John 20-21 Developing Comprehension

How could the disciple know if the appearance of Jesus in their midst was real or a ghost? Mary hugged Jesus but was given little time to hold on to Him.

The ten men and the women in the room were breathed on and commissioned through the breath of new life for the flesh, by the Holy Spirit.

The 11 men were yet in the room a week later and Thomas had physical touch with his fingers in the wounds of Jesus.

Seven men have traveled to the Sea of Tiberius in Galilee. So we see they have begun to travel.  Or do we see this is a return to their roots? Or have they left Jerusalem for safety as they had done with Jesus before.  Are they moving on in life for survival, and work?

Photo credit: a friend

They are 100 yards away and do not recognize Jesus.  That’s the other side of a football field. His clothing had to be different.  I wonder about that too, did He create them? Speak them into existence?  There was no comment on His appearance.  Only the words He spoke, and the results of his spoken word, that brought recognition.

I depend too much on sight.

I need to develop my hearing.

I need to listen for the Lord’s words.

The power of the Word; note that the understanding that it was Jesus on shore came after listening to His voice. So seeing, understanding, comes after listening.  Lord, help me be a better listener that I may comprehend Your presence at all times.

John 20:6-10 The Empty Wrapper

Peter entered. He saw. What he saw was the empty wrapper and the folded face cloth. It is finished.

John entered. He saw the same things, and he believed. Yet they did not understand. They had the facts with that the understanding of them. So, what did they do? They went home. To their own homes, not together.

How much do I too not understand even though I know? With You Lord, I am home. Lead me into understanding.

Short prayer, but deep longing. We go through so many experiences in life, we learn and we begin to understand yet there is so much we do not know. And then comes an experience that crumples our comprehension and we are dazed. We apprehend but do not comprehend. And it’s normal. And some people respond by accepting the incomprehensible facts and then going home. Perhaps to wait, to get other things done, until time has done its work and other events transpire so that comprehension dawns.

We learn to live with the incomprehensible, and when we put our faith in it, we begin to see His power at work.

• Where am I today in that process?
• How am I living today, with comprehension?
• With my faith in action?
• Empowered by trust?
• Who do you suppose carried the wrapper away and hid it, or disposed of it to attempt to eliminate the truth?
• Do I see what they saw as they looked into the tomb?
• Do I comprehend that the wrapper is likened to a cocoon?

It was not unwrapped, all those cloths layered upon His body. What they beheld was the undisturbed fully wrapped finished death dressing of spiced fabric strips, still wound around the now empty space that the body of death had recently occupied. The only thing that had changed was the head wrap cloth was now neatly folded on the stone and the body wrap sagged over empty space. Do I get it?

John 19 Manipulated Distraction

Therefore, Pilate would not change the wording, therefore. I suppose, having this particular duty for a soldier, even though what executioners have to do is grim, the job had perks. They get the spoils just like any soldier of war would get. They evenly divided the clothing among the four of them, except for the tunic made without seams. Woven on the loom in one piece. I wove a bag that way once.  Fun and challenging. That would have been a valuable garment. And aside from whatever it speaks about the one who made it for Jesus presumably or bought it for Him, the fact is that they gambled over the piece and in so doing, fulfilled scripture.

These soldiers knew they were hanging a king. Added value. Were they confused? What did they think as they carried out the deed? I don’t expect they were too worried. Was there a larger number of soldiers who marched out with them to the execution? I don’t think so. That is not a detail we know. The concern for rebellion was the night before at the arrest. Now they have seen not only no opposition to the arrest but the events so turned that it seemed all agreed this was a good thing. So they could, the four of them, having just crucified three men, now let the ones who have come to see do their gawking while they get on about the business of waiting for the men to die, and dividing up the spoils.

The events had turned. The ruled people had been trumped by their own rulers and while many were busy with Passover preparations, God’s preparation, as Jesus, hung on the cross. When evil plots to do its work, it will be seen that it often does so behind the cover of distraction. Crowds can be manipulated and controlled. That is what a community organizer does; she figures out ways to mobilize the community to some action already planned out by those powers behind the scenes.

• What areas in my world today are being so led?
• Is it possible that I too am targeted by manipulation?
• How can we as individuals be more aware?
• Can I, and will I, choose to walk by the Spirit of Truth and not by the spirit of media and fear and rah-rah-rah?

Lord, make me faithful, keep me honest, filled with love and give me courage to stand for truth against crowd, humbly and willing to surrender all to Your greater long suffering, plan.

John 19 Power in Authority

Pilate was clearly agitated. He did not like the thoughts that he was thinking in the silence. He was afraid. He was uncertain, and he was in charge and would be held responsible for what was happening in this city he was ruler over.

Jesus had already told Pilate that He was not of this world. The Jews had just said He “claimed” to be the Son of God and they wanted Him crucified. What a responsibility! There are big crowds in the city whose temperature had already turned on a dime over this man. He speaks again out of his frustration with a “Don’t you know? question. To which Jesus responds with a “Don’t you know?” answer.

• What power do I think I have over any given circumstance?
• Do I realize that I never have any power that is not given to me from above?
• Is there sin involved in how I am using my position of authority?

When Pilate heard this, he wanted no sin accounted to himself in this circumstance yet Jesus, in His mercy, tells Pilate that there is another whose sin is greater.

Jesus compares one sin to another and tells us some are greater than others. Yet the act of sacrifice that Jesus is about to do, will cover every sin, no matter how great that sin is.

Pilate wants out. This is clearly a spiritual battle that Pilate has unwillingly been thrust into the middle of. He did all he could. He tries to release Jesus. The crowd calls him a traitor to Rome. So he would not deny Cesar. He could not stop what God had planned. Knowing it was sin, he attempted a ritual act of cleansing so that before whatever god this man might be the son of, he might claim innocence of that sin. “Out, out damned spot!” cried Lady Macbeth, accessory to a murder.

• What sin am I guilty of?
• How great is my sin?
• Have I laid my sins at the foot of the cross?
• Have I repented and left sin behind ready to live the life Jesus has for me to live through Him?
• Do I confess consistently as I grow in Christ so that I may one day stand before His judgment seat and claim only His cleansing of me and nothing of my own action?

You and You alone have washed me and made me clean. You, Jesus, are my King!

John 19 Behold the Man!

Pilate did not accept the Jewish crowds demands. Not yet. He tried to appease them-to find another way to calm the angry mob, so he ordered abuse, a beating, an unfair punishment. One that would land on their king, The One Pilate knew was king but yet His own wanted death for Him. Pilate, a man, loyal to a royal system, afraid of a power he could see in Jesus and afraid of Jesus’s kingdom he could not see, must deal with this mob that could not see any of what he saw. So he scourged Jesus, Jesus was mocked for truth.

• Truth rejected  is beaten up
• Truth rejected  is mocked
• Truth rejected is pointedly pressed upon from head to toe
• Truth rejected is jeered at
• Truth rejected is dressed in false robes
• Truth rejected is spat upon
• Truth rejected is smacked in the face
• Truth rejected allows himself to be mocked, beaten, scourged, crowned in pain, pressed down, jeered at, dressed in comic hurtful false acclaim, smacked in the face with rejection and put on display. Truth stood on display.

Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.   Behold the man!

Behold The Man!

John 18 Authority Speaks to Authority

Jesus speaks to Pilate. He begins to answer Pilate’s question on what He has done, as owner of a kingdom, (an other – world kingdom.) This answer falls on the Roman ears in a startling manner. Romans believe in many gods, in many spiritual realms and Pilate may understand that before him now stands “a god” from the realm beyond his understanding. Clearly to Pilate, Authority has spoken to his own authority. Ah ha! So He IS a king! Pilate so concludes to Jesus confirmation. That must delight Pilate at first to think he is beginning to get the picture. I imagine it unfolded further in his mind as he puts it together .

a born king

an other world king

a truth king

Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate hears a challenge? What does Pilate think he is hearing, comprehending and needing to do- a man of authority in one world is confronted by a king born here, into the world where Pilate is set up to judge him,  yet belonging to another world.

Who is really in charge?

If ever one must stand before human authority, will we stand under and through the Holy Spirit? I read of a woman who was from Iran, a believer who was afraid that she might be arrested and she knew she could not withstand questioning and might give away the names of those she led in her small secret house church. She prayed she would not be arrested. But she was. And she was terrified. But when they took her for questioning the Peace of God came upon her and she found herself witnessing truth, love and compassion. This happened each time she was taken from solitary for questioning. Fear in between, peace under trial. In the end, she was released, and her questioner came to Christ along with his family. This encourages me. I can trust that under trials, which may come, my God, Jesus, His Holy Spirit, will fill me with His peace, and give me all words to speak.

Just as Jesus spoke truth to authority then, He continues to speak truth through believers. Will I trust Him for my own needs today?  Who is really in charge?

 

John 18 Arrest

So the Roman cohort, and the commander, and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound Him. (verse 12)

There was a small army that showed up that day to take Jesus. A Roman cohort at this time had recently increased in size from 480 to 600 fighting men! Add to that 6 centurion commanders. Then you have the temple guards. This must have seemed more of a statement of presence and authority in comparison to the Roman cohort. Either way, it was an overwhelming force come to collect one man, on the eve of Passover.

credit: Issac Ruiz

“So…” So what? So…because verse 11, it is Jesus’s cup which the Father has given Me. Jesus agreed to be arrested. How does one arrest The Creator?  Only if He allows it.  There is no power higher. Jesus had showed the soldiers only moments earlier that they could not even stand in His true presence unless He allowed it. All He did was utter His name I AM, and they fell over. Like children believing in the game they are playing, Jesus allows Himself to be arrested. It is a crowd of players making a big show of their self-conceived and merely human power as they imagine they and their cohort are in charge. In contrast to The Lord of the Creation, it is all fluff and puff. Jesus was not playing a game. It was for keeps. It was for OUR keeps.

SO…, if I love Jesus, I shall obey His commands 14:15. Just think what He has done for us. Do I truly comprehend even a portion of what this night was all about?