19. A False Contention

We must again recognize the fact that John’s gospel is filled with opposition and distress. This is the setting in which the words and actions of Jesus take place. We do not suggest that God placed evil into the setting in order to magnify the proof of Christ. Rather, we have posited that evil exists because God cannot sin; He cannot force His knowledge on anyone.

Humans are designed to be filled with God. Not being filled with God in knowledge means being filled with everything not-God in fantasy. Jesus comes to us where we are, and His salvation fits our desperate need.

Jesus’ Entrance. More than that, God seen and known inside His creation is no small or simple thing. God is meek and lowly of Heart, and He sees others as better. In every instance Jesus enters our world inside of complete weakness, inwardly in “Of Myself I can do nothing,” and outwardly by many convincing proofs. And in every instance Jesus enters our world against overwhelming opposition.

A human infant is about the weakest of all things born in the natural world. Then, in great horror, all the baby boys born around Jesus were hacked apart in the hopes of catching Him in the slaughter. And that’s just for starters.

A Donkey Colt? God is known through weakness. Salvation takes place in the midst of overwhelming distress of soul. Why did Jesus ride into Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey hardly big enough to carry Him? This is the one Old Testament prophecy that Jesus deliberately fulfilled. “Behold your KING comes to you” – in weakness. – “He who sees Me sees the Father.”

But it was Jesus’ disciples who made Jesus’ inability to accomplish anything the most personal. For three-and-a-half years Jesus gave of Himself to these men. They loved Him, yes, but they just didn’t get it.

Two Jobs to Do. Jesus had two jobs to do during the time of His ministry. The first was to prepare Himself for the Atonement, that is, for the fulfillment of Passover. And the second was to prepare a people for the Day of Pentecost.

Jesus did not look for fruit out from His disciples, for, as humans, they were as incapable as He was. Rather, He set His focus on that moment when He would enter into them by His out-poured Spirit. When that happened, however, when these men would be overflowing with Spirit power, that Spirit would need WORD found planted inside their hearts.

Jesus’ Primary Concern. Here is Jesus’ great concern – from John 17. I made Your name clear and visible to the men whom You have given me out of the world. They were Yours in the first place, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept, watched over, and guarded Your word. Now they have known that all things You have given Me are inside of Your presence; for the words that You have given Me I have given them, and they received and seized hold of those words and knew truly that I came from Your presence; and they believed that you sent Me.

Jesus was speaking through faith. These men believed Him, yes, but it did not always look like they did.

A Narrow, Narrow Door. Keep this in mind as well, that, according to Paul in Galatians, even John, the one who later wrote these wondrous things, had little knowledge of Jesus inside of us while Paul was still alive. The majority of Jesus’ disciples never did understand or teach Paul’s gospel. The Doorway of the knowledge of God into creation is very, very narrow.

Now, the critical importance of Psalm 22 increases for us. You see, God wants us to KNOW what’s going on inside of this Man who is saving us, inside His soul.

The Upper Room. The “last supper” in the upper room probably took place after six in the evening, that is, after the start of a new day. As they enter the upper room, it is less than 21 hours before Jesus’ will be dead. He knows this full well. Jesus knows that He will accomplish all Salvation within 21 hours. He also knows the fulfillment of “Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.” He knows they will all run and hide.

But consider the disciples climbing the stairs on the outside of the house and filing through the door into the room. Then consider what Jesus sees as He Himself enters.

The Contention. It is only Luke who records the conduct of the disciples. Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest (Luke 22:24). This is the second picture I retained from reading Alfred Edersheim’s The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.

We know that this contention took place upon their entrance into the room BECAUSE the context clues given by John allow us to ascertain the seating arrangement and the seating arrangement shows the outcome of this dispute. Here is the shape of the table. It was low for there were no chairs and they “reclined.”

The Seating Arrangement. Let’s make that a little bigger and place who sat where.
 

The rest of the disciples were spread between Judas and Peter. You see, we know that Peter was straight across from John and that John was right next to Jesus, “leaning his head against Jesus’ breast.” Yet Peter is seated at the “lowest place,” and Judas at the “highest,” with Jesus at Judas’s right hand.

Pushing and Hollering. As the disciples entered the room, they knew they were going to eat the Passover meal at the table together. This argument, then, was over who got the highest place at the table, that is, who would be “greatest.” Judas and Peter were both outspoken and assertive young men. At this moment in the history of mankind, being the top dude at the table was of utmost importance to both. This kind of dispute cannot be a quiet one, and so we assume that Judas and Peter were pushing and hollering at each other to the embarrassment of many of the others. This, after all these years with a meek and lowly Man.

Arrogance and Contempt. Then, when Jesus rebuked them, Peter must have thought, “Ha, I’ll take the lowest place, that way I will be the ‘greatest’, as Jesus said.” And when Peter ran to seize the “lowest” place, Judas would have triumphantly secured the “highest” for himself.

Consider the contrast. On the one hand is the Word through whom all things become, the Word sustaining the entirety of creation with power – who demonstrates before them that of Himself He can do nothing, keeping Himself always in the presence of God “with strong crying and tears.” – versus – foolish young men fighting out from arrogance and contempt over who will be outwardly “on top.”

The Events of the Evening. I am convinced that God is showing us the narrow and pressed-in Way of Life, the one place alone where Atonement can take place.

We have a problem, then, with arranging the events of the evening because the four accounts order things differently. John is the only one who included Jesus’ washing the disciple’s feet, and he did not include the bread and wine of the communion. Piecing together the four accounts, seems to show us this arrangement. (1) The communion cup and bread. (2) Foot washing. (3) Judas goes. (4) John 14 and on.

Jesus’ Washing Their Feet. This is a study of John, however, and so we will skip over the communion and look at Jesus washing their feet.

They had finished eating, and so we assume that the communion has taken place. Jesus rose, took off His robe and put a towel around His waist. Then, likely starting with John, Jesus proceeded around the table with a basin of water, doing that which only the lowest servants were required to do, washing dirty feet. This meant that Jesus washed Judas’s feet second and Peter’s last. Even though many protested, they all submitted until Jesus got to Peter.

Peter Has to Fail. Peter has a true heart, yes, and Jesus knows that. The important thing is that Peter does not know it at all. And because he does not know that his heart is true, he pretends with more fervor than any of the others.  

Jesus knows that He will rely on Peter’s outward strength through the early years of His Church, and so He knows that Peter’s self-exaltation must be shattered. Because we understand Adam and that all humans make Adam’s same choice for the exact same reasons, we also understand Jesus’ intentions towards Peter. Peter HAS TO FAIL – and he must do so spectacularly.

Pressing Peter. He came next to Simon Peter, who said to Him, “Lord, You wash my feet?” Jesus said to him, “What I do you do not consider at present, but you will know later on.” Peter said to Him, “No! You will not wash my feet even into the age.” Jesus answered Him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part shared with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed has no such need except to wash the feet, but is wholly and entirely CLEAN.

Peter just doesn’t get it; something far more drastic is needed.

Footwashing. I have known footwashing only in the Mennonite church, just a few times, and at Blueberry. We had a footwashing service one time at Blueberry, in my early years there. I remember John Austin and Victor Raja washing my feet, and I washed Brian Dwyer’s feet.

The teaching in the move was that we are cleansed by Jesus, but that our walk still needed help. And so footwashing was interpreted as the practice of pointing out to one another what things we did that were of the flesh in our walk. The problem is that if you give the flesh one tiny bit, it will take all, and the purity of Christ Jesus vanishes slowly away.

The Humility of Christ. I interpret this action of Jesus a bit differently for us. This is an action of faith towards your brother and sister. They are CLEAN of all unrighteousness. Consider this absolute word. – And the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin [all missing of the target] (1 John 1:7).

I am in a situation where a brother is treating me completely wrong, out from self-righteous pretending and with great disrespect. Yet he cannot see that, neither will he allow me to share with him what he is actually doing. Washing this brother’s feet takes all the humility of Christ I have known, yet I can’t complete it without his permission.

The Way of Weakness. When we say “no consciousness of sins,” we are saying that against the outward actions of offensiveness and hurt towards ourselves. This is the way of great weakness, a way that interests so very, very few.

To wash my brother’s feet is for me to see my brother as CLEAN in spite of the manipulation and bullying. Why on earth would I do such a thing? Because if I do not, I have no part shared with Jesus. I know that. You see, it took God twenty-three years to bring me to the utter depths of knowing that I CANNOT please God.

“Share with Me.” The Lord Jesus speaks inside of me through the gospel over and over, “Share with Me in My Salvation – for the sake of others, and even for these.”

And so Jesus set Peter up. – Peter said to Him, “Lord, why am I not able to accompany you presently? I will set forth my soul for your sake.” Jesus answered, “Will you set forth your soul for Me? Let it be so, it is so, as I say to you, the rooster will not crow before you have denied and repudiated Me three times.”

I want to look briefly at the outcomes for these two men, Judas and Peter. We know it now, but at the time no one knew how it would turn out for either.

Their Choices. I see little difference between Judas’s betrayal and Peter’s denial because any “differences” are meaningless. – All have sinned – that all might be guilty. The difference showed itself only in what they did afterwards. Judas chose the ultimate self-exaltation, which is self-murder, whereas Peter allowed his humiliation to run its full course.

I have watched so many hold tightly to “I am right,” and so few willing to actually say, “I was wrong,” not for self-abasement but for friendship.

Let’s assume that this is now nine or so in the evening. All these things will play out within the next 24 hours.

The Future of the Church. What would have happened to the Church if Peter had not denied Jesus so abysmally? If he had not made himself an absolute fool and a disloyal follower?

When Paul confronted Peter in Antioch over the truth of the gospel, over Galatians 2:20 and our precious union with Christ, would Peter have struggled with Paul over who is greatest in the kingdom, just like he did with Judas? Would Peter have destroyed the Church as so many do?

I have no doubt that in that moment of embarrassment before the whole Church at Antioch, Peter remembered. I have no doubt that Peter humbled himself.

The Place of Salvation. Our purpose in this study is to understand the PLACE of the Salvation of God. And when we say “the Place of Salvation,” we are also saying “the Door through which God enters our world.” That Place is found inside of Jesus’ soul as He was pushed, stumbling forward, through a way He could not go.

Jesus is a human, just like us, though He now exists in the form of God, all here now and personal in each of us, that is, as a life-giving Spirit. And just as it would have done to us, all this contention coming from these men weighed heavily upon Jesus.

Agony. It is fewer than six hours prior to Gethsemane, when the agony became utterly overwhelming for Jesus. All the swirl of contradiction, all the distress of heart, all the outward appearance of failure, all the betraying and denying and running away, all this trouble is pressing hard against Jesus and against His emotions. We know that the agony lessened as He rose to His feet in Gethsemane, but we also know, from David, that it all came back even worse the second three hours on the cross.

Here is what we must know. – Our Salvation takes place inside the hurting agony of a confused human Soul.

The Salvation of God. I am writing of this same thing right now in Symmorphy VI: Mankind. Let me state my premise directly.

The Salvation of God happens only inside of the confusion of the human soul, inside of utter human failure, inside of all agony and hurt. And there inside that piercingly personal place, Jesus chooses Father with Himself, in spite of feeling utterly forsaken, and He chooses us with Himself in spite of how offensive we are to Him, and there, inside that agony, inside His Heart, He joins us together with the Father.

Damnation versus Salvation. Adam chose, “I can do everything I want of myself and for my own purposes.” Jesus chose, “Of Myself I can do nothing at all; I cannot even convince these men who are with Me of the truth. Yet I am here for the Father’s purposes, and I count every step to be out from Him.” The first is total damnation for all. The second is total Salvation for all.

Then, when John says, “And we also,” we know that humbling ourselves before one another is not something “we must do,” but rather, the entrance of God into our world.

Whipping God. The entirety of Nicene Christianity argues that God was in the hands of the Roman soldiers punishing Jesus for our sins, that this appeasement by murder was our salvation. I argue that the Roman soldiers represent all humans, including us, punishing God for revealing Himself through our human weakness and our mundane lives.

When God put the seed of “Give thanks” inside of me at age 15, His intention was that by that seed, fifty years later, I would have ceased whipping God by hating my frame and the circumstances of my life. Every pain in my life was the pain of my whipping of God. Only Jesus carrying me could enable me to stumble with Him INTO Life – that is, God known through me.

Look at This Man! I do not fully understand why God requires utter weakness as the Place of All-Salvation, as the bold Report of “He who sees Me sees the Father.” Yet everything I teach and every way in which I know God my Father is based on this one premise.

LOOK AT THAT MAN. You are looking at God – AS HE IS.

God – inside of Christ
reconciling the world to Himself.

And we also.











Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is focused on the first part of John 14:20, “I Live inside of Jesus.” Read all of Chapters 14-16. Here is the first thing on that page. – The primary topics that are found in John 14-17 and 20 are woven together throughout each of the five chapters. For that reason, the statements of faith found inside each of these next twelve pages are drawn from all five chapters, according to heading and not limited to the enclosed passage as has been the usual case.

Now we arrive at the most exciting part of the gospel – In that day you shall know that I am inside of the Father and you inside of Me and I inside of you.

Let’s Pray Together. Our prayer this time is metamorphy, our response over time towards Jesus in all that He transfers of Himself to us.

“Lord Jesus, we know that You walked in weakness through all the time of Your showing us the Father. We know that You could do nothing of Your human self; we know that You humbled Yourself for the sake of others, not just through the walk of the atonement, but through all Your days. And Lord Jesus, we know that our Father made us just like You, not only to walk in weakness, never trusting in ourselves, but always in God, but also to share all with You for the sake of others.

“Lord Jesus, we ask of You that when we are hurt by the actions of others, when we feel as if we are betrayed, when we see that our words are misunderstood, when we experience manipulation and abuse at the hands of others, we ask that You would keep Yourself ever before our eyes, that we are just like You in all that we endure, that You bore these same things as well that Father might be known.

“Lord Jesus, we know that You have made us every whit clean. We ask also that You would cause us to share Your heart for the sake of others, that even those who offend us might be joined with the Father inside our souls. Lord Jesus, we give You thanks that we are like You in all ways; we know that the Father shares our lives with us.”