Getting Real with God

Read John 7:10-44

"Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment" John 7:24

The Feast of Booths was one of Israel’s biggest festivals. For a week, people lived in tents to remember how God provided for Israel during their wilderness wanderings. Each day, the high priest would process to the Pool of Siloam, fill a golden jug with water, and return to the temple. With songs of praise, he poured the water out before the Lord as a sign of God’s promise to give life and blessing to his people.

In the middle of this celebration, Jesus goes up to Jerusalem. Jesus is the talk of the town. The Jewish leaders especially are looking for him. Some of the crowd say he’s good while others say he is deceiving the people. The crowds are divided. Many believed he was thee Messiah. Jesus warns them not to judge on appearances but make up their minds about him carefully. There is a lot at stake.

C.S.Lewis coined the famous trilemma Lord, Liar or Lunatic to help us understand that there are really only 3 possibilities of who Jesus is. Lewis immediately eliminates ‘good teacher’ as an option because if he wasn’t who he said he was then he was committing a great evil by deceiving billions of people. Lewis argues that either Jesus was a deluded madman who thought he was God… but then, how does a lunatic perform miracles he did and teach so rationally? If he is a liar why does he speak truth, embody moral goodness and then die for his lie? The only possible explanation is that he is who he claimed to be, God. Lord, liar, lunatic is still helpful to think through today.

The religious leaders send guards to arrest him. But Jesus uses the climactic water ritual of the festival to make a startling claim. On the last and greatest day of the feast, as the water is being poured out, Jesus stands up and says: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”

The world is still trying to make a judgement about Jesus. In the end we must decide. However, it will be Jesus who is final Judge over all. Saying to God on the Day of Judgement, “Oh, I was sitting on the fence” won’t be an answer. Sitting on the Fence is still the same as refusing to ‘receive’ Jesus. We must reject Jesus or receive him as Lord. Have you made up your mind yet?

RevGeoff