The Gospel of John Lesson 59 (01-12-14)
Lesson 59 – John 14:30-1
Things are about to come to a close, at least on this side
of the Cross. Jesus lets them know that other events that are beginning to
press in will preoccupy His time and attention, v. 30. The contenders are in
the ring and the final battle is about to take place. The stakes are high.
Winner takes all. All creation is involved here…
But, we already know the
outcome, Jn. 12:31-2. Even though the prince of this world is no match for
Jesus, blinded by pride he will show up for the fight believing that he will
indeed win. He has devised a plan. He has stacked the deck of this world and other
parts of God’s creation against Jesus, believing that in the end that he will
be the victor somehow diminishing or defaming a Holy God by what is about to
happen. His only hope of even having a chance of winning would be to diminish
God in some way. By Jesus taking on flesh Satan believed that Jesus became
venerable. He, Satan, had fallen, maybe God could be brought down too.
It will be a fight to the death, in the end appearing that
he, Satan, the prince of this world will have won. This, death, was Satan’s
last strategy, or it may have been his primary strategy all along. In looking
back at the other Gospel records we see that this was not his first attempt to
diminish God or bring Him down. Satan had made attempts before this…essentially
tempting Jesus to disobey the Father, disobeying His will. If Jesus had succumb
and done so He would have been no better than the first Adam who suffered
severe consequences for his disobedience.
We remember in chapter 4 of Matthew’s Gospel when the Spirit
led Jesus into the wilderness to be tested by Satan. Satan tempted Him putting
Him to the most rigorous and real temptations or tests only to find the truth
of John 14:30 that the essence of God has no evil or potential of evil in Him
at all.
However, Satan had another plan thinking that he could bring
God down to his level…putting Him to death on the Cross. Death is God’s enemy’s
territory or result, not God’s. God was/is the author of life. Death and God
had no connection in the same sentence. However, this was Satan’s plan, to see
God suffer and die.
This brings up an interesting point to ponder. Somehow, now,
on this side of the Cross we see the death of Jesus as something natural to Him,
if not occurring on the Cross then at least a reality at some point in His
life. But, the question that I wonder about is, was death the eventual and
natural end of Jesus if He had not been required to have gone to the Cross. In
other words, would Jesus have died if He had not chosen the Cross.
We know that in the Garden of Gethsemane that Jesus agonized
over what was set before Him asking the Father in Matthew 26:39 if in the
mystery of the knowledge and essence of God there was another way to accomplish
the task that God had set before Him. In that verse we see that even in the
request that Jesus continued to be obedient and wanted to obey the Father’s
will because He included in the request “yet, not my will, but Thy will be
done.”
We know the outcome or answer to His request because we know
that the Father did not give Him another option. However, had there been
another answer, that there was another way, and, Jesus had not had to die on
the Cross, the question that I have is “Would Jesus have died a natural death?”
Before we too quickly give an answer to this question let’s consider a few
things.
Jesus did include in His request found in Mark 14:36 the
statement that all things were possible with the Father, so, this line of
thinking or wondering about the ‘what if’s’ is not unreasonable. His request to
the Father tells us that before the Cross He was thinking the same thought,
wondering if death on the Cross was the only answer to man’s dilemma and His
only option.
I know that this sounds like a lot of hypothetical’s
sounding like the what if’s of trivial pursuit, but there may be some important
points or details about our Lord and His relationship with us that could be
gleaned here and these details do relate to what Jesus says in John 14:30.
Jesus says here in Jn. 14:30 that the prince of this world
was indeed coming and that in whatever was associated with Satan and his coming
that Jesus had no connection to it or part of it in any way. Very soon Jesus’
followers would see Him suffer and die a sinner’s death. Death on a cross was
not only offensive to those living in that society and in that culture, those
suffering this fate being the worst of the worst of that culture, but was also
a curse to God, the Jewish nation being aware of this, read Deuteronomy
21:22-3, Gal. 3:13. What Jesus would be suffering was a sinner’s death and they
would be wondering how this could be possible knowing Jesus’ claims.
However, Jesus assures us in John 14:30 that none of what is
about to happen is in any way deserved. The fate and the suffering and the
humiliation that He will willing suffer for will be seen by the Father as if it
were all His even though it is in reality all ours or all our doing. In other
words, Jn. 14:30 reminds us that He indeed was the perfect sacrifice deserving
none of what He is about to receive. II Cor. 5:21 makes it plain to us when it
says “For He had made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him”.
So the question comes up again, would Jesus have eventually
suffered death had not the Cross been required to deal with our sins and our
iniquities? In some ways this is a mute point knowing that it was indeed
eventually His only option. But, it is good to point out that nothing that Jesus
did gave Him the sentence of death which is reserved for all who sin and are
disobedient to God.
Even man in his original un-fallen state was not subject to dying
or physical death. Death for man only entered after his disobedience then
becoming subject to the consequences of his action(s) resulting eventually in
death, physical and spiritual, and, a curse of the same for all mankind
following his original offense.
Even in this, even though Jesus was born of a woman, He was
conceived of God by the Holy Spirit, and as such was not even in His birth
spoiled or affected by the stain of man’s fallen nature.
In saying all of this you may ask okay, so what’s the point.
Well, for me the point is that when it is all said and done that Jesus on His
own really did not have death in His future, even at a later date, and that He
really did choose to die when death was not His natural end at all. It was His
choice to die…instead of live, severing willingly, of His own choice or
volition, His relationship with the Father, for us, death never ever being His
natural end.
In the end, when it is all said and done, it was indeed His
choice to die, telling us this in passages such as John 10:17-8 (For this
reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up
again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have
authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge
I have received from My Father.) In the end, there could only be one reason for
His choice of action to go to the Cross. That was that He chose to die because
He really did Love us. There really is no other reason.
But, in telling them all that He, Jesus, has told them, He
tells them to believe and trust in what He has said, resting in the promise of
the peace that is to come to sustain them when they see what they are about to
witness.
Jesus reminds them to not believe what they will initially
see. Initially from all appearances it will appear like He has failed in His
mission in establishing the Kingdom as the Promised Messiah. However, He tells
them to not give up and to watch on, being sure to watch the final minutes of
play.
All is done according to the Father’s will, v.31. Jesus will
end up giving His life for the Father’s will proving and showing this world His
love for the Father, and for us. As we will see in Gethsemane, even though
Jesus, when seeing the enormity of what is before Him will ask the Father if
there is not another solution to this problem, He will complete His mission
because the Father wills it. The world will see the love Jesus has for the
Father demonstrated on the Cross.
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