The article below was originally posted 6 years ago today, and is being reposted as a part of the fallout revisited series where I occasionally go back into the 10+ years of posts on the blog and share pieces that are still relevant.
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”
People don’t like it when you confront their beliefs. The post-modern world we live in has gone so far as disliking it when you say that what you believe has truth to it. We’re expected to play nice and keep our truth claims to ourselves, lest anyone’s toes get hurt by someone inadvertently stepping on them.
Jesus, however, doesn’t seem particularly worried about people’s toes, especially the toes of the those who thought they were in God’s good favor.
In John 8 Jesus gets in serious trouble with the established religion of the day when he calls himself equal with God, rebuffs their disagreement by calling the leaders offspring of Satan and natural born liars, and concluding his rebuke with the massive statement, “because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.” (v.45)
Jesus stands his ground on his declaration of truth. The scene ends with a group of pastors, business leaders, grandfathers, and other seemingly respectable grown men ready to throw rocks at him an angry group of third grade boys.
It’s easy to read scripture with a monotone mindset, but this was no monotone moment. Grown men don’t come to the point of throwing rocks while talking in calm, reasonable voices. There’s serious tension going on here, the kind of tension that draws crowds because they know there’s going to be a fight. And yet Jesus stands his ground.
We need to be people who are willing to stand and declare truth in the face of that kind of fierce opposition; men and women who won’t be intimidated into being quiet about what is true. We need people who will stand their ground on God’s word about what sin is, about who is Lord, about heaven and hell, and about the breath-taking grace that is available to all, even the ones throwing rocks.
We need to be people who stand even when the ones throwing rocks are pastors and church leaders who have hundreds or thousands of people who follow them. Even when the ones throwing rocks have millennia of theological history to point to. We need men and women who are willing to risk their lives for the sake of making the truth known.
We also need men and women who know when the time has come to stop standing and leave the truth there, ringing in the ears on the onlookers. In verse 59, “Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple” before the stones could fly. We don’t get an explanation of why he chose to leave, but Jesus knew that the moment had come for him to depart that particular fight. He does not, however, stop declaring truth.
The next verses follow Jesus as he heals a blind man, breaking the religious leaders’ rules about what to do on God’s holy days. He leaves the fight but doesn’t stop making truth known. The end of John 9 Jesus declares to some of the same group who had been about to stone him previously, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.” (v.41)
Friends, be ready to stand against opposition of all sorts when you stand and declare truth. Fierce opposition to the point of murder is the normal response to truth in a world blinded by sin. We, however, are not blind; we are led by the Spirit of the living God.
Like Jesus we will listen to the Spirit and follow his leading about when to stand and when to back down in order to continue the fight elsewhere. If, like Stephen in the book of Acts, he calls us to be stoned for the truth, so be it. We will stand. And, most importantly, we stand inspired by a massive, unstoppable love for the people who are about to stone us. Just like Jesus.
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