37 Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:
“Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn—and I would heal them.”
41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.
42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.
Click through to hear what we talked about during worship!
The story here is kind of depressing. Even after watching him work in person many of the people around Jesus didn't believe who he was. Of those who did believe, some would not acknowledge him. They feared the judgment of their peers and "loved human praise more than praise from God". The portrait here is of a lost, misguided people, missing God in their midst.
In church we talked about how much those lost, misguided people resemble us. Most of us have felt the impulse to speak about God or do something in his name but have held back because of fear, preferring the comfort and security of the life we know to the challenges God sets before us. It's not that hard to go blind or find our hearts hardened either.
All it takes for blindness, hardness, and fear to set in is to value something--anything--above God...to love human praise more than praise from our Lord. The impulse starts deceptively well. We engage the world with passion. We develop likes, dislikes, opinions, devotions. At school we strive for good grades or to help the sports team. As adults we have work, family, hobbies. These are great things! But as they become more important to us our identity gets bound up in them. Suddenly we are no longer Sarah 14-year-old, we are Sarah 14-year-old volleyball star! We get a promotion at work. We have a child at home. Both self-perception and public perception of us change as a result. We get swept away.
Even if we started this process as people of faith it's awfully hard to keep perspective. For most of us God shows up in church for an hour a week...or at least shows up most strongly there. How can that one hour possibly compete with the 24/7 devotion needed to be a mom, with the 9-to-5 grind of work, with the cheering from hundreds in the stands as we spike the ball brilliantly in the state championships, with the colleges beating down our door because our report cards are good? It doesn't take long before God moves from the central guide of our life to a convenience that we occasionally indulge our need for. We become a committed [insert identity-making pursuit here] who happens to believe in God instead of a Child of God who also happens to engage in our pursuit.
When this happens our vision of God--already narrow enough because we're only human--narrows dangerously. God is only God when he's congruent with our needs and goals as a volleyball star, a parent, an office superhero. God serves our aims instead of us serving his. God is nice, but the really important things in life are good coaching, the next big parenting trend, a healthy raise. If God gets in the way of those or even doesn't value them as much as we do...well, we can always pick up religion later.
At that point, would we even recognize Jesus if he came among us? Do we see the signs God is sending us every day or do we only see our own goals and aims? If God gave us something counter-cultural to chew on--say that volleyball isn't everything, nor the acceptance by your peers that it brings, nor the cheering...that the kid sitting in the corner reading a sci-fi novel is just as important and beloved--would we be able to accept it? Would we stand up for it, speak it, live it out? Or would we be afraid to proclaim God's message because it might disrupt our lives, cause others around us to look at us funny or shun us?
I've been in plenty of groups in my life. Most of them have a peculiar characteristic. Almost everyone in them knows what is right and good. But nobody wants to be the first to voice it for fear that everybody else is thinking differently and they'll be ridiculed when they speak. So everyone sits in silence, looking uncomfortable and going with the perceived norm, until one person has the courage to speak up. Once one person proclaims the message the dam bursts and everybody goes with the good they always saw but couldn't speak.
When Jesus walked the earth that "someone" speaking was him. Now that he's with us in a different, much more personal, way we have the responsibility to speak accordingly, as he did. We have the responsibility to not be blind, nor have hardened hearts, nor fear reproach, nor value any praise above our duty to him. We need to be the people who see God, who share open hearts full of his love, who are willing to speak for goodness and grace when nobody else will. We have to put perspective on everything else we do, not letting any other impulse or culture guide us above God's call. We need to realize that all those good things in which we participate are God's gifts and value them accordingly, treating them as precious but also keeping in mind the greater good...the good which starts with and leads us back to God.
We are moms and volleyball stars and gainfully employed workers because God called us to be so. All of these things are meant to show and promote God's goodness, not supplant it. Thank God for all of the blessings you receive each day. In that same prayer ask God to not let those things blind you to all the ways in which he works and in which he wants you to work for him. Ask for his help in seeing him first in everything you do, that it may bear fruit in his name.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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