Tag Archives: christianity

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.

They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

“No, Lord,” she said.And Jesus said,

“Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
John 8:1-11

Dear God, when the thought occurred to me a year or two ago that this woman’s fate of potentially being stoned could have been Jesus’s mother’s fate with him had Joseph not acted the way he did, it gave me a whole new perspective on Jesus’s emotions in this story. Now, this woman was apparently guilty of things Mary wasn’t, but still. His mom could have been disgraced and stoned falsely. The Old Testament reading today was from the parts of Daniel that are in the Catholic Bible but not in the Protestant one. Susanna was falsely accused and almost killed until Daniel intervened. Mary could have been falsely accused, but Joseph took responsibility in the world’s eyes. But this woman. This woman actually needed the forgiveness and mercy Jesus gave her that day.

I wonder why Jesus did it. Would he have intervened if he just heard about them stoning her and they hadn’t brought her to him to test him? How lucky is she that they wanted to test Jesus with her? Did Jesus forgive her because he was proving a point to the Pharisees, or was she pitiful, looking for mercy, and he gave it to her?

Father, first, I need your mercy. I have sinned. In my thoughts and in my words. In what I have done, and what I have failed to do. Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. There for I ask you to forgive me. I ask for all the angels and the saints to pray for me. And help me to be the forgiveness of Jesus to others.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

7 After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He wanted to stay out of Judea, where the Jewish leaders were plotting his death. ² But soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters, ³ and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! ⁴ You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!” ⁵ For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.

⁶ Jesus replied, “Now is not the right time for me to go, but you can go anytime. ⁷ The world can’t hate you, but it does hate me because I accuse it of doing evil. ⁸ You go on. I’m not going to this festival, because my time has not yet come.” ⁹ After saying these things, Jesus remained in Galilee.

¹⁰ But after his brothers left for the festival, Jesus also went, though secretly, staying out of public view. ¹¹ The Jewish leaders tried to find him at the festival and kept asking if anyone had seen him. ¹² There was a lot of grumbling about him among the crowds. Some argued, “He’s a good man,” but others said, “He’s nothing but a fraud who deceives the people.” ¹³ But no one had the courage to speak favorably about him in public, for they were afraid of getting in trouble with the Jewish leaders.

¹⁴ Then, midway through the festival, Jesus went up to the Temple and began to teach. ¹⁵ The people were surprised when they heard him. “How does he know so much when he hasn’t been trained?” they asked.

¹⁶ So Jesus told them, “My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me. ¹⁷ Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own. ¹⁸ Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honor the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies. ¹⁹ Moses gave you the law, but none of you obeys it! In fact, you are trying to kill me.”

²⁰ The crowd replied, “You’re demon possessed! Who’s trying to kill you?”

²¹ Jesus replied, “I did one miracle on the Sabbath, and you were amazed. ²² But you work on the Sabbath, too, when you obey Moses’ law of circumcision. (Actually, this tradition of circumcision began with the patriarchs, long before the law of Moses.) ²³ For if the correct time for circumcising your son falls on the Sabbath, you go ahead and do it so as not to break the law of Moses. So why should you be angry with me for healing a man on the Sabbath? ²⁴ Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.”

²⁵ Some of the people who lived in Jerusalem started to ask each other, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? ²⁶ But here he is, speaking in public, and they say nothing to him. Could our leaders possibly believe that he is the Messiah? ²⁷ But how could he be? For we know where this man comes from. When the Messiah comes, he will simply appear; no one will know where he comes from.”

²⁸ While Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he called out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I come from. But I’m not here on my own. The one who sent me is true, and you don’t know him. ²⁹ But I know him because I come from him, and he sent me to you.” ³⁰ Then the leaders tried to arrest him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.

John 7:1-30

Dear God, reading this story, it feels like Jesus was trying to feel out the situation and discern what you wanted him to do. Should he go or not go. Should he expose himself to premature death or should he shrewdly avoid Judea. First he sneaked down to Jerusalem for the festival, but then he seemingly spontaneously stepped out of the shadows and started publicly teaching (verse 14). Was that his plan all along or did he get assurance from you that it was the right thing to do.

Then there’s the vagueness of verse 30. The idea that the leaders tried to arrest him but weren’t able to implies that you were supernaturally working to protect his physical life for the time being. There would be a time for his death, but this wasn’t it.

Now, in the middle of all of this is Jesus challenging people on their hypocrisy. In this case, it’s over their accusing him of working (healing) on the Sabbath. This is the part I feel like I need to think about. Where can I be accused of hypocrisy? Are there areas where I judge others and then make the same exact mistake? Or do I condemn people who are actually doing good? I think it’s a self-assessment that all of us need to make. How am I the hypocrite, or how am I misjudging someone’s actions as bad when they are really good?

Father, give me self-awareness today. I have a meeting this morning that I’m not enthusiastic about attending. As I sit here now, I feel a conviction that I have the wrong attitude about it. Thank you for that conviction. I’m sorry. I’ve felt a disdain for it that I feel regret now. So help me to walk into it with a willing, loving spirit. Give me wisdom and shrewdness. Use it all for your glory.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

5 Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. ² Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. ³ Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. ⁵ One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”

⁷ “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”

⁸ Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

⁹ Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, ¹⁰ so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”

¹¹ But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.

¹³ The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. ¹⁴ But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.

¹⁶ So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. ¹⁷ But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” ¹⁸ So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.

¹⁹ So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished. ²¹ For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants. ²² In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge, ²³ so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent him.

²⁴ “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.

²⁵ “And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it’s here now, when the dead will hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live. ²⁶ The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son. ²⁷ And he has given him authority to judge everyone because he is the Son of Man. ²⁸ Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, ²⁹ and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment. ³⁰ I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.

³¹ “If I were to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be valid. ³² But someone else is also testifying about me, and I assure you that everything he says about me is true. ³³ In fact, you sent investigators to listen to John the Baptist, and his testimony about me was true. ³⁴ Of course, I have no need of human witnesses, but I say these things so you might be saved. ³⁵ John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were excited for a while about his message. ³⁶ But I have a greater witness than John—my teachings and my miracles. The Father gave me these works to accomplish, and they prove that he sent me. ³⁷ And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face, ³⁸ and you do not have his message in your hearts, because you do not believe me—the one he sent to you.

³⁹ “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! ⁴⁰ Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.

⁴¹ “Your approval means nothing to me, ⁴² because I know you don’t have God’s love within you. ⁴³ For I have come to you in my Father’s name, and you have rejected me. Yet if others come in their own name, you gladly welcome them. ⁴⁴ No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God.

⁴⁵ “Yet it isn’t I who will accuse you before the Father. Moses will accuse you! Yes, Moses, in whom you put your hopes. ⁴⁶ If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. ⁴⁷ But since you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”

John 5

Dear God, the way John tells the story of Jesus, Jesus is much more provocative in his early days of ministry than in the other gospels. In the other gospels he heals people but tells them to be quiet about it. But in John’s gospel, after the wedding at Cana, he’s turning over tables in the temple, explaining himself to Nicodemus, baptizing people, and healing very publicly. Then, here in chapter 5, he’s explaining himself as your son very explicitly. I think John has a fieriness to him, and he liked the part of Jesus that was a little fiery.

I don’t know that I have much more to really say about this story, but what’s on my heart right now is praying for my friends who are leaving on a mission trip this morning to Mexico. It’s going to be a long day of travel. I pray for traveling mercy for them. That you will protect over them as they go. That you will guide their conversations in the van. That you will be among them. That they will feel your love and provision. That you will prepare them to meet the people they are going to see and love them through the people as you love the people through them. Provide for their every need. Give them your joy.

I pray for a family member who is injured. I pray that you would make this pain count in her life. Of course, I pray for healing, but I pray for the healing in her mind and soul as well. I have another relative going through a very specific struggle. I pray for her and everyone involved in her situation. Love them and teach them. Be gentle, but don’t let this opportunity be wasted. Give them a sense of your will for them. Be glorified in their eyes and through their lives. Do something powerful.

There are others on my heart, Father. From my wife and children (and their significant others), to my parents and other family, to my coworkers and friends, to my community, to my nation, to the other nations our nation in impacting right now, to the world. Please be in charge of all of this. Please show me what to do in every situation today. Give me eyes to see and ears to hear.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. ² “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”

³ “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. ⁴ We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work. ⁵ But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”

⁶ Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. ⁷ He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!

⁸ His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹ Some said he was, and others said, “No, he just looks like him!”

But the beggar kept saying, “Yes, I am the same one!”

¹⁰ They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?”

¹¹ He told them, “The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.’ So I went and washed, and now I can see!”

¹² “Where is he now?” they asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied.

¹³ Then they took the man who had been blind to the Pharisees, ¹⁴ because it was on the Sabbath that Jesus had made the mud and healed him. ¹⁵ The Pharisees asked the man all about it. So he told them, “He put the mud over my eyes, and when I washed it away, I could see!”

¹⁶ Some of the Pharisees said, “This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath.” Others said, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?” So there was a deep division of opinion among them.

¹⁷ Then the Pharisees again questioned the man who had been blind and demanded, “What’s your opinion about this man who healed you?”

The man replied, “I think he must be a prophet.”

¹⁸ The Jewish leaders still refused to believe the man had been blind and could now see, so they called in his parents. ¹⁹ They asked them, “Is this your son? Was he born blind? If so, how can he now see?”

²⁰ His parents replied, “We know this is our son and that he was born blind, ²¹ but we don’t know how he can see or who healed him. Ask him. He is old enough to speak for himself.” ²² His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who had announced that anyone saying Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue. ²³ That’s why they said, “He is old enough. Ask him.”

²⁴ So for the second time they called in the man who had been blind and told him, “God should get the glory for this, because we know this man Jesus is a sinner.”

²⁵ “I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!”

²⁶ “But what did he do?” they asked. “How did he heal you?”

²⁷ “Look!” the man exclaimed. “I told you once. Didn’t you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”

²⁸ Then they cursed him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses! ²⁹ We know God spoke to Moses, but we don’t even know where this man comes from.”

³⁰ “Why, that’s very strange!” the man replied. “He healed my eyes, and yet you don’t know where he comes from? ³¹ We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will. ³² Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God, he couldn’t have done it.”

³⁴ “You were born a total sinner!” they answered. “Are you trying to teach us?” And they threw him out of the synagogue.

³⁵ When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

³⁶ The man answered, “Who is he, sir? I want to believe in him.”

³⁷ “You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you!”

³⁸ “Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus.

³⁹ Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.”

⁴⁰ Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, “Are you saying we’re blind?”

⁴¹ “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.

John 9

Dear God, I’ve spent some time with this story in the past, looking at the parents and considering what their lives must have been like. But today I want to focus on verse 39: “I entered this world to render judgment–to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.” All of the translations I looked at used the word “judgment” as a description of what Jesus said. Then I went to The Message to see how Eugene Peterson translated it for us: I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.”

So how do I take this when it comes to Jesus and even how I accept his judgment in my life today? I think I like Peterson’s imagery of bringing things into the clear light of day and making the distinctions between evil and good clear. And sometimes I don’t know if I’m allowing something into my life that’s evil or if it’s good. For example, Ted Lasso. A very worldly show that I’ve told people, “As a Christian, I can’t recommend it because it’s very worldly, but as a human I can tell you it’s the best show I’ve ever seen.” Why do I like it so much? Why do I think people of almost every type who watch it love it so much? I think it’s because Ted exhibits almost all of the fruits of the Spirit–kind of unwittingly. He has love, joy, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. And it doesn’t seem like there is anything from the Holy Spirit that is growing these things in him. He just happens to have them as a result of the pain in his past. And then these fruits spread to the other characters as the show progresses. I wonder if the writers even knew what they were doing. It’s all very worldly, and not reverential to you at all, but to watch someone live out almost all of the fruits of the Spirit is a beautiful thing. Notice I said “almost.” The one chink in Ted’s armor is he doesn’t have peace. And even at the end of the series he’s still looking for it. Why doesn’t he have peace? I think it’s because he’s still chasing idols and looking for his certainty in his wife and child. In his relationships with others.

Father, at the end of the day, I guess what I really need you to do is continue to reveal my idols to me. Where do I put my certainty that I shouldn’t? Is it my wife? Is it our health? Is it my job and my bank account? Is it in myself? Or do I simply wake up in the morning wanting to worship you and you alone, and then take the love you return to me and give it to those around me, including my wife, coworkers, and community? Jesus, shine your light on me. Reveal to me where I am still chasing idols.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen