John 16

John 16:7

But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.

Jesus being on Earth was a wonderful thing.  But because He was human, there were limitations to Him.  In particular, He could only be in one place at one time, and that limited the number of people He could directly influence at a time.

However, the Holy Spirit does not have physical limitations.  He can be anywhere and everywhere, helping anyone who wants it simultaneously.  Jesus opened the door to the Father, but it is the Spirit who keeps pushing us along the path to be more like Him.

John 15

John 15:6

If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

Once again, I question the meaning of this verse.  It almost sounds like it is possible to lose one's salvation.  My branch of the faith doesn't believe that's possible, but are they wrong?

Or are all branches to begin with, but most choose to separate themselves?  Is that the idea behind childhood innocence, that we all start connected to God and then go our own way?  Or am I misreading this verse, and it's only referring to those who claim belief but never really do?

John 14

John 14:22

Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?"

Jesus doesn't seem to directly answer this question.  He goes back to almost repeating what He said before, about those who love Him will know Him.  But since the question is here, I have to assume Jesus did answer it, however indirectly.

I think the answer is that He is not disclosing Himself to the world because they have already rejected Him.  They didn't want what they thought He had, so they decided He wasn't what He claimed to be.  Therefore, publicly disclosing Himself wouldn't have done any good, because anyone who wanted to could see the truth.

John 13

John 13:17

If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

Jesus is in his final teaching, and wants to focus on the really important things.  He leads off with teaching by example, to get His point across.  However, He still has to explain what He means, and this verse tends to get brushed over in studying the passage.

First, you have to know the truth, for without it you are ignorant and can't change.  But it doesn't stop there, as you then have to put the truth into practice.  This is where most people fail, myself high among them, as this required changing ourselves and we're not good at that.

John 12

John 12:29

So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, "An angel has spoken to Him."

The people weren't used to hearing directly from God.  They were apparently confused about what they heard.  I wonder how distinct the voice was, since I can't picture any intelligible voice sounding like thunder.

Today, we talk about God speaking in a still, small voice a lot.  But we tend to forget that He also can speak so loudly it would deafen us.  But even when it's heard, we often misunderstand what it is, either because we're not ready to know or we don't really want to know.

John 11

John 11:20

Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house.

The story most people remember of Martha and Mary had the two in different roles.  In that one, Mary was at Jesus' feet, while Martha was away in the kitchen.  Martha was focused on the practical, while Mary was focused on Jesus.

Here, it seems the roles are reversed.  Martha is the one focused on Jesus, and goes to Him, while Mary is focused on the facts of their brother's death and stays away.  Why the change in actions between the two?

John 10

John 10:24

The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, "How long will you keep us in suspense?  If You are the Christ, tell us plainly."

People are not known for being very patient.  In fact, we're usually very impatient, and the longer we have to wait the more we get ticked.  The Jews had been waiting centuries for the Christ to come, and were on a shorter fuse than they would've preferred.

However, I can't feel too superior to them.  I'm probably even less patient, on average, and I start to get testy too when I've been waiting longer than I think I should.  This is a good lesson in both patience and discernment; be alert and watching, but also understand that God's timing is not our own.

John 9

John 9:11

He answered, "The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash'; so I went away and washed, and I received sight."

There's one word here that isn't in the other tellings of this story, even in this chapter, that made me decide to go into this verse.  Here, the man says Jesus anointed his eyes.  While this term has several definitions, it normally is used in a religious or spiritual context.  He saw this act as one of special significance by Jesus, not Him just haphazardly using a bit of mud on him.

Also, this is a case where Jesus required the blind man to act as well.  Many times, Jesus just spoke of did a healing action.  This time, He required greater faith of the man, enough to go and follow Jesus instructions.

John 8

John 8:25

So they were saying to Him, "Who are You?"  Jesus said to them, "What have I been saying to you from the beginning?

The people had all the pieces before them, but didn't put them together.  Jesus had given them all the information they needed to know who He was.  However, they didn't understand it, and therefore missed Him.

I don't want to sound like I'm casting aspersions on them, or insulting them.  I'm sure that if I'd been there, I would have missed the same signs.  No matter how clearly something is laid out, people have an enormous capacity to see what they want to see, or let a small assumption shape their focus.

John 7

John 7:23

If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath?

It says elsewhere that the Sabbath was made for man, not vice versa.  This is a great illustration of that.  The Sabbath exists so that we will rest, and not keep going at full speed until we burn out.

God rested on the Sabbath because His work was done, not because He needed to.  Similarly, we are to get our work done in 6 days, so we can recharge (something God doesn't need).  However, if something happens on Sunday and we need to do important "work," there is nothing that keeps us from doing so.  We just need to make sure we get the rest we need and God instructs.

John 6

John 6:60

Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, "This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?"

We celebrated Communion today at church.  Any time I actually think about what Christ said too deeply, it creeps me out.  I can completely understand why they considered this difficult and hard to listen to.

However, what is important is the act it symbolizes, and the effects of that act.  Until then, your only hope was to be a perfect person, which is impossible.  Now, faith can cover the sin, as long as we allow it to; too many don't allow it to, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't uncomfortable with it most of the time.

John 5

John 5:13

But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.

Jesus could have stayed, and revealed Himself to the healed man there.  But He chose not to, instead finding Him later.  Was this because He knew the accusations that would come?

I like to think it was because Jesus wasn't looking for credit or attention.  This wasn't meant to be some public miracle to convince the masses of who He was or the power He wielded.  Instead, this was a spontaneous act of compassion on one person, and then He faded into the background.

John 4

John 4:42

and they were saying to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world."

Everyone's faith starts out with someone's testimony.  What that testimony entails is varied, but it's about what God has done for them.  Here, the woman testified of Jesus' knowledge.

However, faith can't stay there.  It has to become personal, seeing what God has done for you.  These people witnessed Christ's words and actions themselves, and therefore believed anew.