John 18:19-21

The hight priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.  Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world.  I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together.  I have said nothing in secret.  Why do you ask me?  Ask those who have heard me what I said to them; they know what I said.”

Thus begins the confrontation between our Lord and the powers of the earth.  We see both his openness and their duplicity.  The high priest isn’t interested in the truth.  The whole proceeding is a sham of epic proportions.  They had decided that Jesus must die after He raised Lazarus from the dead.  Imagine that!  Their hearts of stone and utter blackness were driven to murder when they learned that He had brought a dead man out of the tomb.

Jesus, interestingly, doesn’t mention this to them.  He says, basically, “you hypocrites know well what I’ve been saying all this time…you’ve been spying and plotting and now here we are.” He refuses to go along with their sad, evil charade.  In effect, Jesus refuses to engage in their twisted political game of gotcha.  He points out that He has lived, taught and spoken freely before all men.  He’s never been duplicitous or manipulative.  That is the world these men know.  They know the world of politics, pull, and favors; they don’t know of righteousness and truth.  Here they have Him – who is righteousness and truth – in the flesh and they aren’t looking to learn from Him.  They want Him dead.  

And, again, these are the men that know of Jesus’ miracles.  This drivel about things He said (which they also know) is so much bluster and smoke.  He has power over death, and blindness, and disease, and the elements, and demons.  Their pomposity and pride is astonishing.  If they had any truth in them, they wouldn’t be examining Him for error but themselves.  

This is the nature of sinful men before the holy God.  They simply repress the blatantly obvious.  The Psalmist tells us that “the heavens declare the glory of God.”  They don’t suggest, or hint, or intimate – they state the facts plainly.  God is obvious and nature is into declarations rather than clues.  But sinful man finds devious ways to avoid the obvious.  He uses pious language to push God away like Ahaz when God hands him a blank check in Isaiah 7.  “Go ahead,” God tells the King of Judah, “ask me anything high or low as a sign and I’ll do it.”  But Ahaz replies, “I will not put God to the test.”  Oh, how he dresses his rejection in apparent piety and humility.  Ahaz, like the chief priest and the Pharisees, knows the words of Scripture but not the God of them.  If he did, he never would have rejected the Almighty under the guise of not testing Him – as if God doesn’t know his petty motives.  

Rebels, sinners and the hard-hearted throw up their objections and they dare question the sovereign God in the face of overwhelming evidence.  Instead of being humbled before Him, sinful man thinks he can stand in judgment of Him.  This is the case in our present evil age.  Politicians, academics, and everyday men and women sling their little arrows at the King of the universe and think they sound wise.  The Bible, the true church and nature all declare God to them – they speak openly everyday and men refuse to hear them due to the hardness of their heart, not because of a deficit of intellect.  Like the chief priest who knew of Lazarus’ raising and so many other signs, the issue isn’t evidence and logic – it’s the hatred of God and the wanting to be in judgement of Him.  

Well, in this present evil age, God gives them that chance.  He lets them judge…for now.  

This is the lesson for us as always.  Vengeance is God’s, of course.  That He didn’t usher in the final judgment during his incarnation means exactly that we shouldn’t try it on our own.  We should live before the world openly, confessing Christ and sharing His good news of God’s grace to the repentant.  Beyond that, in the area of schemes and political alliances, let us have none.  Let us be like sheep to be slaughtered for the sake of the gospel – just like our Lord.  He is the only one we seek to please, not men or governments.  And we can relax in such worldly efforts because, as we see here and all throughout Scripture, sinners are not won to Christ by crafty marketing and arguments; they are won by the Spirit of God using the Word of God.  

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the Good News!  Blessed are the peacemakers (the gospel preachers) who tell the world of their sin and of God’s grace in Christ.  

If we live like such before the world, we can stand as Jesus did on that day and speak as He did too, not with “winks and signals” and “crooked speech” (Proverbs 6:13) but with truth and openness.  So, we live plainly.  Christians, like their Lord, don’t worry about political alliances, office politics, and the manipulation of those around them.  No.  Christians love the Lord and seek His good pleasure and will in everything.