Food for Soul! 27

John 8:21-30

Then Jesus said, "I'm leaving and you are going to look for me, but you're missing God in this and are headed for a dead end. There is no way you can come with me." The Jews said, "So, is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by 'You can't come with me'?" Jesus said, "You're tied down to the mundane; I'm in touch with what is beyond your horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch. I'm living on other terms. I told you that you were missing God in all this. You're at a dead end. If you won't believe I am who I say I am, you're at the dead end of sins. You're missing God in your lives." They said to him, "Just who are you anyway?" Jesus said, "What I've said from the start. I have so many things to say that concern you, judgments to make that affect you, but if you don't accept the trustworthiness of the One who commanded my words and acts, none of it matters. That is who you are questioning-- not me but the One who sent me."

They still didn't get it, didn't realize that he was referring to the Father. So Jesus tried again. "When you raise up the Son of Man, then you will know who I am-- that I'm not making this up, but speaking only what the Father taught me. The One who sent me stays with me. He doesn't abandon me. He sees how much joy I take in pleasing him." When he put it in these terms, many people decided to believe.

Food for thought! In death you will know!

Jesus begins by telling his opponents that he is going away; and that, after he is gone, they will realize what they have missed, and will search for him and not find him. This is the true prophetic note. It reminds us of three things: 

(i) There are certain opportunities which come and which do not return. To every man is given the opportunity to accept Christ as Saviour and Lord; but that opportunity can be refused and lost. 

(ii) Implicit in this argument is the truth that life and time are limited. It is within an allotted span that we must make our decision for Christ. The time we have to make that decision is limited, and none of us knows when his or her limit will expire. There is therefore every reason for making it now. 

(iii) Just because there is opportunity in life there is also judgment. The greater the opportunity, the more clearly it beckons, the oftener it comes, the greater the judgment if it be refused or missed. 

This passage brings us face to face with the glory of our opportunity, and the limitation of time in which to seize it. When Jesus spoke about going away, he was speaking about his return to his Father and to his glory. That was precisely where his opponents could not follow him, because by their continuous disobedience and their refusal to accept him, they had shut themselves off from God. 

We may pretent not to understand Jesus in life, but we shall all see and know him in death. This means two things: 

i) It is when Christ is lifted up that we really will know who he is; it is on Good Friday that we come to know Jesus and what he came to do and be; it is in death that we know for sure who were are. Death is the ultimate revealer of Jesus and of us all. Death reveals us; death makes us known; death says it all about us. This literally happened when Jesus died: Mark 15:39 we read: "And when the centurion who stood facing Jesus saw Him die, he said, Really, this Man was God’s Son!" In death, this man saw Jesus as he really is, Son of God.

If Jesus had lived on and taught and healed he might have attracted many people, but it is his death which speaks straight to the hearts of men. Jesus speaks most by his death than by his life; he speaks more from the cross than from all his life; Jesus' death was the greatest sermon he ever made. The same with us, our death will reveal who we have been in life. Until then, we do well not to judge one another but to pray for each other.

ii) In our death we really will see who Jesus is; when we will die, we shall see Jesus in his true colours. (Rev 1:7) "Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall gaze upon Him and beat their breasts and mourn and lament over Him." Don't wait to die to know Jesus; seek to know him in life.

Heb 12:14

"Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord."