Becoming the Other
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jeremy_2_08-21-2025_110623: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith.
These are 10 minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts, and we are continuing in John at chapter seven. Last week we looked at Jesus stand up at the climax of this festival where they're pouring water on the altar, and he says, come to me.
If you're thirsty, and he redirects everyone away from all of the religion in front of them to himself.
And as you can imagine, that's gonna create a ripple effect that's gonna have some reaction to it. And so if you miss the story, you can catch that on last week's episode. But today we're going to see the fallout.
We're going to see what happens next. This is John chapter seven, beginning in verse 40. When the crowds heard him say this, some of them declared, surely this man is the prophet. We've been expecting. Others said he is the Messiah. Still others said, but he can't [00:01:00] be. Will the Messiah come from Galilee? For the scriptures clearly state that the Messiah will be born of the Royal lion of David in Bethlehem, the village where King David was born.
So the crowd was divided about him. Some even wanted him arrested, but no one laid a hand on him. Now, I've heard people say that if we could just see Jesus clearly, if we could just see Jesus today, then everybody would agree all of our problems would be solved. And it sounds nice. It's a nice sentiment.
However, as we see here, Jesus has always. Produced a variety of reactions, right? When people see Jesus, there are often a variety of responses that come with that. I'm reminded of this every single week. Whenever I post a clip from these episodes to social media, I get all kinds of responses. Some people are [00:02:00] like, yes, this is amazing.
Other people are like, I can't believe you still believe in fairytales. Other people like you're a heretic. You're not preaching it the right way. I mean, just all kinds of responses. And we see that's what Jesus has always produced. This is nothing new. We continue to see it today. We have so many different ideas about Jesus.
So when we say Jesus, we don't, all imagine the same thing. And sometimes when someone will say to like, well, I don't believe in Jesus. I might ask him, which Jesus don't you believe in?
Because even Christians don't have the same view of Jesus, and we see that happening in this story. Then we keep reading in verse 45, when the Temple guards returned without having arrested Jesus. That was their goal. The leading priest and the Pharisees demanded.
Why didn't you bring him in? Well, we have never heard anyone speak like this. The courts responded. Have you been led astray to the [00:03:00] Pharisees mocked? Is there a single one of us rulers or Pharisees who believes in him? The foolish crowd follows him, but they're ignorant of the law. God's curse is on them.
Verse 50, then Nicodemus, the return of Nicodemus. Then Nicodemus, the leader who had met with Jesus earlier, spoke up. Is it legal to convict a man before he is given a hearing? He asked. They replied, are you from Galilee? Two, search the scriptures and see for yourself. No prophet ever comes from Galilee, and the meeting broke up and everyone went home.
There's almost a comical moment here. This is like something you would see in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, right? Where the guards are sent to go capture someone and they come back without the person, Hey, you had one job to do. What happened here? How did you not get this job done? And we see they're like, I, we actually like him.
Like we kind of agreed with some of the things. That [00:04:00] he was saying. We also see the return of Nicodemus. We previously saw Nicodemus come to Jesus in the cover of night. He didn't want anyone to know that he was interested. He was intrigued by Jesus. But notice now Nicodemus is challenging his peers openly in the daylight and this comes right after they say, does any one of us agree with this? And Nicodemus is like, Hey, I see something. I think we need to rethink this. Now notice the response that Nicodemus gets Versely two. They say, are you from Galilee too?
Which was their joke about Jesus, like, oh, he is from Galilee. This guy can't be the Messiah. The moment Nicodemus speaks up, notice they say, oh. Are you from Galilee? Two. You must be just like him if you're willing to defend him. And here we see what happens when we speak truth to power. This is something powerful that [00:05:00] continues to play out today.
My friend Andrew Decort has written it like this. When you love the other, you often become the other. and this is what we're seeing play out. When, whenever we speak up on behalf of someone else, we often will get treated the way that person or that group of people is being treated. However people treat them, is how they're going to treat us.
The moment we say, Hey, I need to speak up here. I need to challenge what's going on here. This is what happens if you speak up for women's rights. This happens if you speak up about gay rights, or more recently for Palestinians.
If you speak up for them, you will start to face the backlash and it's a fraction of what they're facing, but you will notice a very extreme backlash one of the people that I've been just so incredibly. Encouraged by and just [00:06:00] admire is Miss Rachel. And I don't know if you followed her.
She has this kids program, started as this very simple idea for her, her kids, and turned into this show. And this thing has grown and grown, but what she's making headlines for these days is not just how good her show is, but it's that she's using her voice to speak up for Palestinian children who are literally dying.
In our midst, check out this video.
She's a preschool teacher to millions of children, though most of her students have never set foot in her classroom. Rachel aso known to the world as Miss Rachel is the creator of the wildly popular YouTube series songs for Littles. That's a lifeline for parents, but she's been making headlines and facing scrutiny for taking a stand on her social media platforms on current events.
And there has been backlash, as you well know this past spring, the pro-ISIS Israel. It's called Stop Antisemitism. They published an open letter calling on the attorney [00:07:00] general Pam Bondy, to investigate whether you were acting as a foreign agent who was being paid.
This is a quote to disseminate Hamas aligned propaganda to her millions of followers. What is your response to that and how have you been navigating the criticism? I think it's sad to take someone's. Dedication and love for all children and try and make that wrong. It's not wrong. It's wonderful to be an advocate for all children and deeply caring for a group of children who are in an emergency situation who are starving.
Doesn't mean you don't care equally about all children. That's false and it's painful, but no amount of pain is going to compare to what people in Gaza are going through.
They're so dehumanized. They, we've, people have made up stories about them and it's, it's an excuse to, to conduct a genocide.
I just wish people could, I [00:08:00] wish leaders would hear their voices and sit with Raja and her mom and see that RAHA doesn't have legs anymore. And this girl is so bright and every 3-year-old I've worked with across all communities, they're, they're all different and unique and beautiful, but they're all the same.
And. To look at her and for people to think that it doesn't matter that they're the largest cohort of amputees in history. It doesn't matter that 18,000 children have been killed. It doesn't matter that there's that new acronym. Wounded Child, no Surviving Family. Like It matters.
jeremy_2_08-21-2025_110623: So who do we need to speak up for today? Who do we need to use our voice for today and say, yeah, I might get treated in a negative way for this, but this is what it looks like to use my voice. See, the story in John seven is filled with us versus them thinking. There isn't us that clearly draws a line, [00:09:00] and so the religious leaders are mad that the guards are sympathetic to Jesus and they don't arrest him.
Then they're mad that Nicodemus, one of them, has the audacity to suggest that maybe what they're doing and how they're responding to Jesus isn't right. See, they've drawn a clear line in the sand and they don't want anyone to cross that line. But love will always cause you to cross that line.
Whenever someone has created an us versus them line in the sand, love is the invitation that will invite you to step across and be willing to receive whatever comes. Whatever you get as a result of that love is what makes that worth it. And so my question for each of us today is who is a them? That you can join together with to create an us.
I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
