Week of January 10, 2010
John 7:1-13
Five New Year’s Revolutions
MONDAY, JANUARY 11 <Read 2 Corinthians 5:1-10>
No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world. John 7:4
An Army friend once gave me this advice: “If you want to be promoted, you have to become known. Attend conferences and write letters. Get your name out there. It may not sound like something you would want to do, but it is the way it works.” My friend was right. It is the way it works, and it is the way the world has always worked. Jesus’ brothers understood that and gave him sound advice as far as success in the world goes. But of course Jesus had another agenda. His view of success was doing His Father’s will, not making a name for Himself. His purpose was to accomplish the mission God had given Him. As Christ followers, we are called to be in the world, but not of it. Worldly success is not always wrong, but it has severe limitations. In the end, it means nothing as far as God is concerned. The best name we can make for ourselves is to do the things that matter to God and real success is doing those things as well as we can.
Prayer: Lord, help me to remember that the only name that means anything is the one you give me in Christ as your child. Help me learn how to make that name great and not the one I have here. Amen.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 12 <Galatians 4:4-5>
Therefore Jesus told them, “The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right.” John 7:6
Jesus rebukes his brothers for their lack of vision concerning time. Their view of time was that of the world: the linear passing of the hours, day in and day out, filled with (often) random events; something that in itself has no real meaning than what we ourselves give to it. For Jesus, time is something altogether different. It is a created thing, and through it God is telling a story that he will bring to completion. His birth, life, death and resurrection were part of a story written long before He came into the world, a grand story of salvation in which He had a central place. Jesus refuses His brother’s suggestion because He knows He has not reached the climatic part of the story which will include His death and resurrection. The question for all of us is what will our time will be for us? Will our lives be only a slice of history filled with events and decisions with no apparent purpose other than what we give it in the moment? Or will time be like Jesus’ time, seeing our lives as part of God’s grand story of salvation which is still being told; and filled with meaning and purpose; something much bigger than us and yet something of which we can be a part? The choice is ours.
Prayer: “Do it you way, Jesus, and in your time. Give me the gift of patience to wait, the gift of courage to persevere, and the gift of faith to believe that you do all things right” (Eugene Peterson). Amen.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13 <Read John 1:1-13>
The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. John 7:7
It is popular among preachers and churches today to emphasize the positive. In the process, the notion of human sin and evil many times are pushed to the background if not altogether forgotten. The message of the Gospel is indeed wonderfully positive. It is a message of forgiveness, redemption, purpose and most of all hope. It is a message of restored relationship with the One who is our Creator and Father. However, the dark side of the Gospel is that the positive cannot take effect unless the negative is first admitted and dealt with. Forgiveness cannot take place until the need of forgiveness is confessed. Restoration will never take place until brokenness is recognized. The problem, of course, is that none of us like hearing about our sin and evil. We hate hearing about it and in the end can come to hate the one who tells us about it. Jesus knew this and still did not neglect naming the problem and was willing to be hated and in the end killed for it. He did this out of obedience to His Father. He did this out of love for us. What could be more positive than that?
Prayer: Lord, forgive me for thinking too highly myself and not highly enough of You. My Lord and my God, give me a sense of my vileness, not that I may look down, but that I might look up to you who forgives, cleanses puts me right. Amen.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 14 <Read John 12:20-26>
You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come. John 7: 8
Jesus was very much aware that the events in His life were mapped out for Him by His Father. Not just the larger items of His birth and death, but even the day to day details of His life were part of the plan. He knew that going to the feast publically would bring things to a head and he would be killed right then and there. That time would come, but it was not the right time. He still had people to touch and things to do. Do we have sense that God is control of our lives? Most of us do not. Sometimes it is because we cannot imagine that we can actually be a part of what God is doing in the world. Much of the time is it because we would rather be in control of our own lives. Awareness of God’s guidance and control begin with the seed of surrender. When planted, it is cultivated in our relationship with God through Worship, prayer and the Scripture. Over time, it is ready for the harvest of God making us a part of the story He is telling until He takes us home.
Prayer: Lord, you have died for me. May I live for you in every moment, in every thought in my mind and every impulse of my heart. Give me a strong sense of your loving movement in my life and in the world around me. Amen.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 15 <Read Luke 4:16-29>
Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.” John 7: 12
The answer given by some about who Jesus was (and given by many through the years) is the one answer that is truly impossible. Why? Jesus’ teaching about Himself is nothing less than egocentric. He considered the Scriptures of the Old testament to have been written mainly about Himself, saying “Moses wrote of me” and that “Abraham rejoiced to see my day” (John 5:46). He forgives sins (Mark 2:5), heals on the Sabbath and claims to be Lord of it (Luke 6:5) and does not flinch when He is worshipped by His disciples as God (John 20: 28). This is only a short list of the things Jesus says about Himself. His own words and actions make it impossible to regard Him merely as a good man. Either He is who claimed to be or He should be dismissed as a madman or at the very least an egomaniac. As C.S. Lewis once wrote, “You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up as a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about being a great teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Prayer: My Lord, deepen in me a sense of your glory: your majesty, your beauty, your righteous, and your power. May I love you and I know I am loved. May I serve I know I have been served. Amen.