Thursday 12 May

Judges 14:1-15:20

These case-studies of grace and failure are getting exhausting.  Samson should not have married a Philistine, but he did.  He should not have treated his parents with disrespect, but he did.  As a Nazirite (no fruit of the vine allowed) he would have been better off not to have gone near the Vineyards, but he did.  He should not have gone near the dead lion, but he did.  As a Nazirite he should not have been near dead bodies, but he did.  In fact he created a lot of dead bodies.  He probably should not have messed around with foxes, but he did.  He should not have touched the jaw-bone of the donkey, but he did.  If it wasn’t for Hebrews 11 (which calls him a hero of the faith) I’d be all set to write Samson off as a plonker.  Indeed in Hebrews it lists Samson among a group of others whose “weakness was turned to strength”.  And, what happened to him in the physical surely happens to us in the spiritual.  If we can bring weakness to God then he will turn it into strength.  The focus is not on the weakness but on the bringing.  Will we continue to keep our hair long and unkempt - will we continue to seek Jesus radically and completely?  If we will then the baffling law of grace can be relied upon - despite our failures, despite our weaknesses, despite our rebellion and neglect of God, he will take what we bring and will turn it into strength.  He will make us very heroes of the faith.

John 7:14-44

It’s always important to remember with John that the whole point of his book is to convince people that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing we may have life in his name (20:31).  John has blasted us with the hurricane-like force of Jesus’ personality and power and now he is picking up some of the objections we might have about whether this man, no matter how powerful, could actually be the Source of Life for us.  Yesterday the objection was that his words are too difficult and that some don’t follow him.  Today the objection is to do with expectations - in some ways Jesus doesn’t look like the Source of Life that people were expecting.  Firstly, he breaks the Jewish laws that he claims to be fulfilling and secondly, he is just a bloke from Galilee.  I think these objections are still around today if in a slightly different form - if Jesus is the Source of Life for me why is he not doing the sort of things I want him to do - and - wasn’t Jesus just a vaguely historical figure who lived in Israel 2000 years ago.  The response to the first objection is “stop judging by mere appearances” and the response to the second is “he may be a bloke from Galilee but he was sent there by God”.  Neither of these responses would have made it into the closing speech of ‘A Few Good Men’ but that is partly the point - Jesus wasn’t so much about battering people with arguments (although he did a bit of that with the Pharisees) as he was about inviting them in to experience his kingdom and to discover that He really is Truth.  Choose to do God’s will, then you will know if my teaching comes from God.  Look at how I heal people and make a right judgement.  Come to me and drink. Believe in me and streams of living water will flow through you.  As we seek to invite people to receive life from Jesus we would do well to follow Jesus’ own lead - to invite them in and let them find out through experience that Jesus really is the Christ of God.

Proverbs 11:29-12:7

How we are with our family is a strong indicator of our character, and it is likely to determine what we inherit in life.