Tell us plainly

December 14, 2012

John 10:24 The Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah tell us plainly.”

When I read this, it always makes me crazy.  Water to wine was not enough for them to know.  Healing the blind, the lame, the chronically sick was not enough.  Raising a dead child and healing his friend’s mother-in-law was not enough.  So  “Tell us plainly.”

Verse 25:  Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me. . .”

26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.  My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.”

They demanded “Tell us plainly.”  So he put it about as plain as he could.

31 Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him.

Chapter 10 begins with Jesus saying “I tell you the truth, . . .”  It ends with ^‘ and many people came to him.  And in that place many believed in Jesus.’

So many times I have ask God to speak plainly.  I know his mind and ways are so above my own.  I have a dog.  He didn’t understand one word when I brought him here, but he learned to understand kindness and consistency.  And eventually I learned to reduce my communications to ‘word’ commands and requests.  He learned.  He has a good ‘hearing’ vocabulary now.  His vocal communication is coming along, but lacks much.

 Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days.  Here he stayed. 

Sometimes a change of scenery is important for understanding to incubate.  Jesus was in Jerusalem for Hanukkah when they asked him to tell them plainly if he was the Messiah.   It was this time of year –a time when they celebrated a miraculous act of salvation and restoration.  He was hanging out in the temple area –a homeless man with a band of followers who did the unexplainable.  It seemed unlikely that this could be the ‘one.’  Yet nobody else had ever done the things he did, so they asked.  Many of them wanted to believe, but the pressure of their leaders and the authority they had always known joined with their human skepticism and pride and caused them to question, take offense and abandon their fledgling belief.

So Jesus changed to a locale where faith was common.  They came to him in a place where John had pointed him out as the prophesied messiah.  There they watched and listened and ‘in that place, many believed in Jesus.’  Locale has a lot to do with how well we listen and see.  I don’t understand that totally, but I know it’s true.  When I get bogged down with life, it’s hard to change gears without changing my surrounding.

It is amazing how well He understands and the great lengths he will traverse to touch our hearts.  “We find him when we seek him still.”