Say What?

In the weeks leading up to Easter, we are going to look at the final conversation that Jesus had with His closest followers before His death, which are recorded for us in an account of Jesus life in our Bibles called the gospel of John. Yesterday, we talked about the reality that the first thing that Jesus did as He began sharing His message and teachings was to choose twelve men to be His disciples. And the twelve left family and friends; the twelve left their careers and followed Jesus in order to know what Jesus knew and to do what Jesus was doing.

For three years the disciples followed Jesus and as Jesus popularity grew, there were those who began to oppose Jesus. As Jesus achieved rock star status, there were those who became jealous and threatened by His popularity. And as the twelve disciples followed Jesus, they believed that they were following the Messiah. And after following Jesus for three years, Jesus and His disciples entered into Jerusalem at the height of His popularity and in the midst of increased opposition, during the week leading up to the Passover.

And as Jesus, a descendant of King David, entered into Jerusalem, from the disciple’s perspective, that this could be the time. This could be the time that their leader, who they believed was the Messiah, would bring God’s kingdom to earth. Things seemed to be lining up. Jesus had been fulfilling things that the prophets had predicted. There were miracles; healings; Jesus had even raised a man named Lazarus from the dead.

But then things got weird. As Jesus and the disciples sat down to celebrate the Passover meal, Jesus proclaimed, out of the blue, that one of them was going to betray Him. Then Judas, one of the disciples, had this weird conversation with Jesus and got up and left in the middle of the celebration. And if that was not confusing enough, as they began to celebrate the Passover meal, Jesus did not follow the script. Instead, Jesus took the unleavened bread and said “this is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me”.

Then Jesus took the wine and went off the script again. Jesus made an incredibly strange statement: "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." To which the disciples probably thought to themselves “what is Jesus doing?” What does all this mean?” And it is in this context that Jesus begins His final conversation with His closest followers. A conversation that begins in John 13:31. Let’s look at it together:

Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.

Now this morning, imagine yourself as one of the twelve disciples. Place yourself in the room. You watch Judas get up and leave in the middle of the Passover celebration. And then, after Judas leaves, Jesus changes the script of the Passover meal that you had celebrated since you can remember. Then Jesus says "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.” What would you be thinking? What questions would be running through your mind?

If you have grown up in church or have attended church before, or even if you are here and you are not sure that you buy the whole Jesus, Bible, church thing, you are at least somewhat familiar with the story of Jesus. But the disciples here are in the middle of the story; they do not know how the story ends.

I don’t know about you, but a natural question that arises here is “why is Jesus talking in the third person here? Why is Jesus referring to Himself as the Son of Man? What is that all about? When Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man, Jesus is using the phrase to identify Himself with the promised Messiah that was predicted and proclaimed in Daniel 7:13. While the disciples were very familiar with Daniel what 7:13 said, many of us today are not familiar with what Daniel 7:13 says. So here is what Daniel, over 500 years before the birth of Jesus, said about the Messiah:

"I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.

So when Jesus says that He is the Son of Man, He is identifying Himself as the Messiah that had come from God as God in a bod to usher in the kingdom of Heaven here on earth. Jesus was proclaiming that now, as Judas had left, that events were now being brought into motion that would cause Jesus to be seen in His splendid greatness and would cause God to be seen in His splendid greatness through what Jesus was about to do.

And what Jesus was about to do that would cause this glory, this splendid greatness that would make much of Jesus and would make much of God through Jesus, was happening immediately. What was going to go down through Jesus as the Messiah was going to go down now. So, as far as the disciples are concerned, Jesus is going to kick the Romans out and bring the Jewish people back to power and prominence in the world. That is until Jesus says the following John 13:33:

 "Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.'

Now you are one of the disciples. You have heard your whole life that there was going to be a Messiah who would come to bring the Jewish people back to God and back to prominence in the world. Then Jesus shows up and asks you to follow Him as His disciple. And there is something about Jesus that causes you to leave everything to follow Him.

So you leave everything, family, friends, career, and you follow Jesus. You see Jesus do the miraculous. You hear Jesus teach amazing things about God. You hear Jesus call God His Father and claim that He was equal to God. You hear Jesus proclaim that He was the Messiah. And you believe it. You are willing to go all the way with Jesus as He delivers the Jewish people from the Roman Empire and brings God’s kingdom here on earth.

And then Jesus, at the very time when the Jewish people were celebrating God’s past deliverance from an evil nation; at the very moment that you think He is going to kick out the Romans, Jesus turns to you and basically says “I love you guys, you are my spiritual children, but I am only here for a little while and then I am out of here. And while you are going to look for Me, just like I said to the self righteous religious people who oppose Me, I say to you guys as well, you can’t follow Me where I am going. I am leaving and you cannot follow”.

How would you respond? What would you be thinking and feeling? What words would describe what would be happening in you as a disciple? Confused. Frustrated. Betrayed. Hurt. Rejected. “What! What do you mean that we cannot follow you? We left everything to follow you. We leveraged everything to follow you.” And it is in this context that we see Jesus make an amazing statement that reveals for us a timeless truth about how we are to live our lives as followers of Jesus.

Friday, we will look at this statement…