The Jews

Transcript

Looking at John chapter 11, a while back, the story of the resurrection of Lazarus.

We read about, you know, a number of characters that are involved in the story. And, you know, Jesus, obviously, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus is obviously a center of focus. But when I read through it one time, but if you look carefully, you kind of keep an ear open for repetition.

And sometimes you can use a statistical tool, I believe is the right term. And you kind of look to see like, all right, how frequently do words like show up in this particular passage? You see those those main characters that it was mentioning Jesus, Mary, Martha, Lazarus. They're all pretty bolded there because of their frequency of being mentioned in John chapter 11. But, you know, many, many times I read this chapter and kind of didn't really notice the next most common character that are characters that show up in the in

the story. And that would be. It's not working here. That would be the Jews. You can see that they actually show up in bolder printed to kind of emphasize that more often are they mentioned than even the disciples a little bit to the right of them on this kind of word map. So these are obviously a important part of the story of the raising of Lazarus. In fact, they're a part and part of the story of really the whole gospel of John. And, you know, I made a point of reading through that whole gospel a couple of times and just looking for how often and when the Jews were mentioned in John's gospel. And out of that study, we've got some things that I'd like to kind of share with you guys tonight. But first, a little bit of background. So, well, just for comparison, let's take a look at a little more statistics. If I did a search of the phrase the Jews in the books of the Bible and you'll notice that, you know, John is the winner with 63 occurrences. So very, very often, just to emphasize just how important this is in the gospel of John. But if you look at some of the other peaks there, the Esther shows up with 41 times. Obviously, the Jews are a very important part of the story of Esther and acts for a similar reason as John. So we'll take a look at as we look at John, just be aware that that Luke kind of picks up the story in the book of the acts and uses this phrase, the Jews as well. But, you know, just to emphasize just how I mean, 63 times that phrase that, you know, if that's twice about twice. It's one shy of twice as often as Peter's name in the book of John. And it's six times more often than John himself or John the Baptist's name as mentioned. So this is an important part of the story that we might not have noticed before. To give you another visual, again, to emphasize Esther, Esther being a little bit shorter book, if you do a word count,

word frequencies per thousand hits or per thousand words, I mean, hits per thousand words. Esther is definitely the queen here. Her book, you know, is the biggest peak. Because obviously Esther is the story of the danger that the Jews faced of extermination and Mordecai and Esther, God's people saving the two members of God's people, saving the rest of the people. That's obviously the story there. So their main character, the Jews that are a main part of the story. But in John and Acts, you can see here this group of peaks right here is in John and this group of peaks here is in Acts. So also they play a very important role in Acts and John. So you might ask, why are the Jews mentioned so often in John? Another important thing to note that unlike in the book of Esther, when we look at this often repeated phrase by John sixty, sixty two times or sixty three times, John doesn't always use it in the same way that we use that term, that phrase, the Jews today. And that that's led to historically some some tragic things that we want to just make mention of. And I want to talk a little bit about why that that's just it's just wrong. What happened in the past because of misinterpretation. But so let's take a look at an example to illustrate why this can be a little bit confusing as to who John is referring to. If we look at the first 13 verses of John, chapter seven, let's just read that together. After the Jews went about in Galilee, he that's Jesus would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. So right there, this is a little bit different than we might use the word Jews today. Now, the Jews feast of the booths or tabernacles was that hand. So there that's a little bit more more like what we're used to, I think, thinking of as the Jews. But let's continue. So his brothers, Jesus brothers, natural brothers, said to him, leave here and go to Judea that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, My time is not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I'm not going up to this feast for my time is not yet fully come. After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

Verse 10, But as his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but in private. The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, Where is he? And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said he's a good man, others said, No, he's leading the people astray.

Yet for the fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. So highlighting the four occurrences here, we see that in verse one and two, just that the Jews were seeking to kill Jesus. And there the feast of booths was at hand. In verse 11, they were like looking for Jesus. They're on the lookout, like thinking, you know, he's going to come. Let's see if we can keep an eye out for him. And in verse 13, some of the people were afraid out of fear of the Jews. They said they didn't speak openly about Jesus. So some people over centuries of time interpreted these and other passages in John with our everyday meaning of choose. And they used it, sadly, as a pretext for anti-Semitism. They would use passages like this and say that the Jews are to blame for Jesus' death. They would then feel justified to unleash hate upon the Jewish people of their day. But let's stop and think critically about this conclusion. Does John really mean the same thing that we do by the phrase the Jews every time that he says that phrase? So let's look again. In John chapter seven, verse one again, it said after this, Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. So let's stop and think like what ethnicity were his disciples? They were Jewish. What ethnicity was Jesus? He was Jewish. Were the disciples seeking to kill Jesus? Was Jesus seeking to kill himself? No, clearly not. So it's not all the people that we call Jews today that were seeking to kill Jesus, but really a subset of this larger group. And looking at the end of the passage we read in chapter seven, verse 11, it says the Jews were looking for him at the feast saying, where is he? But then we had these people who were muttering about Jesus and debating, some saying he's a good man, some saying he's leading the people astray. But they're all kind of doing it kind of very quietly because of this fear of the Jews. Well, these people who are muttering are afraid to openly speak because of their fear of the Jews. What ethnicity were they? Well, they were Jews. They weren't afraid of themselves and they weren't afraid of Jesus or the disciples. They weren't in danger for their lives because of Jesus, the disciples. So this phrase, the Jews, doesn't quite mean the same thing. It's not all ethnic Jews that are being referred to by John here. So that's something we've got to really keep in mind as we're reading through John. So first, a little bit of background on the word. We use the word Jew today for any descendant of Jacob, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs. Anybody descended from them, we generally call Jews. But the derivation of the name kind of leads us to understand some different possible meanings. Jew is from the Hebrew word Yehudi. In modern Hebrew today, we use that term Yehudi, Yehudim for Jews. But it also clearly means, in Hebrew, one from Yehuda, which is Judah in English. It also can mean one from Judea. In the beginning of chapter seven, we saw that Jesus

was hesitating to go into Judea. So that place, as opposed to Galilee or Samaria, other parts of the Holy Land, in particular, the people that were there in Judea could be called Jews, Yehudim. So we have to realize that we use the word Jew basically for anybody that's a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob today. But in that time, that term could mean more specific things. And we'll look at some other possibilities as well. Now, sometimes John uses the term and it seems to map on pretty well to what we would mean when we would say Jew. Like, for example, when it's meant to mention the Feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, that's a Jewish feast that all practicing Jews would recognize. And so it kind of makes sense, according to our everyday use of that term today. Perhaps another possibility in John chapter two, verse six,

when Jesus did the miracle at the wedding in Canaan, it says nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing. So that would have been a cultural and religious practice of the Jewish people, both the group that we ethnically call Jews and the religious, those following the religion that we call Judaism today. So that would kind of fit in with our normal use of the word. And also in the multiple times during the crucifixion where John speaks of, you know, Pilate putting that sign up and the debate, you know, Pilate asking Jesus, you know, are you King of the Jews? And the one eventually put up the sign, he's basically saying, this is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And that would fit with what we currently mean by the term Jews. But something else that we wouldn't necessarily think of is that John really clearly when you look at it, you can see that he's referring to, as I said, a subset of

what we call the Jewish people when he uses that term Jews. And some of our translations even will, when that phrase in Greek, the Jews is there,

they'll actually kind of interpret it for us and clarify and say that this is the ruling Jews, the Jews that are an authority in Jesus' time. So this would have been from the priestly class that

were kind of in charge of things. And these were the ones, these Jews who are in power were the ones who really called for Jesus' crucifixion.

So in Jerusalem, nearly everybody at this point were people that we would call Jews, the disciples, John himself, Jesus. But keep in mind that many, I would say probably most of the passages that John uses this phrase, he's actually using it in a special sense, a subset of what we call the Jewish people to meaning just this ruling class. So, for example, in John chapter two, and really this is John setting the stage for what really is a story that you can trace all the way through his gospel of

Jesus facing this opposition from these ruling Jews. And John chapter 218 says, then the Jews demanded of him, what miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this? This is the people who were in power who saw this roving itinerant preacher who was getting a lot of attention. They saw him as a threat. And that's why they're kind of confronting him and demanding this sign of him. And really, it's the beginning of their opposition. I mean, he cleared the temple. The money changers booths at the temple and they're like, whoa, this guy seems to be a little bit, you know, hot under the collar. And he's opposing, you know, our business practices that we've got going on here in the temple. And, you know, so they went and opposed him and say, you know, what miraculous sign can you show to prove your authority to do these things? And, you know, that's clearly this is that group who the people who were murmuring about Jesus, whispering about Jesus, thinking maybe some of them were, they were divided. Some saying he's a good man. Others saying, well, he's just a deceiver. But they're kind of doing this whispering because they're afraid of the Jews. They felt like there's some danger in talking too openly about it because they could get into trouble with those who are in power. So that's the class of people that John most often, I think, is using when he when he speaks of of the Jews. So John's gospel, if you trace it through and, you know, one or two times after kind of having my eyes open to this, I and I'd encourage you to do some do stuff like this as you're going through an entire book. If you think there's some kind of theme that that you notice have a little inkling of or hint of, go through that whole book and just be on the lookout and make a note in your Bible. So I have a bunch in the gospel of John and the margin. I have TJ encircled for the Jews to just every place that the Jews are mentioned. And you can when you trace it, you can see John and you see it again in the Acts. They're chronicling the conflict between Jesus and his followers and this group, this group of of Jews and authority. That's really the majority of the sixty three occurrences of the phrase and John and the forty six occurrences in in Acts. But yet there's something important to kind of keep in mind and to see as you so as I went through and trace that. I saw something really remarkable and it really stands out in John's storytelling, his his recounting of of the events of Jesus life. These are people who are trying to kill Jesus, but he clearly wants to save them. In chapter five, they want to kill him, but he's speaking with them. He's giving them five witnesses to show who he was to try to convince them and to save them. He reaches out to them. He reaches out in chapter three to Nicodemus, one of this one of the Jewish Jewish ruling council, and he's trying to to reach reach him. And as I said in chapter five, well, Jesus was reaching out to them, but that but they tried all the harder to kill him. But Jesus said, not that I accept human testimony, but I mention it so that you might be saved. He's saying that of these people that just a little bit earlier in the chapter, they're trying hard to kill him. But Jesus is is still reaching out in an attempt to try to to to save these people who were his enemies, the ones who were calling for it for his death. When you look in and zoom in that graph that I showed you earlier that had like the big peak at Esther, and then there was a kind of a cluster in John. And then there was another cluster of peaks and acts. If you kind of look at the flow, I thought it was kind of interesting to see that.

The frequency of John's mention of the Jews, notice how it's kind of ramping up, ramping up through the through the chapters here. You know, it's mentioned early, it's meant there's a there's a increasing peak. So I think this early peak here is probably around his chapter two, where he's confronted after driving out the the money changers in the temple. There's another peak happening here near I think that's chapter four, chapter five. We have the peak where he's he's kind of trying to give testimony, trying to where that we read that verse about him trying to save save these people, his enemies. And there's a little bit of a lull, but it was still a decent mention. And then John chapter 10 and 11 is where this last big peak happens before it just kind of falls off to nothing for a while. So, you know, John chapter nine, where this peak is, is where there's the man who was born blind, and then the Jews are like wanting to throw him out of the synagogue and things. So you see this conflict going on in these different in these different chapters. But it really reaches kind of a peak in and in chapter 11 and

chapter 10, they were actually wanting to pick up stones to kill him. And then he withdraws for a little while on the other side of the the Jordan River. But then he comes back in chapter 11 to raise Lazarus. And we see again the mention. So just kind of see, think about in the storyline of John how these enemies of his, the Jews, are are mentioned. But then, of course, well, there's this sort of obvious there's this big gap here in chapters 13 through 17. Well, what's happening then? That's when Jesus was in the upper room and sharing the Last Supper with his disciples and teaching them. And John shares with us more than any of the other gospels. Kind of the intimate conversation that Jesus is having and the teaching that he's giving in his prayer, high priestly prayer in chapter 17. All that happened before he goes and crosses the chedron and goes into the garden of Gethsemane and and prays and then is arrested. So that when that arrest happens, the spike is is starting to take off again because it says the band of soldiers and their captain of the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. So that's the beginning that after that almost no mention because we have this peace and quiet opportunity for for Jesus to to minister to his disciples before his death. We don't have the mention of of the Jews, but keep in mind this is just like these four chapters or whatever are spanning over just certain a few hours of time or half a day of time that Jesus is spending with his disciples. So time wise, you know, you can see the ramping up, ramping up, ramping up. Then we have like a half a day of of kind of focus with very little mention of the Jews. But but then in the last couple chapters, we see them again and again. Some of the examples of those passages, you know, when there's pilot and Jesus crying Jesus, it's the Jews who are like calling for for pilot to do something in Chapter 18 verse 31. The Jews said it's not lawful for us lawful for us to put anyone to death. We look at verse 36, Jesus is saying my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might be delivered might not be delivered over to the Jews. So Jesus himself is is referring to these ruling Jews as as the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this world. In verse 38 pilot after Jesus pilot responds to Jesus, what is truth? And after he said this, he went back outside of the Jews and said, I found no guilt in him. So he keeps having this conversation with these ruling Jews and he offers to release the king of the Jews. And then in Chapter 19, he says, Hail, King of the Jews, and the Jews answer, you know, we we have a law and according to that law, he ought to die. So they're calling for his death. They're crying out in verse 12. If you release the man, you're not Caesar's friend. Everyone makes himself a king opposed to Caesar's. They're they're the ones who are just demanding his death and pilots trying to back away, back away, trying not to to to go through with it. But they just keep pushing it. So anyway, that's that's that's kind of the story. So you see that they're right in the thick of the conflict as Jesus is being tried and is about to be crucified. So one one quote from a a commentary, a background commentary that's on around international Bible background commentary of the New Testament talks about this way that John refers to the Jews. Quoting from that book, it says one recurrent set of characters in the gospel identified with these opponents of Jesus is the Jews. Although Jesus and the disciples are clearly Jewish, John mostly uses the label Jews in a negative sense for the Judean authorities in Jerusalem, whom he sometimes identifies perhaps at times to update for the language of his own day. So when he was writing this gospel, I think Keener means with the Pharisees, anti-Semites have sometimes abused the gospel of John to deny Jesus Jewishness, ignoring the situation in which John writes. But John often uses irony, a common ancient literary technique, and by calling the Judean authorities Jews, he may ironically answer these authorities charge that the Jewish Christians were no longer faithful to Israel. John concedes the title to them, ironically, but everything else in his gospel is meant to argue just the opposite, that the genuine heirs of Israel's ancestral faith are these Jewish followers of Jesus, even if they've been expelled from their Jewish communities, like the man born blind was and many others. Moreover, far from John's associations of customs with the Jews, undermining his own Jewish identity, similar language appears among observant Jews during a later Judean revolt. Such language does not make him a Gentile. So Keener is clearly saying that clearly this is a way that John is referring to these enemies of Jesus, the ones who are in power, and the idea of the anti-Semites that would like try to reinterpret John to say that Jesus or his disciples weren't really Jewish is clearly wrong. And he even goes to a historical language that was spoken of by observant Jews during a Judean revolt, people who were outside of that ruling body, they also refer to the ruling Jews in the same way. So there's a little backup, it's not just me or my interpretation as I read through John to say that these are speaking of the ruling Jews, the experts would do the same. So for the end of our class, I would like us to kind of focus on this little section right here. I don't know if you can see my pointer there, but that climax before the lull and before the final climax. That climax of John chapter 10, the end of chapter 10 and chapter 11 when Jesus raises Lazarus. So in chapter 11 itself, there's seven or eight times when that phrase occurs.

And for example, when Jesus was saying, okay, it's time for us to go to Judea because Lazarus is sick. Let's just pick up in John chapter 11, beginning in verse four for context.

When they were talking, oh, I'm sorry, verse three. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one you love is sick. When he heard this, Jesus said, this sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory that God's son may be glorified through it. Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. So this would have been confusing, I think, for the disciples. Like they know that Jesus has the power to heal his friend Lazarus.

And yet he's staying on the other side of the Jordan, not going up to go and help him. He stayed delayed for these two days.

But then it says in verse seven, then he said to his disciples, let us go back to Judea. And then in verse eight, which I have on the screen here, but Rabbi, a short while ago, the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you're going back there. So that's the first mention specifically in the story. I mean, it hearkens back to chapter 10 when they were picking up stones to stone him.

And they have that kind of spike in the tension of the storyline. And then Jesus kind of retreats and goes on the other side of the Jordan and has a bit of quiet. But then Lazarus is getting sick. And now you can see the tension in the storylines about to start rising again, because John's mentioning that the disciples were saying they were about to stone you there in Judea, and you're going to go back there. But that was part of what, you know, Jesus knew going into this. He knew that this was this was something he had to do, but he knew the danger. He knew where it would lead. I really truly believe. So John gives us a little more background if we skip down to verse 19. It says that many Jews had come to Mary, to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. So there at Bethany, at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, there were many Jews that had come there to actually comfort them. So many think that this indicates that that Mary, Martha and Lazarus had a connection to the priestly class. They by relation, they were related to many of these Jews that were in power. And as members of the family, they would come and comfort to try to comfort Martha and Mary for the loss of their brother. So that's the setting of Jesus' remarkable miracle of raising his friend Lazarus. Jesus knew who would be there. He knew that it would be very dangerous for him to go back to Bethany in Judea, where this hotbed of antagonism towards his ministry and towards his life really existed. And yet he knew it was the thing that he had to do. When Jesus went, I think he really knew that he was

about to sign his death warrant, really. If he did this, he knew that they would see him as that much of a threat. But yet he waited two days, he waited for Lazarus to actually die.

If he had not delayed, he could have gone and healed him. But he specifically waited for him to die, which he recognized in faith as just Lazarus falling asleep. But he told his disciples clearly afterwards that Lazarus was dead. So when we come, we hear the Jews again in verse 33 of John 11, when Jesus saw her that is Mary weeping.

So just backing up one verse, Mary had reached in verse 32, when Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And when Jesus, verse 33, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. This, you know, think of the mix of emotions. He's seeing Mary's pain. He's seeing the Jews here also weeping. And you wonder, you know, some I've read think that this was kind of a false mourning, kind of a show of mourning that would happen at some funeral processions or the time of mourning after the burial. Is Jesus deeply troubled seeing these people there? I mean, well, there's a mix of things. I think he sees Mary's pain. He sees the Jews who he knows have the potential to kill him. He sees the tomb of his dear friend and looking at that tomb and the stone that's there. I think Jesus knew and thought about what was soon that he was about to go through. He was going to be killed in a short time. This is like this was after Hanukkah in Chapter 10, you know, which typically in our calendar is like December time, and he was going to be killed on Passover. So we're just talking about like three. It's less than three months because we don't know how much time passed. I think, well, I think it would have been shortly after Hanukkah that Chapter 11 is happening. So we know that Jesus knew that his time was coming. I think he probably knew that it was going to be that coming Passover. And he knew that if he went through with this, if he raised Lazarus from the dead, this was the line that if he stepped over it, he was signing his death warrant. So all those emotions, I think, are swirling through Jesus mind and his heart as he is about to do this miracle. He saw that the Jews were there and large numbers would see him as too much of a threat to their power. The people would get so excited about this great miracle of healing, of raising of a dead man. And the people would go to Jesus in droves when the word got out about this. So I think all of those things are causing that, those famous words of the shortest verse of the Bible that Jesus wept. He's thinking he's he's got all these emotions running, running through his mind. But in the midst of that sorrow, he came to that.

Well, let's let's pick up in in verse 35. Jesus wept verse 36. Then then the Jews said, See how he loved him. But some of them said, Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying? Jesus once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. John mentions that clearly pointing forward to Jesus'

death and his burial was going to be in a similar, similar situation. And Jesus, I'm sure, could see the same thing as the event was happening. John in hindsight sees it. I think Jesus in foresight sees it. And in verse 39, Jesus says, Take away the stone. But Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, by this time, there's a bad odor for he's been there for four days. But Jesus said, Did not I tell you that if you believed that you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone and Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank thank you that you have heard me.

He he had faith and knew that that God was hearing him. I knew that you always hear me. But I said this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me. So Jesus is going through this miracle and he explains in his prayer why he's doing it. He's he's wanting to save these people, even his enemies, not just Mary and Martha, but his enemies. They're in attendance for their benefit, for their salvation. Jesus is willing to step over that line, that line that that was sealing his death warrant. He knew what pain and suffering awaited him if he went through with it. But he willingly went there for them and for us, even for his enemies. And again, the words of his prayer make it clear, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me. But I said this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me. And John clearly says the result in verse 45 that therefore many of the Jews, many of the Jews, these ruling Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did, they put their faith in him. They saw the incredible power that the Father had given Jesus to raise one who was dead for four days.

And despite their initial reservations about who Jesus was and what he was doing, they came to believe. They saw that he was who he said he was. But others, we read some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Others ignored the clear evidence that was staring them in the face that this was a remarkable miracle. And they just were blind to it. They were blind to it. They only could see Jesus as even more of a threat to their power. So if we continue to chapter or to verse 47 of John 11, it says, Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. What are we accomplishing? They asked. Here is here is this man performing many miraculous signs. We let him go on like this. Everyone will believe him. And then the Romans will come and take away both our place, which was a reference to the to the temple and our nation. Then one of them named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up. You know nothing at all. You do not realize that it is better for better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish. He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation. And not only for that nation, but for the scattered children of God to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on, they plotted to take his life. It's amazing this. Well, the irony of Caiaphas thinking, you know, they're going to if we don't stop him, the Romans are going to come and take away our place.

And he's saying, you don't know anything. Well, the irony of that is that he doesn't know anything in his blindness. He's not seeing the power of God that this is somebody who raised Lazarus from the dead four days later.

Fifty verse fifty three, it says. So from that day on, they plotted to take his life. Therefore, Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the Jews. Instead, he withdrew to a region near the desert to a village called Efrain, where he stayed with his disciples. So Jesus knew that the things were heating up, heating up. And if he hung around there that that he would have died much too soon, he knew that the time had to be coinciding with the Passover. So he withdrew and things cooled down for a little while. But as we know, in a short, short time, they would call for his death. So I just think we're thinking about and focusing on the Jews and seeing this conflict that the John is tracing through his gospel, the conflict between Jesus and the Jews. It suddenly made for me, John 11, the miracle of raising Lazarus, just so much more powerful. I kind of like just didn't pay attention to to them there. I realized just how important it was in the storyline of the of the whole sweep of of John's gospel. But it really is one of the main themes of seeing this conflict and seeing how Jesus handled it, seeing how Jesus reached out to his enemies and sought to to win them over, to save them. And this really is a lesson that we can take and apply to conflict in our life. You know, there's I think I've heard that if you don't have conflict in your life, you're probably dead. So we're all going to have conflict and we need to ask ourselves as we face conflicts. You know, do we seek the salvation of our enemies? There's Jesus. Jesus learned from the scriptures. He saw he saw the lesson of Joseph. You know, Joseph, who, you know, said who recognized it's not it's not you who who brought me here to Egypt. It's really it's really God who did it for good to save you, to save all to save many lives that that Joseph recognized that that's why he was put in Egypt and he didn't hold it against his brothers and hold a grudge like he could have. Jesus, I think, also had that kind of mindset and knew that even though these ruling Jews were seeking to kill him, he saw that God was really the one in control and he was doing it to save many lives. So Jesus practiced what he preached in John when he says, bless those who persecute you or love your enemies or father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Jesus powerfully demonstrated all these principles again and again in his interaction with his enemies. So the result of Jesus crossing that line, that line that I believe was there when he decided to go through with raising Lazarus,

is, you know, picking back up on on verse forty nine again, you know, Caiaphas saying, you know, don't you realize that it's better for one man to die for the people than the whole nation perish? Jesus was the one who did die so that the whole nation and many people did not perish. And in John's commentary on that, you know, we read that he didn't say this on his own, but as high priest, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation and not only for that nation, but also for the scattered children of God to bring them together and make them one. John's talking about us, too, because Jesus did this,

because Jesus signed his death warrant and willingly went to the cross to save his people. We were saved as well, and we were brought together to be as one with all of God's children being grafted in to the to the tree, the olive tree of Israel. Jesus was willing to die to save his enemies, and such were we.

As Paul says, once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he's reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you wholly in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. If you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. So let our hearts and minds be touched by the love of Jesus for what he did, what he was willing to do. He knew clearly what he was getting into when he raised Lazarus from the dead, but he did it out of love for his enemies and out of love for us who are all enemies of God before being reconciled by Jesus. Jesus did it for us. So let us be meditating on that truth, on that reality. Let us take to heart those lessons of Jesus, seeing how he lived out those lives of loving his enemies. Let's turn and do likewise in our lives with that appreciation in our hearts of what Jesus has done for us.