John 7-8 She's a Witch!

About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. (John 7:14-17 ESV)

How do you learn Japanese?  

One - you go to Japanese class and study your booty off for years and years.  

Two - choose some Japanese parents and be born to them (you do get to choose your parents, right)?  

This Jesus dude never went to Seminary, he doesn't have a degree.  They can't understand how he can understand and speak with authority about the things of God.  

How could someone speak fluent Japanese if he had never taken lessons or studied?  Impossible if he was born to redneck parents in Alabama, but easy-peasy  if he came from Japan!  

So with Jesus!  He hadn't studied in Seminary, he had come from heaven. He hadn't studied scripture with a teacher, scripture is his Dad's and his own creation!  

Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?” (John 7:25-31 ESV)

This encounter reminds me of the Monte Python witch sketch.  Is he the Christ?  Is he not the Christ?  How do we decide?  

Monty Python

Witch Scene Script

Cast:

(V) Sir Vladimir

(King) King is Arthur, King of the Britains!

(W) 'Witch' woman

(P1,P2,P3) Peasants one, two and three

Peasants: We have found a witch! (A witch! a witch!)

Burn her burn her!

Peasant 1: We have found a witch, may we burn her?

(cheers)

Vladimir: How do you known she is a witch?

P2: She looks like one!

V: Bring her forward

(advance)

Woman: I'm not a witch! I'm not a witch!

V: ehh... but you are dressed like one.

W: They dressed me up like this!

All: naah no we didn't... no.

W: And this isn't my nose, it's a false one.

(V lifts up carrot)

V: Well?

P1: Well we did do the nose

V: The nose?

P1: ...And the hat, but she is a witch!

(all: yeah, burn her burn her!)

V: Did you dress her up like this?

P1: No! (no no... no) Yes. (yes yeah) a bit (a bit bit a bit) But she has got a wart!

(P3 points at wart)

V: What makes you think she is a witch?

P2: Well, she turned me into a newt!

V: A newt?!

(P2 pause & look around)

P2: I got better.

(pause)

P3: Burn her anyway! (burn her burn her burn!)

(king walks in)

V: There are ways of telling whether she is a witch.

P1: Are there? Well then tell us! (tell us)

V: Tell me... what do you do with witches?

P3: Burn'em! Burn them up! (burn burn burn)

V: What do you burn apart from witches?

P1: More witches! (P2 nudge P1)

(pause)

P3: Wood!

V: So, why do witches burn?

(long pause)

P2: Cuz they're made of... wood?

V: Gooood.

(crowd congratulates P2)

V: So, how do we tell if she is made of wood?

P1: Build a bridge out of her!

V: Ahh, but can you not also make bridges out of stone?

P1: Oh yeah...

V: Does wood sink in water?

P1: No

P3: No. It floats!

P1: Let's throw her into the bog! (yeah yeah ya!)

V: What also floats in water?

P1: Bread

P3: Apples

P2: Very small rocks

(V looks annoyed)

P1: Cider

P3: Grape gravy

P1: Cherries

P3: Mud

King: A Duck!

(all look and stare at king)

V: Exactly! So, logically...

P1(thinking): If she ways the same as a duck... she's made of wood!

V: And therefore,

(pause & think)

P3: A witch! (P1: a witch)(P2: a witch)(all: a witch!)

V: We shall use my largest scales.

(V jumps down)

----------------------------end?---------------------------------

(walk over while cheering)

(push her into scale)

V: Right, remove the stops!

(wait while scales remains still)

All: A witch! burn her burn her!!  

Woman: I've been set up.

What correlations do you see between this scene and Jesus's life/death?  

1. He was innocent

2. They dress him up to look like a bad guy

3. They use bad logic to implicate him

4. They get the government involved.

5. They dress Jesus up and mock him

6. They decide he is a treasonous criminal and must die.  

7. It was all a farce - anyone with any objectivity and intellect would recognize that Jesus and the witch lady were being set up.  But in the moment, in the face of an angry mob, no one spoke the truth. 

8. No one came to their defense

9. They did not speak in their own behalf (as a sheep before it's shearers is silent.

I0. Pontius Pilate guy

11. Twisting Jesus words and trying get him killed

12. Easily swayed mob - celebrated Jesus and then turned on him.

13. Dressed up Jesus 

14. My kingdom is not of this world, this is not my nose

How would you decide whether or not Jesus was the messiah?  

Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?” (John 7:33-36 ESV). 

Where is Jesus going?  

Back to heaven!  It's like Narnia, he's stepping through the wardrobe, and no one is coming with him unless he asks them to come.  This is so far outside the realm of comprehension, the Jews don't understand.  

Guess where I'm going this afternoon, it's somewhere far away".

 Oh yeah, where?  Texas?  

Farther.  

Europe?  

Farther. 

China?  

Farther?  

Space?  

Farther.  

Huh??  Are you speaking Japanese?  Where are you going?  

Forget about where I am going, where are you coming?  

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37, 38 ESV)

 What is Jesus talking about?  Who is the "his" in this verse?  

It sounds like if we believe a fire hydrant will open in our hearts and water will start gushing everywhere! But Jesus says, it is written, and most of the old testaments references to rivers and waters come from God.  

Examples: 

But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. (Exodus 17:3-6 ESV). (According to Nehemiah, this verse is read during the festival of booths. . .)

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13 ESV)

O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water. (Jeremiah 17:13 ESV)

It kinda makes logical sense with what Jesus is saying, too - He doesn't say:  come to me and drink the Gatorade that you packed in your lunchbox.  No, he says, "come to me and drink and eat what I give you!  Your lunchbox will become empty, but my food is like a container of waffle-house hash browns.  It will never run empty!  

He told the Samaritan woman that if she drank the water he gave, she would never be thirsty:  Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” (John 4:10-15 ESV)

Then he performed the miracle of the loaves and fish, telling the people to eat of his body and drink of his blood if they want eternal life.  

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. (John 6:27, 35, 51, 53-57 ESV)

When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” So there was a division among the people over him. 

Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” [The earliest manuscripts do not include 7:53–8:11.] (John 7:40-52 ESV)

Why do the Pharisees make such a big deal out of the messiah being from Bethlehem?  

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. (Micah 5:2 ESV)

What is the big deal about the Messiah coming from David's family?  

Look at this promise that God makes to very old king David:

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’” (2 Samuel 7:12-16 ESV)

How long will the kingdom of David's offspring last?  

Forever.  

How long did the Kingdom of David's children last?  

A couple of generations.  

How do we reconcile this?  With the Messiah - a king will come and restore all things.  

Allrighty, the Christ must be an offspring of David and come from Bethlehem.  Why then don't the Jews think that Jesus could be the Messiah?  

I'm not sure, but it may well be they just didn't ask.  

Say you meet someone with a thick southern accent.  Hey y'all.  They say here as if it has two syllables: hee yer.  You would conclude they are from the south right?  But what if you asked where your new friend is from.  New York and moved south as a child.  And this southern talking person, if you looked at his history, you could trace his history to Richard the Lionheart, great king of England.  You would never guess that this Southern talking, Alabama football loving person could actually have been born a Yankee and descendant of a great king!  

So if the Pharisees are saying this about him, why doesn't Jesus set the record straight?  

He came into this world to have a carrot strapped into his nose and to be accused of ridiculous things.  He came to be a witch and to be burned.  He's on a mission to die.    

Do you feel like people know your true identity - who you really are, not just who you appear to be?  

Have you ever been called a witch or ganged up on?

Have you ever done what Nicodemus did here and stood up someone when no one else would?