 |
||
John 7:1-39: Then Jesus said, "I am only with you for a short time. Then I'm going to the One who sent Me.” On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone is thirsty, he should come to Me and drink! The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him." When I was twenty-one years old, I was required, by virtue of draft number, to appear for and submit to a day of testing, prodding and poking. This process is called a pre-induction physical. Had things 
remained equal I would have been drafted into the Army the next day
& would have probably served in Vietnam. But, God intervened. He
directed me to enlist to become a Russian linguist.Then, four years later, married with two children my wife and I both prayed for guidance and felt we should reenlist. As we had been in Berlin for more than two years, we were coming due for a PCS (Permanent Change of Station). Once a soldier is within one-hundred days of a PCS he is said to be 'short' or a 'double-digit midget'. Since the Army is fueled by paperwork, tradition requires the posting of a 'short chart'. This is comprised of an image, often a soldier-caricature, with camouflage spaces numbered ninety-nine to one. Each a number is blacked out until one is the sole remaining number. When departing Berlin, mine was a soldier so short that only his helmet and the toes of his combat boots were visible. Numbers two and one were on the tips of his boots. I was a short-timer and was preparing to PCS back to the ‘real world’. In this passage, Jesus is once again in Jerusalem, at the feast of Booths or Tabernacles (vs 2), one of the three annual celebrations every Jewish male was required to celebrate at the Temple. Reluctantly Jesus went secretly to Jerusalem (vs 9-10), and remained silently incognito during the first four days of the festival. Then He began to teach in the center of the Temple complex. (vs 14) Very similar to when Jesus argued with the priests at twelve-years old (Luke 2:49), the official response was – “How?” (vs 15) On Jesus' previous trip to Jerusalem, He had angered the Pharisees by performing a healing on the Sabbath (John 5:8-10) and claiming to be not only sent by YHWH but to be His Son. (John 5:19) The Pharisees remain angry with Him (vs 1) and are looking for a pretext to do away with Him (vs 25, 32). Addressing a broad audience, made up of Pharisees, priests, common folk, and disciples, Jesus fires off a verbal scatter-gun blast, “I am only with you for a short time.” (vs 33) Several commentators believe that this statement was made a scant six months prior to the crucifixion. So on one level Jesus means just this, “I'm short, My time here will be soon done and I'm PCS-ing back to My ‘real world’.” Then too there seems to be a note of exasperation expressed toward the Jerusalem officials, “Just leave me be. Soon you aren't gonna have to worry about me disturbing your plans. So back off!” Then to the entire crowd Jesus weeps, “My remaining time with you is all too short. I have taught you, fed you, healed you, driven out your demons, and cleansed your lepers, yet you continue to vacillate. You are blind to what's staring you in the face. You refuse to believe. Since you won't come to me, when I am gone, you will return to your former hopelessness. "I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, yet you were not willing!” (Mat 23:37b HCSB) It's too late for you, 'You will look for Me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.' (v 34) You can bet The Disciples heard what Jesus just said and if He hadn't prepared them in advance, one can imagine the whispered queries: “Since when is He gonna split?” “John, did he talk to you about this?” “Judas, has the Master instructed you to prepare for a journey?” They would have been in shock, complete and total. They'd left everything and now he was informing them in public, in front of all the rest of the Jewish world that He was never going to establish a kingdom. Any hopes of prestige they may have held onto were dashed against the walls of the Temple. He was going to leave them! How were they to recover from this? Without Him they were lost. His were the words of eternal life? (John 6:68) Please put on your imagination beanie and set the prop a'spinning. Jesus appears at the door of your church. You and a number of others accept Him for Who He claims to be and turn your backs on everything, all the elements of your life up to that point. Then after three years of intensely intimate involvement, Jesus disses you by announcing to the entire Southern Baptist General Convention that He's abandoning you. There's no warning, no reasons, no hope. Where would your emotions be? What might such a cold shower of apparent betrayal do to your faith? Would you remain as fervent an advocate of Jesus' message following this abandonment? Jesus' next recorded words occur four days later. No doubt Jesus and the disciples must have interacted during the four intervening days. Yet nothing was said on either side that impressed John enough to record it. What's worse, when Jesus did speak, He made yet another general proclamation to the gathering of all the Jewish men on the final and most important day of the festival. (vs 37) Does He speak to the disciples' issues? Not really. He repeats the admonition and promise – 'Thirsty? Come and drink.' But, then Jesus concludes His remarks with a cryptic reference to an artesian well that will bubble up from deep inside any who believe and it being the source of “rivers of living water” (vs 38). Then Jesus too went silent until the next morning, when the priests brought before Him the woman caught in adultery. Throughout all this the disciples spoke not a word – no argument, no reply. No other Gospel writer addresses this event. There is no indication of the usual squabbling or the machismo or the bumbling attempts to display leadership. Nothing! We may only surmise their stoic responses. I'd like to believe that Jesus prepared the disciples for what was to occur and ordered their silence, but there is no indication of this. Regardless, the question of God's Goodness and of His commitment to them must have been uppermost in their internal & corporate discussions. Have you resolved the issue of God's Goodness? Do you ascribe goodness to Abba's gifts only when the gift appeals to you or when it's in accord with your desires? A lá Matthew 7, does it remain a gift from Abba even though it may appear like a stone? Jesus spoke only one phrase, and like a fox gotten into the hen house, it prompted a boisterous cacophony of protests, contrasted by the disciples' silence. What do your ears perceive Jesus saying? Is He the prophet exclaiming, “You've already made your choice. Leave me be. Back off!” Do you sense the husbandman cooing, “You still refuse to believe. But, your heart isn't hardened yet.” Do you hear the man-wrapped God sighing, “I'm leaving you.“ Can your hearing pierce through the thunderous silent grief, “Come and drink. I go, but, the Spirit will come and you will know life bubbling from deep within you.” Each of Jesus’ listeners heard the message their heart expected and could process. "FOR THE HEARTS OF THIS PEOPLE HAVE GROWN DULL. THEIR EARS ARE HARD OF HEARING, … LEST THEY SHOULD UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEARTS AND TURN, SO THAT I SHOULD HEAL THEM.'"(Mat 13:15 NKJV) "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21 NKJV) Which speaker do you hear and what's the message you perceive? Know this, no matter the present condition of your heart; Jesus waits to hear from you. As result of Jesus' finished toil on the cross (John 19:30), an 'earthquake' tore in two the cloth wall that prevented us from entering the Holy of Holies, (Matthew 27:50-52) and accessing God directly. Now you may freely come and drink, and having drunk you may become a reservoir of life.
|
