John 12:37-50
Be Still: God, help me to enter your presence today. Let this be a holy moment shared with you now. Amen
Read: John 12:37-50
Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfil the word of Isaiah the prophet.... (v 37)
Encounter: Do you know the game 'Charades or Heads Up? Watching people gesticulating their word or character is like learning a different language without the book. Once you understand how someone plays the game and the actions they make, your team starts to sync up and get on a roll. You enter the language of the game. When you finally find out what Uncle Terry’s chicken-clucking represents, it all makes sense! You understand. Your eyes have been opened.
At the end of the game... this is where the people find themselves at this point in Jesus’ story. Many of Jesus signs and wonders through his brief, but dramatic public ministry have not made sense to them. For some, their eyes have not been opened and their hearts are hardened. Yet there were those who deciphered rightly the language of the action. They knew now that Jesus was who he said he was.
I sometimes wonder if I’d have learnt the language of Jesus if I had been there? Here we find ourselves at the point where God's plan is coming together, leaving history stamped forever by the image of a dying man on a cross, lifted up for all the world to see -- opening blind eyes and softening hard hearts with the amazing, unconditional love of God.
Apply: The challenge for us here is unmistakable. Are we just going on with our conversations and distractions whilst God unveils the plan he’s been working on all this time? Are we going to complain that we wish he’d done something else instead? Are we going to say that we probably believe it but we'd rather people didn’t know? Or are we going to admit to ourselves, and share with others, that in looking at Jesus, we have seen the glory of God?
Devote: Father, open my blind eyes to your love today; soften my hard heart to your ways. Thank you, Jesus, that you saved me and made a way for me to be part of your rescue plan for humankind.