The soft wool of our traveler’s vest brushes against his cheek as he tightens his collar against the cold night air. The bleating of a far off flock reaches his ear and he recalls the words of the Messiah. Words he had been told by another who had been blessed to hear the words first hand.
John 10:11-15 ESV
[11] I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. [12] He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. [13] He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. [14] I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, [15] just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Our traveler smiles. What beautiful words. What a comfort to know that the King is willing to become a shepherd so that His lost and frightened and confused flock, will hear His voice and follow Him.
Jesus referred to Himself as the ‘good shepherd.’ He often used sheep and shepherds as His metaphor. Being from Bethlehem, and most likely returning there for the census from time to time, Jesus would have seen lots of sheep. In this He saw their simple and wayward ways and how they were like His people. He saw how the shepherd would take on injury and hardship for the sake of his sheep, and how the shepherds were like Himself in this manner. Many will come and claim to care about us, but when true hardships come they abandon us. They are not our shepherd. Some may stay by our side, but they are not the shepherd either. They might even fight for us. But they are still not Him. No, the shepherd is the one who dies for His sheep. All of them. Even the ones who run away. Even the ones who spit at him and kick him. Even the ones who nail Hin to a cross. The shepherd loves His sheep and will never leave them alone.
Category: still fighting
Following the fourth Wiseman- Seeing the tree for the first time
The day is hot. So hot that our traveler has to seek shade. He finds an olive tree and goes to sit under it. Another man is there, staring at the branches. As our traveler sat near him he noticed that the man stared with such wonder that he was like a child seeing something for the first time.
“May I ask, why are you staring at the tree?” Our traveler inquires.
“Sir. It is the first time I have ever seen such a tree.”
“An olive tree? But they grow many places and in great numbers around this area.”
“Yes. But you see, I have been blind. May I tell you part of my tale?”
“I would love to hear what you have to say.”
John 9:1, 6-7, 32-41 ESV
[1] As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.
[6] Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud [7] and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
Our traveler felt tears warm his eyes.
“That’s not all!” The man stated. “Some people brought me to the Pharisees to speak with them, but they refused to accept my testimony.”
[32] Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. [33] If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” [34] They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.
The man smiled even brighter. “I was very upset about this at the time. How could they react in such a way? But then I had a blessing come from my trial, Jesus came to me when He heard I had been cast out!”
[35] Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” [36] He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” [37] Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” [38] He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. [39] Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” [40] Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” [41] Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
The man slapped his knee. “So you see, I am experiencing this tree for the first time, and it’s so beautiful!”
Our traveler looks at the tree and touches it’s bark, “I never noticed before. But yes, it is beautiful.”
Jesus heard that the blind man had been cast out of the assembly where the pharisees were, and He came to him.
So many want to complain that the church was unkind to them. And that because of this, I don’t want anything to do with the church or with Jesus or with Christians. Let’s start with saying that. Not all churches are like that, and even in a church that is like that. Not all of the members will be like that, so don’t throw the church away because of a bad experience. You may find a church that accepts and loves you. And helps you to grow and to become closer to Christ. You just have to not give up. The second thing I want to say on this is that when the man was cast out of the church, cast out by the pharisees, Jesus came to him. Jesus did not look at this man and except that he was thrown away. He looked at him as someone He cherished and when he was cast out by the religious leaders, Jesus went and found him. We may be cast out of a lot of places due to our love of Jesus and our belief in him. We may even be cast out of our church because we refuse to deny the truth of the Bible, the whole Bible. However, we are never cast out from Jesus. There will come a day when those who are not Christians or those who are false Christians are removed, from those who are true Christians, as odd as that sometimes sounds. But we who are members of the body of Christ. We who love Jesus. We who are part of Him. Will never be cast out. We will always have a place where we belong and that place is with the Savior.
Following the fourth Wiseman- The writing in the sand
Our traveler is weary. He has walked so many days and sene and heard so many things that his brain can no longer comprehend. It has been so much study, so much wonder that he almost needs a rest. He stops walking, in front of him, sitting on the ground, is a woman. She looks up at him, tears flowing down her cheeks.
“Did you hear Him?” She asks.
“Hear who?” Our traveler replies.
“The teacher.” She runs her hand across etching in the sand.
Our traveler stands straight and looks around. The Messiah had been there. He must have just missed Him.
“What did He say?” Our traveler asks.
“Let me tell you.” The woman answers.
John 8:3-11 ESV
[3] The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst [4] they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. [5] Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” [6] This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. [7] And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” [8] And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. [9] But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. [10] Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” [11] She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”]]
Our traveler reaches down and throws aside every custom He knows. He takes the woman by the hand and lifts her to her feet. He gives her his hankerchief. She takes his hand nervously.
“I know what I am in the eyes of the people, and I do not say they are wrong, but….He, He gave me a chance to change. Who does that?”
Our traveler pats her hand like a dad patting the hand of a nervous child, “The Messiah does that.”
He smiles and walks away.
The writing in the sand. The woman whom no one could throw a stone at. Jesus. We all recall the account of one of Jesus’s most famous lines. “Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.” Yet that is always where we stop. We don’t know what Jesus wrote. It’s frustrating that the deciples did not think to record it. What we know is that Jesus saw a woman who had sinned and was about to be killed. No chance for redemption. Yet, He offered her forgiveness and a second chance. This shows the difference between the law before Jesus came and the law after. Because much of the law is still relevant. However, before Christ law, said that this was sin and she was to be punished by death. After Christ law, said that she had sinned and was to be given an opportunity through the blood of Jesus to be forgiven. She had a chance to try again and this time to do better. Jesus said He did not condemn her and that she was to go and sin no more. Did she? We don’t know. She might have gone and went back to her old sinful life and then died without hope. Or she might have changed her life completely and become the woman God had meant her to be and then died with the promise of eternal life through Jesus’s forgiveness. Where she went after her meeting with Jesus we will never know. What we know is that Jesus saw someone who was broken by sin and He have her a chance to change. Just like He gives each of us a chance to change. He does not condone our sin, He gives us a chance to stop sinning and to become all we can be through Him.
Following the fourth Wiseman- A speck in the crowd
The word had hit the streets two days before. The man called Jesus was teaching on the hillside. Our traveler had been jostled and bumped through the crowds for hours. He was no longer the only one seeking the Messiah and it was almost a fight to even reach His destination.
Exhausted, dirty, and bruised our traveler finally reaches the hill where Jesus was speaking. He was joyful and discouraged to see that there were so many people he could not even count them all. There was no way he would reach the Messiah at this point. He was a speck in the crowd. Our traveler decided to sit down with the others and listen to what his King was saying. As time went on he began to feel hungry. He looked around and realized that he was not the only one. Then there was a shifting in the crowd, the deciples of Jesus were walking through, speaking to people. Next he saw a small boy stand and walk with the deciples toward Jesus. Later he learned what had happened.
John 6:1-13 ESV
[1] After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. [2] And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. [3] Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. [4] Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. [5] Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” [6] He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. [7] Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” [8] One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, [9] “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” [10] Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. [11] Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. [12] And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” [13] So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
Our traveler sat with food in his hands that could only have been a gift from God. He wondered at it. He wondered at how he had been so blessed as to see these things and to hear the words of his King. The others had seen the child, the other Wisemen had given their gifts and had blessed Him and been blessed by His presence. Yet he, the one whom he had thought had missed out, was now seeing the miracles of the man who was God.
So often we feel we have missed our chance. Imagine always being so close to your desire and never reaching it? We leave our traveler in a crowd where he would be like a where’s Waldo picture, such a small part of something so big. Yet, even when we feel like we are just a spring inside the massive clock of life, Jesus still sees us. He still offers us His love. We can feel like we have missed our moment. Like God could not use us because we have fallen too far behind. But He has a purpose. We are never too far gone. He is always with us and someday we will see His reason.
Following the fourth Wiseman- those who believe are truly free
Our traveler is amazed as he ponders all the things the priests complained about the Messiah saying.
John 5:19-21, 24 ESV
[19] So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. [20] For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. [21] For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.
[24] Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
He had never heard such words before. Now we who believe have passed from death to life. It is so simple. All the sacrifices at the temple, vanished with the words the King spoke. He would free them from judgment by His own power. Our traveler stopped for a moment.
“But how? What sacrifice will take the place of all of these?”
We know that Jesus is God. Yet there were many back in Jesus’s time and there are still many now who want to claim otherwise. They say He was just a nice man, a prophet, a magician, a rebel, an outlaw. People are afraid of Jesus. His purity and complete love and forgiveness is so different from what this broken world shows and teaches that people don’t want to touch it. It scares them. Yet despite that Jesus keeps reaching out. Like a person reaching toward a dog that does not understand good intentions, Jesus relentlessly stretches towards us. Just like that dog we bite at His hand and run away. But because He loves us He chases after us. Paitent and determined. He is always reaching out, all you have to do is reach back.
Following the fourth Wiseman- Are you still at the pool?
We rejoin our traveler as he walks the darkened cobbled path that he had been directed to by a merchant in the market. The groans of the ill and the smell of the street makes his stomach turn.
“I believe He can do it again!” Says a man laying on the stones, his legs bandaged.
“It was a fluke. Some strange medicine from another land.” Replies another.
“Medicine that could make a man you and I have seen to be crippled for all the years we have been here, get up and walk?”
“You think too much.”
“I have hope. If He healed one He may return to heal more.”
Our traveler walks over to the two men who are speaking and asks them of what they speak?
“None of your business.” The one replies, but the other, smiles.
John 5:2-3, 5-9 ESV
[2] Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. [3] In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.
[5] One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. [6] When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” [7] The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” [8] Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” [9] And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.
“Can you believe it?” The man asks excitedly.
Our traveler nods his head, “Yes. I certainly can.”
Our traveler goes back to the market and buys bread and fruit and returns to the alley where he dispenses the food between the people there.
I have always had trouble with the pool of Bethesda. Not the mystery of it, there could have been something God was doing there, or ot could have been a mineral pool. We do know there were stories of people who went in and came out healed. What bothers me is the healed man. There were most likely many people there. Near that exact spot. All of them. Every. Single. One. Needed healing. Yet, Jesus chose to heal only one. I don’t understand that. I never will. Sometimes we see someone receive something that we deserved. We were just as good, we worked just as hard. Yet we walk away with nothing. Why? We cannot always understand God’s will. There are times when it confounds us to the place of doubt. Yet He is still good. Remember what the three Hebrew boys said in Daniel? “And if not He is still good.” To have that faith. To watch the Messiah heal one man and walk away when there were many others there who needed Him just confuses me to no end. But He had a reason. We still don’t know what that reason was. Was it the man’s faith? Jeuss does not say so. Was it because he was Jewish? There were probably other Jewish people there. Was it simply because he had been there the longest? Perhaps he had prayed and Jesus had come in answer to that prayer? We won’t know the answer until we see Jesus ourselves and ask Him. Even if you are the man in the alley, still crippled; or the woman on the stairs, still blind. Jesus has not overlooked you. He sees you. He has a plan and a purpose for your life just as you are now. Would a miracle be great? Of course. But sometimes He only heals one, yet He still has a path for the others. Don’t lose hope because you are still sitting by the well. He sees you, He knows you, He understands you, and He has not forgotten you.
Following the fourth Wiseman- Even from a distance He is close to us
A young child bumps into our traveler on the street. He looks up, his eyes all lit with the joy of play and apologizes before running off. Our traveler smiles and begins to carry on his way when he hears two women speaking.
“It’s so wonderful to see him running like that again.” Says one woman.
“Yes. He’s such a nice boy. Polite and thoughtful. If he had not made it it would have crushed his family.” Replies the other.
“But how he lived is the amazing part. I heard that he was blessed by that man who is traveling and healing people.”
“Yes. And He did not even come to the house.”
Our traveler walks over to the two women and asks them if they would be willing to tell him what they had heard?
John 4:46-53 ESV
[46] So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. [47] When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. [48] So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” [49] The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” [50] Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. [51] As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. [52] So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” [53] The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household.
Our traveler smiles, thanks the women and walks away. He has healed someone. He was not even close by and He healed this child. Our traveler shakes his head, he is always so close and yet still he can’t seem to catch up to the Messiah.
We think that Jesus has to be physically present to preform miracles. We feel at times that if we do not feel Him close by He is not there to help us. But that is never true. Jesus is as close as the mention of His name. We do not have to lay hands on a person for our prayers to make a difference, because Jesus is with all of us, always. Jesus loves us. He can heal and save even if we are not near the person we are praying for, and even if we do not feel His presence, He is always right here! What a savior He is.
Following the fourth Wiseman- the well
Our traveler sits on the edge of a well, wiping cool water across his face. He drinks from the well and then gives water to his camel who drinks deeply from the water satchel that the man holds. Suddenly a woman comes up to him and shakes his arm. In horror he almost drops the satchel. People in these parts were dangerous to his people, even the women could be a threat.
“W-what is it you want?” Our traveler stutters.
The woman, her face filled with a glow states excitedly. “Have you yet heard of the man? He told me everything I ever did!”
Intrigued and with a suspicion of who the man might be, our traveler asks her to tell her story.
John 4:7, 9-10, 14, 32, 34-35 ESV
[7] A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
[9] The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) [10] Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
[14] but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
She shuddered with excitement and continued, saying, “so I ran to the village and told all the people.”
John 4:29 ESV
[29] “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
“Can you believe that!?!”
Our traveler smiles, “oh yes. I can believe it. Which way did He go?”
The woman points and our traveler takes his camel’s halter and leads him once again in the footsteps of the Messiah.
Can you imagine? It’s a typical day. You go to draw water like every day. There’s a man there, but that’s not strange. Suddenly He speaks to you. A person of low social standing and of a part of the country that is hostile with His part of the country. Not only does He speak, but He speaks in riddles. You’re confused, possibly irritable and then you look into His eyes as He says John 4:26 ESV
[26] Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
You can see from the light and kindness in His eyes that He is not crazy or cruel and teasing. He’s telling you the truth. He is the one you have waited for. More than that. He has come to speak to you. A lowly and sinful woman from a people who have been told they are less, unwanted, unloved even by the master. (Not completely Unjustly, the Samaritans had been known to attack Jews when they came to their cities.) Now you stand face to face with the God you had been told would not love you. What does He say? I will give you living water. I am the Messiah you have waited for. He tells you that you are welcome to come and be part of His Kingdom. There we see Jesus. Reaching out to those who hated Him and were hated by others. There we see the haters and the hated change and be renewed as people who seek and love God. Drink of the living water and never thirst again.
Following the fourth Wiseman- John 3:16
We find Our traveler sitting on the beach today. His eyes are looking at the clear water and the way the breeze moves it, but they are not focused on that. His mind has full control over him, he has heard words from His Messiah through a passerby. The words were nothing he had ever experienced before, and he now can do nothing but sit and think on them.
John 3:16-21 ESV
[16] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. [18] Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. [19] And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. [20] For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. [21] But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
What was your first thought when you read this verse for the very first time? For God so loved the world. He have us Jesus. We wouldn’t give our place in a Tim’s lineup to people, and God gave us who are so unworthy, His Son. He sent Jesus to save the world. God knew what Jesus had to say would be hard to swallow. He know that people would feel like they were being condemned to death by how narrow the path is, so Jesus reminded us that He came to save the world. He is the light. Yes, the path is narrow, but it is possible for those who know and love Jesus. Run to the Light. Run toward Jesus. This verse, John 3:16-21 is the whole gospel in a nut shell. Jesus came to save us because He loves us and we weren’t making it on our own. He came to be a light to show us the way. The only way to Heaven is by knowing and loving Jesus. Those who love their sin will hate Jesus and will hate those who love Him. But Jesus will continue to shine bright, so even those who once hated Him can come to love Him. Those who love Him, walk in light.
We quote John 3:16 to the place where it’s almost over used. Non Christians quote it as a joke. Athletes put it on their jerseys (which is wonderful). It’s written in the air by sky writers during big events. We hear it all the time. But do we take it in? How do we feel? How did you feel when you first read this verse? Do you still feel like that? Our traveler is lost in his thoughts of overwhelm because of the mesmerizing words. Do these words still overwhelm us? Or have we forgotten how precious they are?
Following the fourth Wiseman-Nicodemus
As our traveler makes his way through the city he is stopped suddenly by one of the Pharisees. Our traveler is concerned, he knows his beloved Messiah is not someone the Pharisees approve of. Perhaps he is about to be accosted because he has been seen as one of His followers?
“I hear you have been wandering around and asking questions about the man from Nazareth?” The Pharisee inquires.
Our traveler nods his head.
“Why?” The Pharisee presses.
“Because I believe He is someone I… no…we, have searched for for a long time.”
“You must keep such thoughts to yourself. You would not be safe saying them to anyone else.” Our Pharisee smiles. “That being said. Would you like to hear of my own meeting with Him?”
Our traveler smiles back, “let’s go someplace quieter.”
The two strangers find a safe side road and begin their conversation.
John 3:1-5 ESV
[1] Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. [2] This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” [3] Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” [4] Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” [5] Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Our traveler is anxious little confused and very excited. “He said these things?”
“Yes, and more. I feel… like I am new after speaking with Him.”
“Which direction did He go when He left?”
“I’m not sure. I was in such awe I did not watch Him leave. If I learn more of Him I will seek for you and let you know.”
Our traveler thanks the Pharisee and leaves.
Jesus often spoke in riddles so that you could not understand without the teaching of the Holy Spirit. He did this as part of the narrow road. That may not make sense to all, but we must we recall the verse where He says this. It was also a custom of the time to speak in parables. The reason Nicodemus was confused was not because he was unskilled or uneducated, he was a priest and very knowledgeable. Yet Jesus’s words confounded him. Why? Because Jesus was speaking of a kingdom that the Pharisees and other leaders had not even thought of. A kingdom where all who come to the narrow gate may enter Heaven if they are washed by the blood of the Lamb. The gate is still open and still confounds some, but others find it and understand. Don’t ignore the open gate. There will come a time when it closes. Walk through it, and be with Jesus.
Fourth Sunday:
Carried in the cross 