World English Bible translation
Today's Scripture
<8:19They said therefore to him, "Where is your Father?"
Jesus answered, "You know neither me, nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also." 8:20Jesus spoke these words in the treasury, as he taught in the temple. No one took him, because his hour had not yet come. 8:21Jesus said therefore again to them, "I am going away, and you will seek me, and will die in your sins. Where I go, you can't come."
8:22The Jews therefore said, "Will he kill himself, that he says, 'Where I am going, you can't come?'" 8:23He said to them, "You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. 8:24I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins."
Today's Lesson
The Pharisees took Jesus seriously. They thought they knew God already so they
would not listen and did not believe. But,
they did consider Him a threat. They
wanted to discredit Him and some may have already been looking for a reason to
justify killing Him. They should have
taken Him seriously about being the son of God as we know of course yet they
took Him seriously about threatening their leadership. When they ask Him where
His father is, they are asking Him about his earthly father. They want to know about Joseph and Jesus
wants to tell them about God.
Jesus tells them that they know neither Him nor His
father which they have proven by asking the question, “Where is your Father?”
Their eyes were blind to whom they were speaking. They were before the very Son of God and were
trying to find a way to get rid of Him. They should have been on their knees
praising God for the privilege of witnessing Jesus Christ teaching them about
God.
Jesus still wants to teach us about God today. He is a teacher in this school of life 24-hours
a day. We must treasure each of our moments on earth because they are all part
of God’s perfect plan. Christ is with us as He was that day and dwells within
us as our teacher. In our mundane lives we often miss out on what Jesus is
trying to teach us. We too may think we
already know God and so we quit listening. We often ask for our present trials
to be lifted when Jesus is trying to give us faith which is more valuable than
gold.
Jesus then tells them He is going away to a place
where they can’t come and they will die in their sins unless they believe He is
the Son of God. They think He may be
speaking about killing himself. If they
had been followers of Jesus they still would not have understood these
words. Nobody thought that the Messiah
was going to be crucified. It was not entirely clear to them what the
passage from Isaiah was really about when this book predicted Jesus’
death. In Isaiah 53:12 it is stated that
the suffering servant pours out his life unto death. The missing piece to the puzzle was that the
suffering servant in this chapter that perfectly describes Christ, was the
Messiah. Jesus was a mystery to all but as
He promised those who believed in Him were saved
Jesus is a mystery even today. There are many
things about our lives we don’t and will not ever fully understand. We don’t truly understand sickness and death.
Many times we don’t see the justification for earthly suffering if we believe
in an all-powerful, loving God. We too
are missing pieces to the puzzle in our limited understanding of Christ. One thing we can understand is that Jesus is
the Son of God and He wants to take us to where He went. Where He went we can go and will go. What
happens down here may continue to be a mystery. I say “believe” for faith is
the coin of God’s realm and He has paid your way. You need only to believe and
heaven is yours. Amen.
Do you want heaven enough to believe in Jesus as
your Lord and Savior when the world is and will continue to be such a mystery?
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