Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 19-21.

When Jesus was before Pilate, Jesus did not answer any of the accusations brought against Him, or make any sort of defense.  This led Pilate to ask Him if He understood that he had power over Him.  Jesus responded by telling Pilate that he only had power over Him because someone greater had given it to him.  Pilate then tried to find a way to release Jesus without the crowd starting a riot (John’s wording hints that the crowd was either composed of Jewish religious leaders or was filled with agents of the religious leaders who kept it stirred up).  The Jewish religious leaders suggested that any leader who claimed sovereignty over the Jewish nation was an enemy of Caesar.  Then when Pilate asked them if they really wanted him to crucify their king, the chief priests declared that they had no king but Caesar.  At this point, the chief priests denied the sovereignty of God.  They put Caesar above God as king over themselves.  It would be very easy to get caught up in writing about the implications of what they said relative to First Century Jewish thought and miss the lesson for us.  How easily we can get caught up in trying to use the government to accomplish what we believe to be godly ends and thus give over sovereignty which belongs to God to members of the government.  In this recent election, all too many people were ready to lift up Donald Trump, or Kamala Harris, as the one who would bring about our salvation.  All too many of us are ready to declare that we have no king but Caesar, when truly there is only One King who deserves our loyalty and worship.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 17-18.

I want to write about Jesus praying for His disciples, and for those who would believe because of the testimony of His disciples (which includes us).  However, I am not quite sure how to say what I want to write.  So, I am just going to start writing and pray that the Spirit brings it together.  Jesus says that the Father took His disciples (and those who believe in Him through their message*) out of the world and gave them to Him.   They accepted the words which Jesus spoke and thus gave glory to Jesus.  Jesus prayed that God would protect His disciples because the world would hate them.  Interestingly, He says that the protection God would give His disciples would make them one (or, perhaps, should unify them).  He goes on to say that He made God the Father known to His disciples, and that He would continue to do so.  In the middle of this prayer, Jesus asked God to make His disciples saintly by the truth, and that God’s word is the truth.  The translators note says that could alternatively be translated as saying that Jesus asked God to make His disciples saintly in order to live according to the truth.  Which brings me to what Jesus said when He was before Pilate, and Pilate’s response to Him.  Jesus told Pilate that He came into this world to testify to the truth, and that everyone who was on the side of truth listens to Him.  To which Pilate replied, “What is truth?”  By saying that Pilate implied that he did not believe there was such a thing as truth.  Pilate’s lack of belief that there was such a thing as truth led him to give into the crowd and order Jesus’ crucifixion, even though he knew He was not guilty of any crime.  Ultimately, we have a choice.  Either we accept that there is truth and listen to Jesus, or we give in to the crowd baying for the blood of the innocent.

*this parenthetical applies every time I use “His disciples” in today’s entry unless I specify otherwise.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 14-16.

I went back and forth about what to write about today’s passage.  As I first started reading I immediately thought that I would write about Jesus telling His disciples that He was the way, the truth, and the life.  Then as I read on, I was struck by how Jesus’ promise to His disciples that if the world hates them, it hated Him first.  I was torn about which to write about, but then I realized that they went together.  The world hates Jesus because He is the truth and tells the truth.  The world does not want there to be such a thing as truth.  Instead they want truth to be what they say it is, and if they want it to be something else tomorrow, then tomorrow it will be something else.  They do not want to have to follow Jesus in order to get to the Father.  They want to be able to do what they think is right (which is what they think will keep them from facing the negative consequences of their actions) and still speak with God.  They want to not need to look to God, they want to be God.  Unfortunately, this means that they will hate those who insist on telling them the truth.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 12-13.

When we read the account of Jesus washing His disciples feet we rarely truly understand what was going on here on the visceral level which the disciples (and many of those who read this when it was first written) would have understood it.  If we look at the account of the woman who anointed Jesus in Luke we get a little better understanding of it.  And, if we do not fully understand the symbolism of Jesus washing His disciples feet, we will not fully understand the lesson He gives His disciples about it when He was finished.  Jesus is our Teacher and our Lord (another thing which we do not fully understand today in the same way that those who first read the Gospels did).  If He did the demeaning service of washing His disciples feet, then we should put ourselves into demeaning situations to serve our Brothers and Sisters in Christ, and not just them, but also those whom Christ is calling to Him.  I want to highlight one other message which Jesus makes while washing His disciples feet.  He implies that they were physically clean, only their feet were dirty.  Jesus uses that comparison as a metaphor that even if we can clean our spiritual selves we still need Him to clean the dirtiest part of ourselves.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 10-11.

When Jesus talks about being the good shepherd here He actually combines two metaphors (or, perhaps John combines them).  First, He talks about how those who do not enter the sheep pen through the gate are robbers and thieves; that the shepherd of the sheep enters through the gate.   The shepherd calls his sheep by name and they follow him because they know his voice.  Jesus clarifies this by saying that He is the gate.  While Jesus was talking about Himself as the Shepherd who calls each of us by name, He also gives us about the people He sends to lead His Church.  If they do not enter through the Gate, which is Jesus, they are thieves and robbers who have come to kill and steal and destroy.  The leaders whom Jesus has sent to us have three characteristics: they come to us through Jesus and point us to go through Him, they know each of those whom Jesus has sent them to lead by name (more on this in a moment), we will hear Jesus’ voice in what they say.  That second point is more for those who believe that they have been called by Jesus to be leaders, although we should bear it in mind when we feel like we should follow someone: do they know our name, or are we just a member of the crowd to them.  And, if we feel called to lead some of God’s people, do we make the effort to learn their names.  If we don’t, we either aren’t called, or we are failing in our calling.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 8-9.

John writes that Jesus told the Jews who believed Him that if they followed His teachings, they were His disciples, and that they would know the truth and the truth would set them free.  To which they responded that, as Abraham’s descendants, they were already free.  Jesus then told them that anyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Further, He says that they are trying to kill Him, because they have no room for His word.  I was struck today by the fact that John starts by saying this conversation was between Jesus and Jews who believed Him.  Yet, the discussion quickly turned confrontational.  Did the Jews who believed Jesus turn against Him when He told them they needed to be free?  Or, did Jews who already opposed Jesus insert themselves into this discussion because they thought they saw an opportunity to turn some of His followers against Him.  All of this resulted from Jesus saying that following His teachings will show us the truth and the truth will set us free.  I want to tie that together with the account John gives about Jesus healing a man born blind.  When the Pharisees confronted the man saying that they knew Jesus was a sinner, the man replied that he did not know about any of that, all he knew was that he had been blind but now he could see.  A little later, Jesus says that He came into the world so that the blind would see and those who can see will become blind.  Let us follow the example of the blind man and know only what Jesus has done for us.  If we do that, we will be able to see and He will reveal Truth to us so that we may be free.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 6-7.

Today’s passage contains some things said by Jesus which seem to support the Roman Catholic Church’s stance that the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper literally becomes flesh and blood.  When you combine what Jesus said when He broke bread and shared the cup with His disciples at the Last Supper with what He says here, one could easily draw that conclusion.  Here He says, “ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.”  However, I think we can better understand what He means here about His flesh and blood being food by looking what He said to His disciples when they returned and brought Him food after He spoke with the woman at the well.  In John 4:34, He said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”  So, my understanding of what Jesus said here is that we eat His flesh and blood as real food, food and drink which will satisfy our spiritual hunger and thirst, when we do the will of Him who called, and then sent, us.  I mentioned that when we do the will of Him who called us we eat Christ’s flesh and drink His blood and that it will satisfy our spiritual hunger.  Yet it is worth noting that when Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, doing the will of His Father satisfied His physical hunger.  

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 4-5.

The account of the lame man at the pool whom Jesus healed contains a couple of interesting points.  The first one being the question which Jesus asked the man, “Do you want to get well?”  The man’s response to the question is interesting and instructive.  He said that he couldn’t get well because he had no one to help him.  Together these tell us something about helping people in need.  We cannot help those who do not wish to be helped, and sometimes all people need is someone to walk along side offering some assistance.  Which brings us to what Jesus did to heal the man.  He told him to get up, pick up his mat, and walk.  He gave the man something to do.  Then later, Jesus found the man and told him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”  That is a message for all of us.  When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He forgave our sins and made us well with God.  We need to stop sinning or something worse may happen to us.  Fortunately, God will help us with that, just like He made us well.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 1-3.

John does an interesting thing in his Gospel that I have noticed before, but never really thought about before.  He switches from quoting someone to making commentary without leaving a clear indicator of where the quote ends and the commentary begins.  Primarily he does that when he quotes Jesus, but he also does it a few times in today’s passage when he quotes John the Baptist.  Until today, I always thought it was just something which John did without thinking about it (side note: while there is some debate about whether this Gospel was written by John, or by someone else, and, if it was written by John, whether that was the Apostle John or another John, I generally write my blogs assuming that it was written from the perspective of the Apostle John).  As I read it today, it struck me that John did it on purpose; partly to communicate that his “quotes” were only paraphrases of what was said, and partly to communicate a deeper understanding of what the speaker said than conveyed directly by what they said.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.