John 8:12-20 – Wednesday 3.14.18
 
I have often wondered what it would be like to testify before a grand jury.  Testimonies before the grand jury just seem more significant, don’t they?  It’s not a regular jury, but a grand one that we are up against here.  I feel like I would be intimidated!
 
Someone’s testimony is a reflection of who they are.  If the testimony is false, the person lacks credibility.  If it is true, they are seen as reliable.  In general society values people who tell the truth and devalues those who misrepresent themselves. 
 
Despite Jesus’ works attesting to his divinity, people doubted His testimony about Himself.  Today we pick up our Lenten journey in John 8:12-20.  Here the chief priests and other religious leaders question Jesus’ testimony about Himself.
 
Let’s read:
 
John 8:12-20 - Dispute Over Jesus’ Testimony
 
12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
13 The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”
14 Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. 16 But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. 17 In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. 18 I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.”
19 Then they asked him, “Where is your father?”
“You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.
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What is everyone making a fuss over here?  What is at stake here is something we can all relate to: power, religious power or authority in particular. Jesus was making some pretty large claims here - “I am the light of the world.”  Not only was Jesus making big claims, but He was doing so in one of the most high profile places to do it – the temple during a great festival!  Jesus is setting the stage for a pretty big confrontation between Himself and those who claim to speak for God.
 
Everyone knew what Jesus was saying here.  By claiming divine authority Jesus was challenging those who already claimed to have it.  The Pharisees didn’t accept Jesus’ words as “proof” of His bold claims. 
 
A kind reading of the Pharisees has them as protectors of the Jewish spiritual landscape.  Perhaps many of them were interested in not power, but in protecting the everyday Jew and their religious identity.  Sure, they were difficult to get along with, but they had good intentions that actually benefitted the Jewish people.  Jesus was seen as a challenger or interloper into the scene here.  The Pharisees believed they must protect the Jewish people from yet another fake who were interested in gaining power and leading the Jews astray.
 
The problem is that this would not be the whole picture.  True, we do have examples like Nicodemas, who sought out Christ and seem to believe His words.  The larger picture here though is quite different.  The Pharisees are in protection mode here in this passage as well as in other passages.  Jesus’ words and actions are not good enough for them.  They have to solidify and consolidate their own power to guarantee their own existence.  Jesuss come and go, but the Pharisees need to live forever.
 
What do we think of Christ’s claim to be the light?  What do we say when He says that those who walk with Him will never walk in the dark?  Like the Pharisees, do we automatically come up with excuses for why or why not to follow Him? Do we, out of hand, deny Christ’s authority because we are looking to perpetuate our own religious beliefs versus the truth of what Christ is teaching?
 
Lent is a time to reflect on Christ’s claim to be the light – to be the Son of God – to be God Himself.  Only He is able to take away the sins of the world.  He comes to give life and give it abundantly.  As we hear and say those words to ourselves how do we respond?

Wednesday (3.7.18) – Ezra 6:13-16
 
One the most favorite things that people do right after the holidays is to return things.  People return things for a lot of reasons: perhaps the item doesn’t fit, it is broken, or maybe they want to get something completely different.  Either way, the return part is important to us.

The ide of returning takes on a deeper meaning when it has to do with people.  When a loved one returns from an absence we are excited.  The look on a child’s face when a parent returns to the room tells us all we need to know about the importance of returning. 

Today’s Wednesday devotional is about returning.  Actually it’s more about the ability or right to return.  We’ll be looking in Ezra 6:13-16.  At first blush this might seem to be a curious passage for Lent.  As we will see, though, it fits right into our theme of reflection and dependence on God.

Let’s read the passage together:

Ezra 6:13-16 - 13Then, because of the decree King Darius had sent, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates carried it out with diligence. 14 So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.15 The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.  Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy.

The story of the exile is a sad one.  The Babylonians took the Israelites, through complete fault of their own, into captivity.  As you can imagine, this was devastating to the people and their identity.  They lost everything, not the least was their religion.  The temple and all that was precious to them was lost.  It is not an overstatement to say that all that they were and believed in were now completely gone in this new land.

As I mentioned above, the guilt and blame fell squarely at the feet of the Israelites. The temple was destroyed because of their unfaithfulness to God.  Their whole religious identity vanished in an instant.  The Israelites were overconfident and ignored the warnings of the prophets to keep their relationship with God in its proper place – the center of their lives.  They ignored God and there were consequences.  While in exile they were bound to appreciate what they had lost.

The good news for the Israelites is that the story was not yet done being written.  According to the prophets, all was not lost.  Though they were going through a time of trial and tribulation, it would not last forever.  God, who is always faithful, would restore the Israelites to their land and their religion. 

This restoration comes true 70 years after their initial exile.  God uses the Persian kings as a tool to finally release the Israelites.  They were finally allowed to return to Judah.  With the return they were allowed to rebuild the temple.
 
The Israelites seem like such failures.  Throughout Scripture they can’t seem to understand God or what He wants.  Further, once they do know they refuse to do what they are told.  This line of thinking is one that is popular among Christian believers.  We act as if we are so much better than the Israelites.  A common refrain is “how come they couldn’t have just figured it out and done what they were supposed to do.”

The reality is that the Lenten season reminds us that we are not so different.  During this season we are reminded that we were and in some ways are far away from God.  Through our own sin, much like the Jews, we are led into spiritual exile.  We are far away from what, how, and why God created us.  We find ourselves in a world where nothing looks like anything we are used to.  We are, in effect, far away from God.  It is our own unfaithfulness, like that of the Jews, that leads to the destruction of our own temples – our own spiritual bodies.

It is only in the return to God that we are able to renew our own spiritual lives and bring ourselves back to our rightful place with God.  We don’t have a Darius in our lives that tells us to return.  The irony is that we have a choice every day whether we will return to God or not.  We end up being our own jailors, not recognizing that we can return whenever we want – it’s up to us.  Perhaps, though, we do have a sort of a Darius.  Perhaps we do have someone that at least prepares the way for us to return.  Yes – that is Jesus Christ.  Jesus leads us back and rebuilds each of our spiritual temples.  He, in accordance with prophecy and His own words, is raised as the temple as he promised in the Gospels. 
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Lent is a time to return.  It is a time to return to God from our self-imposed exile.  We have the choice.  Christ made it possible.