Trulys for the Eleven

WHO:   To the remaining 11 and specifically to Peter.

WHY: To prepare the men for what is to happen and give them encouragement. Also, to give a new commandment and to inform Peter that He cannot give His life in exchange for Jesus, in fact to prophecy to Peter thus to prepare Peter for the three denials of knowing Jesus that he is about to say. This is unfathomable to Peter. Yet why tell him?  Because when the unthinkable that was prophesied comes true, you can be even more certain that all the other prophesies and promises that Jesus made will also come true.  Just before this was the command to Love each other as Jesus has loved them. Love is how people will know the disciples of Jesus. Just prior to the command was the fact shared with the 11 that Jesus is now to be glorified, at once. Even now, Peter has been given an assurance to hang onto in the hours to come.

13:38  Jesus replied, Will you give your life for me? I can guarantee this truth:  No rooster will crow until you say three times that you don’t know me.

WHO:   Philip, at the last supper, has just asked Jesus to show them the Father and that it would satisfy them. Satisfy, a root word that also holds the idea of being strong enough to defend, to warding off.  What is to be warded off?  What is to be defended from?  Doubt-  the source of the original sin.  What is the answer?  Faith, believing, trust and obey.

WHY:  Jesus in replying asks Philip  “Don’t you know me yet, Philip?”   He goes on to explain that He and The Father are one, each in the other. He gives them two choices: to believe what He says or to believe because of what He does.  Choices we all have.  And then, as these men are faced with the choice, He goes on to give them a promise when they choose to believe, that their prayers will be answered, so that the Father is glorified.  Jesus will do it. He ties this to obedience, which implies that the prayers are according to His will and, as He also goes on to share, with the wisdom and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

14:12-21  “I can guarantee this truth: Those who believe in Me will do the things that I am doing.  They will do even greater things because I am going to the Father.  I will do anything you ask (the Father) in My name so that the Father will be given glory because of the Son.  If you ask something, I will do it. 

“If you love Me you will obey my commandments.  I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper who will be with you forever.  That helper is the Spirit of Truth.  The world cannot accept Him, because it doesn’t see or know Him.  You Know Him, because He lives with you and will be in you. 

“I will not leave you all alone.  I will come back to you.  In a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me.  You will live because I live.  On that day you will know that I am in My Father and that you are in Me and that I am in you.  Whoever knows and obeys my commandments is the person who loves Me.  Those who love Me will have my Father’s love, and I too, will love them and show Myself to them.”

WHO:   To the 11 disciples

WHY: by now the 11 are becoming overwhelmed by all Jesus has been saying. They are trying among themselves to figure it out. It appears as a riddle. “In a little while you won’t see me, and in a little while you will see me again”. This is a direct response to their attempt to understand. His words take it to deep emotions.  He prepares them to endure the coming depths of sorrow and grief with a promise of a happiness that no one can take away.  Cling to that. A day of unmovable happiness comes with understanding.

16:20 -22“I can guarantee this truth: You will cry because you are sad, but the world will be happy.  You will feel pain, but your pain will turn to happiness.  A woman has pain when her time to give birth comes.  But after the child is born, she doesn’t remember the pain anymore because she’s happy that a child has been brought into the world. 

“Now you’re in a painful situation.  But I will see you again.  Then you will be happy, and no one will take that happiness away from you.  When that day comes, you won’t ask me any more questions.”

WHO:   The same 11, immediately part of the above.

WHY: When the day of happiness has come, which is the day they understand and won’t be asking Jesus questions anymore. From that place of understanding comes this next promise.  It is one that will add completion to the happiness. The confidence of joy that is an evidence of being able to ask the Father, in Jesus name, because we understand they are One, for anything and He will give it. We shall understand how loved we are and that in being loved by Jesus/the Father, we can ask, anything.

16:23-28  “I can guarantee this truth:  If you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.  So far you haven’t asked for anything in My name.  Ask and you will receive so that you can be completely happy.

“I have used examples to illustrate these things.  The time is coming when I won’t use examples to speak to you.  Rather, I will speak to you about the Father in plain words.  When that day comes, you will ask for what you want in my name.  I’m telling you that I won’t have to ask the Father for you.  The Father loves you because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.  I left the Father and came into the world.  Again, (as I have said,) I’m going to leave the world and go back to the Father.”

 

Trulys to Believers and Unbelievers

WHO:   Jesus speaking to those Jews who believed in Him.

WHY:  To encourage them to live by what He is saying and be true disciples, knowing the truth and set free.  He then explains what they are being set free from as they had not seen themselves as slaves (slaves to sin).

8:34  “I can guarantee this truth:  Whoever lives a sinful life is a slave to sin. A slave doesn’t live in the home forever, but a son does.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be absolutely free.  I know that you’re Abraham’s descendants.  However, you want to kill me because you don’t like what I’m saying.  What I’m saying is what I have seen in my Father’s presence.  But you do what you‘ve heard from your father.” 

• ‘Who’s your daddy?’
• What pulls my strings?  Are my strings cut?  Am I set free?
• Who’s Spirit do I live by?
• How do I respond to people I don’t agree with? What does that say about me?

Lord, let me live through and by Your Holy Spirit and not my own passions and desires.  Give me the desires of Your heart, that I might be free indeed!

WHO:   The same Jews as above and those who do not believe who have just accused Him of being possessed by a demon.

WHY:  To discern for them who their father really is, (not Abraham) and if they are a slave to sin.  If they don’t understand, they don’t believe and belong to God. Also Jesus said this to clarify that He is not possessed and honors His Father. Glory and honor are to the judge.  God the Father wants Jesus to have glory, not Jesus.  God is judge. Then Jesus makes this promise.  He is dividing the hearers every time He makes another statement.  Shortly after this He makes it perfectly clear “Before Abraham was ever born, I am.”  Over this, they now attempt to stone Him for what their unbelief perceives as blasphemy.

8:51  “I can guarantee this truth: Whoever obeys what I say will never see death.”

• Whom do I obey?
• What do my actions reveal about me?
• What do my words reveal about me?
• Will I see death or life eternal?

 

 

WHO:  The Jews who were being divided over believing or not believing in Jesus.  Some believe, some do not. Division increases.

WHY:  To answer the very direct question, “Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?  The prophet have also died.  Who do you think you are”? The Jews revered the prophets and they revere their ancestor Abraham.  Jesus had just spoken about believers not dying. Yet those they revered and knew to be faithful Jews and believers in God the Father (the only one they knew about) are now, to their ears, being put lower as Jesus speaks with an authority they are questioning. “Just who does he think he is? “ They clearly wonder.  So He tells them who HE IS!  They understand the use of the great “I AM” as His claim to be God.  Their actions attest to how clearly they understood that, as the biblical command for those that falsely claim to be God, is stoning.  So “some of them” pick up stones to throw at Jesus, but Jesus, being God, is able to be “concealed” and somehow walked right past them all- without them finding their target.

8:58  Jesus told them, “I can guarantee this truth: Before Abraham was ever born, I am.”

• Who does Jesus claim to be?
• Who do I say Jesus is?
• What do my actions say I believe about Jesus to be true?
• How does Jesus respond to unbelievers?
• How does Jesus respond to those that want to stone Him?
• How do I respond to those who hate and want to harm me?

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WHO:  Jesus is talking to the people.  The text implies a continuation of the previous group.  This includes some Pharisees who were with Jesus who had been asking him questions in regard to the man born blind whom Jesus had recently healed and sought out after learning the Jews had kicked him out of the synagogue.

WHY: He has just told this group of religious leaders that they are blind themselves if they claim to see, when in fact, they do not see the truth, thus they become liars and thus they are sinners- sinners who claim to be right in their actions. This sheep pen and shepherd description shows how to discern who people believe by watching who they follow.  It will show to whom they belong. To recognize those who are in the ‘flock of Jesus’ is to see who is following Him. However, it is also interesting to note that in the process of leaving the pen, each sheep must leave by one gate and on the other side is a time of mingling around waiting for the rest of the sheep to leave the fold and be ready to follow the shepherd when He is done calling out His sheep and then step to the front and lead them.  I think this is a good analogy to the time we are in and have been in since the resurrection.  Jesus is calling out His sheep.  A time shall come, when all His sheep have been called out and when He shall step to the front of the flock and lead us.

10:1-5 “I can guarantee this truth: The person who doesn’t enter the sheep pen through the gate but climbs in somewhere else is a thief or a robber.  But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd.  The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep respond to his voice.  He calls his sheep by name and leads them out of the pen.  After he has brought out all his sheep, he walks ahead of them.  The sheep follow him because they recognize his voice.  They won’t follow a stranger.  Instead, they will run away from a stranger because they don’t recognize his voice.”

• Who and what am I listening to? and watching?
• Where are my leaders from?
• How have my leaders come to be my leader?
• Who am I following and who are they following?
• Do I follow Jesus or some strange ‘sheep’?

Lord, help me to focus my ears on your voice alone, so that i recognize truth when I hear it and discern falsehood when it cries out to me.

 

WHO:  Jesus is speaking to the same group of ‘sheep’ i.e. the Jews including Pharisees some who are and some who are not believing, above. The people he is continuing to talk to and in this section.

WHY: To emphasize His point.  So that truly get the message.  He is the only way.  He is the gate.  There is only ONE passage, one gate, one name, one shepherd that can call the sheep out into the pastures, the feeding ground of eternal life.  He also explains He must give His life and take it back up again in obedience to His Father.

10:7-18   Jesus emphasized, “I can guarantee this truth: I am the gate for the sheep.  All who came before I did were thieves or robbers.  However, the sheep didn’t respond to them.  I am the gate.  Those who enter the sheep pen through Me will be saved.  They will go in and out of the sheep pen and find food.  A thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.  But I came so that My sheep will have life and so that they will have everything they need. 

“I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.  A hired hand isn’t a shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep.  When he sees a wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and quickly runs away.  So the wolf drags the sheep away and scatters the flock.  The hired hand is concerned about what he’s going to get paid and not about the sheep.

“I am the good shepherd.  I know My sheep as the Father knows Me.  My sheep know me as I know the Father.  So I give My life for  My sheep.  I also have other sheep that are not from this pen.  I must lead them.  They, too, will respond to My voice.  So they will be one flock with one shepherd.  The Father loves me because I give My life in order to take it back again. No one takes My life from Me.  I give My life of My own free will.  I have the authority to give My life , and I have the authority to take My life back again.  This is what My Father ordered Me to do.”

• Check out my gate!  Through what am I going in and out, or through whom?
• What voice calls me that my heart responds to?
• Lord!  Let me hear only your voice and may my heart leap with joy when you call!
• Lord, let me wait patiently, fully satisfied, as you gather all Your sheep.

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Truly Angry Crowds

Angry crowds.  Ever have a group of people angry at you?  Ever see an angry crowd in action?  Think politics and religion if you are having trouble imagining this.  People hold their beliefs very dear and if they feel they are threatened by another point of view, often they will get angry and the crowd effect is easily manipulated by despots.  Lenin, Stalin, Hitler are all well acknowledged examples.  But what about more on the personal level, perhaps in one’s own family or in one’s workplace.  Have you ever observed a group gang up upon another?  Or perhaps for most women, all we have to do is remember seventh grade when our ‘horror-moans’ took over our brains for a good solid year.  How does one respond to an angry group of people?  How did Jesus do this?

 

WHO:   To an angry Jewish crowd who thinks Jesus is breaking Sabbath laws (by healing) and blaspheming by identifying Himself with God. They want to kill Him, which is the punishment for blasphemy

WHY:  To show He has authority and is not breaking the law.

5:19-23   Jesus said “I can guarantee this truth: The Son cannot do anything on his own.  He can do only what He sees the Father doing.  Indeed, the Son does exactly what the Father does.  The Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He is doing. The Father will show Him even greater things to do than these things so that you will be amazed.  In the same way that the Father brings back the dead and gives them life, the Son gives life to anyone he chooses. 

“The Father doesn’t judge anyone.  He has entrusted judgment entirely to the son so that everyone will honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whosoever doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent Him.”

This group does not understand who Jesus is, and are more in love with their rules and regulations then they are with truth.  So they are judging Jesus based on their own limited knowledge of the context of the given law.  They have lost perspective so Jesus gives them that perspective.

• Let me seek the Lord’s perspective and share it when I am caught up in angry mob (or what may feel like that).
• Let me speak truth courageously.

WHO:   To that same angry crowd

WHY: To offer forgiveness for their current misjudgment and offer opportunity to honor Jesus and thus honor the Father and have eternal life.

5:24   “I can guarantee this truth: Those who listen to what I say and believe in the one who sent me will have eternal life.  They won’t be judged because they have already passed from death to life.”

Jesus has given the perspective and if someone has the heart for truth and is willing to accept what He is saying, they most likely will feel guilt for their wrongdoing.  Jesus knows this and adds another guarantee of forgiveness.

• Let me always be forgiving and gracious when after truth is understood by someone who was falsely angry at me.

WHO:  To that same angry crowd

WHY: To speak about timing, and the urgency of the time for hearing from God in Jesus and accepting eternal life by hearing truth from Jesus and again to establish and convict about His Authority

In this section He goes on to respond to those who might be surprised at what He is saying and He says more on what is soon to come. (the dead will rise and be judged).

He explains how his judgments are accurate because of His relationship with the Father. “because I don’t try to do what I want but what the One who sent Me wants”

He gives additional witness to His authority by referring to John the Baptist’s testimony and the testimony of the miraculous works He is doing.  These two witnesses meet the requirement of the law and prove He is sent by the Father.

He calls them out for their hypocrisy of searching scripture for eternal life by not applying it when it is fulfilled in front of them. They have no love for God.

Lesson: LOVE is a witness to one’s faith. Where one seeks praise from, tells where one’s heart is and who/what they love.

5:25-26  “I can guarantee this truth: A time is coming (and is now here) when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who respond to it will live.  The Father is the source of life, and He has enabled the Son to be the source of life too.”

“He has also given the Son authority to pass judgment because He is the Son of Man.”

Not everyone who is in the angry crowd will be accepting of truth, nor want peace.  So Jesus, after calling out the truth, after giving new perspective, after guaranteeing forgiveness, now boldly says something to hold those who refuse truth accountable. This actually meets the need for justice, the ‘but that is not fair’ attitude embedded by our creator in each and every human being.  Every child knows that things ‘ought to be fair’.  So if the whole perspective is given, then there is no excuse.

• Life may not seem fair many times, but don’t worry, eternity is.

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John 21 Because It Is True!

John ends what he chose to share by explaining about himself and with what authority he can write truthfully all that we have just read. He also informs us of how much he had to choose from in selecting these things to write.  These two last verses, 24-25 read like the promo on a book jacket and that is what they are in essence. They are on the last section of the scroll. This is the first part of what is seen before you roll the scroll to the beginning to read it from the start.

John observed for himself what he wrote.  He was an eyewitness to it all.  He shares it by  choice with us. He knows that everything Jesus said was true. He was there. John does not tell us all that he experienced and saw with Jesus because there are not enough scrolls to do that, not enough at hand nor in the world! He did not add more later on to this book.  The books he wrote later were encouragement to us in how to follow Jesus i.e., how to love.  John gives us great details about Jesus. There is more than enough in what we read in this first book from John to know Jesus and to follow Him.  It’s time to apply.

My Lord, my Savior, my only real Hope in a world gone mad without You, thank you for preserving through Your dear friend John, a record of how You loved, and how You taught.  Here I sit, several thousand of years later, learning about you from one who walked this earth closely with You.  I am able to learn of You through the eyes of one who loved You well.  I am learning to love you too.

Today, as I sit at Your feet, I choose to rest.  I choose to sit and soak up Your presence like the dry thirsting ground in the warm gently persistent rainfall. I accept Your love and gentle ways.  I choose to rest in You.  I accept with gladness and quietness all You have done for even me. I surrender my unworthiness to You.  I’m Yours.

 

John 21 Love Follows Jesus and Tends to His Sheep

The question is first do I love Jesus?  If so, the command comes to follow Him.  To love is to follow, to feed and to tend those who are His.

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For example, Jesus confronts Peter with restorative love, in the form of food.  He makes no reference and gives no condemnation for Peter’s past mistake.  (Romans 8:1) Rather, He gives opportunity to restate commitment by asking questions : do you love Me?

If we love Jesus, which is the bottom line question, then there is work to do with and for His flock.

To be like Jesus is to forgive in the same manner, with restorative food (is this the root idea of comfort food?) personal time in close communion, without the condemnation and the dredging up of the past, and the giving of an opportunity to recommit by asking the root question, do you love Jesus?

To be like Jesus is to know the physical need of the lambs and sheep, to meet that physical need and to meet the mental and emotional needs by asking the loving question, by loving  the lambs, loving the sheep.

Please note the difference between the open question “do you love Jesus” and ” if you love Jesus you will….for you should…or you – fill in the blank.  This latter type of question is manipulative to the core.

Jesus asks us to examine the question of our love for Him.  He told Peter to tend to His flock.  Jesus can tell me also when I ask that question when someone is in need of restoration.

• Lord let me trust You to work in and through those who need restoration.
• Help me to ask the honest question about loving You.
• Do I love you so that I will forgive and restore in the same manner as You have forgiven and restored me?  By Your grace!

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LISTEN

• L longingly love–With
• I intentionally inspired insight—In
• S surrendered stillness—With
• T total trust—Being
• E emotionally empty and expectant
• N noticing

 FOLLOW

• Have–F faithful focus
• With—O objective obedience
• And —L listening leadership
• L loyally learning
• O openly observing
• W willingly wondering

HOW?

• H holy hoping
• O objective obedience—And
• W wholly, willing and watching.

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Jesus’s proof, the final sign of His Lordship is in the resurrection and it filled all five senses. Sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. They saw, they heard, they touched, they tasted (ate) and smelled with the resurrected Jesus. He can be known in all these ways. What a gift!

 

Lord, help me know You in all Your ways, that I may live in Your example.

John 21 Love Endures

In the same breath that commanded Peter to feed His sheep, Jesus declares what the cost of loving Him will be.  He tells Peter how he will die and it is not a pretty sight. Peter had once promised Jesus I will lay my life down for You  (v 13:37) and now he is told he gets to keep that promise.  When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go. Peter will suffer greatly and part of that suffering is to loose control over your life (as even old age will do).  

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Peter has a choice, ‘follow Me’.  Would he obey? Knowing that as he would have to walk his path of loving Jesus, a path to a painful and humiliating end, how and what prepared Peter to be able to do this? At this moment his humiliation has been restored by his commitment to love, feed and tend the sheep.  He was restored with the full knowledge of his own need to depend on Jesus, to love Jesus and that the love of Jesus would allow him to die a painful, yet glorifying to Jesus, death.

This, Lord, is a treasure that does not appeal to me.  I confess it. It is not mine, it was Peters and is a path You may also give to others.  Lord, may the words of this section bless those who face painful trials. I confess I resist pain.  Like Peter, I am guilty of capitulation within a circumstance of trial.

• Lord give me strength to love You truly that I shall not give in under trials. Like John, let me love you obediently, let my actions, thoughts and judgments reflect my love and may my love for you grow and deepen daily.
• Develop in me skills of listening that I may follow closely.
• Forgive my inept and prideful stumblings of my mouth.
• Guard my words and actions.
• Fill my actions , my words, my teaching, with Your Holy Spirit.
• Lord, help me to endure and live a life that ages gracefully, trusting You to control my life and give me strength to bear all consequences of the aging process including the possible loss of control over my life and my body.

John 21 Loving and Being Loved

NASB says tend…shepherd…tend

GW says feed…take care…feed

It’s desert time for Peter!

He is traveling in the desert of restoration and challenge as he is forgiven and then commissioned for his life ahead.  I am struck by the significance of the underlying reason for all work that is to be done for Jesus. It is to be done because we love Jesus.  Because Peter loves Jesus, he is to tend to the lambs of the flock and feed the sheep.  The root is LOVE.

The question was the same each time.

• Do you love me?
• Love with reasoning, intentional love, spiritual devotion, as one loves the Father?
• What was the opposite of loving Jesus?  Denying Him.

John 18:17-18, 25-27 Peter had been asked three questions as well.  You are not also one of this mans disciples, are you? The first question was asked by the gatekeeper who knew apparently who John was, and yet Peter denied. As Jesus confronts Peter, who is Peter now?  You know that I love You, he tells Jesus. And Peter is told to feed the babies in the flock, the children, and the immature that belong to The Lord.

Second time in John 18 and Peter is asked if he loves Jesus, as again he had denied Him. The same question, now asked by the officers of the high priest who stood around the same warming fire, you are not also one of His disciples, are you?  This time, in response,  Jesus tells Peter to shepherd, to take care of His sheep- the grown ups, the sheep, to lead them, to heal their wounds, to guide them.

The third restoration from denial came in contrast to the question from the slave cousin of the one whom Peter had cut off the ear of (which Jesus had healed on the spot during His arrest.)  Did I not see you in the garden with Him?   An eye witness?  Peter lies again and denies it and hears the cock crow just as Jesus had warned.  Now, this third time that Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him, Peter’s heart was racing and he was humbled to the core, grieving over his own failure under the pressure at the time.  How can Jesus trust him so after such a failure?  Yet he loves Jesus more than the others, he is consumed with love and frustrated in pain over his own failure to live up to his own love.  Embarrassment central!  So he admits his struggle, he declares his love and then, joy upon joy,  Jesus again tells him to feed His sheep -to provide healthy food and water, and to teach.

Forgiveness happened at the cross, restoration happens face to face with Jesus.

Jesus Christ Life Size Sculpture Bust Shroud of Turin Gives inspiration to all http://www.ebay.com/usr/haveafriendinjesus?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

• Who am I?
• Do I love Jesus?
• Am I also one of His disciples?
• Have I been seen in the garden with Him?
• Do I love Jesus?  Then am I feeding the lambs? Am I tending the sheep of His flock?
• How do I love Jesus? By loving my fellow believers!
• How was the early church known? By their love for one another.
• Is my love for Jesus showing in my care for believers?  For lost sheep?  For neighboring sheep in His flock?
• There are sheep in far away countries that struggle for food and water, safety and security, His flock, His persecuted.  How am I doing with my love for them?  Am I seeing to their food?
• Do I love Jesus? Then I, if I follow the example set in Jesus command to Peter, am also charged with feeding the lamb and the sheep and tending to their needs.

Father, forgive me for my stingy choices and thank you for the reminder to love my sisters and brothers.  Guide me today to where and how I can share my time and share my resources with Your flock here in my neighborhood and around the world.

John 21 A Place at the Campfire

Jesus first asked Peter about comparative love.  He asked Peter to compare how much love he had for Him compared to the love the others had for him.  Imagine your dad or mom asking you if you loved him more than all your siblings.  Awkward! Peter had eagerly jumped from the boat to be the first to greet Jesus, leaving the others to deal with the work of that big fish haul. For Peter, it may have felt awkward at first.

John’s first mention of Peter is when he is introduced to Jesus.  The first recorded thing John chooses to tell us about Peter is that Jesus changed his name from Simon to “Cephas”  translated to Peter.  The Aramaic word for stone, Peter being the Greek term.  Other translations add  Peter has a natural bent toward leadership. A strong leader often acts with confidence in his group to take care of the details.  In fact, per Luke’s version  (Chapter 5) of the first fishing instance with Jesus, Peter fell at Jesus’ feet proclaiming his utter sinfulness.  At this point in John, Peter’s love for Jesus is almost on autopilot.

Did he even think about anyone else when he got the message from John that that must be Jesus on shore? He did think about himself and facing Jesus!   Peter hurried to put on his tunic before he swam to face Jesus.  I guess he wanted to be fully covered before facing Jesus- and I wonder if he felt much the same way as he felt the first time, unworthy.  But this time, He had walked with Jesus and followed Him so He knew much more of His character.  So he prepared.  he covered himself then he dove in head first to meet him.

• How well do I know Jesus?
• What do I need to do to prepare before I rush to meet him?
•  Is this even the message for me, how much like Peter am I?
• Or am I to be one of the faithful followers, recognizing Peter’s need for one on one time with Jesus?
• Recognizing the need to finish the job at hand and bring Jesus’ catch ashore? a
• It is good to know, that whoever I am, Jesus has a place set for me too.
• Is it enough to be eager?

Jesus had Peter go back and bring him the fish for their supper.  Peter was the one who picked the dinner fish out of the net he drew up on the land, he too had to finish the work.  Jesus asked Peter to compare. Do you love me more than these?

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Yes! Peter proclaimed with confidence, and promise. Peter had failed more than they and now he is determined to love more. So Jesus commands him to feed my lambs.   The word choice meant to provide food, to tend, the responsibility of a shepherd to lead the sheep to places where there is food and to meet their needs. Feed, tend, feed. Tend, shepherd, tend. Sounds like a mothering job to me.

Lord help me take my job seriously, as a work for You, no matter the size of my flock nor the location.

John 19 Behold! I Surrender

John was there too. What connected him to these women? A shared love for Jesus. And because John was a man, and the culture had to provide and protect widows, and that duty fell to the first-born son, Jesus gives John His mother to care for and look after. Why not to one of His younger half-brothers? Where were they? Only John was there. Jesus left nothing undone. In His dying time on the cross, Jesus looks after his mother. Had she wondered what would become of her or was she too filled with grief as she saw her beloved son suffering even while having some deep inner knowing since His very inception that her life experience was totally different from any other woman before her or after her. I think she knew only grief now and wonder because of her faith in Him as to what would happen next. Did His words bring her comfort or greater grief? Had she had any hope He would not die, these words would have dashed that!

Behold! It’s a powerful word. It is a word that commands attention, a declaration of fact. Mary used it when she surrendered her life to The Lord. Pilate used it when he surrendered Jesus as king to the Jews. Jesus uses it here to surrender His mother’s care to his dear friend John.

• What surrender do I need to make in my own life?
• Behold! Lay it out to The Lord and let Him plan for me!
• Behold! What responsibility do I have that You Lord have laid out for me?
• Behold! What responsibility do I need to let go of for God to do His work?

John 18 The Ministry of Truth

Because Pilate is in the position of authority, he has an opportunity to experience true witness from The One who is Faithful and True – not that he knows this.

Jesus in turn, is ministering truth to Pilate, even in His final hours, Jesus reaches out to the very one who will send Him to the cross, just as Jesus allows and expects and even planned.

“What have You done? ” is Pilates next question to Jesus. His questions sound like he is annoyed and frustrated to be thrust so early in the morning into this confusing circumstance. Perhaps he is thinking ‘how can I comprehend you crazy subjects who deliver your own guy up to me, for me to deal with’

• Do I get thrust into situations where I must deal with something, someone, some problem where I need to ask the basic ‘why are you here with me?
• What am I to do?’
• Or am I experiencing the side where I have been shoved into a place of judgment?
• Will I minster love and truth to the ones who judge me?