DISAPPEARING ACT

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.
In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the One who sent Me. You will look for Me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find Him? Will He go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? What did He mean when He said, ‘You will look for Me, but you will not find Me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

John 7:33-36

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Jesus didn’t come from heaven to earth to reside forever. It was never intended to be that way when God sent Him to be the Savior of all mankind. He was to come and minister for the amount of time His Father allotted and when the time came, He would indeed become the perfect, unblemished Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world (John 1:29), the final atoning sacrifice needed to cover the iniquities of God’s people.

Jesus fully knew what His mission was. The problem was that everyone else didn’t know and as we see in today’s scripture passage from our continuing study of John, Chapter 7. There we find Jesus trying His best to help His audience understand His destiny. Look again at His words here:

Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the One who sent Me. You will look for Me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find Him? Will He go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? What did He mean when He said, ‘You will look for Me, but you will not find Me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”  John 7:33-36

A person living and dying was easy enough for people to understand. After all, it was something common place in any society during Jesus’ time. What wasn’t common, and in fact would have not happened at all, would be someone dying, then coming back to life before disappearing completely without a trace. As in so many other areas, Jesus would be seen as unlike any other person who had ever lived, and no one would ever be like Him again.  

Jesus tried to make sure the Jewish gathering understood that He would not be with them forever. That wouldn’t have caused much confusion but it was what He added that would have brought a lot of questions and confusion:

“…then I am going to the One who sent Me. You will look for Me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

Still not grasping the connection between Jesus and God, the Jews gathered tried to figure out what Jesus meant through a worldly view.

“Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find Him? Will He go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? What did He mean when He said, ‘You will look for Me, but you will not find Me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

Surely Jesus was staying on earth because where else would He go? It had to be a question running through the minds of the Jews trying to make sense of what Jesus had told them. Many of the Jews had scattered from Canaan and moved to other regions, merging in with Greek cultures in some instances. The people believed Jesus was maybe telling them He planned to expand His teaching and leave the Promised Land all together, taking His teaching to the Greeks and others. That would satisfy what Jesus had said because He said they would not be able to find Him nor go where He would be.

It would have made sense if it had not been for one important item they had omitted considering, that He was going to the One who had sent Him. This is what made their conclusions about the Greeks nonsensical because it was clear that the Greeks had not sent Jesus. As we saw in an earlier devotion, the Jews knew Jesus had come from Nazareth and was a Galilean. He was born and raised in the Holy Land, not in any Grecian territory.

So who had sent Jesus?

The answer to the question would solve the mystery of His words but the Jews were not ready to see Him as the Messiah, the One who would come to save God’s people and bring them liberation. Had they agreed on Jesus being the One the prophets had foretold, perhaps they would have fully understood He had come from God and it was to God He would return, heading to heaven where no one would be able to come, where no one would be able to find Him.

Indeed, Jesus did ascend in what was a great disappearing act witnessed by His disciples, right before they would receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. His faithful obedience to God in carrying out what His Father had sent Him to do, earned Him the ultimate reward, authority over all heaven and earth. It was where Jesus went in first century AD and it is where He has remained, and will remain until God sends Him back to judge the earth, a day when there will be one more major disappearing act, this time involving all who placed their belief, faith, and hope in Jesus as Savior.

I pray you will be a part of that day when it comes.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com