[When Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, the people rejected his teaching, and] they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come. Still, many in the crowd put their faith in him. They said, “When the Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs than this man?” John 7:30-31
Have you ever tried to catch a crayfish (or crawfish or crawdad, depending on where you grew up)? When I was younger, our Methodist church would celebrate summer every year with a big chicken BBQ, which is something very common in the Northeast (especially in New York, where we have a special recipe for a vinegar-based marinade from Cornell). What does that have to do with crayfish? Well, as kids, we didn’t really care about the chicken BBQ. We were most interested in going to the river next to the fire hall that hosted the BBQ, to spend most of the day catching dozens of crayfish and putting them in buckets. It was always a competition to see who could find AND CATCH the biggest one or the most number. At the end of the day, we failed to catch more than we caught, and we let them all go, anyway. Catching crayfish is such a challenge because they’re fast, they pinch (OUCH!), and they know where to hide and how to escape from the grasp of a 12 year old with grubby hands.
In our verse for today, Jesus eluded the crowd one day, as they were trying to seize him. The gospel writer isn’t clear about the crowd’s intentions or plan if they had actually laid hands on Jesus. In the end, Jesus eluded the would-be assailants better than a crawdad darting downriver away from a kid. Because Jesus’ time had not yet come (meaning it wasn’t time to be seized, tortured, and murdered for our sins and be resurrection to new life for our everlasting life), he simply walked away from this crowd to continue his earthly ministry of teaching, healing, and showing people the Kingdom of God. However, despite the crowd’s desire to stop Jesus, there were some (many) who put their faith in him. Now, those who put their faith in him may have also wanted to place their hands on him, but in a different way. They, by faith, may have wanted to touch him for healing, or invite him over for a BBQ, or to catch crawfish. They were amazed at what they were hearing and seeing, and wondered if anyone could do greater things than Jesus did. The question they asked was not skeptical, but filled with wonder.
We live in a world that wants to seize, tear down, and silence Jesus and his followers. The blatant pagan display from the Olympic Open Ceremonies aside (that’s just a symptom – you can read about there here in a great article by my friend David Watson), the world does not want to hear about the self-sacrificing love of God offered to all through Jesus Christ. Discipleship, while free, is costly. In fact, it’ll demand everything you have and are. Yet, Jesus frees us from our sin and shame to build the Kingdom of God in a world that will someday come to know the truth. Philippians 2 reminds us that every knee WILL bow and every tongue WILL confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (paraphrase mine).
Jesus may be elusive to those who want nothing more than to silence and subject the gospel to the norms of this broken world. Yet, miraculously, Jesus walks into your life and invites you to embrace him fully, and be transformed into his image (sanctification). Don’t be elusive to Jesus. Don’t let the world’s hatred for Jesus deter you, since Jesus himself said the world will hate you because of Him. Show the next person you meet, Christian or not, the all-consuming love of Christ. Then, take some time to wonder at the world around you that God created. Maybe even catch a crayfish or two with Him!
~Steve
