The Notes are Good

I read an interesting thought the other day that I believe was written by David Jeremiah.  He commented about the Inn-Keeper when Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem who had no room for them in his home and, as a result, how he had missed out.  He had missed out of being present at the birth of the Son of God.  He missed out on being in the presence of angels singing praises.  He missed out on hearing the first breath of Jesus when he took on the body of a man.  Instead, this was something that happened outside of his door because he was too full, too busy, not enough room.

And look at Pilate.  Here he has the King of the Jews, the Son of God, in his palace.  He has the opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation with the Messiah, God Incarnate.  And what does he ask?  He asks only about the things that occupy his current busy life.  Are you a king, a ruler, are you one of them, against them, what is the decision I am going to have to make.  He is consumed by his world, his position, his role, his job.  Even if, as some commentaries say, Pilate thought Jesus may have been a manifestation of a Roman god, he does act like it.  Jesus replies that his kingdom is not of this world, but Pilate asks not questions about Jesus’ kingdom in another world/heaven.  Jesus says he came into this world to testify to the truth, but instead of asking about this truth Pilate throws out a rhetorical question of “what is truth?”

But what about you and me?  Not only do we have the word of God in our home, in the form of the bible, but we also have the spirit of God living in us.  Yet, we stay so busy.  We talk with God most of the time only about things in this world.  We ask for favor and blessing in business deals, in conflict with neighbors, with money, with sickness.  We go for days at a time without opening our bibles.  We go for weeks looking just like every other busy business worker, parent, neighbor, citizen, with so much to do, added to all the more by “church obligations.”

What if instead of following the footsteps of the inn-keeper or Pilate, we take a little time and follow the example of Mary and just pour out praise and love on Jesus and sit at his feet?  What would life like that look like?

My Answers:

6.
Are you the king of the jews?            Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me?
Am I a Jew?
Your own people handed you over…What is it you have done?        My kingdom is not of this world
You are a king then (implied question)             You say that I am a king, in fact I was born to testify to the truth.
What is truth?

7.
Jesus is not only a King, but He is the Messiah, the King from Heaven.  He came into this world to testify to the truth and all His words and actions are true.

8.
He is sovereign and He is true.  Truth is real, not relative.  Jesus is pure and solid.

How would you feel if the people who were under your rule and command refused to step into your house because it would make them unclean, yet still came to you asking/demanding you to do their bidding?  Would you think it was childish? Quant?  Would it make you angry?  Defensive?

This is what we see in this opening scene of our lesson today.  The Jewish Leaders, predominantly the Pharisees and their Teachers of the Law show up early in the day, unannounced, to Pilate’s palace, a mob who has now been up all night and probably growing in size as people wake up and come out to see what is going on.  But to talk with them Pilate must come out to stand on his front step since they won’t come in.

They bring him this man who is defacto guilty because they say so and they wouldn’t have brought him to Pilate if he was not, so just go ahead and declare Jesus guilty already because we say so.  Again, if you are in Pilate’s shoes, how would this make you feel as the judge and commander of these people?

I’m certain this is not the first time Pilate and the Jews have clashed.  Clearly the animosity has built over time as each asserts their superiority over the other, Pilate as a Roman, the Jews as “God’s people.”  You hear it in the tone of the Jewish leaders.  You hear it in Pilate’s quip to Jesus, “Am I a jew?”  You can almost hear him spit out the word.

But Jesus is not a part of any of these.  He speaks only the truth to Pilate.  He is a King, but His Kingdom is not of this sinful world.  He has committed no wrong, broken no law and certainly not any that Pilate has jurisdiction over (i.e., Roman law vs Jewish religious law).  He does not claim to be anything he is not.  He does not speak down to Pilate (or to the Jews other than to say they had sinned).

But frustrated Pilate sends Jesus, whom he is declaring to be innocent, off to be flogged.  Is this evil and wickedness manifested?  Is it a release of the pent up anger and fury at the Jews?  Is Jesus even at this point serving as the scapegoat for the sins and conflict of the people?

My Answers:

3.
They wanted to eat the passover meal.  To enter his palace would have made them unclean and they would not have had time to become ceremonially clean before passover

4.
The jews did not have the authority to execute Jesus (not that this fact had not prevented them from plotting to beat or stone him in the past).  This caused Jesus’ death to be on the cross.  If the Jews had gone outside of Roman law and taken things into their own hands, Jesus would have been beaten, stoned or stabbed, not crucified.

5.
prayer – I have good intention to pray for others, but don’t organize myself enough to follow through.
Church and Bible Study commitments – do I use these as excuses for being too busy to invest time in others?

I love the beauty of words in the Gospels especially in situations of parallels like we see in John 18.

When the soldiers come for Jesus, he goes out to them and asks who they seek.  When they answer, He responds with three words, “I Am He”.  Twice he says these words and twice they fall back through the power of these three words.  On the third time, He is taken and the disciples flee and darkness is at hand.

When John is hiding in the midst of the soldiers he too is confronted and he too responds with three words, “I am not.”  Twice it is recorded that he says these three words and upon the third denial the cock crows as prophesied by Jesus.

Jesus, though captured, walks and speaks in the light of truth.  John, though free, hides in the darkness attempting to blend in with those who betray Jesus.  Jesus, though showing extreme restraint, is fully in control.  Peter has lost control of his tongue and his will and his confidence and his strength.

What three words will you choose when confronted about your faith?  Will you fall into Peter’s temptation of “I am not.” And assume a position of weakness in the face of darkness.  Or will you follow the example of Jesus and profess, “I Am His”?

As Jesus shows, the path of following Him is not an easy path.  The world will hate those who profess they belong to Him because they first hate Jesus.  But, it is the right path.  It is the path of perpetual light.  It is the path that allows us to walk side by side with Jesus and be with Him for all eternity.

It is also the path that Peter turns back to, as chronicled in the book of Acts.  It is the path he followed when he enters the house of Cornelius.  It is the path that leads to his own death on a cross, and it is also the path that leads to his name being written on one of the 12 foundation stones of the New Jerusalem as noted in Revelation 21.

What three words do you choose?  Jesus Loves Me? I Am His?  Jesus, forgive me?  Lord save me?  I am saved?

My Answers:

11.
Fear, concern, reaction.  He ran away from the Lord and tried to hide among those persecuting Him.

Stay with Jesus no matter what.  Avoid those who persecute Jesus.

12.
Daily

13.
It was Jesus’ most recent prophecy.  The entire night was about the fulfillment of prophecy, both old and new.

While Jesus is in the “court” of Annas, one of the men present doesn’t like the words or tone that Jesus is using and physically rebukes Him by slapping Him in the face.

This horrifies us to think of a man, any man, raising his hand to slap God in the face.  But is this really so different than the slap in the face of Peter’s denial of Jesus?  In John 13 Peter argued with Christ that he would die rather than deny Jesus, but in these same verses where Jesus is being physically slapped by a member of Anna’s court, Peter is in the act of denying Jesus.

Isn’t it something each of us do when we argue with God?  When we decide we know more about how things should be and begin thinking of prayer as giving direction to God to “get on board’ with our plans and back us up?  Isn’t it what we do when we use God’s name in vain?  When we try to bargain with God in prayer?  When we say one thing and do another?  When we profess to be in the light, but secretly turn to the darkness as soon as no one is looking?

I think part of the reason this scene in the courtyard is so striking to us is because we too often see that our place in the narrative is not Annas, not Jesus, not the soldiers by the fire or the girl by the gate, but the 2 people we relate to the most are Peter and the slapping courtier.

But, these two men also provide a contrast in what they do after the slap.  Peter repents and turns back and becomes a cornerstone in the church, whereas the man in Annas court would have been one calling for Jesus’ crucifixion and not an individual we ever hear of becoming a part of the church.

Just because we have sinned, even as grievous of a sin as slapping Jesus in the face with actions or words, we have the opportunity to follow the example of Peter, repent and become restored and strengthened and to strengthen others through the process.

My Answers:

9.
Arrogant, illegal, pompous, evil

10.
He was truthful through and through.  He did not shy from the truth and pointed out that He taught openly daily.

In each generation there are code names for political thought that carry significant meaning at the time, but may become lost to future generations.  Take terms like liberal or conservative.  These have meaning to us today.  But will they mean the same to future generations?  Nazi, Whig, Rabbits, Mules.  Some have meaning today, some we have not idea what they were or what they stood for.

Take the Zealots of Jesus time.  This was what we might consider a radical group of Jews who held to the idea of an earthly Jewish King who would come in power and glory and defeat the Romans with power and might and the sword.

Interesting to note that Jesus’ Apostles weren’t all the fishermen we often think of.  They also included Matthew, the tax collector who had served the Roman government and Simon the Zealot, both of whom had been in the room with Jesus while he prayed and both of whom would be among the disciples who would scatter this very night.

But in this hour of darkness, Jesus holds out a very special message to the zealots of the day.  Jesus makes it very clear that it is by design and fulfillment of the scriptures that God has chosen for Him to be taking this path.  It is not because of weakness.  With a word, legions of angels would appear in full battle regalia.  Jesus specifically tells people to put away the sword and, in a bigger message explains that those who live by the sword die by the sword.

While we may not see the meaning, it would have been clear in that day and age that Jesus was sending a message to the Zealots – I am the Messiah, and we will not be attacking the Romans with sword we will be attacking and overcoming death with His sacrifice on the cross.

My Answers:

6.
He turned Himself over willingly.  He asked that all others be released.  He told Peter to put away the sword.

7.
That when He rose from the dead He would go to Galilee, that all would fall away, that He prayed in the garden and they kept falling asleep, that He saw His betrayer coming, that He was betrayed with a kiss, that He commanded Judas to do what he came for and called him friend, that He had legions of angels at His disposal, that He didn’t call them so scripture would be fulfilled, that all the disciples deserted Him

8.
It was fully within His control.  He willfully submitted to to what must transpire

C.S. Lewis wrote, “Seek Unity and you will find neither Unity nor Truth.  Seek the light of truth, and you will find Unity and Truth.”

The truth of these words is magnified in the actions of Jesus in John 17-18.  Jesus prayed to the Father for unity of believers, not just with each other but in Him as He is in the Father and the Father is in Him.

But, in the hour of darkness, He demonstrates that the path to unity is not by yielding to darkness or compromising with evil, but by shining the light of truth.  Jesus is truth.  He told Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”

Jesus was alone with His accusers.  You or I could have been tempted to yield, to hedge our statements, to cushion the words to paint them into shades that could have allowed the darkness to hide within.  We were out of earshot of our followers.  But, not our Lord.  Jesus knew and showed us that the path to what He seeking, the unity of the Holy Spirit, is not found through darkness of any sort, it is found only in the light of truth.

My Answers:

3.
He went to a place known to Judas, He approached (not run away from) the soldiers, He announced Himself to His would-be captors, He told Peter to put away the sword, He said “shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”, He went with them

4.
We see that He was slapped and that He will be beaten, tortured and crucified.  Everyday He had taught in the open, not hidden.  But many other times, when it was not “the hour” Jesus had walked away from those who sought to hurt and stone Him.  This time the hour of darkness had come and Jesus allowed Himself to undergo all their wickedness

5.
Even in the face of unlawfulness and abuse and ridicule, Jesus spoke only the truth.

I love the image that Timothy Keller painted in his book, The Reason for God, of the divine dance that is so beautifully illustrated in our verses today.  In the beginning, man was made in the image of God and was invited to participate in the dance.  It is a beautiful and eternal dance, one where each partner of the Trinity is in constant motion with the other, complementing and leading and bending and twisting, and supporting and relaxing in a completely fluid and beautiful dance.  Adam and Eve participated in this at the beginning of creation.  They were with God fully, hearings, seeing, touching, together in creation and the glory and holiness of the everything that God had created for them to be part of this dance.

Until they day that they stopped dancing with God, because they had made the decision that they wanted to be god instead.  When sin entered, they stopped, they stopped listening to the music of the heavens, they stopped moving in synchronicity with God, they just stopped.  The dancefloor of Eden was no place for someone who wasn’t going to dance and they were cast out.

But, Jesus’ prayer of Joh 17:20-26 is for us, those who were not with Him but who believe because of the words and works of those who were in that room with Jesus that night (including Jesus himself!).  It is a prayer that God, again, bring us back into the dance.

Look at the beauty of Jesus’ words in this passage, “I in them and you in me so that they may be brought to complete unity”, “all of them may be one”, “Father, just as you are in me and I am in you may they also be in us”, “I have given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one” .  Do you see the motion of the dance in these words, the spinning, holding, connecting that is the glory of God?

My Answers:

11.
That all believers (then and now) may be one as the Father and Son are one.  In God so that the world may believe.
Restored to our original state.
There is one (body, spirit, hope, Lord, faith, baptism, God, Father, overall all through all in all

12.
John 17 is Jesus prayer for His disciples, as the high priest prayed to God in the temple and offered sacrifices for the atonement of sin, Jesus brought them forth to God to receive the sacrifice that He was going to make on their behalf

13.
Unity that is unity in God

Every military movie I have ever seen seems to have at least one scene where people are marching through enemy territory.  And, it never fails that one brave leader is given the job of taking “point”, heading up the procession and another is given “the rear” to keep a watch that no one slips up from behind.

I thought of this as I read Jesus’ prayer in these verses where He asks God to sanctify and protect those who belong to Him.  Sanctification is leading us on the path to holiness.  We don’t know the way because we are not holy, but God does.  Our job is to follow, He has the lead.

But Jesus doesn’t just ask Him to lead us into sanctification, He also asks Him to take the rear and protect us as well.  In my life at least, this seems to be where evil and temptation lurks.  It doesn’t confront me head on as I’m marching forward with God at the lead.  It tries to sneak up and nip at my Achilles’ heel.  It comes up behind me and whispers a passing comment, or just lurking causing a sense of fear or dread or doubt.

Remembering and repeating this prayer is important to me.  It helps me with the image and acknowledgement is not just at the head, but He can be in multiple places at the same time and can be leading and taking the rear.  He can encase me from harm front, back and on all sides.

My Answers:

8.
a.
For protection, to keep them safe, to sanctify them by the truth, to have them be sent into the world (as Jesus was)

b.
Pentecost – that although persecuted, they came together and were indwelled by the H/S and spoke boldly to those gathered and brought many to faith that very day.

9.
For them, eternal life had already begun.  They were no longer shackled by sin, they had been set free because of faith

10.
To be made holy, set apart for God, chosen, a treasured possession, a gift, to not conform but be transformed, a new self, a new creation, to be disciplined, to arise out of the destruction of the world, to be without fault and a great joy

Gifts are great.  I’m not talking about the mass-consumerism obligatory gift giving that society means.  I’m talking about the emotion involved in having taken the time to find, or better yet make, a heartfelt gift and presenting it to another person in love.

For example, my wife is a quilter.  She loves to craft an item of beauty that can be used (not just displayed) and last a lifetime.  But what she loves to do the most is to pray while constructing a quilt.  Each clip, each stitch, each block, is a physical manifestation of prayer offered to God for the individual or family receiving the quilt.

I think this is how we are as gifts from the Father to the Son.  It isn’t just the finished product of our lives that will live with Jesus for all eternity, but it is the snipping and clipping and stitching work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  It is the joining together of blocks that make up family and community and church.  It is the embellishment of different colors of stitches through the stages of our lives and the special flourishes that make is into a gift.  I think it is even the prayers offered in the times the Holy Spirit has to rip out stitches, not because of his mistakes but because of our resistance to the direction we are supposed to go.

Our lives may look like a bunch of mixed up, mismatched and ragged pieces, but the work of the Father through the Holy Spirit shapes us into a gift that is a blessing to His son.

My Answers:

6.
They are a gift from God.  Jesus invested them with the words that were a gift to Him from God.  They are shared by Jesus and His Father

7.
a.
Because it is through the believers in Jesus that the light of Jesus’ divinity shines in the world.  The disciples are a gift and a testament.  They are the witnesses

b.
By living in the image of Christ, by praise Him, to spread the message, to rejoice greatly, to be refined by fire, to praise, glory and honor Jesus and – through so doing – to reveal Him to others

Nouns are interesting things.  They are the word or words we give to put a name to a thing.  But they are horribly incomplete.  For example, the noun house has a completely different meaning to me than it does to you or that it would to someone in another of the world.  When you example it, that is true for many if not most nouns.  And, while that is fine for many nouns, it is not for the noun, God.  You don’t have your god and I have my god, there is one true God and the way we know Him is either the truth or it is wrong.

Jesus was the physically embodiment of God.  By knowing Jesus and the decisions, choices, actions he took and the words he chose we collectively see the attributes of the one true God.

But this is far more than just knowing about those things, as we might read in a History book, it is knowing them as windows into the attributes that are God.  When we say, as scripture does, that God is Love, through the life of Jesus we see what that means lived out.  God is not a static point in time, but a living being and each element/attributes gives us more clarity on the truth of God.

As we participate in our bible study this week, I think it is important to recognize that to study Jesus is to Experience God.  Jesus is living, He is alive in us and with us.  We have the word of scripture including His words to experience what it was like to sit in that upper room and have Jesus pray over us

But that experience requires more than a passing task oriented approach.  It requires prayer.  It requires an open heart and mind.  It requires an encounter with Jesus, coming into His presence, which always causes us to recognize our own sins and confess and repent of them.   It is getting in there with Jesus and loving like He does, and forgiving like we ask for forgiveness and trusting in Him for our daily food and daily life.

My Answers:

3.
Honor, give praise, to recognize and point out the holy nature, to identify and recognize God’s presence.

4.
a.
To know Jesus is to see God, not a man, it is to know the verb not just the noun.

b.
It isn’t something that begins in the future, it is something that started the day my eyes were open to the truth.  I know God now, not just after I die.  I grow to know God more and Jesus Christ, every day.  Eternal life has already begun.

5.
Jesus was in creation, all things were made through Him.  He contained the full glory of God, and sat it down to come to earth for us.  After conquering death and fulfilling the restoration of mankind, He returned to His place in the throne room of heaven.  He is the radiance of God’s glory (Shekinah)