Reflective Bible Study

On the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, He makes one of the least politically correct statements, and it is a claim that may have turned some people off of Christianity when discovering it. The gospel of John tells us that while promising His followers He will be preparing a place for them in Heaven before returning to bring them home, the conversation Jesus has with His disciples went like this: Jesus finishes one sentence by saying, “You know the way to where I am going.” (v. 4)

Then Thomas jumps in with a question: “Lord, we don’t even know where you are going! How can we know the way?” (v. 5)

Jesus then responds with His politically incorrect and culturally insensitive response: “I am the way, the truth, and the life! Without me, no one can go to the Father.” (v. 6)

On the surface, these two sentences run completely counter to Jesus’ character. Throughout Jesus’ ministry, He seemed to downplay His role and His significance in favor of pointing people back to God. Jesus didn’t want glory or fame; He wanted people to repent and return to the Father.

These two sentences, while technically pointing to the Father, place Jesus in the spotlight, and while Jesus had plenty of occasions to be the center of attention, very rarely is Jesus responsible for drawing attention onto Himself without pointing the glory to the Father.

So because these two statements seem un-Christ-like, does that mean we can safely ignore them?

In my own mind, it would be unwise to do so. In verse 10, Jesus describes how everything He says comes from the Father. This gives weight and context to Jesus’ earlier statements. If God told Jesus to say something that placed Him in the spotlight, it would be no different from empowering Jesus with the ability to miraculously heal a disabled person which would also place Him in the spotlight.

Because of this, we can trust the statement Jesus makes as a promise for us, however offensive it may sound to someone looking in with a critical attitude.

Also, it is worth challenging ourselves with the following thought: If God the Father directed Jesus to say that Jesus is the only way to Him, perhaps God the Father is the one responsible for making Jesus the only way to reach Him. If God the Father chose Jesus to be the only way to Him, then it would be complete foolishness for us to discount Jesus because it sounded like Jesus made an arrogant, exclusive statement about Himself. If God the Father is responsible for this, then rejecting Jesus is equal to rejecting God Himself, and rejecting God never leads to anywhere good long-term.

While reading our passage for this journal entry, a thought entered my mind related to how Jesus managed His popularity/fame. Often times, we see people coming to Jesus to be healed while there is a crowd present, but in this passage, it seems as though the “crowd” brought the man to be healed.

In other places in the gospels, when other people (i.e. the Pharisees or other religious leaders) bring someone to Jesus, it is usually a setup or a trap. While nothing in this passage indicates that this was similar to the traps of the Pharisees, Jesus does seem to be extra cautious about it. Not only does He take the blind man out of the village and away from the crowd who brought him, He also tells the man once he has been healed to not go back into the village.

With how Jesus acts in this passage regarding healing the blind man, it really appears as though there is a trap present – and if we look a little closer, we can see it.

Verse 22 ends by saying, “Some people brought a blind man to Jesus and begged Him to touch him.” This trap is a popularity trap, and had Jesus performed the miracle with the crowd present, He would have sent the message that He was doing it for the crowd and not for the sake of healing a sick person. The trap would draw the focus away from God and onto Himself.

The crowd begged Jesus to heal this man. This places Jesus in an interesting dilemma. Does He help a hurting person but potentially send the wrong message about God, or does He not help for fear of drawing the focus onto Himself?

Like other places in the gospel, whenever Jesus is given an either/or choice, He chooses a third, different option: separate the blind man from the crowd, so that He can show love towards the man while not sending the wrong message about who He is.

Jesus did not come to bring glory to Himself. This is clearly seen in the details of this event when we look closer at it. Instead, Jesus came to show us who the Father is, what He is like, and to heal the divide that sin caused in our relationship with God.

While finishing washing Peter’s feet on the night He was betrayed and arrested, Jesus finishes His discussion with Peter about washing feet by saying something profound. John’s gospel shares this conversation with us and he tells us Jesus finishes verse 10 by saying, “And you are clean, though not every one of you.” John then continues by giving us a side-note to draw our attention onto the significance of this statement: “For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.” (v. 11)

In case you had a question in your mind about whether Judas Iscariot, the betrayer, was present during the foot washing, this should help give you an answer. Part of me wonders if Jesus’ eyes finished scanning the disciples and came to rest on Judas Iscariot, in a subtle way telling Judas Iscariot that Jesus knew it was him. John tells us that Jesus knew Judas Iscariot would be the betrayer, which leads us to a powerful question: If Jesus knew Judas Iscariot would betray Him, then why even select Him to be a disciple?

While this question is significant, it is also significant to recognize that Jesus washed Judas Iscariot’s feet, but even with “clean” feet, Judas Iscariot had not let Jesus clean his heart or his attitude. While Peter had offered to let Jesus clean every part of his life, Judas Iscariot held part of his life back and tried to keep it hidden from Jesus. If Jesus had the conversation He had with Peter with Judas Iscariot instead, perhaps Jesus would have been able to reach the area of Judas Iscariot’s life before it was too late.

This truth teaches us that even if we let Jesus wash part of our lives, we must be invite Him to wash every part of our life that needs to be cleaned. Jesus’ statement at the end of his conversation with Peter hints at the reality: Judas Iscariot teaches us that even though we have let Jesus clean a part of our lives, if we are holding something back from Him, Satan is eager to use what we are holding on to in a way that derails Jesus’ ideal for our lives.

As Jesus approached the last week before facing the cross, two of His disciples came to Him with a request. By this point, all the disciples likely were sensing Jesus’ ministry leading towards one single moment, and the only thing they could conclude based on their preconceived ideas is that He would launch the campaign against the Romans and make the nation of Israel independent again.

The request these two disciples make is selfish, but also understandable. They ask Jesus, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” (v. 37)

However, Jesus’ response is interesting. First, He asks them a counter-question, which they respond to, and after this, Jesus responds to their initial request by saying: “I don’t have the authority to grant you a seat at my right or left. Those positions have already been prepared for certain people.” (v. 40)

When I read this event knowing that Jesus would be on a cross not to long afterwards, it is hard to not see the disconnect with what these disciples ask and what they think they are asking. These disciples think they are asking for the places of most honor in a typical king’s kingdom, but they don’t realize that Jesus’ kingdom is different, and that when He receives His glory, it will look entirely different.

Jesus breaks both sides of the bad news to these disciples by saying that He doesn’t have the authority to grant their request and that those positions have already been reserved for certain people.

This leads me to wonder who these “certain people” were.

The highest point in Jesus’ ministry where He has individuals on His left and His right happens not long after this event. During this high point, Jesus is hanging on the cross with two criminals, one on His right and one on His left. This means that the point when Jesus was glorified, He was among the worst people in society and among those that the world condemned.

I am sure that these two disciples would not have asked the question they did if they knew Jesus would be glorified on a cross. While these disciples each faced trials, persecution, and death because they dedicated their lives to Jesus, it was only after Jesus’ death on the cross that they truly began to understand what His true mission was.

For us living today, Jesus’ message to these disciples is as true for us as it was for them. Jesus warns His followers to not seek power, fame, or position over others, because they might not realize what they are truly asking for. Instead, Jesus tells each of His followers that they should focus on serving like He served, because when we ask God for help serving, He is more than willing to grant our request!