90 Days with Jesus, Day 31: John 7:16-24: Pez-Dispenser Jesus

John 7:16-24

16Jesus answered, "My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. 17If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?" 20"You are demon-possessed," the crowd answered. "Who is trying to kill you?" 21Jesus said to them, "I did one miracle, and you are all astonished. 22Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. 23Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? 24Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment."

Suffice it to say that I have not written for a while. I feel badly about that. I have been at camp, and on vacation, and working a week prior to camp trying to accomplish two weeks worth of work in one week. I should be back on schedule now, and gladly. I have missed musing over John’s Gospel and sharing with you those musings. So, John 7.

Sometimes people asked Jesus questions and he did not really answer their question (see chapters 13-17) but instead offered some other explanation or monologue on some seemingly unrelated topic. Here, however, things are a bit different. Someone asked Jesus a question ("How did this man get such learning without having studied?") and Jesus answered directly: "My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me." In other words, he didn’t need to study. That is, what man could possibly provide him with what he was saying? His words are not the mere repetitions of what other humans have said, nor are they there mere regurgitation of rules taught by men that have no real authoritative backing—because those who teach them don’t obey them. His teaching comes not even from a ‘higher authority,’ as if God were an authority just above that of man, and his teachings were only slightly elevated.

This teaching is not even some sort of undemanding informational enterprise designed to make us more intelligent, wiser, or more fulfilled. If it were that, well then I suppose it would be the teaching of men. I think what Jesus says here points to this teaching being quite beyond a simple infomercial for God. In fact, this is God’s revelation. Jesus is not simply relating information; he is revealing the heart of God. He is, again, not just passing along useful hash. There is an urgency to his revelation that we ignore to our detriment. What Jesus says, "He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him." Take note, he says, of what I am saying because I am not saying this stuff for my sake, but for yours: that you may test and approve God’s will. If Jesus was (and he was!) opening his mouth and God was speaking through it then we need to be paying close(r) attention to what he (God) is saying. What will become of us if we ignore him? "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the universe" (Hebrews 1:1-2). Don’t ignore the words of Jesus.

The problem with Jesus is this: Many people think he was only a fount of wisdom as if God came down to earth simply to make us smarter people. Did God come down to impart to us a wisdom that could propel us into the higher ranks of academia? Or did God come down to impart to us a wisdom that would make us wise unto salvation, wise to His will, wise to our desperation apart from Him and His intervention? "It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us the wisdom of God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30). Or, "God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him" (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). Too many, however, stop at ‘Jesus the wisdom…’ and never get to the point of ‘righteousness, holiness, and redemption.’ But what is wisdom if we remain lost? What good are smarts in hell?

Paul went on in Corinthians to say this: "We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory" (1 Corinthians 2:6-8). This is exactly what John said at the beginning of his Gospel: "He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him." Jesus did not come to merely impart to us wisdom in the sense that we think of wisdom: Stacks of papers, posters mounted on plaques on our study walls, loads of letters behind our names. No. That’s not why Jesus taught; that’s not what he taught. He points out to his audience, his accusers, that he is what they are not: consistent or Right.

They were anxious to kill him because he taught what was in accord with God—nay, he taught the perfect will of God and it was precisely this that offended them! Isn’t that ironic? But these very people would break the Law in order to preserve the Law. Ironic, isn’t it? And these very people, those ones so concerned about Jesus’ academic credentials were ready to kill him because he did on the Sabbath to a whole man what they did on the Sabbath to one part, that is, healed. He calls them on it: "Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath?" He tells them in no uncertain terms that they are hypocrites unable to make a correct judgment. Ironic, isn’t it, that the most learned among us have the most trouble grasping the most obvious truths?

I read the following statement at an on-line forum:


After taking 5 organic chemistry courses I could envision the chemical proceses (sic.) needed to make organic life without God's help. Isn't the reason a high percentage of scientist are atheist because they have leaned a lot more that the average person? Many scientist still believe in God for emotional reasons, or to fit in a society that considers non-believers immoral. It takes knowledge, intelligence, and a bit of imagination to understand evolution. But to "understand" God all it takes is blind faith. (www.amazon.com, religion forum)

I think this was the problem with those who intellectually accosted Jesus that day. They were interested in information, not transformation. Jesus did not come to this earth to dispense information like a Pez-dispenser dispenses candy. Jesus came to this earth and revealed God both in his person and in his preaching. And thus they were offended at him, at his teaching, and at his credentials. I guess they thought that because he didn’t sit at their feet and study that they had a monopoly on teachers and what could be taught by those teachers. This is yet another of those instances when the brilliance of God simply overwhelms me: It is precisely because it is from God that I cling to it. It is precisely because no man can lay claim to it that it is overpowering. "If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own." It is the very fact of what Jesus said, the manner he said it, and the ones he said it to that persuades me that He is who He said He is.

Is it too simplistic to say: You will never know unless and until you taste and see? The gaining of all the wisdom in the world is absolutely meaningless if it doesn't make us wise unto salvation in Christ. Jesus was not anti-intellectual but neither did he see the point of learning for learning's sake.