Have you ever been in the middle of a conversation and you thought you were talking about one thing and the person you are conversing with responds with something totally off subject? Or with a comment in which they should already know the answer? I think of times like this as shake-your-head moments.
For instance…lately, I’ve been reading the gospel of John. Twice now, I’ve had a shake-your-head moment. The first one happened after Yeshua/Jesus fed the 5,000. It had been an exhausting day for the disciples, so Jesus sent them in the boat to head across the Sea of Galilee. Jesus went into the hills and later joined them. He had to escape the people because they were so excited about a good meal that they wanted to make Him king. Is that really all we think about – someone who can feed us so we set them to rule over us? They missed His whole message.
That comes across with glaring clarity when Jesus and his disciples landed on the other shore and the people followed him. The next day they approached Jesus. This is the exchange they shared:
They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”
They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”
Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”
They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do?”
The passage goes on to say more, but I stopped there. “Say what?” “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you?” “What can you do?” Are you kidding me?
Apparently feeding over 5,000 people (this number did not include women and children, so double that or more) was not miracle enough? Five loaves of bread. Two fish. Fed thousands. But they need another miracle to believe.
What they really wanted was someone to feed them, not someone to change their belief system. That might mean looking at themselves a little too closely and admitting that they needed a redeemer, a savior, a messiah. They wanted a ruling messiah. He wanted them to believe that He was who He claimed to be and why He came. To preach repentance of sins – of the need to turn and be reconciled to God. The ruling messiah was a role He would take later–in the future. Not then. But they weren’t listening well enough to understand that.
Isn’t that true of us too? We see the miracle of yesterday and today we’ve forgotten what happened. We want another one. First one wasn’t good enough? No wonder Jesus refused to give them the signs they demanded. They had the miracles right in front of them and still didn’t believe. But the truth is, sometimes I’m the same way. Aren’t you?
The second example taught me that I talk too much. I mean I would have had a hard time being a woman in that day. A woman’s testimony was of little to no value, so they probably didn’t even try to speak up to defend a position or a situation.
I think of Mary, Jesus’ mother. (This picture is, of course, not her, but of a Bedouin woman of today. Perhaps what women of the day might have worn?) But back to Mary. When things happened, she pondered them. She didn’t speak up – at least not that we know of – except to her Son.
So when the people started arguing that Jesus was from Galilee and the Messiah was supposed to be from Bethlehem and of the line of David…if I’d been Mary…boy, would I have had a hard time staying out of that conversation.
I mean, I can see myself leaning closer to those arguing and saying something like, “Um, I’m His mother. And for the record, He was born in Bethlehem and He is of the line of David.” Then I would have turned and walked away. I mean really. I tend to be mama bear when it comes to defending my kids, so all of those feelings came to the surface when I read this. Now we have no idea whether Mary was even there when this argument took place…it’s just me imagining. But if they’d looked into His background, they would have known this. Didn’t anybody bother to look?
But then I have to look at my own heart and I recall the many times I’ve judged another based on outward appearances, not on what was true. Or wanted more proof when the truth was staring me in the face. Could it be because we don’t want to discover that perhaps we are not where we should be? Perhaps we don’t know God as well as we think we do? Perhaps we put off obeying Him, believing in Him, trusting Him, because we want one more doubt removed. We want one more proof text. One more miracle.
We jump ahead to conclusions, like I tend to do–sad to say, instead of really hearing what is being said. Like the people did with Jesus. They wanted the food, not the message.
Fickle thinking makes us unstable and double-minded, as Scripture puts it. We don’t know what to believe. We can be easily swayed. We can’t be sure of what is true. So we straddle the fence of uncertainty. (And we aren’t as cute as the cat.) Truth is, we end up asking questions we should already understand. We need another sign? Were we not paying attention when we were fed yesterday? He’s from Galilee, not from Bethlehem…but did we bother to look for the birth certificate, so to speak? Our excuses fall short when we come face to face with Jesus.
His answers never wavered. He knew what He was about and Who sent Him. He didn’t play games with people who weren’t asking honest questions. He told the truth, and that got Him in a lot of trouble. Truth can do that sometimes.
May we never think that our indecision and easily changing loyalties will help us understand life or truth or God. When people shake their heads at us, perhaps it’s time we think about what just came out of our mouth. Instead of asking for another sign, maybe it’s time to believe what we already know is true. God has set eternity in the heart of every person on the planet and He is seeking people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.
When we get off the fence, stop making excuses, or looking for more, what is real will still be there. It has always been there. We just need to open our minds and hearts to see.
#livetruth #stopdoubtingandbelieve #thetruthwillsetyoufree
