John 4:31-54

Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat."

This makes me think about my time in Kurdistan. The Kurdish for "Rabbi, eat" is "Mamosta, bixo." Although in Kurdish it would be followed with the equivalent of "Eat! Why aren't you eating? Don't be shy! Eat."

In Kurdish, mamosta means teacher (like Rabbi in Hebrew). It helps me remember the intent of the word Rabbi whener I see it used. In Kurdish, mamosta is a common title used to show respect for someone who has knowledge (actual teachers and otherwise). Drawing the link between mamosta and Rabbi helps me remember that Jesus is being held up as someone who has knowledge to give rather than as a member of a religious institution.

But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about."
So the disciples were saying to one another, "No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?"
Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.

The water that Jesus has to offer is everlasting life and the food that he eats is to follow the will of God and do His work. We seek to be as Jesus, so we must eat the same food.

"Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. "Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. "For in this case the saying is true, 'One sows and another reaps.'
"I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor."

The food to be eaten is the will and work of God. It is ready to be harvested and eaten. There is no waiting. It is being harvested now. We don't have to plant the seeds, someone else has already done that. We are not at the beginning of the cycle, but at the end - it's not even the beginning of the harvest, the workers are already hired and working. We are eating the labor of those that have come before.

The Samaritans from that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all the things that I have done." So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world."

The Samaritan woman becomes an early missionary. She spreads Jesus to her people and she gets a quite a reward in return: the people begin to believe of their own faith, no longer relying on her!

After the two days He went forth from there into Galilee. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast. Therefore He came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and was imploring Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death.

So Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe." The royal official said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies."

Jesus said to him, "Go; your son lives." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off.

This is more positive fallout from the miracle of water to wine. The royal official knows that Jesus can perform miracles from either being present at the wedding or hearing the stories and he asks Jesus to save his dying son.

As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living. So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."

So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives"; and he himself believed and his whole household. This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

John 4:1-30

I want to preface the following post with a little bit of context for me as the author - where I am, what I'm doing, how I feel.

I am sitting in an office, a call center if you will. I am the only one here because it's 6 am on a Sunday morning. I've been here since 5.

I hate it. I don't know another word that quite describes how I feel about the job I currently work. I could go into all the reasons why I hate it, but it doesn't much matter.

On the other hand, I am grateful to have a job that pays money and I prayed pretty hard for a job to get us through. I am waiting for a clear sign from God that I can quit.

Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), He left Judea and went away again into Galilee.

And He had to pass through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

I think it might be hard for many of us to understand why the woman reacts the way she does in the following passage. I don't really understand it, but I have been in situations where it would have been impolite or even rude to speak directly to a woman (in conservative Muslim-Kurdish homes), but never in a situation where the rules were based on race or ethnicity.

The woman is fairly brazen here, I think. She's not the one in the power position - she's Samaritan and a woman - yet, she doesn't simply do as she's asked. She calls Jesus on his people's ethnocentrism.

Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?"

Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw."

The woman is interested in what Jesus is offering, but I'm not sure she's convinced that he can deliver what he's offering.

He said to her, "Go, call your husband and come here."

The woman answered and said, "I have no husband."

Jesus said to her, "You have correctly said, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly."

The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."

This is the second time that Jesus has spoken a simple truth that led to belief. The first was when he told Nathanael that he'd been sitting under a tree.

Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.

The promise of being accepted into God's Kingdom for all, not just the Jews, spoken to the woman becasue she was brave enough to ask the question "Why are you even talking to me?"

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us."

Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."

At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why do You speak with her?"

So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men,

"Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?"

They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.

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John 3

Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."

Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?"

Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Nicodemus said to Him, "How can these things be?"

Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will n Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

Do you notice what Jesus just said? Those who beleive in Him are not judged. I think of the cultural imagery of the final Judgement Day. Jesus suggests that day may not be as we expect; everyone's already been judged. We've chosen light or darkness already. The light saves us and the darkness condemns.

I've already written about the serpent in the wilderness.

"For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized-- for John had not yet been thrown into prison.

Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purification. And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him."

John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but, 'I have been sent ahead of Him.' He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice So this joy of mine has been
made full.

"He must increase, but I must decrease.

"He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth He who comes from heaven is above all. What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives
the Spirit without measure.

"The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

Here John restates what Jesus has just explained to Nicodemus. I imagine that the followers came to John hoping to stir a little jealousy in him or a bit of anger, but John responds instead with the truth.

John 2:13-25

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, "Take these things away; stop making My Father's house a place of business." 

His disciples remembered that it was written, "ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME." 

The Jews then said to Him, "What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?" 

Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 

The Jews then said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" 

But He was speaking of the temple of His body. So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. 

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to  them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.

Here is more foreshadowing of what's to come.

I know that one of my goals is to read this as if it's the first time I've done so and, therefore, don't know what's to come. The author himself refers to the future, so I feel justified.

These verses make me think of how believers today spend so much money on the things of the Christian culture and the industry of the church.

The dove buyers are as guilty as the dove sellers.

Church of the Bronze Serpent

I was reading john 3 with some friends tonight and we came across the following verse:

14 "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up."

I asked what serpent was Jesus referring to. Was it the serpent and the staff story?

We weren't sure so we looked at the footnotes. It is a reference to Numbers 21:4-9 which says:

They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!"

Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people.

The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

I'm sure it's not true, but I felt as though I had never heard that story before.

Jesus compares himself with this bronze serpent? What can that mean?

Just as those bitten by the serpents were saved by looking at the bronze serpent, so can we be saved by looking to Jesus.

I think I was most struck how unlike western Christianity this story seems. And to think Jesus himself uses this story to describe himself and his role.

Turns out there's a lot of good stuff in the Bible!

John 2: 1-12, Wine from Water

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine." 

And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come." 

His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it." 

Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water." So they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, "Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter." So they took it to him. 

When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom, and said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now." This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days.

Why did Jesus turn water into wine?

Perhaps it was foreshadowing for the symbolism to follow. At the last supper, Jesus uses the wine to represent his own blood and his own blood washes us of sin; it is the new fluid of the baptism of the Spirit.
(Blood=Wine);Water, so to speak.

John 1: 35-51

I vowed to read John as if it were the first time I had done so, but it's harder than I imagined.

I read passages like the following and my only thought is "Uh huh. yes. Indeed. Go on."

Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, "What do you seek?" They said to Him, "Rabbi (which translatedmeans Teacher), where are You staying?" He said to them, "Come, and you will see." So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which translated means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).

Ideas such as "Lamb of God" and "Messiah" are too familiar to me. At least, my immediate understanding of the words makes it difficult to force myself to dig deeper; to take the role of one who has never heard.

Why is it important to understand the reference to lamb of God here? Well, lambs are sacrificed unto God as a sin offering and Jesus is God's own sacrifice to erase the sin of the world and fulfill the promise of the law of Moses. If we know that, then the reference in this chapter is a foreshadowing of what's to come.

But what does it mean to us if we don't know? Nothing?

The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip And Jesus said to him, "Follow Me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Nathanael said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!" Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nathanael answered Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel." Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these." And He said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

All it takes for Nathanael to believe that Jesus is the Son of God is that Jesus says he saw him under the fig tree? A little clairvoyance. That's the least of the miracles we'll see! Jesus says as much to Nathanael. "You will see greater things than these.

I know that Jesus' first miracle is understood to be the changing of water to wine, but this is the first one in the book of John and I think it's important. Some people don't need much convincing. There's something to be said for knowing and it's clear that Nathanael knows what's what.

John 1: 19-34

I want to really hear what John says - what both Johns say. I want to understand how he says it and why. I want to know what it was like to hear the gospel for the first time; to not have preconceived notions about the message.

This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." They asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "I am not " "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." Then they said to him, "Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?" He said, "I am A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, 'MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,' as Isaiah the prophet said."

Make straight the way of the Lord. John is not concerned with anything other than the truth. He's not the Christ, he's not Elijah. He's a messenger and his message is to get ready for the coming of the Lord.

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, and said to him, "Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" John answered them saying, "I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. "It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! "This is He on behalf of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.' "I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water." John testified saying, "I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. "I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.' "I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God."

John was given a vision by God and here it is realized. John recognizes Jesus as the sacrificial lamb who comes to take the sin from the world.

John actually tells us a lot of what we can expect in the coming story. If I were hearing this for the first time, I might not understand the foreshadowing here. John's comparison to Jesus with a lamb is important as is the note that Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

Something tells me we'll hear that again and that it'll be important.

John 1: 1-18

I said before that I'd go through John's gospel and focus on the following questions:

• What is Jesus doing?
• What is Jesus saying?
  What are his followers doing/How are they following him?

I'll do that, but, of course, I will feel free to write what I feel led to write.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come intobeing. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

The Word has always been with God because the Word is God. God made everything through the Word.
This is one of the most complex and densest pieces of scripture, I think. It says so much and means even more. I don't even know how to unpack it!
I think about it a lot, though. People often use Word to mean Bible or the things therein. "You'd better get into the Word."
But it's so much more. Word here is the very method of God. The mechanism through which he created the world and everything that exists. That Word is the light of men, life itself.

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John the Baptist testified about the Light (the Word), but he was not the Light only a messenger. Just as today, we may spread the gospel of Jesus, but we are not the gospel.
If this book stood alone and it was all we had, we'd know immediately what God was trying to tell us: If we accept the Light, we have been given the right to become children of God.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we sawHis glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace andtruth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'" For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For theLaw was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

Here we see that the Word that was with God in the beginning became flesh in Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God. The same method that He uses to create the world, He uses to save and redeem it.

The Promise

Readers, this site hasn't been updated in a while, but it will be again soon.

Previously, I worked through the book of Hebrews because itwas important to me. Next, I'll be working through the book of John.

With the gospel of John, I want to focus on three things:

• What is Jesus doing?
• What is Jesus saying?
• What are his followers doing/How are they following him?

I think it should be very interesting, so stick around.