Catching Fog

John:

To the seven churches in the province of Asia.

Grace and peace to you from the One who is, who was, and who is coming; from the seven spirits before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To Him who loves us and has set us free from our sins by His blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Look! He is coming with the clouds,
and every eye will see Him,
including those who pierced Him.
And all the families of the earth
will mourn over Him.
This is certain. Amen.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the One who is, who was, and who is coming, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:4-8)

Jesus will make the whole world cry. Jesus told John to write letters to seven churches in the province of Asia—what today is the country of Turkey. John begins by pointing out when Jesus returns someday with the clouds, “all the families of the earth will mourn over him.” It is an allusion to the prophesy in Zechariah 12:10.

Then, John quotes these words: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the One who is, who was, and who is coming, the Almighty.” Who said them? The “Lord God.” John affirms that Jesus, who lived on Earth as a man and died on a cross, is none other than the creator of the Universe, the God of the Old Testament, and Yahweh himself. Therefore, most modern English translations that have a “red letter edition” print those words in red.

Jesus is not just a good man. He is not just a prophet. Jesus is God himself. “Alpha” is the first letter of the Greek alphabet and “Omega” is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. By calling himself the Alpha and the Omega, and then repeating that he is “the beginning and the end” Jesus affirmed that he rules from the instant of creation until the very last moment in time. Jesus’ words were a great comfort to John and the other Christians who were facing severe persecution at the hands of the Roman authorities. They should comfort us in whatever problems or persecutions we may face today.

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That experience is worth boasting about, but I’m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses. If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.

Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

You have made me act like a fool—boasting like this. You ought to be writing commendations for me, for I am not at all inferior to these “super apostles,” even though I am nothing at all. (2 Corinthians 12:5-11)

When all you have left is Jesus, you’ll realize Jesus is enough. What was Paul’s “thorn in the flesh?” Paul often used the word “flesh” to mean the sin nature. So perhaps Paul was referring to some sin in his life that he could never overcome—like a bad temper, perhaps.

Jesus refused to remove Paul’s thorn, whatever it was. Instead, Jesus told Paul that his “grace” was enough. What is grace? It is an undeserved gift. So why did Jesus tell Paul that some undeserved gift was enough for him? Because the underserved gift was God’s forgiveness. Jesus died for all our sins. Whether we keep on having a bad temper or not, thanks to what Jesus did on the cross, God has already forgiven us.

So there was no reason for Paul to worry about his thorn, whatever it might have been. Jesus’ power works best in our weakness. Only when we realize how weak we are can we be amazed by the power of God—because only then do we recognize that it is God’s power at work in our lives rather than our own power. Jesus really is all we have—but that’s like the richest man in the world saying that all he has is money.

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“I am standing trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers; the promise to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. And for this hope, O King, I am being accused by Jews. Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?

“So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities. While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’” (Acts 26:6-14)

Paul never preached to the choir. When King Agrippa and his sister Bernice arrived in Caesarea to pay their respects to the new Roman governor, Porcius Festus, Agrippa asked if he could listen to Paul. So Paul told the king about how he had been a persecutor of Christians until Jesus had appeared to him and changed the whole course of his life.

What did Jesus mean when he told Paul that “it is hard for you to kick against the goads?” In Greek literature, to fight against the goads meant to resist one’s destiny and to do battle against the “will of the gods.” By persecuting Christians, Paul had been fighting God’s will for his life, since, as Paul later told the Galatians, God had set him apart from birth to preach the gospel message (Galatians 1:15). So when Jesus told Paul he was kicking against the goads, he was simply telling Paul that he was fighting God’s will for his life—not an easy thing to do. In fact, resisting God’s will is ultimately futile, because God always gets his way. Since we’re going to do God’s will anyway, it is better for us to give in sooner rather than later. It will hurt less.

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Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. (John 21:5-13)

Sometimes, we just need to go fishing. After his resurrection, Jesus told his disciples that he would meet them in Galilee. So the disciples returned home, back to the Sea of Galilee, and back to their old lives.

Early one morning after a fruitless and frustrating night of fishing, Jesus appeared on the shore. Jesus invited them to bring some of the fish they’d just caught thanks to him, and to join him in the breakfast he was already cooking for himself. Three years earlier Jesus had called his disciples to become fishers of men near that very spot. A new day was about to begin. Within weeks the Holy Spirit would come and they would start building the church of God.

But that day was just a quiet morning, on the shore of a lake, and a breakfast among friends. Jesus resurrected was the Jesus they had always known. What does this picture do for us today? It lets us know that Jesus is always happy to spend time with us. It doesn’t take a crisis. He’ll be with us during a quiet meal after a long day, or early in the morning before anything happens.

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Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.

When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.

Now it was the governor’s custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” For he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.

While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”

But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed. (Matthew 27:11-20)

Jesus told Pilate that he was the king of the Jews. What does that mean? He was the descendent of David and the rightful heir to the throne. He knew that. His genealogies in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke demonstrate that. But there was more to Jesus’ kingship than simply being a descendent of David. Jesus wasn’t just a man. Jesus was God.

When the prophet Samuel became old, the people of Israel became dissatisfied with the political direction of their nation. They liked Samuel, but they had no confidence in his children. So they asked him to select someone to reign over them as their king. They had decided that they wanted to have a king just like all the other nations had.

Samuel was disturbed, but God told him to go along with their request. “And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.” (1 Samuel 1:8:7 NIV). Jesus was God. Just as the people in Samuel’s day had rejected him as king, so they were once again rejecting him.

Acknowledge or unacknowledged, Jesus is king, both of the Jews—as Pilate accepted—and of the world. He is God. We can choose to submit to him as our God and king or not. But our choice will not change reality.

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Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard.” So when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him. Then they laid hands on him and arrested him. But one of those who stood near drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Then Jesus said to them, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. But let the scriptures be fulfilled.” All of them deserted him and fled.

A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked. (Mark 14:44-52)

People sneak when they know they’re being bad. Under cover of darkness those who had conspired to destroy Jesus arrived. Why was it necessary for Judas to identify Jesus for the soldiers and leaders of the Sanhedrin? Wasn’t Jesus a public figure? Wasn’t he well known? Those sent out to arrest him had probably never actually seen him in the flesh. They had no pictures to guide them. They’d only heard about him. On top of that, they were trying to arrest him in the dark. Having someone to identify Jesus was critical to success, therefore.

Judas’ only purpose was to identify Jesus. To help make the arrest work, Judas tried to minimize suspicions by greeting him in an ordinary way, with a kiss, so that the other disciples wouldn’t suspect that Judas was doing something despicable. That way Jesus could be arrested before anyone was able to put up a fight.

But of course Jesus wasn’t going to fight back, even though he wasn’t alone and even though one of the disciples drew blood. Jesus wanted the scriptures to be fulfilled. He knew what had to happen and was willing to do God’s will. He surrendered peacefully, while his disciples to fled in panic.

God’s will is sometimes very difficult. Sometimes we’ll have to do it alone. Sometimes those we thought we could count on will vanish. Sometimes they might even be working against us. Jesus knows how hard it can be from personal experience. So Jesus is always ready to be a source of encouragement for us.

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At dawn He went to the temple complex again, and all the people were coming to Him. He sat down and began to teach them.

Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center. “Teacher,” they said to Him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do You say?” They asked this to trap Him, in order that they might have evidence to accuse Him.

Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with His finger. When they persisted in questioning Him, He stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Then He stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only He was left, with the woman in the center. When Jesus stood up, He said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, Lord,” she answered.

“Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” (John 8:1-11)

Jesus didn’t judge. He forgave. Although this story does not appear in the earliest manuscripts, it is so contrary to normal expectations that it must be a genuine episode from Jesus’ life.

The guilt of the woman is not in question. It is, however, intriguing to notice that her accusers brought her alone, without the man she committed adultery with, despite the fact that she was “caught in the act.” In a case of adultery, according to the law of Moses both the man and the woman were equally at fault and equally destined for a death by stoning.

What Jesus might have written on the ground is not disclosed. There has been endless speculation but too often such speculation becomes a distraction from the story’s disturbing point: Jesus does not condemn the woman, though she deserves it. But grace, by its nature is unjust. The woman had betrayed her marriage vows. She had hurt someone deeply. And she was going to get away with it.

Jesus forgave her without an expression of regret or promise of reform from her at all. Jesus merely tells her not to do it again. Forgiveness doesn’t make the sin okay. Sin is never okay. What forgiveness does is make it as if the sin never happened in the first place.

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His disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” (John 4:31-38)

There is more than just one kind of hunger. After Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman, Jesus disciples returned with food. They were very puzzled by what they found Jesus doing. When they encouraged Jesus to eat, he used their fixation on food as an opportunity to teach them, just as he had used the thirst of the Samaritan woman as an opportunity to teach her. Just as the Samaritan woman had first thought of literal water, so the disciples were stuck for awhile on literal food.

But then Jesus clarified for them that he wasn’t talking about physical food or satisfying physical hunger. He meant that he had found satisfaction in his hunger to do the job that his Father had sent him to Earth to do: to proclaim the good news to people and to see them become part of God’s kingdom as a consequence. The Samaritan woman had joyfully believed him. Her transformed life satisfied Jesus more deeply than any of the food the disciples had brought him. The coming harvest of grain but four months in the future was nothing compared to the harvest of souls that was happening in that Samaritan village at that very moment.

Working for a living can be draining. We need rest and food. But paradoxically, working for the kingdom doesn’t drain us spiritually. Instead, it fills us up! The lives that we change, the hope that we bring, and the souls that we see come to Jesus can satisfy us more than the food we eat.

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A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?” (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.)

The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)
Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”

The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?”

Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.” (John 4:7-14)

What are we really thirsty for? Jesus and his disciples stopped in Samaria on their way to Jerusalem. While his disciples went to get food, Jesus sat down by a well. Soon, a Samaritan woman arrived. She was focused on her need for water. There was no faucet for her to turn. Instead, she had to lower a bucket down a deep hole and then pull it back out. It was heavy. It took a lot of time. Then Jesus interrupted by asking her for a drink of water.

She was startled by his question on several levels. Jews did not normally talk to Samaritans. They never ate or drank with Samaritans. And men rarely talked to women they weren’t related to. So Jesus got her attention, with his very simple question.

Her interest grew with each word that Jesus spoke. Finally, Jesus offered her living water so that she would never thirst. The Old Testament repeatedly linked God’s promises with water and made a connections between water and the Spirit. Even the rabbis taught that the Torah—the five books of Moses—were living water.

Jesus broke down the barriers of race, religion and gender. His message of hope is available for everyone. Our longings, our sense that there is more to life than just the daily grind, can find fulfillment in Jesus. Jesus can fill up the emptiness inside us that nothing else can.

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