25 At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, "Isn't this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ? 27 But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from."
28 Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, "Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me."
30 At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come. 31 Still, many in the crowd put their faith in him. They said, "When the Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs than this man?"
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.
33 Jesus said, "I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come."
35 The Jews said to one another, "Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 36 What did he mean when he said, 'You will look for me, but you will not find me,' and 'Where I am, you cannot come'?"
Observations for living today:
People cannot stand to have their questions go unanswered! When the question hangs in the air, they start filling it with possible solutions. When the leaders who had been trying to kill him earlier tolerated His speaking in public, some of the people suggested the solution the leadership believed He really was the Christ. But they knew this was not true and they justified it some folk theology "when the Messiah come, no one will know where he is from". It is never a good strategy to answer a question based solely on your own ignorance: "A little learning is a dangerous thing!" [ See “It Helps To Know What You Don’t Know” on my lessons page] Unless they were ignorant of their heritage, i.e., Judaic doctrine, they knew where the Messiah would come from: from the root of Jesse through the line of David, and from the city of Bethlehem their King would come (1 Sam 16:1-13; 2 Sam 7:4-16; Is 11:1-5, 10-11; Mic 5:2). This kind of unbelief and lack of intellectual effort (to know what should be known) enables Satan to exploit a weak mind. This is one of Satan’s favorite tactics, with many variation; such as, those who think they know the date of the end of the world only know to the Father (Mat 13) and the use of titles such as “Father, Rabbi and Teacher,” to infer superiority of any kind, whether it be intellectual understanding or the achievement of righteousness/holiness (Mat 23). Regardless of the logical reasoning employed to justify such behavior, if Jesus said not to do such things, then doing them will not please His Father. Bad assumptions will always take you down the wrong road. In military planning an assumption is a piece of information about the enemy thought to be true, which is unprovable, upon which the plan of action is based and which, if it proves to be wrong, will cause the plan to fail. These people assumed Jesus was from Nazareth in Galilee, but they clearly did not know God or what He revealed about His Christ.
People are blinded by what they believe. Their bad assumptions become facts guiding them to destruction, like the false lighthouses set by thieves along a treacherous coastline. Satan will use man's pride to cloud the vision of the reality of God's truth.
Yet in the same crowd watching the same miracles, hearing the same lessons, many were beginning to see and hear the truth: Jesus was here by God's authority, sent to speak and act so mankind could know and understand the truth. Jesus understood some were close to having faith in Him and He behaved in such a way as to not damage their fragile state, fulfilling the prophetic words of Isaiah “a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out” (Isa 42:1-4 quoted in Mat 12:20). Instead he warned of a truth all faced. They did not know God, He would only be with them for a little (very short) while longer before He returned to the one who sent Him, where He was even now--with God. They would look for Him soon, but they would find it impossible to find Him.
When those who do not know God or believe His message hear the truth, they want seize the messenger and silence him permanently. This is not a trait specific to the atheist, but to those who rage against the truth (Ro 1:18-32), whether they be Jewish, Islamic, Roman Catholic, Nazis, Marxist, Maoist or generic anarchists who kill all who oppose them. When the leaders (Chief Priests and Pharisees) of God's people on earth heard "the crowd whispering such things" about Jesus, they sent the "temple guards to arrest him." But God's messenger cannot be silenced apart from His will, nor can God's messenger be separated from God. The separation between where God is and where God is not, begins here on this earth. When Jesus said "and where I am, you cannot come" He was warning those who did not believe the words God spoke. Nothing can separate you from God when you believe His truth. Jesus did not say "where I am going" as He spoke to the crowd in the Temple, but said "where I am."
Believe what God said, you win; change it to suit yourself or do not make the effort to confirm what you are being told by religious leaders and you are in danger of believing the lies of God's enemies. Christ and God's Holy Spirit are the only source of truth (Mat 23:8; Jn 14:15-21; 15:26; 16:7-16; Heb 8).
Reality in Christ:
Jesus had much more to tell us when He was with us in the flesh (physically walked among us in human form), but He spoke to us in figures, because we could not bear what He would say without having God's Holy Spirit within us to guide us and help us understand (Jn 16:12). But now He is with us in a new way and under a new covenant—a better, more profound way (Heb 8:7-13; 10:11-18).
Consider the difference in the words He spoke to the religious leaders and His disciples.
To the leadership: Jn 8:14 “you have no idea where I come from or where I am going.” 8:21 “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”
To His disciples: Jn 13:33, 36 “I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.” . . . “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Jn 14:2-4 “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Jn 16:5, 7-11, 16 “Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’” . . . “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned” . . . “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
God can and will always accomplish what He said He would; and it will always amaze you how He does it, but it should never surprise you, for He is a great and awesome God.
We live in an exceptional age, under an equally exceptional covenant with God. His Christ is our brother and God is our Father. Nothing can happen to us they both do not know about, understand and have approved of; therefor Paul writes, because we believe the word of God spoke to us and about us— “we are more than conquerors . . . neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, not any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus” (Ro 8:37). If we apply this truth to our daily living, nothing can get at us without the Father’s accent (Ro 8:28), no trouble can get between my God and me, nothing can happen to me but what God wants to show His power, love and glory. I am no longer living in a temporal world under the rules of human logic, but I am one with Christ, loved by the Father, filled with His Holy Spirit, a human being in the process of becoming a spiritual being one with the eternal Father in the same way Jesus was/is—and no one can stop or interfere with His will in this as long as I believe what His Christ and His Holy Spirit has revealed! (Jn 14:21; 15:9; 16:27; 17:20; Ro 8:15; 1 Co 2:12; 15:45)
Prayer:Father, you alone are Holy and Righteous, fulfilling everything you intended from the beginning. I know you love us and sent your Son so we would no longer live as helpless orphans in a hostile world. Help me resist assumptions thought to be true, whether they are mine or those of blind guide, in order to fill an intellectual vacuum that scares me. Reveal them for what they are and help me remove them from my life so I can see only your wisdom and truth; make it my only reality, rooted and established in a complete belief in your Son, my Christ and my Lord. Give me the wisdom to know what I don’t know and the strength to trust you when I am afraid. Help me overcome every fear and to look for answers from anyone who does not know your truth, or to rely on them as a source of comfort or strength to endure. Inspire me to know your truth and motivate me to learn as much as can be known. Empower me with the ability to understand what I need to know and the faith to know everything else is unnecessary—you will teach me everything I need to know through your Son, my teacher and savior. Seal me with the promised Holy Spirit so I can believe every word You have spoken; forgive my moments of unbelief and replace them with the complete understanding your Son promised. Never let anything separate me from your love; fill me with your Holy Spirit every day so I will become a faithful child of yours in every way.
RSS Feed