This morning I opened my Bible and started reading from John's Gospel, tenth chapter. There is so much to reflect upon in this chapter, for it is full of the Lord's comments about His ministry as the Good Shepherd. However the verses I want to spend time with follow that section and are every bit as important. Here are the verses - John 10:24-30 NIV:
[24] "The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
[25] "Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify about me, [26] but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. [27] My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. [28] I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. [29] My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all ; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. [30] I and the Father are one.”
I don't know how more clear Jesus can be, "I and the Father as one." Those words should end all discussion, end all dispute, and be the absolute unshakeable foundation of our faith! I find His response to their question about whether He was the Messiah very interesting. He starts by questioning their belief, talks about His works, then about His authority to give eternal life and finally about His unity with the Father, which in our backwards view makes total sense to us, but I am thinking was quite shocking to the Jews.
Going back to the verses, I think it is important that we take to heart what Jesus says in verses 25 and 26, for our belief is key in our encountering Jesus. Jesus is alluding to the fact that there are people who witnessed His works (healings, deliverances, multiplication of food, etc.) who, after seeing these things, did not believe that Jesus was from God! The prophets had spoken quite clearly about the signs of God moving, and what the Messiah would do, and these people should have known what to look, how to read the signs. When confronted with these signs, at Jesus hands, they chose to not believe.
Thinking about belief, it is interesting how we can believe for a while and then seemingly change our minds and not believe. I know many who have walked with the Lord, who have had relationship, and then walked away for one reason or another. In the case of the Jews here, they wanted Jesus to admit that He was from God, that He was the Messiah, but their response when He does so is not worship. Here are the very next verses - John 10:31-33 NIV:
[31] "Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, [32] but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
[33] “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
It seems to me that they wanted a Messiah to their liking, one who did exactly what they wanted, their way! They had something better here, the very Son of God, and they wanted to kill Him. I think this demonstrates the religious spirit quite well. It is a spirit that wants to control, wants to shape "god" in an image that is powerless and controllable. This spirit stirs up offense at anything that is different than what is allowed or desired... and does it with a sense of fervency and self-righteousness.
I mean think about His last statement for just a few seconds, wouldn't it be better to have the Son of God your leader, rather than the some anointed military leader. It shows how twisted we we can become when we go all in with wrong thinking, wrong beliefs, or a spirit of religion.
How often do people get offended at God because He doesn't do what they want him to do? I think that so often our belief about God is that He is a helper, serving our selfish perspective in that moment. Rather than looking at everything He has done, at all His provision and blessings, we instead look at what we want God to do, and when He doesn't do it we choose unbelief, because He clearly isn't the "god" we want! Oh Lord forgive us!
Going back to the idea of belief, I think the questions is what do we actually believe?
If we believe that Jesus is our Savior, the very Son of God who is one with the Father, our belief should never falter, should never change!
However, if we believe that Jesus is sent to make us happy, or healthy, or bless us, or help us, then when He doesn't do as we want, we no longer believe!
Jesus at one point spoke about how people were only following Him because He fed them (See John 6:26). One wonders how often we are following God for the very same reason, for what we want Him to give us. We don't really want a God who thinks differently, or acts differently than we do. God pointed out the problem back in Isaiah's day when He said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said something like this, 'that part of the problem the Jews had with Jesus is that He always seemed to answer a different question than the one they had asked, or at least He answered it at a different level, or from a different perspective.
One would think that God, or His son whose every word came from the Father, would do exactly that! From His vantage point outside of time, having all knowledge, when He addresses a situation He is operating at a completely different level, with a very different perspective. I think this is the key decision point in our faith and belief of God! If He is God then of course this is true, but if He isn't then He is incapable of anything supernatural, and Jesus was just a wise and gentle teacher.
He isn't God only when He does what we want Him to do!
We often times carry these beliefs in our mind and heart that are actually incompatible, but if we don't think hard about what we believe, we can live for years just ignoring this situation.
God is either God or He isn't, there is no part-time truth here.
Jesus is either one with the Father or He isn't.
Our will and our own thinking, our wants or desires, have no impact on the statements I just made! We are not the center of all things, the one whose thoughts and emotions all depend upon, yet this is often how we act. Oh Lord, forgive us!
So this morning I am encouraged to dive much deeper into what I believe and why! I am encouraged to look at my own thinking about the Lord, why I follow Him, why I love Him, why I believe He is God! I am encouraged to look at how I respond to Him when things don't go the way i want! I am encouraged to dig deep and make sure that my thinking aligns with my beliefs!
Oh Lord, help me!
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