Breathtaking Discovery   

     The Sabbath over, Mary goes to the tomb with spices. The stone is already rolled away. She panics. Brings back Peter and John.

     They see strips of linen and the burial cloth. They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. 

     The disciples leave, but Mary remains, crying. She sees two angels, seated in the tomb. They ask, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away!" 

     Mary turns around and sees someone. Repeating the angels' question, the man adds, Who is it you are looking for? She begins asking for his help, when Jesus decides the suspense has lasted long enough.  

     Mary. 

     "Rabboni!" (Teacher), she cries out in Aramaic. 

     Jesus tells her to go tell my brothers. 

     That evening, the disciples are still not sure about Mary's report: "I have seen the Lord." They huddle with doors locked for fear of the Jews.

     Jesus appears, Peace be with you. 

     He shows them his injured hands and side (though he is now in his resurrected form). As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. Receive the Holy Spirit. 

     The disciples are overjoyed.

     He will remain on earth for 40 days, preparing his followers to carry the gospel - the good news - to the world. 

     One morning eight disciples have caught no fish, all night in their boat. Someone on shore calls out to them, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." 

     There were so many fish they couldn't haul in the net. "It is the Lord!" John exclaims. Exuberant Peter jumps off the boat and swims to shore. 

Tomorrow: the objective

They Cancel Him   

     You know how Jesus was drawing people to himself by teaching and healing them. 

     Pharisees and Sadducees were losing their grip, built on man-made rules which they called "the law." 

     Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. - John 11:47-48

     Only the governor of the Roman province could order an execution. Plotters who apparently believed the miracles still convinced Pontius Pilate ... who "found no basis for a charge" ... to satisfy them ... in the night ... when most people were in their homes ... sleeping. 

Jesus forgave them...

     ...while he was nailed to the cross. There will be a miracle. 

     In A.D. 70, the Romans came and took away both the place and nation. Cancelled, until 1948.     

     God himself has done some cancelling - of wickedness. Remember the flood? Sodom and Gomorrah? On the night of the Passover he cancelled the first born of all Egypt, including cattle.

     He cancelled Jericho with another miracle. 

     Before "cancel culture" was a thing, Saul tried to kill David. Elijah cancelled the prophets of Baal. Jezebel tried to cancel Elijah. 

     People, in effect, cancelled themselves by their sins and evil ways. Some cancelled their own sons and daughters - 2 Kings chapter 17. 

     Assyrians and Babylonians cancelled the divided kingdoms.

Tomorrow: "I have seen the Lord."

 

...believe the miracles

that you may 

know and understand...

Jesus, in John 10:38

Monday: He forgives them

   Coming Soon: the Counselor

     Jesus knows his time in the flesh is a matter of hours. He has much to share with his disciples at supper. - John chapters 13-17

     What is he about to reveal will concern believers' relationship with the Father from the day of Pentecost until the end of time. 

     If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor, to be with you forever...the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him.

      But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 

     The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 

     If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. You do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 

     Now I am going to him who sent me. It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you. 

     When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 

     I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. 

Monday: cancel culture strikes

 The Last Straw  

     Lazarus, friend of Jesus and brother of Mary and Martha, is very sick. A mere man would have rushed to his bedside.

     But Jesus says, This sickness...is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it. - John 11:4. He stayed where he was two more days. 

     Finally, he tells his disciples, Let us go back to Judea. "But Rabbi," they persist, "a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you." 

     Jesus: Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but  I am going there to wake him up. Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. Vv. 11, 14 

     Thomas says to the others, "Let us go also, that we may die with him." 

     They arrive. Lazarus has been in the tomb four days. Jews had come to comfort Mary and Martha.  

     Jesus tells Martha, Your brother will rise again. She answers, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

     I am the resurrection and the life, he says. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies. 

     Martha hurried to tell Mary, "The Teacher is here." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved. 

     Jesus wept. v. 35

     At the tomb, Jesus orders, Take away the stone.

     He looks up and prays, Father, I thank you that you have heard me...I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me. 

     In a loud voice, he called, Lazarus, come out!  

     Lazarus came out, wrapped in stripes of linen. Many of the Jews who had come to comfort Mary put their faith in Jesus. 

     Chief priests and Pharisees call a meeting. "What are we accomplishing?"

Tomorrow: Little do they know

A Mere Man? 

     During the Feast of Dedication, Jesus is walking in Solomon's Colonnade. The Jews surround him, asking, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." - John 10:24

     Jesus answers, I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me.

     After an extended explanation, Jesus claims, I and the Father are one. Again, the Jews pick up stones. 

     Jesus wants to know which of the "great miracles from the Father" cause them to want to stone him. We're not stoning you for any of these...but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.     - v.33 

He performs many miracles. But he is a "mere man."

     Jesus again refers to Scripture, and asks them to believe the miracles, to know and understand. Their response is to seize him, but he escapes. 

Tomorrow: The Last Straw

Violating Customs

     Surprised Samaritans were hearing and believing, as Jesus spent two days in their (forbidden) territory. 

     Next, disabled people visit a pool near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem. They hope to be healed when the water miraculously stirs briefly. The opportunity is short, and an invalid (for 38 years) has no one to help him quickly into the water. 

     John writes, in chapter 5, Jesus arrives and asks the man, "Do you want to get well?" What could go wrong? Oh. It's the Sabbath. Jesus tells him to Pick up your mat and walk.

     Soon, religious authorities say to the man, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat." The man doesn't know who healed him. 

     Later at the temple, Jesus finds him and says, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." 

     He tells the Jews it was Jesus who made him well. 

     Now Jesus is really in trouble. Not only did he "work" on the Sabbath, but he was calling God his Father, making himself equal with God. 

     He explains his relationship with the Father, and how he seeks "not to please myself but him who sent me." 

     Then, Do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses...for he wrote about me. Ouch! 

     Jesus performed other miracles and taught about himself, "the bread of life." He also said, I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you. 

     At that "hard teaching," many of his followers deserted him. Jesus added, The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 

     Pharisees are infuriated. 

Tomorrow: A confrontation