So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council, and said, 'What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on thus, every one will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.' But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, 'You know nothing at all; you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.' He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
-- John 11:47-52
So really all they cared about was their holy place and their identity as Jews. Nothing which might threaten that was permitted. 'All mine, bunny.' I'm not sure I see a connection between the reformation of Judaism and the fall of Jerusalem. Indeed, it would appear from history that it was due to the fact that Judaism was not reformed that Jerusalem fell. And when he approached, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had known in this day, even you, he things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you, and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."
-- Luke 19: 41-44
The John passage gives the other side of the occasion. Jesus says, in Luke, that they do not recognise the time of their visitation. The Jews, in John, do not recognise the time of their visitation. If fact, they are threatened by it.
And am I like this? Does Jesus want to visit me and am I afraid of what is good for me? If I resist will judgement come upon me like a storm and raze everything to the ground?
[Memories of Pakistan -- Thursday, 16 January 2003 8:52:59 AM]
© Copyright Bruce M. Axtens, 2006
and [Jesus] said to them, “Thus it stands written that the Christ would suffer and would rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem."
-- Luke 24:46,47 (NET)
I am still reeling, not from recent charges of selfishness, which are largely true, but from reading Luke 24:47. It is also part of the Great Commission and yet how often do we hear it read? "... that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem."
How often do we hear about repentance these days when we are talking about people becoming Christians? We hear more about 'asking Jesus into your heart.' But this is fatally flawed: We start with ourselves, acknowledging that something is missing and seeking something that will fill the hole. We find the Filler and that's it; after he has come it would seem that there is nothing further to be done. He's there. You're fine, the gap has been filled. You are now complete and can get on with life. Jesus has become merely a piece of spiritual polyfilla, shoring up a crack in one's psyche. After that, what is he?
But if we start from the need to repent, and with that the knowledge that repentance is not so much a once for all event but a continuing process, then Jesus' own line 'repent and believe' (Mark 1:15) puts the focus not on the hole that needs to be filled but rather the life that needs constantly to be refocussed on God, by a change of behaviour (the 'repentance' part) and a change of mind (the 'believe' part).
Luke talks frequently about repentance leading to a change in behaviour -- Zacchaeus' belief in Jesus was demonstrated by a change in attitude to his riches and by a change in attitude toward those whom he was hired to tax. He now saw the poor not as defenceless ones ripe for exploitation, but as ones valuable to God and in need of assistance. And he saw that his behaviour in the past had been unjust and that he needed to make amends. The Law stated that he had to give back double what he stole.For every breach of trust, whether it is for ox, for ass, for sheep, for clothing, or for any kind of lost thing, of which one says, 'This is it,' the case of both parties shall come before God; he whom God shall condemn shall pay double to his neighbor.'
-- Exodus 22:9
Zacchaeus knew that he had been guilty of a breach of trust and so did as the Law required. Zacchaeus however gave not double but rather four times as much -- double double -- not because he was compelled to but because he wanted to. It was an expression of his repentance and belief.
[Memories of Pakistan -- 9 January 2003]
© Copyright Bruce M. Axtens, 2006
'Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly disciples of mine; and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."'
-- John 8:31-32
This feeds into the whole repentance/belief thing because abiding in the word is a constant purposive activity, a deliberate choice to orientate oneself around, by and through the word of Christ. Such is the mark of the true disciple. And knowing the truth experientially frees. As McDonald says in his 'Memo to the Disorganised #12': If my private world is in order, it will be because I absorb the words of Christ into my attitudes and actions.
[Memories of Pakistan -- 13 January 2006]
© Copyright Bruce M. Axtens, 2006
And when he approached, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you, and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."
--Luke 19: 41-44 (NASB)
You can only push God so far. Eventually, having pushed him away and away and away, he will finally pronounce a verdict upon you and you will find that you have received in full all that you inevitably get by pushing him away. In Jerusalem's case God declared judgement on it: "if you do not want to see, okay, from now on you can not see." Jerusalem did not recognize Jesus as the Seeker and the Saver. All they wanted was another king to rule in place of Caesar and to let them blithely and blindly continue as 'God's chosen people', never fulfilling their role as a light to the Gentiles. They wanted, not a new system, but the existing system with different rulers. They got the existing system: AD70. Jesus arrived declaring a different system but Jerusalem didn't want to see. So God made them unable to see.
We can only push God so far. Then we may find that what we thought we wanted is actually not what we want at all. But by then it may be too late to turn back. Constant rejection of God cements into one's character the habit of rejection. Eventually, the heart hardens -- impervious to all influences, internal and external.
Jesus goes on to clear out the temple. The religious rulers try to kill him. The common people hang upon his every word.
[Memories of Pakistan -- 3 Jan 2003]
© Copyright Bruce M. Axtens, 2006
So much about Jesus deity in John: he has the power to lay down his life and the power and authority to take it up again. We may be able to lay down our lives for our friends but no one can take his life back up again once he has laid it down. But Jesus can.
Then he says, "I and the Father are one" (10:30) "... the Father is in me, and I am in the Father." (v38). It's as if v38 is to clarify the reality of the oneness of v30. Not just a composite oneness, not just a "Royal 'We'", but oneness of essence, each being in the other.
John 12:10 and the Jews were also considering killing Lazarus. Too many were leaving the fold. The instant legend of the resurrection of Lazarus needed to be turned into a myth, so that the Jews could say, "Yes, we heard it too, but see, he is dead. They only 'thought' he was raised. It was all a trick; smoke and mirrors stuff."
Here Jesus offers so much, and we, being more like the Pharisees than we are prepared to admit, cling tightly to what we have rather than give it up for something way better. It's just that in the giving up, we may have to give up power, prestige, position and so on, which isn't easy the older you get.
[Memories of Pakistan -- Friday, 17 January 2003 9:59:16 AM]
© Copyright Bruce M. Axtens, 2006
