Ready:
"'Our father is Abraham,’” they replied. ‘If you were Abraham’s children’, Jesus told them, ‘you would do what Abraham did. But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You’re doing what your father does.’ ‘We weren’t born of sexual immorality,’ they said. ‘We have one Father- God.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn’t come on my own, but he sent me.’” – John 8:39-42
Set:
Has an opposing player ever said something hurtful to you in passing and you weren’t able to forget it? Maybe something about the way you look, how you play, a comment about your family cheering you on. Those words wound us and can go down to the deepest parts of our souls.
Who dealt with this more than Jesus, the Son of God? Could you imagine Jesus growing up as a teenager? How many times did people whisper about Him as He walked to temple or to school? “He claims His father is God. He’s delusional!” Adults can be brutal but imagine His peers using Him as the butt of their jokes; His origin story as the target of their insults. How do you think Jesus handled this? I’d say just as He handled it when He was much older: He considered the source.
When the Jews said, “We weren’t born of sexual immorality,” they threw a deep cut into Jesus and His birth. It was almost as if they were saying, “You say you were born of a virgin, but we know she was an adulterer.” Imagine how many times He was teased about how He came into this world. How many times He was challenged by those around Him. How many times He defended His mother and her purity in His birth. How hard that must’ve been for Him. How much restraint He learned to have, living in the same flesh we live in. And yet He rose to the occasion. He allowed all the pressure, all the struggle, all the difficulty to build His earthly character.
They were speaking against His identity and what did He do? He considered the source and lined it up with the truth. He checked the jersey and kept on playing. They claimed their Father was God, but Jesus knew that if that was the truth, they would love Him because God is the One who sent Him. If they were on the same team, they’d have the same jersey. Jesus knew His identity; He knew His team and He knew the truth. He wasn’t surprised when opposition came. He was prepared for it.
Go:
How can an intentional time of considering the source help you today?
What truth in God’s Word can you line your hurt up with?
Workout:
Overtime:
"Dear Heavenly Father, I praise you that Your Word is Truth. Please help me to look within my heart at the hurtful words I’ve held onto from those who oppose me and line them up with Your Truth. Help me to be prepared for the words of the opposition and if the jersey is Yours and their word lines up with your Truth, please mold my heart into a humble one to receive necessary correction. Thank you for being the Truth. In Jesus’ name, amen."