“How many time must I tell you?” “Look at me when I’m talking to you.” “Don’t look at me that way.” We vow as young adults to never say what our parents said to us. But then, we do. We ask those same questions and make those tired comments, not really wanting a response as we become weary of complacency and dullness of our offspring in compliance. “You’re not getting what I am saying!”
Pushed into a corner, tired of explaining, we even resort to, “Look at me, do you think I am stupid?” We really do not want a reply for that question from our insolent children! As parents, who used to be kids, we know when our kids selectively hear and understand so they can claim ignorance when they misbehave. “Whaaat?” is their only defense. So, we go over it again, hoping they will look us in the eye, open their ears, and lean into believing what we say is for their good because we love them.
I think of my own rebellious ways as a child and shudder as I repent of them once more as I read how Jesus patiently, tenaciously, compassionately, and lovingly explains the difference between Light and dark, Truth and lies, His Word from God versus what the religious leaders are saying, along with the telling the world who He is and Who sent Him.
THREE TIMES in this passage Jesus teaches Truth that does not change with three different ways and approaches to deliver Truth so as many as possible will see and understand God, who they are missing in life, with what they must do to be reconciled to God.
Jesus—Truly a MASTER Teacher! We can learn much from how Jesus teaches!
John 8, The Message
You’re Missing God in All This
12 Jesus once again addressed them: “I am the world’s Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.”
13 The Pharisees objected, “All we have is your word on this. We need more than this to go on.”
14-18 Jesus replied, “You’re right that you only have my word. But you can depend on it being true. I know where I’ve come from and where I go next. You don’t know where I’m from or where I’m headed. You decide according to what you can see and touch. I don’t make judgments like that. But even if I did, my judgment would be true because I wouldn’t make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father. That fulfills the conditions set down in God’s Law: that you can count on the testimony of two witnesses. And that is what you have: You have my word and you have the word of the Father who sent me.”
19 They said, “Where is this so-called Father of yours?”
Jesus said, “You’re looking right at me and you don’t see me. How do you expect to see the Father? If you knew me, you would at the same time know the Father.”
20 He gave this speech in the Treasury while teaching in the Temple. No one arrested him because his time wasn’t yet up.
21 Then he went over the same ground again. “I’m leaving and you are going to look for me, but you’re missing God in this and are headed for a dead end. There is no way you can come with me.”
22 The Jews said, “So, is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by ‘You can’t come with me’?”
23-24 Jesus said, “You’re tied down to the mundane; I’m in touch with what is beyond your horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch. I’m living on other terms. I told you that you were missing God in all this. You’re at a dead end. If you won’t believe I am who I say I am, you’re at the dead end of sins. You’re missing God in your lives.”
25-26 They said to him, “Just who are you anyway?”
Jesus said, “What I’ve said from the start. I have so many things to say that concern you, judgments to make that affect you, but if you don’t accept the trustworthiness of the One who commanded my words and acts, none of it matters. That is who you are questioning—not me but the One who sent me.”
27-29 They still didn’t get it, didn’t realize that he was referring to the Father. So Jesus tried again. “When you raise up the Son of Man, then you will know who I am—that I’m not making this up, but speaking only what the Father taught me. The One who sent me stays with me. He doesn’t abandon me. He sees how much joy I take in pleasing him.”
30 When he put it in these terms, many people decided to believe.
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
After three deliveries of the same Truth, “many people decided to believe.”
Remember the story of Thomas who had heard that Jesus had risen but must see it to believe it? John tells us of his reaction and response:
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:24-29, NIV
Are you the blessed who believe without seeing? Am I?
The most important question of this and every day is this;
Do I really believe what Jesus said and what He did for me really real?
Even greater is our response!
What we say we believe will eventually and consistently be revealed in our behaviors.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23
My Lord and My God,
I believe. I have seen your glory at work in my life and in the lives of others over the years of knowing and following you. I am so grateful for our growing, intimate relationship. Thank you for loving us the way you do with patience and compassion. Thank you for forgiving our imperfect, foolish behaviors with your perfect forgiveness.
You pick me up, dust me off, cleanse my heart, renew my mind, and restore the joy as you teach me and lead me back on solid footing of Truth once more. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I know enough to know I cannot and will not do life without you! You are Light and Life forever!
In Jesus Name, Amen
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 