Lord of the Sabbath

February 25 Lord of the Sabbath John 5:1-15

“The sick man does what we nearly all do. He limits God’s help to his own ideas and does not dare promise himself more than he conceives in his mind. But in Christ forgiving his weakness we have a mirror of the kindness which each of us daily experiences… when against all hope He stretches forth His hand... He shows how far His goodness exceeds the narrowness of our faith.” John Calvin “Commentary on John” Vol. 4:119

A cloud passes over the page. For the first time we are given warning that not everyone appreciated Jesus’ ministry, nor accepted His claims. A man was healed, but the timing of his healing raised the antagonism of the Jewish authorities. The die was cast. The Gospel of grace and the religion of the Pharisees were discovered to be incompatible. There was to be trouble ahead.

Jesus had come to Jerusalem to celebrate one of the great festivals. As an adult Jewish male His attendance was expected. We have no reason to believe that He did not appreciate the time of celebration. While in the capital, Jesus passed by the Pool of Bethesda, near the Sheep Gate; there He noticed the people waiting to enter the water to be healed. The blind were there, the lame, the paralyzed, and those suffering from various other afflictions. They believed that, if they could be first into the water after it had been disturbed by God’s Spirit, they would be healed. And so they waited. Superstition kept them there, even when they knew they had no chance of being first into the water.

As He made His way through the festival crowds, Jesus caught sight of a man, lying by the pool. He learned that the man had been an invalid for a very long time, in fact, for thirty-eight years. Jesus confronted him: did he want to be well? The man responded that he had no one to help him into the pool when the water was stirred. Was he asking Jesus to fill this role? But Jesus had no need to wait for the wind to ripple the surface of the pool; He was the Lord of time. At His command the man was healed, instantly. His limbs restored, Jesus bade him take up his mat and walk. At once, the man did as he had been told.

There was a problem, though: it was the Sabbath. The authorities caught the man carrying his mat and accused him of Sabbath-breaking. Selfishly, the man shifted the blame to Jesus. The authorities should have recognized this miracle as proof that Jesus was the Messiah; instead, they accused Him of breaking the fourth commandment. They could not see the good that He had done because they were too busy complaining about the rule He had broken. In their minds, fear trumped compassion. They were more concerned about offending against God’s Law than they were about demonstrating God’s compassion.

The healed man’s response was far from grateful. He implicated Jesus, then named Him after encountering Him again. Though we do not know the details, Jesus’ warning seems appropriate. The man was told not to use his new-found health in order to sin. He had been healed for a purpose, not just so that he could satisfy his sinful desires. But perhaps the whole story is part of a larger purpose? Jesus knew that a confrontation with the Pharisees was coming. By healing on the Sabbath, in such a public place, He had thrown down the gauntlet, and taken a step towards Calvary.

By healing the royal official’s son, Jesus demonstrated that He was the Lord of space – His prayers were effective over thirteen miles. Now, He showed that He was Lord of time – the Sabbath belonged to Him.

For further reading: Psalm 45

Signs and Wonders

February 24 Signs and Wonders John 4:43-54

“Here, primarily, shines forth the humanity and kindness of Christ…. He asked that Christ would come and heal his son… it is worth noticing that although Christ does not grant his desire, He gives him far more than he asked.” John Calvin “Commentary on John” Vol. 4:113

Two days later, Jesus and His disciples left the Samaritans, many of whom had believed in Him, and they made their way to Galilee. There, Jesus received a warm reception, in contrast to the way in which He had been received in the south, but it was a reception based upon signs and wonders. A second contrast is also evident: the Samaritans had believed on the basis of the woman’s faith; the Galileans wanted miracles.

It was fairly common, at that time, to believe in the power of prayer, especially if that prayer was offered by an important rabbi. Families would sometimes invite rabbis to come to their homes to pray, to ask favors of God. Some months earlier, at Cana in Galilee, Jesus had performed His first miracle when, to spare His mother’s embarrassment, He had turned water into wine. Now, a second miracle was needed at Cana. A royal official, probably a man in the service of Herod Antipas, was beside himself with worry about his little boy. The child was sick, close to death. His father came to Jesus and asked that the rabbi would come to pray for his son, that he might be healed. The official was from Capernaum, some thirteen or so miles away, not an inconsiderable distance. Jesus’ response sounds almost like a rebuke to us, but it was not. Jesus wanted to do more than heal the child; He wanted to teach the father. The suffering man would learn that this wandering rabbi was not just good at interceding with God; His prayers were also effective over a distance. Jesus did not need to travel to Capernaum. One word from Him and the child was healed.

As a person under authority, the child’s father recognized authority when he saw it. He believed Jesus’ promise, so he hurried off home. Later, when he was met by some of his servants who had been sent to meet him, he learned the astonishing news that his son had begun to recover at the very time that Jesus had spoken. As a result, both he and his household believed.

We do not all grasp all there is of Jesus at the same time. For some, like the woman drawing water at Jacob’s well, revelation is almost immediate. She moved from unbelief to faith in a very brief space of time; it was as if the scales had fallen from her eyes and she saw Jesus, in all His glory. But for others vision comes more slowly. The anxious father saw, at first, only a teacher of exceptional power, whose prayers would be potent; but Jesus was still only a man. Later, he experienced the power of Jesus’ word. A promise was made and it proved to be good. The child recovered; but this was no co-incidence. The timing was perfect. Gradually it dawned upon him – this was more than a man, it was the Messiah.

In a sense, there is always more of Jesus for us to discover. Our faith may be partial or incomplete; we fail to recognize the Word made flesh. Then, we learn to take Him at His Word and to trust His promises, until our experience leads us beyond respect to reverence and thus to praise.

For further reading: Psalm 42

Ripe for Harvest

February 23 Ripe for Harvest John 4:27-42

“It is the nature of faith that we want to bring others to share eternal life with us when we have become partakers of it… we should note the woman’s earnestness and eagerness all the more, in that it was only a small spark of faith that kindled them. She had scarcely tasted Christ when she broadcast His fame throughout the whole city.” John Calvin “Commentary on John” Vol. 4:104

Many people today are thirsty for the things of God. They may not recognize the nature of their need; they may spend a lifetime trying every other drink in the cooler, but if they never taste the Living Water which is God’s gift to us in Christ, they will go to their graves unsatisfied.

Excitedly, the woman turned on her heels and hurried off, back to Sychar, her village. In her haste she forgot the water jar that she had brought to the well. Everything was put in perspective when she met Jesus. Arriving in the village she went, as tradition dictated, to the elders and asked their advice. Her behavior was somewhat shocking; women would not normally have been so forthright, but the circumstances were not normal. She had met a man who seemed to know her inside out. She wondered, could He be the Messiah, the long-awaited One? Even the manner of her approach to the men was blessed by God – a simple assertion would probably have been rejected out of hand – but on her lips her experience became a question. Could it be true? Come and see!

The men of the village were startled into action. Perhaps fear motivated some of them. If we are interpreting the woman’s reputation correctly, the may have had something to hide from their wives. They hurried through the streets and set off through the fields. Their white, Samaritan robes moved through the grain towards the well. Jesus, seeing them, pointed out to His disciples that the fields were ripe for harvest.

Even at this stage the disciples failed to understand. They asked whether Jesus was hungry; then they, too, defied convention by finding a local merchant. They bought lunch. Wouldn’t Jesus like to try what they had brought? But Jesus was not interested in eating; He had found something far more satisfying. Living in the will of His Father meant more to Jesus than satisfying the demands of His body. He would go hungry, if He could use this opportunity to turn hearts and minds to God.

Jesus’ words are a lesson in priorities. Naturally, He knew that He had to eat; supernaturally, He realized that some things are more important than bread. His attention to the Samaritan paid rich dividends. They came, not in anger but in curiosity, anxious to find out about this man who had told the woman “everything she ever did.” In time, they swallowed their cultural pride (for they were as infected as the Jews) and invited Jesus to stay with them. He did so, and as He shared with them the Living Water and the Bread of Heaven, many came to believe.

All this, because a woman told her story. She did not come loaded down with propositional truth; she did not attempt to argue them into the Kingdom; she simply told her story, and that was enough.

For further reading: Psalm 41

Living Water

February 22 Living Water John 4:1-26

“And so the Lord invites to eat and drink not those who have drunk enough but the thirsty, not those who are full but the hungry. And why should Christ be sent to us with the fullness of the Spirit unless we are empty?” John Calvin “Commentary on John” Vol. 4:91

Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well is an example of how we should share the Good News. He did not have a fixed formula; neither did He employ a rigid technique. He did not answer questions that she had not asked. Jesus met her at her point of greatest need, and He helped her.

Jews were not supposed to travel through Samaria, if they could avoid doing so. Some did, for convenience’s sake, since it was the shortest route from Jerusalem to Galilee. Others crossed the Jordan in order to avoid contamination. That’s not too harsh a word. For centuries the Jews and their cousins the Samaritans had been at each other’s throats. It all began when the Northern Kingdom of Israel was overrun by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. They deported many of the most influential local people and imported settlers from other parts of the empire. It was an effective method, employed by dictatorial regimes throughout history, to subjugate people by separating them from their homeland. Both Hitler and Stalin did exactly the same thing. Eventually, the Israelites intermarried with the settlers. As they did so, they assimilated non-Jewish beliefs and practices. The Jews from the Southern Kingdom, Judea, who were not conquered until much later, regarded the northerners, now called Samaritans, as apostates. In response, the Samaritans established their own temple on Mount Gerizim.

So, it came as a surprise to a Samaritan woman, drawing water from Jacob’s Well, at an unusual hour, when a tired Jewish rabbi stopped her and asked for a drink. It surprised her even more when He seemed to know all about her. Despite her evasiveness, she seems to have been fascinated by this man. He appeared to be unafraid to break with tradition. He had a frankness and a freshness that unsettled her. And, He cut through her defensiveness to get to the heart of the matter: she was thirsty.

They were both thirsty, but whereas Jesus was merely parched after walking in the mid-day sun, the Samaritan woman was thirsty in her soul. Her life was not what it ought to have been. She had been through multiple relationships and was now living with a man who was not her husband. She was shunned by the other women in the village; her reputation was in shreds. She was deeply dissatisfied with her religious experience; she knew a great deal about the conflict between Samaria and Jerusalem, but she knew very little about how to develop a relationship with God. For her, there were too many barriers. She wanted to know God, but she didn’t know how.

Then, Jesus came, and He offered her a gift beyond price, a gift of far greater value than the water that she had drawn from the well. He offered her “living water,” the presence of the Holy Spirit in her life, giving the assurance of salvation and the promise of life eternal. That offer is still good today. We must not think to package it in ways that will only appeal to people just like us. Like Jesus, we must make every effort to meet them at the point of their greatest need, then point them, unerringly, to Him.

For further reading: Psalm 23

Lent Devotional 2012

St. John’s Passion

Introduction

This year, our congregational study for Lent draws its inspiration from the famous “Johannes Passion” of Johann Sebastian Bach. The texts for our Wednesday evening studies have all been taken from the Gospel of John, chapters 18 and 19, from which Bach took the words for his sacred oratorio. Effectively, then, we shall spend the five weeks of that study looking at the last twenty four hours before the crucifixion.

You are also invited to join with the rest of the congregation, during the five weeks of Lent and Holy Week, following the story of the Passion of Christ through the lens of the Gospel of John. Every day, starting on Ash Wednesday, February 22, you will find a reading from John, a quotation from Calvin, and a suggested Psalm. My hope is that as you meet God daily through thoughtful Bible reading and prayer, you will grow deeper in your discipleship and even more in love with Jesus.

Set aside a special time and place to read God’s Word each day. You’ll need a Bible, this booklet, a pen, and a notebook.

Pray before reading, asking the Holy Spirit to help you to understand and receive His Word.

Read carefully the passage for the day, and the commentary.

Think about what you have read, waiting in openness, ready to hear and obey God’s Word to you.

Ask What is the main point of the passage? What does God reveal of Himself in these pages? What am I shown of the nature and needs of humanity before God? What insight am I given? Is there an example to follow? A warning to heed? A sin to avoid? A promise to claim?

Record your thoughts in your notebook; reading it later will encourage you.

Apply what God has taught you to the circumstances of your life.

Pray again. Make your discoveries the basis of your prayer. Thank God for His greatness and His love, confess your sins, and ask for strength to practice what you have learned with a joyful heart.