In John chapter 7, the chief priests and the Pharisees sent some of their temple guards to arrest Jesus. But after tracking him down and listening to him preach, the guards returned empty handed (7:45).  The Jewish leaders demanded answers: “Why didn’t you bring him in?” The guards replied simply, “No one ever spoke the way this man does.” “You mean he has deceived you also?” (7:47) The leaders were disgusted. Then, in verses 48 and 49, they reveal their thinking process: “Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows…

The Apostle John records some crowd dialogue in 7:25-27 of his gospel: At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ? But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”  My Study Bible has this note: “Some Jews held that the OT gave the origin of the Messiah, but others believed it did…

If you are looking for a sign that there is still good in this world, here’s a little pick me up: My daughter has been working as a Cracker Barrel waitress for several months now. She reports that it is so common for some other customer to pick up the tab for servicemen and women that she doesn’t believe that she has ever served a member of the military who has had to pay their own bill.  That’s nice.   (She does wish that the kind and generous types who pay for the meals of complete strangers – military or otherwise…

It is popular talking point among progressive Christians that Jesus often offended the religious-types of his day.  And it is true that He greatly offended the Jewish leaders. He called them whitewashed tombs and snakes and told them they were the children of Satan. And made them mad enough to plot His death. But Jesus offended lots of other people too. He told them they should stop sinning. That they were under God’s condemnation and could expect His wrath. That they had little faith. That they were blind and deaf.  And the common people didn’t plot his death, but they…

Chapter 6 is the longest in the book of John. The preceding chapter tells the feeding of the 5,000, which sets up a detailed discourse in 6 about Jesus being the “Bread of Life”.  Here Jesus touches on his divinity (“I have come down from heaven”) and on good works verses faith (The crowd asks, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”) and his own upcoming sacrifice for the world (“This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”).  The crowd struggled to comprehend what Jesus was teaching, but when he…

(In relating the following story, I am not recommending this sort of action by anyone outside of a naïve, young, 6’4″ male.) “Whenever you did it unto the least of these, you did it unto me.“ One summer evening I was driving back to LeMars, Iowa from a week at Lake Okoboji camp when I saw a hitchhiker standing off the shoulder of the narrow country highway. I was in my early twenties, living in a trailer park, and working as a youth pastor. The man I picked up was pretty shaggy and rather quiet and heading to the South. …

(In relating the following story, I am not recommending this sort of action by anyone outside of a naïve, young, 6’4″ male.) “Whenever you did it unto the least of these, you did it unto me.“ One summer evening I was driving back to LeMars, Iowa from a week at Lake Okoboji camp when I saw a hitchhiker standing off the shoulder of the narrow country highway. I was in my early twenties, living in a trailer park, and working as a youth pastor. The man I picked up was pretty shaggy and rather quiet and heading to the South. …

I remember passing a homeless man on a city street one night – this was in Lexington Kentucky –  and he looked at me and said, “Do you have any money to spare for beer? I won’t tell you I need money for food because I’m being honest – I am going to spend it on beer.”  Although I appreciated his honesty, I did not give him any money. Opening a wallet or a purse is not always the easy solution to someone’s troubles that we – or they – hope for.  I think one of the reasons we are…

When I was 16, I had the opportunity to travel to New York City with a church group. Our group was made up of high school students from all over the state of Indiana.   When we deplaned at LaGuardia and collected our luggage, we immediately stepped onto a tour bus for a two hour look at the city.  So we were moving through the streets of the The Big Apple and the bus driver was speaking into his microphone and pointing out the various landmarks. “There’s the Statue of Liberty across the bay” and “we are about to pass the…