What if the Pharisees Believed?

John 10 – 12

Verse 10:11 foreshadows what Jesus’ purpose is:

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep in His care.

He did just that and laid down His life so all humanity could live through Him! He was using the analogy of the time to ensure the impact was understood. For those who have lost a pet, we understand how diligently we hunt for them. Now would we die for Fido? If we had to think about it, no, but in the moment I don’t think we would consider our safety to protect our pets.

Now apply this to our children and you get the picture. If you stood before a killer holding your child, I can guarantee the last thing on anyone’s mind is saving their skin over their child’s. Even if little Joey does not think this, it’s embedded in our “parental” DNA and will never change. Once we understand God’s love is like that we can snuggle into His arms today!

Verse 11:48 looks very familiar:

If we don’t stop this now, every man, woman, and child will believe in Him. You know what will happen next? The Romans will think He’s mounting a revolution and will destroy our temple. It will be the end of our nation.

This is a bit of a stretch, but follow me and you will understand, I hope. This was the same mentality of the Jews before entering in the Promised Land. They did not think they could conquer the inhabitants in the land and did not have faith in God. This may actually be the same thing with Jesus. God may have intended to have Him deliver them from the control of Rome, but because they could not believe this they killed Jesus.

That lack of faith in God delivered all of mankind from the grip of sin. Think about it, Jesus may have been the mighty warrior they were getting to conquer Rome, but was not expected like David going against Goliath. The difference was David proved himself, Jesus was killed before He could. God made lemonade from those lemons. I know this is in NO WAY scripturally correct through the prophecies, but is used to illustrate a possibility. What if the Pharisees accepted Jesus and not killed Him?

Verse 12:24 gives another foreshadowing:

I tell you the truth: unless a grain of wheat is planted in the ground and dies, it remains a solitary seed. But when it is planted, it produces in death a great harvest.

Jesus is the grain whose death produced a great harvest of believers in God. Through this one obscure person from a remote place salvation has been won for billions! The key is not to rest on what satisfies us, but ensure all mankind has heard the Gospel of Jesus.

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