathea comes around and lays Jesus’ body in the tomb and the women witnessed  and they will return in a few days.

It seems like there should be 5 chapters wrapped up into one chapter here.  So many events in the life of Christ take place, and they are extraordinarily memorable events.  Think about the progression that takes place in the chapter, and try to follow the mood and the excitement that ebbs and flows during the chapter.  Jesus begins the chapter as the Alpha in that region.  We read that the religious leaders “were afraid of the people” because of Jesus.  He is without a doubt one of the most popular and influential people in the region in that time period.  But then all it takes is one person to begin to sow seeds of discontent that can then escalate into a train that is running which cannot be stopped.  Judas’ motivation, according to Luke, was money.  He consented because they agreed to pay him.  Some of the other Gospel writers may have different approaches to the motivation behind Judas’ betrayal (the realization that Jesus was not instilling a political kingdom, the recognition that there never would be an opportunity to be with the front runner and at the helm of a movement that would bring the kingdom of God on the earth with Israel in charge militarily).  But here Luke is very clear, money was behind his decision making.  

But the disciples and Jesus were not privy to Judas’ decision making.  Okay, Jesus knew, but the disciples were still flying high.  I’m guessing that throughout this whole last week of his life Jesus was pretty reflective and maybe was even considered moody.  I don’t think he joined in the celebrations of Palm Sunday, but was much more serene and stoic than his disciples as he rode into Jerusalem.  That’s my take.  

The last supper takes place and Jesus gives the Words of Institution in the midst of trying to describe who it would be that was going to betray him.  This leads them to ask of themselves who is it that will betray Jesus.  This then leads, and I’m not sure how they get here, to who is the greatest among them as far as being a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Can you imagine that conversation: “I wonder who it is that is going to betray Jesus.  It is probably that John guy, he is so quiet and maybe even mischievous.  Maybe it’s Peter, he seems to be pretty puffed up on himself.  Wait, isn’t Peter the greatest among us, Jesus seems to think so.  Peter?  No way!  I’m the greatest among us, no I’m the greatest.”  It sounds like a room full of Mohammed Ali’s arguing over who is the greatest of all time.  Jesus tells them simply that he has given to them all a seat at the kingdom and that kingdom allows them to eat and drink at the Lord’s table.  Appropriate that on this evening of the Last Supper he gives his disciples the right to eat and drink at His table.  

I love what he does with his disciples starting at vs.35.  He really builds a case for their being able to trust and rely upon his word.  Do you remember when I sent you out without a purse, bag or sandals?  Did you ever find yourself in need?  Now I’m adding this part, and didn’t you think at the time that it was a crazy idea and that it would never work?  Remember that?  Well, did it work out?  Were you ever in need?  So just trust me that things are going to work out.  It is hard to trust someone until you have a bit of a track record with them.

At this point things start to go south.  Jesus prays in the garden and Luke has the very illustrative verses of 43-44 that depict him sweating drops of blood.  I can think of no other more graphic representation of Jesus’ agony than this one.  Judas betrays him, Peter betrays him…three times, the chief priests betray him.  Nuff said.  Things only get worse.

I couldn’t help but think of this image when I read vs. 5-6.

 

 

This church is located in the Italian Alps near Turin in a region called the Waldensian Valleys.  It is a Protestant Church, reformed and Presbyterian in governance.  In those valleys the cathedrals are Protestant because the people for the most part are Protestant.  I know, Protestant valleys in Italy, doesn’t quite make sense.  There is a long history which is tied in with the Huguenots that created safe havens for those fleeing from the government authorities who wanted to persecute them for their religious beliefs in the 15th and 16th centuries and even later.  The actual image above is a scene from just a few months ago of Pope Francis meeting with Waldensian representatives.  This marked the first time that a Pope has ever met officially with representatives from the Waldensian Church.  I remember when I was a pastor in the Waldensian Church and meeting and speaking with then Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict, who said he was basically waiting for us as Protestants to come back to the real church.  Needless to say, he was not my favorite Pope.  This guy is much, much better.  He seems to get it.

But it is the building and the space that reminds us of what we are capable of in order to worship God.  These structures for many are a sign of opulence and exaggeration.  God doesn’t need temples, He doesn’t need gold inlay, He doesn’t need any of the costly materials or buildings that we say we need in order to do ministry.  But the point that Jesus is making is not so much about the opulence of the temple as much as the transience of anything temporal.  “As for all that you see, these things will be thrown down and not one stone will be left upon another.”  The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when he will come back and claim us as his children.

The entire rest of the chapter sounds a lot more like Revelation than it does Luke.  Jesus says: “By your endurance you will gain your souls.” For us today it really means no compromise, which is the principle message from Revelation.  If we endure and keep our faith in our Savior, then our souls will be saved.  If we wander and stray away from the Lord and do not rely and trust in him, then we do need to be aware of the judgment that is coming.  Boy, it all sounds very scary.  As I heard today, if we know Jesus as Savior it doesn’t need to be scary at all.  If we don’t know Jesus, I don’t want people to be disciples out of fear, but fear can be a motivating factor.  I don’t want people to turn to Jesus because of their fear of hell, but I also don’t want to deny that hell exists.

When Jesus states in vs. 32 that this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place, I wonder to which generation he was referring.  What he does tell us is the daily plan that we ought to have: “Be alert at all times…”  That is the key, isn’t it?  We don’t know when those times are going to come, but being alert means being constantly wedded to Christ and his purposes here on this earth.  This is our mission and our calling.

The questioning of Jesus’ authority is nothing new.  But in what context do we see the authority of individuals questioned?  In a similar context the authority of a pastor is not normally questioned within the congregation, especially within the Presbyterian Church (USA) where the session is the governing authority.  If I were to say something on a Sunday morning I don’t believe that people would question that I would have the right to say whatever it might be, as long as it was Scriptural and followed what at least seemed like a lesson from the Scripture.  Authority is that which allows one to speak freely and without reservation.  Authority is that which allows a person to say something and even do something and the ensuing result is not questioned, but rather embraced.  Does a pastor have authority within the church?  Certainly the pastor has influence and hopefully that influence translated into authority.  But even more fortunately within our church there are even more checks and balances than in most churches.  You wouldn’t want me barging ahead thinking I could do anything I want.  It wouldn’t be pretty.

Interestingly those testing Jesus aren’t even able to answer the question of authority in regards to John the Baptist.  They were too afraid of what kind of a response they would get from the people.  So those testing Jesus said they didn’t know by what authority John taught.  Jesus responds in regards to his own authority not with an I don’t know, but rather with I’m not going to tell you.  There is a big difference between these two responses.

The question about the widow and the resurrection is an interesting one.  We fully believe that once we die then immediately we will be with Jesus.  The question often arises, but will we recognize and know each other?  Absolutely, I believe that we will.  I don’t really have a Scripture to back that up, but I don’t have a Scripture that refutes that claim, but this one comes close.  Jesus states that in heaven we will not be marrying and giving away in marriage.  We will not be in the types of relationships that we have here on earth.  Here on the earth we have relationships of give and take, of compromise, of trying to serve the other while making sure our own individuality doesn’t disappear.  Relationships on earth are complicated, and become even more complicated when you have mixed and extended families.  But Jesus says in heaven we will be simply children of God.  When you are a child you don’t worry about marriage.  You have a whole group of friends that you go out with and play.  

As I was growing up in Ventnor, NJ we lived at the Overseas Ministries Study Center right there on Ventnor and Portland Avenues.  It was a massive complex of building a block away from the beach.  Every summer there would be tens of kids who would be back in the United States for the summer as their parents, who were missionaries, were on furlough.  We would have a band of close to 100 kids that would play, roam around the town, make up games, and in short, just have an amazing time.  It was an enchanted childhood.  Every summer a new set of kids would come in, and over time since I was the one who was kind of permanent there, the kids tended to not shy away from me.  It was a setting where during the summer you really didn’t have anything to worry about.  The relationships were easy, quickly made, and then just as quickly the gang of kids was gone, only to be replaced with another a year later.  

When Jesus speaks about being a child of God he expects and wishes for us relationships that are not complicated, or at least certainly relationships that we don’t complicate.  So often we complicate the relationships in which we find ourselves.