Good Friday
Our reading for today, is the beginning of that final journey that Christ made for us. His brothers seem bent on making Jesus declare that he is the long awaited Messiah, but no one can ever tell Jesus what to do. He is after all…. God.
But Jesus’ brothers want him to take advantage of this great national Feast. All eyes will be focusing on Jerusalem; why wouldn’t Jesus want to declare his mission to the world in such a public place?
But Jesus instead tells them that his hour has not yet come. The hour for revealing who He is, has not been given. The time will only be revealed by God the Father and that will only happen when the situation is set for achieving God’s plan.
Jesus says if he goes now, the time will not be ripe for the success of His mission. He will not force God’s hand. And so Jesus stays in Galilee, but then later, secretly he decides to go there.
He finds that the Jews are already looking for him. There is some question as to who Jesus is. Is he a good man… is he demon possessed (I like to think that is probably their way of saying he is crazy)? The question seems to always be out there about who is Jesus.
How would you answer that question? The scripture tells us that not only is he is thought of as “a good man” some say he is “the Prophet (vs 40) others say he is a brave man and still others say that he is demon-possessed (vs20). There are even some people who have received him as the Christ, the anointed One of God (vs 41).
But those in power, the Jewish Council, are adamant that Jesus is a trouble maker and their underlying fear, is that Jesus is right, and they will be proven wrong and lose their power.
Jesus tells them that His teaching comes from God and not from himself. (vs 28). This of course angers some of Jesus’ enemies, but they fail to arrest Him “because his time has not yet come.”
So, as the various groups of people are trying to sort out who Jesus is, we see that they are divided. Many choose to believe, while others look at him with a blind eye. It’s like they don’t want to see Him, they don’t want anything to do with Him. His words interfere with their way of life. There is one person who stands up for Jesus. Remember Nicodemus? He doesn’t fully take his stand alongside Jesus, but he does pose a question. He is questioning if the proceedings are being done correctly. Of course they turn on him an ignore his conclusion.
The leaders often jumped to the wrong conclusions. Without knowing all the facts, or distorting the facts that they did know, they concluded that Jesus was a heretic, a demon-possessed man.
We can easily fall into that trap. Reading the Bible out of context or making assumptions without knowing all what it says. When we look to the Bible, the Word of God, we need to be careful to not jump to wrong conclusion. Especially without reading all of it, or reading with an open mind and a prayer-filled heart. Don’t jump to conclusions unless you know all of what the Bible says.
Reading and being blessed by God’s Word
Pastor Kathy