The Temple elite, the know it alls, the hypocrites of their day want to know from Jesus ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? How many times do we ask that question of God? Whether it is the answer to a prayer, the meaning of a Scripture passage or what we are supposed to do in a given situation, we want an answer. How long will you keep me in suspense Lord?
In think in the case of those Temple elite, they are still waiting. If you ask a question and you are only willing to hear your own preconceived answer, well then, I am afraid you may never hear the real answer no matter how many times it is uttered. So is the case of so many today who are busy, busy, busy proclaiming what God thinks and have clearly missed God's message in it's entirety.
On a perhaps more practical and personal level, how do we respond to God? Are we willing to listen, really listen? Can we hear uncomfortable truths about ourselves? Are we willing to listen to a response that would have us actually repent and change our course of actions, the way we live?
I know that sometimes we really do try to listen and we are willing to take up our cross, however inconvenient. We may not be getting the answer to our prayers the way we had envisioned it. Truly, don't we often want what we want? Putting that aside, what do we do when we are not hearing the answer? What do we do when we are having difficulty seeing that God is right beside us.
Jesus did not come to be a micromanage of our lives. Jesus gave us most excellent guiding principles to see us through all the same stuff that He experienced as a human being. That principle is love. If we need that clarified, perhaps take a gander back at
1 Cor. 13 again. What is God's love? How are we called to act? When we read Scripture, how do we interpret it? The answer is always love, the lens of meaning is always love. The arbiter of all things, Scripture and life, is love.
God is not keeping us in suspense. God gave us the answers and anything else may be a a bit of impatience, arrogance or hardness of heart on our part. If we always try to love, obey the Ten in the light of the Two, then we will likely not fall far astray. The problem with those Temple elite is that they already had formed the answers to the questions they asked. The were not really listening at all. Perhaps worst of all they presumed to know what God thinks. That is an error of monumental proportions.
For patience, listening and loving, we pray.
John 10:19-42
Again the Jews were divided because of these words. Many of them were saying, ‘He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him?’Others were saying, ‘These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?’
At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon.So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.’
The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus replied, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?’ The Jews answered, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.’ Jesus answered, ‘Is it not written in your law, “I said, you are gods”? If those to whom the word of God came were called “gods”—and the scripture cannot be annulled— can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, “I am God’s Son”? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.’ Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands.
He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. Many came to him, and they were saying, ‘John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.’ And many believed in him there.
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