Manna or the Man?

Scripture Focus: John 6.25-26, 30-35, 68-69
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” 

26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.

30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 

32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 

34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” 

35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

On January 6th Christians across the world celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. This represents the manifestation or revealing of Christ to the non-Jewish world. May we seek to manifest Christ as the one who is the bread of life for all who will partake.

Reflection: Manna or the Man?
By John Tillman

Many followed Jesus out of impure motives.

The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle of Jesus in all four gospels. It is the fourth of seven, and therefore the central, sign that John chooses to demonstrate who Jesus is. Like a central pole of a tabernacle or tent, it supports some of the loftiest, most direct messianic claims that Christ makes.

A tiny detail at the beginning of chapter 6 tells us that it is almost Passover. The rescue from Egypt is on everyone’s mind. Over the course of the chapter, it is like John runs Exodus in reverse. Meeting with Jesus on the mountain echoes the meeting with God at Sinai. Eating the bread and fish in the wilderness mirrors the manna and quail. Jesus miraculously crossing the water with the disciples reflects the crossing of the Red Sea. The crowd finds him on the other side and demands a sign like those Moses showed to prove to both the leaders of Israel and to Pharaoh that God spoke through him.

The crowd seems to have noticed the parallels, as they directly refer to Exodus in questioning Jesus. Moses had said to God, “What if they do not believe me…” (Exodus 4.1) This crowd says to Jesus, “What sign will you give that we may believe you?” (v 30-31) 

Jesus isn’t impressed with their request for a sign or their motives. They’ve already seen signs, but they don’t care what they mean. They just want to eat miraculous meals. They just want a bonus of blessings. They want a physical kingdom and political victory. They are uninterested in anything he taught on the mountain. They just want his power.

What are our motives for pursuing Jesus? Do we want the man or just the manna?

Do we even want to live in Jesus’ kingdom or do we just want to live in a nicer version of Egypt where we are in charge? Do we care about his miracles for others or do we just want him to fill our bellies and our other base desires?

If these are the motives of our following Jesus, he will disappoint us and offend us. But if, like Peter, we realize that Jesus is the only source for the words of life, that he is “the Holy One of God,” (John 6.68-69) then nothing will tear us away from him.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Search for the Lord and his strength; continually seek his face. — Psalm 105.4

Today’s Readings
Genesis 6 (Listen 2:48
John 6 (Listen 8:27)

This Weekend’s Readings
Genesis 7 (Listen 3:18John 7 (Listen 5:53)
Genesis 8 (Listen 3:06John 8 (Listen 7:33)

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Take Up Your Mat

Scripture Focus: John 5.14
Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

From John: In this repost from 2019, we see Jesus find a man of weak faith who is fearful, hesitant, and paralyzed by more than his physical condition. No matter what has paralyzed you in this past year, no matter how scared you are, no matter how weak your faith, Jesus is reaching out to you. Take up your mat and walk.

Reflection: Take Up Your Mat
By John Tillman

The paralytic at the pool is one of the more unusual miracles of Jesus. In most miracles of healing, someone comes to Jesus with a request.

The Centurion sent to Jesus on behalf of his servant and the leaders of the Jewish community supported the Centurion’s request due to his kindness to them.

Bartimaeus called out to Jesus over the noise of the crowd, “Son of David, have mercy on me,” and asked directly, “Lord I want to see.”

Jairus, a synagogue leader, humbled himself to come to Jesus openly, begging for his daughter to be healed.

Along the way to Jairus’s daughter, the woman with the issue of blood braved the crushing crowd, to touch Jesus.

But in the case of the paralytic, Jesus seems to initiate everything. Jesus sees the man. He discovers how long he has been there. He singles him out. He questions him. He heals him.

Another common element of other miracles is a moment in which Jesus comments on the person’s faith. That is absent in this account as well. The paralyzed man’s faith is questionable—perhaps so weak that only Jesus could see it.

Sometimes, a miracle is the beginning of a journey of faith instead of the end. Perhaps the reason Jesus told the man to pick up his mat and walk, was so that he would not be able to come back to the same spot in which he had been lying for years.

In the case of the paralyzed man, Jesus wasn’t done with him after being healed. Jesus once more sought him out. Jesus found him in the Temple—a place the man was forbidden to go before being healed. There Jesus called him to repentance and warned him that there were worse things than being paralyzed by a pool for 38 years. Jesus had more for this man than simply taking up his mat and walking. He has more for us too.

Jesus sought us out when we were paralyzed and deformed by sin. Though our faith might have been so small only he could detect it, he healed us, granting us access to God at the Temple. But he isn’t done with us after this miracle. He still seeks us out. To warn us, to call us to continued repentance, to transform our lives.

Jesus isn’t done with us after the miracle of our salvation. When we take up our mat and walk, we are just beginning to follow him in faith.

Pick up your mat and walk. Then take up your cross and follow him.

Divine Hours Prayer:
Save me, O God, for the waters have risen up to my neck. — Psalm 69.1

Today’s Readings
Genesis 5 (Listen 3:18
John 5 (Listen 5:42)

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Become More by Becoming Less

Scripture Focus: John 3.27-30
27 To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less.” 

Reflection: Become More by Becoming Less
By John Tillman

The messages we are surrounded with at the turn of the year are consistent and insistent: become more.

Become more fit.
Become more wealthy.
Become more appreciated.
Become more sexually fulfilled.
Become more powerful.
Become more free.
Become more you.

Our culture is radically expansionist. It is not just our economy that must achieve growth at all costs. As individuals, we are pressured to justify our existence. “You aren’t enough the way you are now. Become more.”

Goals can be pursued sinfully or in purity. Paul tells us, “physical training has some value.” (1 Timothy 4.8) Even things that aren’t “physical fitness” such as becoming a better leader, or partner, or working more efficiently have value. But in at least one area, Paul was told by the Spirit, “my grace is sufficient for you.” (2 Corinthians 12.9)

It can be difficult to discern whether we are succumbing to societal pressure to “improve” or following a spiritual imperative to “press on” (Philippians 3.12-14) or “spur one another on.” (Hebrews 10.24) Being “normal” or “satisfied” is a sin in a culture of maximalism and extremism.

No one would call John the Baptizer “normal.” John was an insider who became an outsider. His birth was announced by an angel in the Temple but he left the Temple system and traditional ministry to became a vagrant, desert-dweller, offering harsh words in a harsh environment.

John rejected the gains others thought valuable and became less. He rejected the norms of earthly kingdoms to become more according to God’s kingdom.

Even John, and especially his followers, felt pressure to “become more!” As the crowds swelled around Jesus, they slimmed around John. John was comfortable becoming less. Are we?

Becoming less doesn’t mean physical or spiritual laziness or apathy. It means evaluating things according to a different, kingdom oriented, metric. Ask yourself, “Why do I want this? Where is this pressure coming from? How am I expected to achieve this?”

Through prayer seek guidance on areas in your life where settling for less actually means gaining more. Also, there may be areas where physical training and improvement can have double value by helping to improve your spiritual walk. When you step away from culture’s pressures, you’ll find blessings in the steps you take in discipleship. When you step back in one area, step forward in another.

A few suggestions to become more by becoming less:

  • Stack good things together: Listen to the Bible and pray while walking, exercising, or working. Memorize scripture while brushing your teeth or showering.
  • Less distraction, more connection: Give up some Internet or entertainment time to text or email a friend and pray for them.
  • Less conflict, more grace: Intentionally avoid controversies and post more practical biblical encouragement.
  • Less complaining, more learning: Complain less about what you read in the news and share weekly or daily about what you are learning in the Bible/your church/reading in devotionals, etc.
  • Less impatience, more presence: Reduce whatever it is you use to “escape” or “fill time” and be present, through conversation, prayer, meditation, observation, or even…silence.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Of John the Baptizer, it is written: When the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”, he declared, he did not deny, but he declared, “I am not the Christ…I am, as Isaiah prophesied, “A voice of one that cries out in the desert: Prepare a way for the Lord; make his paths straight.” Now those who had been sent were Pharisees and they put this question to him, “Why are you baptizing if you are not the Christ, or Elijah, and not the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water, but standing among you—unknown to you—is the one who is coming after me: and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandal.” This happened at Bethany, on the far side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing. — John 1.19-20; 23-28

Today’s Readings
Genesis 3 (Listen 4:14
John 3 (Listen 4:41)

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From Your Nothing…Something Beautiful

Scripture Focus: John 2.6-11
6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. 

7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. 

8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” 

They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” 

11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. 

Genesis 1.1-2
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 

Reflection: From Your Nothing…Something Beautiful
By John Tillman

I recently came across a video by Dr. Darrell Johnson. In it, Dr. Johnson explains why turning the water into wine is, in his opinion, the most miraculous thing done by Jesus that is surpassed only by his resurrection.

What about feeding the 5,000? What about raising Lazarus? Well, as Dr. Johnson explains, when he fed the 5,000 he only multiplied what was there and when he raised the dead he only reanimated what was there. In the miracle of the water into wine, he demonstrated that he can create something from nothing.

I have, in the past, wondered why John, who only chose seven miraculous signs to testify to Jesus’ divinity, would spend one of his seven choices on the wine at the wedding. I thought perhaps John wanted to start small. But Dr. Johnson has made me reconsider that. 

John opened his gospel with a poetic description of Jesus, the Word, as a participant in the creation of the world—that “through him, all things were made.” (John 1.1-3) In Genesis, the “nothing” from which God created the world was “formless and empty” water. The Spirit of God hovered over this empty and formless deep sea and John testifies that Jesus was there.

The biblical authors, including John, didn’t have a concept of “nothing” that was formed, as ours has been, by space travel. To them, the vacuum of space was the open ocean, and “nothing” meant the formless, useless, shapeless, chaos of the deep waters.

Perhaps John remembered and related this story specifically because it places Jesus once again hovering over deep pools of “nothing” and turning them into something.

How has your past year gone? Are you, like the wedding host, staring down scarcity? Are you hovering over deep waters of disappointment? When you look for meaning or achievements, do you see only formless, useless, shapeless, chaos, like the shifting waves of the deep ocean?

Give your scarcity, your vacuum, your chaotic, shapeless, formless fears and failures of the past to Jesus. Sense him hovering over them with you. From your nothing, Jesus can make something beautiful.

The water became the finest wine that brought joy to the heart. What will your “nothing” become? What it will be can only be known by following him. Join us in following him. And bring someone with you.

Divine Hours Prayer:
Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord; let us exalt his name together. — Psalm 34.3

Today’s Readings
Genesis 2 (Listen 3:42
John 2 (Listen 3:02)

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Peace Amidst Mockery — Peace of Advent

Scripture Focus: Nehemiah 4.1-3
4  When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, 2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?” 

3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!” 

John 18.36-37
36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

38 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate.

Reflection: Peace Amidst Mockery — Peace of Advent
By John Tillman

Nehemiah and the builders were surrounded by mockery. Some of it surely stung. If Bible nerds were to list “sick burns” in the Bible, Tobiah’s comical comment about foxes knocking down the wall would probably rate a mention. Nehemiah, however, doesn’t respond.

Nehemiah had the force of government behind him. Soldiers, the king, and the law were all on his side. But he turned instead to prayer. Yes, he took practical steps to protect the lives of the workers, but his primary strategy was to turn over the mockers and their threats to God.

Building God’s kingdom will always seem impractical because, as Christians, we are building the kingdom Jesus described as being “from another place.” (John 18.36) Waiting on this kingdom and the peace it brings is one of the lessons of the season of Advent.

Building a literal, physical, or political kingdom is something people understand. Building this kind of kingdom may lead to power, praise, or wealth. Building the kind of kingdom Jesus describes leads to mockery. Pilate mocked this kingdom when Jesus mentioned it. His opponents mocked this kingdom at his trial and as he died. The soldiers mocked this kingdom as they beat him and as they hung him on the cross.

When we devote ourselves, primarily, to building Jesus’ intangible, immortal, and immanent kingdom we may be mocked. Called impractical. Called foolish. Sometimes this will come from enemies of the gospel and sometimes from those we would expect to join us. In either case, we do not need to reply in kind.

Like Hezekiah, who laid out the insults of Sennacherib before the Lord, (2 Kings 19.16) Nehemiah lays out Sanballat and Tobiah’s insults and threats. So let us turn Sanballat and Tobiah’s mockery into a prayer.

We praise you, God.
We wait and pray for the peace of your kingdom.
You, through Jesus, will make the feeble strong.
What looks so frail a fox’s feet could topple it will prevail against the forces of Hell.
You will restore what is broken beyond repair.
By offering the sacrifice on the cross, in one day, Jesus has finished the work of salvation.
In rolling away the stone from the tomb, God brings dead stone hearts back to beating life.
Like you, your kingdom is from another place.
Jesus, your kingdom is, was, and will be. (Revelation 1.8)
Bring that kingdom through us.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
My eyes are upon the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me… — Psalm 101.6

Today’s Readings
Nehemiah 4 (Listen 3:38)  
Revelation 13 (Listen 3:20)

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Read more about Peace of Endurance
Chains shall He break
for the slave is our brother
And in His name
all oppression shall cease.