Jesus, the Sent One

Posted on by korgrocker

“While Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he called out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I come from. But I’m not here on my own. The one who sent me is true, and you don’t know him. But I know him because I come from him, and he sent me to you.” Then the leaders tried to arrest him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.”
John 7:28-30 NLT

Jesus didn’t just appear in this world as part of the normal reproduction of human beings. He was born in humble circumstances as a male baby, the first-born of a Jewish peasant girl. He went through all the stages of growing up as a boy did in those days. However, when He reached the age of twelve, He knew His mission in life. He stayed behind in the Temple one Passover and His parents found Him there. We read in Luke 2:49, ““But why did you need to search?” he asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?”” A reminder perhaps to His parents of that fateful day when Mary had a visit from an angel. We read in Luke 1:35, “The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God”. Jesus was born as a baby with Mary’s and God’s DNA. He was both human and divine. 

So, Jesus informed the crowd around Him at the Temple that, although they knew most of His humble origins, He had in fact been sent by His Father in Heaven. This statement of truth, however, was lost on the religious leaders who instead wanted to eliminate Him. After all, they couldn’t have someone claiming to be God’s Son around them, because if they believed Him, the consequence would be that there would be a tremendous upheaval to the political and religious life in Israel. We then have the intriguing statement that the leaders “tried to arrest Him”, but failed. The problem to them was that they were afraid of the crowd around Jesus – any attempt to arrest Him might cause unrest and threaten their authority. They needed to get Him on His own somewhere so that they could carry out their dark deeds. But there is perhaps a hint that Jesus’ Father in Heaven might have sent a few angels to protect Him, because John wrote, “His time had not yet come”. There would come a day when Jesus would be arrested but this wasn’t that time.

Jesus had been sent from God. It wasn’t a sudden appearance – that would happen at His Second Coming – but the first time round, Jesus had to come as a human being because in that way He would act as the bridge between God and mankind. We have a sinless, human and divine Saviour, who in spite of all the opposition, left us with a timeless message of love and hope, a message finally coming to fruition on a cross at Calvary. 

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank You for coming to this world in the way You did. Through Your sacrifice at Calvary we now have a way back to God, forgiven of our sins. Amen.

When the Messiah Comes

Posted on by korgrocker

“Some of the people who lived in Jerusalem started to ask each other, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? But here he is, speaking in public, and they say nothing to him. Could our leaders possibly believe that he is the Messiah? But how could he be? For we know where this man comes from. When the Messiah comes, he will simply appear; no one will know where he comes from.””
John 7:25-27 NLT

So the animosity between the Jewish leaders and Jesus was obviously public knowledge. Everyone seemed to know about Jesus, and He split public opinion into two people factions – those that supported Him and those that didn’t. Jesus’ message and His claim to be the Son of God was clear, so clear in fact, that people started to ask the question if He really was the Messiah they had been expecting. But they had a problem with Jesus’ pedigree. If they had bothered to do some research they would have found that the prophecies about the coming of the Messiah fitted exactly with Jesus’ origins. As we know, Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem, fulfilling the prophecy in Micah 5:2, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf”. The Jewish leaders at the time of Jesus’ birth knew that, and Herod was convinced enough by the prophecy to murder many innocent male babies in and around Bethlehem. The people assumed that He was born and bred in Nazareth, a village located in Galilee, because that was where He grew up and worked.

Another misconception the people held was that the Messiah would just “simply appear”. It is sometimes strange how ideas and rumours quickly grow into becoming facts, even though there is no basis for them. Jesus made it clear that He was and is the Messiah. John 4:25-26, “The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus told her, “I Am the Messiah!”” But the problem for the people was that Jesus didn’t fit their preconceived notions of the Messiah they were expecting. They were expecting a King and the wise men from the east came looking for Him – Matthew 2:1-2, “Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”“ The Jewish people expected the Messiah to usher in an immediate kingdom that would re-establish the Jewish state, independent once again. Luke 19:11, “The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said. And because he was nearing Jerusalem, he told them a story to correct the impression that the Kingdom of God would begin right away“. But it was sad that the Jewish leaders and people selected the prophecies that they agreed with, and discarded those, such as the Suffering Servant in Isaiah, that didn’t fit their expectations.

I wonder how many of the Jewish people expected Jesus to establish a spiritual, not physical, Kingdom? His Kingdom was not of this world, Jesus said in John 18:36, and it was so sad that the Jews continued to search for their Messiah when He was walking amongst them. But we pilgrims have the benefit of hindsight, and we know that the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, indeed came to “seek and save the lost”. After all, we are amongst those for whom He came, and we look forward when His Kingdom is finally established, for all eternity. We have rewritten the phrase “When the Messiah comes” into “We know the Messiah has come”, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, He is still with us today.

Dear Lord Jesus. You are the Messiah, the Christ who came to save us from our sins. We worship You today. Amen.

The Law of Moses

Posted on by korgrocker

““Moses gave you the law, but none of you obeys it! In fact, you are trying to kill me.” The crowd replied, “You’re demon possessed! Who’s trying to kill you?” Jesus replied, “I did one miracle on the Sabbath, and you were amazed. But you work on the Sabbath, too, when you obey Moses’ law of circumcision. (Actually, this tradition of circumcision began with the patriarchs, long before the law of Moses.) For if the correct time for circumcising your son falls on the Sabbath, you go ahead and do it so as not to break the law of Moses. So why should you be angry with me for healing a man on the Sabbath? Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.””
John 7:19-24 NLT

In Exodus 20:8-11 is recorded the words God said to Moses about working on the Sabbath. We read, “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy”. But the Rabbis developed from this Law a raft of rules, regulations and exclusions watering down the intent of God, which was to supply His creation with a holy day of rest. The Jewish leaders had harassed Jesus for doing what they defined as work on the Sabbath day – He healed a man of an ailment that had kept him paralysed for thirty eight years. Worse, He had then told that man to lift up his bed and carry it away. But Jesus easily exposed their hypocrisy by pointing out the Rabbi’s rules on circumcision, an act that they carried out on the eighth day after the birth of a male child, even if it had to take place on the Sabbath. Jesus wasn’t saying that this was wrong. He said, “Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly”. In Mark 2:27-28 we read what Jesus said about another apparent contravention of the Sabbath rules, “Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!””

Human beings love to put in place laws, rules and regulations to govern behaviour. So we have recently seen in Scotland the introduction of a hate crime law, which tries to define what people should and shouldn’t do when it comes to their attitudes and actions towards their fellow members of society. In the church there is a similar approach with the introduction and application of liturgies, which define what members of that particular denomination should believe and how they apply it. But Jesus said in response to a question from a Jewish lawyer something that is the key to Godly human behaviour. Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was and He replied, “ … ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40). 

Jesus on many occasions pointed out the hypocrisy and flaws in a religious system that replaced a relationship with God and each other with a set of rules that then became the responsibility of the Jewish leaders to police. In the process the leaders replaced freedom with legalism.

I love what the psalmist David wrote about the law in Psalm 19:7-11, “The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living. Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever. The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair. They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb. They are a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey them“. Unfortunately, by the time the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day got involved, the “joy to the heart” was replaced by a legalistic drudgery with little in the way of a relationship with God. The people followed the Law because the religious leaders said so, and because to do anything else was to invite punishment of one sort or another.

Jesus told the Jewish leaders that their hypocrisy and legalistic contradictions need to be sorted before they pointed a finger at Him.

Father God. You provided the Law so that Your people would know the right and true way. Please help us to listen carefully to all Your gracious and loving words so that we too can follow You faithfully and enjoy a relationship with You that lasts for all eternity. Amen.

The Message from God

Posted on by korgrocker

“So Jesus told them, “My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me. Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own. Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honour the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies.”
John 7:16-18 NLT

Late one night a man, a Jewish leader, called Nicodemus paid a secret visit to Jesus, and we can read John’s account of the conversation between them in John 3. But we are all aware of the verse that succinctly states the message that underpinned Jesus’ ministry and teaching for the few short years He was here in earth. John 3:16-17, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him”. And in Luke 19:10, following the conversion of Zacchaeus, we read, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” Of course, we should also read John 14:6, “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me””. There is an essential element in the response to Jesus’ teaching and that is that we must believe in Him. This isn’t a detached, uninvolved belief, that has no impact on our daily sinful lives, but one in which we respond to in repentance, turning belief into the actions required by His teaching. 

Jesus told His listeners in the Temple in Jerusalem that He wasn’t preaching a message of His own making. He was communicating something that had come directly from God Himself, and this message will only be valid for those who genuinely want to do the “will of God”. So Jesus wasn’t interested in getting the glory for all the teaching and miracles he performed. In it all He looked up and pointed to His Father in Heaven, telling the crowd to do the same. Jesus continually honoured His Father in Heaven, and taught others to do likewise. The prayer He taught His disciples starts with the phrase, “Hallowed be Your Name”. Before anything else we look to God and give him all the glory, all the thanks, all the honour, and all everything else, because he and He alone is our God. 

There is much more that can be said about God’s message. It started with the love of a Father who sent His Son to die on a Roman cross at a place called Calvary, so that through Him we believe that he paid the penalty that our sins deserved – death – and instead gave us His righteousness. What a Saviour! What a God! What a Message! 

Father God. What can we do other than bow at Your feet in gratitude and worship. Amen.

Trained by God

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then, midway through the festival, Jesus went up to the Temple and began to teach. The people were surprised when they heard him. “How does he know so much when he hasn’t been trained?” they asked. So Jesus told them, “My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me.””
John 7:14-16 NLT

There came the day when Jesus finally appeared in the Temple, and John recorded that He “began to teach”. As a reminder, Jesus appeared publicly half way through the Feast of Tabernacles, which was a week long festival of thanksgiving to God, for the harvest just completed and the feeding of the Israelite slaves in the wilderness so many years before. It was an essential event for the Jews, particularly the male contingent, so Jerusalem would have been mobbed by huge crowds. John also recorded that the “people were surprised when they heard Him” because of His lack of training. 

What was there about Jesus’ teaching that made the people think that way? There were probably several reasons. Perhaps His style of presentation was different to what the people were used to. His teaching material, though Scripturally based, would have had a different interpretation to that of the conventional text books. The miraculous signs he used to support His message would have wowed the crowd but, again, suggest to them that He had not been trained in the traditional Jewish ways. Jesus was honest and said it as it was. He made no attempt to woo the crowd with benign platitudes and a false praise. He regularly attacked the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders, even on one occasion saying that their father was not God but the devil. When they tried to trap Him with difficult questions, He confounded and silenced them. Jesus told the crowd that, like it or not, His message “is not [His] own; it comes from God who sent [Him]”.

Most church ministers, as we pilgrims know, are trained in some theological college or other. The people who are training for the ministry become acquainted with the culture and teaching of their particular denomination, learning the liturgies and Biblical interpretations. But there is a better way through the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Jesus told His disciples that He will lead us into all truth – ”When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future” (John 16:13). That’s all Jesus did. He told the people what His Father in Heaven told Him to say. We pilgrims have a duty to consult with God over what we should do and say. His Words may or may not agree with the teaching of our denominations but by being soundly Bible based then they will be truth. The words Jesus said cut across cultural sensitivities to declare and teach the truth after generations of misinterpretations or even untruths supposedly based on the Hebrew Bible. The truths we declare will increasingly impact the cultures in which we live, because they expose sin and evil, never a popular subject in a society without a relationship with God.

We pilgrims had embraced the Gospel, repented of our sins, and believe in Jesus 100%. We speak as God directs. There is no other way.

Dear Father God. We reach out to You today, trusting in You to lead and guide us through the minefields of life. Only You have the words of eternal life. Thank You. Amen.

The Grumbling Crowds

Posted on by korgrocker

“But after his brothers left for the festival, Jesus also went, though secretly, staying out of public view. The Jewish leaders tried to find him at the festival and kept asking if anyone had seen him. There was a lot of grumbling about him among the crowds. Some argued, “He’s a good man,” but others said, “He’s nothing but a fraud who deceives the people.” But no one had the courage to speak favourably about him in public, for they were afraid of getting in trouble with the Jewish leaders.”
John 7:10-13 NLT

If nothing else, Jesus had managed to get the crowds at the Feast of Tabernacles talking about Him. Some said he was a good Man. Others said He was a fraud. But there was a lot of grumbling going on. And to cap it all, the Jewish leaders saw Jesus as a threat to their authority and the comfortable life they had as the de facto government of Israel. Were they heading up a totalitarian state, much as we find in places like Iran, with religious leaders dictating rights and wrongs, supported by a force of “heavies” to make sure the people stayed in line? Possibly, but with Jesus on the scene, unpredictable, claiming to be the Son of God, teaching a different message to the people and supported by miraculous signs, they felt they had no option other than to close Him down, by whatever method was possible and expedient. So there were those in the crowds who supported Jesus, happy to accept Him for who he was, but they probably kept their heads down for fear of “getting into trouble with the Jewish leaders”. 

So the opposing factions present in the crowds created a febrile atmosphere of argument and grumbling. Such a situation happens today, not in physical crowds but in cyberspace, with social media becoming the battleground for opposing points of view. In our democratic systems of government, there is little the leaders can do to shut down the grumblers, although they try, with legislation in place to suppress the worst excesses, but with “free speech” being maintained, for now. In Jesus’ day the crowds were located in and around Jerusalem, but today, the “crowd” is global in its extent. 

But the Bible is clear – grumbling is a sin and can show unbelief towards God. The Apostle James wrote, “What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure” (James 4:1-3). These verses from James aptly describe the “culture wars” so prevalent in today’s societies. One group of adherents to a particular ideology take an aggressive stand against another equally aggressive group, each trying to close down the other. So they quarrel and fight, incessantly grumbling, confused and ignorant – Godless people with wrong motives. It never happens amongst Christians, does it? Hmmm…

Paul wrote in Philippians 2:14-15, “Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticise you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people”. Jesus came with a mission and ministry to seek and save the lost. In the process of this, He counter-culturally challenged the status quo and wherever he went he left a trail of grumblers, particularly amongst the Jewish hierarchy. But the world has never been the same since His first coming. God’s plan for mankind’s salvation was successful and ever since Jesus walked the paths in the Middle East countless people have repented of their sins and believed in Him. And we pilgrims are demonstrations of the fruits of Jesus’ ministry. What a Saviour!

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your plan of salvation and showing us the way to eternal life with You. Our gratitude will last forever. Amen.

Jesus in Secret

Posted on by korgrocker

“After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He wanted to stay out of Judea, where the Jewish leaders were plotting his death.”
“After saying these things, Jesus remained in Galilee. But after his brothers left for the festival, Jesus also went, though secretly, staying out of public view. The Jewish leaders tried to find him at the festival and kept asking if anyone had seen him.”
John 7:1, 9-11 NLT

Jesus hadn’t won Himself many friends amongst the Jewish leaders, if any at all.  The last time John records that Jesus was in Jerusalem was when He healed the man at the Pool of Bethesda, a miraculous act of healing that subsequently thrust Him directly into the firing line of the Jewish Leaders. In their eyes, His crime was twofold – He told a man to carry His sleeping mat, thus violating the Sabbath laws, and He claimed that God was His Father. We read the accounts in John 5:8, 10, 16-18, “Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” … so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!” … So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God”. The conversation that Jesus had with the Jewish leaders directly confronted their authority and their religious belief system. So, in their opinion, He had to be eliminated to stop Him spreading more sedition. The Jewish leaders’ hypocrisy was breathtaking – they knew what the Law of Moses said about murder, and yet here they were plotting to kill an innocent Man, going about His Father’s business.

But Jesus still wanted to go the Feast of Tabernacles. After all, for all the Jewish people, it had a huge religious significance. In Deuteronomy 16:16 we read, “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed”. The place of choice in Jesus’ time was Jerusalem, and the hills around the city would have been covered in temporary structures. So Jesus went in private. Secretly. Keeping His head down and hoping that He wouldn’t be recognised. Earlier in His conversation with His brothers, “Jesus replied, “Now is not the right time for me to go, but you can go anytime”. But what did he mean by that?

Jesus knew that there was coming a time when He would be arrested, tried and executed in Jerusalem. But He had much to do before that happened, and he wanted to avoid a premature end to His mission. So Jesus embarked on the long walk to Jerusalem, where he mingled with the crowds, enjoying and taking part in the time of celebration, remembering with everyone else God’s continued provision for them in the current harvest and remembering His provision and protection during the forty years in the wilderness. Imagine a modern Christian conference on steroids!

Because of His humanity, Jesus needed to feed His spirit, as do we pilgrims. And we do it of course in our quiet times, and in our church services. But there are times when we should seek out and enjoy big celebration events with our fellow Christians, because sometimes God richly blesses such occasions beyond our normal experiences. At such times, God can and will speak directly to individuals, encouraging them, offering remedies to life’s problems and even directions for ministries and providing new opportunities. Perhaps that is what Jesus found at the Feast of Tabernacles and, once refreshed and encouraged, and in spite of the opposition and threats, He found Himself resourced to continue regardless with His mission and ministry.

Father God. We too have a mission in life, and we pray for the resources we need to go about Your business. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Right Time

Posted on by korgrocker

“and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!” For even his brothers didn’t believe in him. Jesus replied, “Now is not the right time for me to go, but you can go anytime. The world can’t hate you, but it does hate me because I accuse it of doing evil. You go on. I’m not going to this festival, because my time has not yet come.” After saying these things, Jesus remained in Galilee.
John 7:3-9 NLT

Jesus’ brothers didn’t believe in Him. They had seen the miracles, the amazing acts of healing. They may even have been present when the five thousand were fed. But instead of believing in their brother (well, half-brother really) they covered their lack of belief and confusion in a cloak of sarcasm. But Jesus didn’t respond in kind and factually pointed out to them that He wasn’t going because the “world” in Judea hated Him. Of course, He was meaning the Jewish leaders and the people who blindly followed them, people who revered the Jewish hierarchy almost to the point of worship. What the Jewish leaders said, the people did. The reason Jesus was hated was, He said, because He accused the whole “system” of that time of “doing evil”. So Jesus decided to stay where He was safe, in Galilee. 

There was always a “right time” about Jesus’ activities. A right time about where He went. A right time about what he said. A right time about who He healed. He constantly worked in conjunction with His Father to ensure that the right time was chosen. There is of course that famous passage in Ecclesiastes that starts, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). We pilgrims journey on through different spiritual seasons, in the same way as the world in which we live enjoys its natural seasons. Naturally, we are born, go through the childhood phases of school and play, followed by adulthood, employment and perhaps marriage. There then follows a period of retirement after a lifetime working, preceding a twilight period of life that ushers in the end of our journey. Spiritually, the seasons are different, but there is still a pattern, as we get to know God more and more, as our Friend and Lord. And the final season is the one we know least about – eternal life with Jesus. But happen it will and we set our faces towards our Heavenly home. 

We also read what Paul wrote in Romans 5:6, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners”. The first coming of Jesus was exactly at the “right time”. No other period in history was so needy or so suitable for His message of salvation. And the timeless legacy of His visit and its message from the Calvary Cross has travelled through the corridors of time right up to the present day, and will keep travelling until this season of God’s grace comes to an end. 

Today is the “right time” for us pilgrims to embrace our wonderful Lord again. And it is the right time to tell others of His grace and love. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:1-2, “As God’s partners, we beg you not to accept this marvellous gift of God’s kindness and then ignore it. For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation”. So whatever we are doing at this moment, we look up, and in our spirits we see God’s affirmative smile, reassuring us that we are at the “right time” in this season of our lives. 

Dear Father God. Your timing for everything is impeccable. Please help us in this season of our lives to do all that we should do, in our service to You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Jesus and His brothers

Posted on by korgrocker

“After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He wanted to stay out of Judea, where the Jewish leaders were plotting his death. But soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters, and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!” For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.”
John 7:1-5 NLT

It is said that we can choose our friends but not our family. Jesus’ brothers, we are told, didn’t believe in Him, a sad situation, because we would have expected Him to have some family support. Jesus must have felt very alone, because, apart from a select few of His closest disciples, He was generally rejected. And that in spite of all His miracles and His Words of eternal life. Sarcastically, Jesus’ brothers suggested that He went to Judaea and “show [Himself] to the world”. That is, they said, “If [He] can do such wonderful things”. 

The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was one of the three most important events in the Jewish calendar, and one in which all the males were commanded to go to celebrate the release of the Jewish slaves from Egypt. It took place in Jerusalem, and lasted for seven days, with everyone living in tents. Jerusalem would have been heaving with so many people and, to His sarcastic brothers, this would have been the ideal time where Jesus would have achieved the maximum audience to hear His message. Some theologians think that Jesus was born about the time of this Feast, which took place somewhere around the end of September or beginning of October, and not the December date we use to celebrate His birth. Other theologians claim that Jesus’ Second Coming will happen during the Feast of Tabernacles. But in it all the Feast of Tabernacles was important to the Jewish faith. 

But, in deciding not to attend the Feast, Jesus was prioritising His mission and ministry over expectations voiced by others. There was, for Him, a real risk in attending Jerusalem at that time, because the Jewish leaders were looking out for Him, potentially to do Him harm, even, as John recorded, that they were “plotting His death”. 

I’m sure that we pilgrims have experienced animosity, ridicule and even persecution from those nearest and dearest in our families, and particularly when we first made a decision to follow Jesus. But there is only one way into Heaven. Speaking to His disciple Thomas, ”Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). We pilgrims take the long view, caring more about where we will spend eternity than the sensitivities of our friends and families. Of course, we pray for our brothers and sisters and others in our families, hoping that they too will come to believe in Jesus. But it is a hard place, finding ourselves in a lonely place in our families, ostracised for our belief in Jesus. But in our distress, we find comfort from our loving Heavenly Father. Every time we pray, there are at least three others present – God, the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Who can ever want for me?

Dear Father God. We know that in You we are never alone. You are always by our sides, just a thought and prayer away. Thank You. Amen.

Betrayal

Posted on by korgrocker

“Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” Then Jesus said, “I chose the twelve of you, but one is a devil.” He was speaking of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, one of the Twelve, who would later betray him.”
John 6:68-71 NLT

On the one hand we read about Peter stating his allegiance to Jesus and on the other hand there is a disciple, one of Peter’s colleagues, who will later go on to betray Him. Both extremes existed in Jesus’ close circle of friends, His twelve disciples. In Luke 6, there are listed the names of the Twelve disciples, later to become Apostles, and Judas’s name appears at the bottom of the list – “Judas (son of James), Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him)” (Luke 6:16). Did Jesus know that Judas Iscariot would one day betray Him to the Jewish authorities? I believe He did, because He already knew what He was taking on when He came into this world. There are Old Testament prophecies that seem to suggest that Jesus would one day be betrayed, and in one of them (Zechariah 11:13) thirty pieces of silver are mentioned. In Acts 1:16, we read that there may have been a specific prophecy about Judas, ““Brothers,” [Peter] said, “the Scriptures had to be fulfilled concerning Judas, who guided those who arrested Jesus. This was predicted long ago by the Holy Spirit, speaking through King David”. Referring to what Jesus said, His betrayer was a “devil”, perhaps implying that the devil had indeed infiltrated Jesus’ select group of disciples, possibly confirmed in John 13:2, “It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus”. 

If Jesus knew what Judas would one day do, why did He select him?  A question that can only be answered with an understanding that Jesus, being God, knew the end from the beginning. Any thoughts about self preservation were overruled by the importance of His mission for the salvation of mankind. Of course we read later that Judas was overcome with remorse and went on to return the thirty pieces of silver, after which he committed suicide, an act which, in itself, didn’t end well. Matthew 27:3-5, “When Judas, who had betrayed him, realised that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.” “What do we care?” they retorted. “That’s your problem.” Then Judas threw the silver coins down in the Temple and went out and hanged himself”. We note that even at this late stage Judas could have been saved, but he was only remorseful, and chose suicide rather than repentance and God’s forgiveness. The final mention of Judas’ sad end comes in Acts 1:18, ”Judas had bought a field with the money he received for his treachery. Falling headfirst there, his body split open, spilling out all his intestines“. The gruesome details of what happened to him at the end I’ll leave to our imaginations.

Jesus was betrayed by someone close to Him, a tragic act, but not unknown in Biblical accounts. David himself wrote about betrayal in Psalm 55. He wrote, “It is not an enemy who taunts me— I could bear that. It is not my foes who so arrogantly insult me— I could have hidden from them. Instead, it is you—my equal, my companion and close friend. What good fellowship we once enjoyed as we walked together to the house of God” (Psalm 55:12-14). Perhaps this was a prophetic word about what was to come, but David’s poignant thoughts continue, “As for my companion, he betrayed his friends; he broke his promises. His words are as smooth as butter, but in his heart is war. His words are as soothing as lotion, but underneath are daggers!” (Psalm 55:20-21). But regardless of what happened in David’s situation, he finished his Psalm on a high, “Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall. But you, O God, will send the wicked down to the pit of destruction. Murderers and liars will die young, but I am trusting you to save me” (Psalm 55:22-23). Jesus trusted in His Father to look after Him, and we see the result that first Easter Sunday.

Have we pilgrims been betrayed at any time? Well, David had the answer – turn to God for His care, love and compassion. Out of the relationship with God flows all the nurture and comfort we will ever need.

Dear Father God. Your loving kindness knows no end. Through Your Spirit working within us we feel Your love and assurance flooding over us and washing away the hurts. Thank You Lord! Amen.