the two life givers (2)

“And [the Father] has given [the Son of Man] authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” (John’s first century eyewitness biography of Jesus Chapter 5: 28-47)

Jesus (above) was speaking to the Judean authorities around AD 30 in Jerusalem. They were condemning him for healing a 38-years-a-paralytic on a Sabbath when both he and the former paralytic should not be working. Who will be – eventually – their judge? This healer? Who the judged? “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” Will Jesus be an impartial judge? Do you fear those who judge? Often those who judge us are “winners” who haven’t “been through the mill”. “If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.” Who was it who testified in those days in favour of Jesus?
“You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.”	.
The “John” referred to was John the Baptist. He was very highly regarded and followed by multitudes. But when he said, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie” some didn’t listen. The 38-years-a-paralytic also testified – by carrying his bed. “And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.” Many will have heard that, when Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan river, a voice from heaven declared his identity. Some didn’t listen. “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” Is it any good having a Bible in the house? Is it any good reading it if one doesn’t turn to the life-giving one of whom it speaks. “I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.” Today, we all seek “glory from people”. Maybe, if I truly knew “the love of God within” me, I would no longer be fixated about my own “glory”?
“I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”	.
Jesus was not being received in Jerusalem – despite coming there, openly and repeatedly, in the name of his Father above. We human beings tend to receive any person as long as he or she is not Jesus – and supports us. “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” Moses (the one given the Ten Commandments), alive around 1400 BC. He spoke of a coming rescuer and redeemer to be sent from the Lord God.

Sinner Syvret

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