Daily Lesson for August 24, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 7 verses 1 through 9:

After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2 Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. 3 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For not even his brothers believed in him. 6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. 8 You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

Timing is everything.  But taking our time requires patience, self-discipline and obedience to the spirit.

Jesus was being goaded by his brothers (who did not like all that he was about) into doing something rash. The book of John does not have a temptation scene like other Gospels, with Jesus in the wilderness being tempted by Satan to jump off the pediment of a building or turn rocks into bread in order to prove himself. But this scene with Jesus' own brothers acts very much the same way. They try to induce him to do something foolish to prove the relevance of his message and ministry.  And though I am sure he was tempted in a very powerful way, he resisted.  He refused to act without God in order to prove himself to his brothers.

The resilience Jesus demonstrates here is really astounding. Anger and frustration with his brothers and the tension of remaining in a holding pattern were no doubt sources of real struggle for him. Yet, he was strong enough to trust his own spirit. And so, he passed the test.

Jesus' brothers essentially accused him of wanting to make a name for himself. And well he could have. But whatever name it was that they were tempting him towards would not have been the Jesus name we recognize, know, and honor.  That would come only by waiting, by obedience, and by the surrender of Jesus' life to the will of God -- even if that will had no intention of making Jesus' name any bigger than it already was.

And for that -- for, in Rudyard Kipling's words, "waiting and not being tired of waiting" Jesus was given, "the name that is above all names".