Truth and Obedience

March 6 Truth and Obedience John 7:14-24

“The sum of it is that what He teaches in the name of His Father is not of men and did not proceed from men, so that it could be despised with impunity. We see the argument by which He procures authority for His teaching. He refers it to God as its author. We also see by what right and for what reason He demands to be heard. It is because the Father sent Him to teach.” John Calvin “Commentary on John” Vol. 4:186

Having gone to Jerusalem secretly, in order to avoid arrest, Jesus decided that the time was, indeed, right. Half way through the Festival He began to teach in the Temple courts. Of itself, this would not have been surprising. Jewish males were well-educated. From early childhood they had studied the Torah. It would not have been unusual for a local rabbi to have taught in a public place. Those who heard Jesus, however, were astounded at His learning. Given the manner and depth of His discourse He should, they must have thought, have been a teacher at the School of the Rabbis, not a country preacher. Where had He got such knowledge?

Jesus replied that His knowledge came from the One who had sent Him, that is, from God the Father. He was not interested in receiving their applause, though; Jesus wanted all of the glory to go to His Father. He meant that His words were not His own; He had not dreamt them up by Himself, neither did they come from the tradition of those who commented on the Torah. Rather, Jesus had submitted to His Father’s will and so had access to His Father’s truth. The most important thing, for Jesus, was that His life should be lived in total conformity to the Father’s will. Truth flows from obedience. This does not mean that the accuracy of our interpretation of Scripture is determined by our faithfulness to our Father. We can be faithful and wrong. Neither did Jesus assert that we will automatically understand God’s truth if we are faithful. What He meant was that submission to the will of God is the foundation for understanding the truth. We must make a commitment to God before we begin to grasp the depth of His Word. In effect, this means that Bible study is more about the heart than the head. We use our intellect to understand, but faith must precede reason, not the other way round.

The miracle that caused such animosity from the Pharisees was the healing of the man by the pool of Bethesda. As we have seen, the miracle was performed on the Sabbath, thereby breaking, in their view, the fourth commandment. Jesus pointed out that the authorities carried out the circumcision of infants on the eighth day, regardless of whether this happened to be the Sabbath. How could they, then, accuse Jesus of breaking God’s Law when His actions had healed a man, whereas theirs had nothing to do with healing? Their priorities were wrong. They put ritual before human need.

Jesus accused the authorities of having a superficial understanding of the purpose of the Sabbath. In the same way, they were judging Him superficially. They didn’t like what they heard so they reacted against Jesus, instead of weighing His words carefully and determining their truth. They needed to look at the source of His authority. People still judge Jesus superficially today. If they would lay aside their preconceived ideas and their prejudices they would recognize the power behind His words, and come to call Him “Lord.”

For further reading: Psalm 77