I love these last verses of this chapter...they are a fantastic big-picture reminder of what Jesus came to do in the first place.  It is a reminder that His presence isn’t about judgement, though it seems like that’s what we FEEL.  Jesus came to SHOW us that we ARE sinful, and that we can’t escape that truth, but that there is hope and freedom FROM that sin in Him.  Jesus gives us freedom...he doesn’t burden us with judgement.

Sometimes we can feel like we are getting beaten up by the scriptures because we see the standard set by Jesus, and we realize that we can’t live up to that bar...but that isn’t the point of the standard, and that feeling of judgement is really our internal admission that we can’t...the feeling of judgement is a feeling of admission.  In reality, our feeling SHOULD be of thankfulness, of gratefulness, of relief...because that is the reason Jesus came down to us.

As we move into the last section of this letter from John, where we’ll see his death and resurrection, I think this is a great reminder that what’s to come for Jesus is a reminder that we are free from the same...and that guilt and judgement in our lives are emotions of admission rather than emotions that are intended from God; Jesus came to set us free.

One thing thats easy to do for us is to look at these writings as if they are simply journal entries as I am doing here.  I have even often referred to some of these writings as almost sounding as if John is journaling to himself. However, these are not casual writings and there’s so much that went into this kind of “letter” that John wrote, and I just want to elaborate on one of those this morning.

The number seven has significance for John, as does the Greek phrase, Εγω ειμι (E-Go, E-Me), or “I am”.

So, first off - why “7”?  What’s with that particular number?  And what’s with the phrase “I am”?

Volumes have been written on this magic number 7, but apparently numbers in Biblical times were often symbolic of a deeper meaning - maybe the only parallel I can think of for us is the infamous meaning of the “lucky” number 13.  But, a the number seven is especially prominent in Scripture, appearing over 700 times. From the seven days of Creation to the many “sevens” in Revelation, the number seven connotes such concepts as completion and perfection, exoneration and healing, and the fulfillment of promises and oaths.  So it carries significance in these writings.

I am is the covenant name given to God back in Exodus chapter 3, through Moses, and it is also used in Isaiah 43 and 46.  So John is clearly making a statement about Jesus’ identity.

John strategically places seven “I am“ statements within his writings.

He also as designed at seven other stories that contain key moments where John uses this phrase, “I am“:

He also lays out 7 “signs” that Jesus performs during his ministry.

So why do I bring this up and get into this? The thing that this exercise really stresses for me is that John was very intentional about this letter. Again, this isn’t just his “journal“, we are talking about someone who spent a significant amount of time pulling together information and packaging it in a way that would be impactful and useful to the people of the time. The complexity of many of these writings is lost on us because most of us take for granted reading and writing, and we don’t appreciate the artistic nature of these skills in this time.

These ideas just really give rise to thankfulness in my heart, and appreciation for the fact that we can even hold in our hands a bound copy of all of these writings; 66 books from over 40 different people, most of who have never met, written over a period of about 1500 years. It is a miracle we take for granted every day.

In the reading this morning we see 3 events that really have some interesting implications for us.

The first is this scene where Mary pours out an expensive ointment on Jesus’ feet, symbolically blessing Him and praising Him, and Judas (who is the one to betray Him soon) points out that this is a waste and that this ointment could have been sold and the money placed into the moneybag.  Here is the twist though - that moneybag is for giving to the poor, it was under Judas’ care, and he was a regular thief from that bag apparently.  So, this was really a hypocritical comment, and of course Jesus knows this.  We don’t know if all of the disciples know it or not, but John knew this about Judas.  But this is just another great example of hypocrisy, and this wasn’t from the Jews, but from Jesus’ inner circle.  To me, it just illustrates that we ALL are prone to be blind to our own issues and we have to be open to this reality if we want to grow through it.

The second scene is really just a moment where these Pharisees see that everyone is following Jesus, and that they’ve lost their influence, and they make this comment like they are just kind of throwing their hands up in the air...it is v19: “So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.””  I think that is just great...it’s like they have thrown in the towel.  It reinforces this idea that God is going to do what God is going to do...you can either jump on the train and be a part of what He is doing and going to do in the world, or watch it pass you by...it is an open invitation.  They’ve chosen to watch it pass them by.

And then the third scene, the moment when the story of Jesus takes a turn and Jesus opens the door to the eventuality that He is going to be crucified.  Now the ‘Greek’ people, not the Jews, are really wanting to hear from Jesus...they’ve been on the sidelines and Jesus’ teachings have been for the Jewish people mostly; Jesus knows now is the moment when that message needs to get out to the rest of the world.  He goes into a beautiful analogy about a grain of wheat going into the earth to die, to become part of the earth, and to bear fruit ultimately...and he expands on this saying that we, each and every one of us, bust do the same in our own lives...die to ourselves, to our own desires, and transformed into a vessel for God...we become part of God’s plan, part of God’s story.  To do this, we must choose what is most important - God’s will or ours.  This is a hard truth.  Ultimately, each of us gets to decide who is God in our lives...us, our desires, our autonomy, our free will, or God.  Jesus laid His life down for us, as an example to us...and we get to daily decide whether or not we will lay down ours.

Today I am praying for an opportunity to lay down my life...to spot a chance to make that decision in a small but deliberate way...to follow selflessly.

What moves Jesus? What is so compelling that he is emotional about it; what really inspires God? It’s our faith. The only times that we see God moved by humankind is when we display heroic faith.  We see grand versions of this, like from Elijah, and we see less grand but equally striking versions of this, like from the centurion that calls on Jesus. Here we see Mary and Martha displaying their faith, trusting and believing, and we see Jesus respond with weeping… and an awesome miracle.

Now, this isn’t “prosperity gospel“, it isn’t that every time we display faith we can get God to do our bidding for us; God is not our puppet. So let’s not go there. The point that is being made is that grace faith gives way to great response.  When we display our faith like Mary and Martha, we give God space to act.  In the end, God gets to decide what to do with that space. He raise Lazarus from the dead, but he left John the Baptist in prison. One day, when we get to heaven, we can ask him why - but for now though, the one thing that is clear is that we need to create space for God to move in our lives if we ever want him to do so.

Also in the reading today, we see the Jews make their final decision to pursue Jesus to kill him. It is clear that their motivation is to maintain control and not necessarily to find the truth. We’ve talked about it before, so I’m just gonna leave this idea alone - other than to say that this illustrates how being a control-seeker and a truth-seeker can become mutually exclusive; we must decide to be more interested in the truth than in being right or being in control if we want to grow in our faith.

Some great lessons today!

I have broken this story into two pieces for ‘dramatic’ effect...haha, not sure how much drama I can muster up in a 4 minute podcast and a set of Bible journaling notes, but I think there is an important idea embedded in this first reading.

In these first 27 chapters of chapter 11, we see 2 devout sisters in Mary and Martha who’s brother Lazarus has gotten ill, and we find out that he actually dies.  Mary and Martha send for Jesus to come because they believe He can heal Lazarus, and we know Jesus had an affinity for Lazarus because he is called ‘the one whom you love’; this is a title not frequently given to Jesus.  So, we have 2 sisters and a brother all truly intertwined with Jesus, true followers - they call for Jesus to come and to save Lazarus and Jesus does what...He hangs around for two days before going.  He apparently loved Lazarus so much that He watched football over the weekend before going to save him (hopefully you catch the humor in that!).

But think about that...that seems a little insensitive...doesn’t it?  Why wouldn’t He go immediately?  Well, He tells us that it is so we could see God’s glory on display.  But what I want you to notice is that Jesus tells the disciples this...not Mary or Martha...Jesus essentially tells them, “Hang tight, chill out, I let Him pass away so I could do something amazing and raise Him from the dead...don’t worry, I got this.”  But, meanwhile, these two sisters Mary and Martha don’t know this.  And that is what I find so awesome about what happens next.

Just as an ironic side-note...notice that Thomas, the same Thomas who hands Jesus over to the Jewish authorities for the crucifixion, is the one that speaks up enthusiastic about getting over there to raise Lazarus; just kind of funny, in a sad way I guess.

Picking back up with our story, Jesus shows up and now Lazarus has been dead for 4 days.  And Martha runs out to Jesus as He comes strolling up, Mary is distraught and stays inside, and then we see the thing that just really impresses me...Jesus reminds Martha that whoever believes in Him shall be saved, and that He is the in control, and He asks her if she believes Him without her knowing what is coming...and she says ‘yes’.  She was confused because she assumed when Jesus told her that her brother would rise again that He was talking about rising in heaven; we can see that in her response.  And if that was all that there was to the story, she said ‘yes’, that she trusts Jesus.  In other words, she wasn’t happy that her brother had died and that Jesus didn’t save him, but she was content in Jesus.  Now, that’s awesome.  We see a bold trust in Jesus right here, and I think THAT is part of what really moved Jesus, as we’ll read tomorrow.  It reminds me of when Jesus’ mother Mary was asked to trust in God, by the angel Gabriel, when she was told what was going to happen to her and we are told ‘she believed’...she trusted.  Martha trusted Jesus without knowing the rest of the story...without knowing what Jesus was going to do.  That’s a great, great lesson for us today.  When we really trust, when we really place our faith in God, that’s what it looks like...bold, unknowing, and open-handed trust.  That’s what moves God.

Today’s passage has Jesus talking to the Jews during the feast of Hanukkah, during the Feast of Lights specifically, and they are questioning Him about His works and miracles.  And Jesus takes a really interesting approach to answering their charge, and I don’t know that I have noticed it before.  The Jews seems really interested in personal assaults on Jesus; they are trying to get Him removed to their lives.  But, as we’ve discussed, what we never really see them doing is denying what He has done.  In other words, they never claim that His miracles are just illusions, or that He isn’t healing people, feeding thousands, or any of that...they are always attacking His claims to be God’s Son.  They are making personal attacks, not attacks on the facts that are plain to see.  And today, Jesus calls them out on that.  He does this directly in v37-38.  Interestingly, prior to this, they are about to stone Him, and then they shift to just wanting to arrest Him.  It is so telling, and so subtle, how they change in these stories.  You stone someone who is a disgrace, for whom you have no respect, for whom you have an opinion of being a trashy person...but you arrest someone when you don’t know what to do with Him and just want Him out of your hair.  That subtle shift, I think, is a little telling.

And we do the same thing...many people today attack Jesus, the Bible, with a line of logic that this can’t be true, and that philosophically we imagine a God because we are relational beings and we are just filling a psychological void; there are lots of reasonable-sounding explanations about why we might create religion and create God in our minds, when in fact He may not exist.  The thing is, what WE argue as Christians is that something happened...we aren’t making a philosophical point to support our faith, but an historical point.  We believe the EVENTS of the New Testament are true.  And, but extension, IF those claims that Jesus lived, died, and was resurrected are true, if we agree on that, THEN we can talk about the rest of what’s in the Bible.  But if we can’t agree on that, then there isn’t a discussion to be had.

Here the Jews are making the philosophical argument and are avoiding the facts that Jesus has done these things, right in front of their eyes...and they aren’t denying it.  It just reminds me of one of my favorite mantras as it relates to spirituality: when I focus on what’s undeniable, my faith soars, but when I focus on what’s unexplainable, it fades.  There are plenty of “unexplainables”, and it is fun to play in the realm of trying to solve some of those...but, we have to be grounded in the “undeniables”...that’s where our faith is rooted, and we must not sidestep those in our faith journey.

Flashback

I love the imagery and analogy presented here in this chapter...it is really poetic.  And, it would have been much more impactful to those present than to us...I have never met or even seen an actual shepherd in my life; I am guessing the same is true for you as well.  But, in contrast to a thief, who must jump over the wall, a true shepherd uses the door to enter the fold. Each night, the shepherd guards the door. When he calls, his sheep respond because they know him, trust him, and follow him.  In Jesus’ day, many shepherds shared the same pasture and even drove their flocks together into a sheepfold at night. In the morning, each shepherd would stand at the open gate and call for his sheep. The flock would recognize his voice and follow him out.  That is the beauty of this analogy.

In our lives, or at least in MY life, I lived for about 23-24 years without knowing Jesus personally.  I had this inclination to search for answers though, to seek out the truth; I had something in me that just wanted to know if there really was a God and if He had a place for me.  I had a nagging sense that there was something for me to know and to find.  Like a sheep, I was looking for my shepherd, I was seeking out that voice to call me home.  I think most people have that in them.  When things get crazy in life, at some point, most people look up for answers.  It could be, as many psychologists suggest, that we have been conditioned because of our ability to reason and communicate that some kind of a god-being is universally communicated and so we know that is an option to consider, but it could also be true that we look up because God put that inclination inside of us.  At this point in life, having seen what I’ve seen and experienced what I’ve experienced, I just choose to believe the latter rather than the former.  I think God is in me in that way; I think He is in all of us in that subtle way.  This analogy from Jesus today is just a reminder that when God calls, He can get the attention of His children, His sheep.  I pray that I will live my life in a way where I can hear Him call...and not just in the emergencies, but in the daily living, as He guides me from one place to another.  That’s what relationship with God is all about.

This story from today’s reading is pretty funny.  It is a story of a man getting healed of blindness, looking for people with which to celebrate, and finding only judgement...in the end I am sure he was in a confused state.  How can a man that was healed from blindness not be celebrating at the end of the story?  How can the parents not be elated for him?

Well, this is a chapter that you really need to read or listen to - it is really straight forward.  Maybe the only thing that might be confusing is the fact that, at this time, people thought physical afflictions like blindness, leprosy, deformity, etc. were the result of a person’s sin, or their parents’ sin.   Jesus twisted that idea and told this man directly in the story that his blindness was put there by God so the Jesus could heal him and demonstrate who he is.

What this story really illustrates is the link to which we will go to justify our beliefs, to maintain our narrative, and to be “right“.  I think most of us looking at this story would think the Pharisees are crazy at this point. However, in the areas of our lives where we are acting similarly, and hypocritically, we are just as blind to our ridiculousness as were they.

I feel like this idea keeps coming back to me, each time I read and journal on one of these miracles that John shares with us.  I feel like I need to spend a little extra time thinking through what God might have for me in this vein; where am I missing something obvious because I’m hanging onto what I want to be true rather than what is true?