22-24 They were celebrating Hanukkah just then in Jerusalem. It was winter. Jesus was strolling in the Temple across Solomon’s Porch. The Jews, circling him, said, “How long are you going to keep us guessing? If you’re the Messiah, tell us straight out.”
25-30 Jesus answered, “I told you, but you don’t believe. Everything I have done has been authorized by my Father, actions that speak louder than words. You don’t believe because you’re not my sheep. My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them real and eternal life. They are protected from the Destroyer for good. No one can steal them from out of my hand. The Father who put them under my care is so much greater than the Destroyer and Thief. No one could ever get them away from him. I and the Father are one heart and mind.”
Paul Scherer, one of the great preachers of the 20th Century, wrote:
“Before the Word of God can get itself lived, it needs to get itself believed - and what is believed is not always lived. But before it cannot itself believed, it has to get itself heard - and what is heard is not always believed. Farther back than that, however...before the Word of God cannot itself heard, it must get itself said - and what is said is not always heard.” The Word God Sent p. 3
There are two reasons why what is said is not always heard.
Because of the way it is said; and because of the way it is heard.
Jesus had trouble being heard because of the way he was heard.
They did not want to hear what he was saying, so they did everything they could to not hear. And believe. They would not listen!
Is this not the root of all unbelief? The refusal to listen and give truth a chance in our lives.
The request “tell us straight out” sounds legitimate, fair, reasonable, even honest. But it isn’t. It is loaded, bias, suspicious, deceptive. A trap to catch Jesus and prove his blasphemy.
To look for the "plain truth" may well be a way to not have to face the truth.
The truth which is different than we want it to be!
And what is this truth?
At it’s core it is that God loves you and me and everyone - “red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight.”
God includes those we exclude - and if God excludes anyone, it is not for me to say who that will be. It appears from Scripture that it will be those who reject the way of love which Jesus taught and choose to make God exclusive, judging who will make it and who won’t. This I cannot do. I am not God and I am not able to grasp how far God’s love goes to be inclusive
"Jesus loves the different people,
of the world.
Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Jew,
They are precious to him too.
Jesus loves the different people
of the world."
Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, help me to accept what I cannot change - that your love is inclusive. Then help me be inclusive in my thinking and acting, daring to leave
judgement in your hands.”
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