Margie Littell with Colleen Tinker
When I read the interactions between Jesus and the Jews during His time on earth, most of those special folks seem to be in conflict with Him, especially over Sabbath issues. In fact, John 5 recounts several of His conflicts with the Pharisees. Premier among those conflicts was Jesus’ healing of the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath.
The man had not walked for 38 years, and Jesus came to him on the Sabbath and told him to “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”
The man did just as Jesus commanded: he picked up his load on the Sabbath and walked away, fully healed.
The Jews were infuriated. They demanded that the man tell them who had told him to “pick up your pallet and walk,” but the man did not know. Jesus had slipped away into the crowd.
Jesus found the man in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well, do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
Then the man knew; he found the Jews and told them it was Jesus who had healed him.
The Jews did not rejoice with the man; their reaction was entirely opposite but predictable: they “were persecuting” Jesus because He had done this miracle on the Sabbath.
Jesus answered their hate and anger with words that only deepened their determination to eliminate Him from their midst: “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”
Claiming to be God
That did it. The Jews’ rage knew no bounds. John tells us in John 5:18, “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.”
This Sabbath miracle and Jesus’ claim to be God put the Jewish leaders over the edge with jealousy, rage, and fear. Jesus could not be controlled; moreover, He did not fit their expectations for a Messiah!
I suspect that what was really going on is explained by the cage in which the Jews found themselves. For generations, they had been told that they were “special” with a special law system and special Sabbath signs and a special Messiah who was coming to rescue only them. When He came, they expected, He would show Rome who His people really were! He would break the Roman oppression with a rod of iron, and He would reestablish a Jewish monarchy in Israel, free from the oversight of the Caesar! Their love of being special was a cage that kept them trapped, unable to see and believe what God was doing on their behalf.
Jesus, however, vaporized their “special status” expectations when He told Nicodemus that God had sent Him to save a world…not just a nation, but a world full of many nations having many different law systems. In fact, His actual words to that secretive Pharisee were:
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).
Jesus had indeed come as the Jews’ Messiah. Right on time, He arrived and performed all the signs their prophets had said He would do, yet they didn’t believe. They had created a national image of who they thought He would be, and this Man who ate with sinners and did not play politics with the leaders was not the man in their imaginations.
In fact, this man was not opposing Rome. He came proclaiming the Kingdom of God without raising a movement against Israel’s oppressors. Furthermore, He showed no obsequence for the Pharissees’ self-appointed authority as the nation’s theologians. Jesus spoke with authority and even claimed to be God!
The Jews could not muffle Him, and their fear of losing their privilege made them crazy with rage. Their trap of wanting to remain special caused them to reject Him, to cry “Crucify Him; crucify Him!”, and finally to have Jesus murdered.
Today, I see many churches, not only the Adventist church, reflecting that “special” attitude just like the Jews did. They believe their histories, doctrines, and practices make them “right”, and this focus on their own identity instead of on the finished work of Jesus alone is leading them to their destruction.
Membership in any church has nothing to do with our salvation. Worship practices and preferences place us in different buildings and different groups, but these things are not part of our salvation.
Our salvation is by grace alone through faith in only Jesus alone. The finished work of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection according to Scripture (1 Cor. 15:3, 4) is what saves us. In Jesus we are all equal; we are “one new man” (Eph. 2:15). We, like the Pharisees, have to surrender our desire to be special. That trap keeps us from seeing and believing that there is only One who is special, and that is Jesus alone!
Jesus said to him, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6).
- Jesus Broke the Sabbath and Declared Himself God - February 22, 2024
- God Told Daniel the Future - January 18, 2024
- A New Covenant Needs New Words - November 23, 2023