A little boy was lost during the Christmas shopping rush. He was standing in an aisle of the busy department store crying, "I want my mommy." People kept passing by, giving the unhappy youngster nickels and dimes.
Finally a security guy, a floorwalker, came over to him and said, "I know where your mommy is, son." The little boy looked up with his tear-drenched eyes and said, "So do I … just keep quiet!"
This little boy had a good thing going and didn’t want it messed up by the truth. He needed the security man to go along with him if he was going to keep on getting the nickels an dimes people were giving him. He needed a good man to keep quiet, to lie, so that his own lie would continue to profit him.
That sounds like the Jews who surrounded Jesus in the gospel lesson today. If you look at the gospel lesson you see that this group of Jewish leaders came to Jesus and they had a plan. Their plan, like that of the little boy in the department store was based on deception. It was based on a lie. They ask a seemingly innocent question. But they attach to that question a statement, a statement that leaves an important assumption unspoken.
Look at their question in verse 24 – what do they ask… How long will you keep us in suspense? Right, but then they go on to say, if you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Listen carefully. There’s something unspoken in that statement that’s important. What’s missing is this, if you are the Christ, as you claim to be, tell us plainly. That as you claim to be is significant. They really do know what Jesus claims, but they do not believe Him.
There’s a difference between knowledge and belief – Jesus had made it plain to them who He was… and they chose not to believe. It wasn’t that Jesus hadn’t told them or showed them. So this question and statement are a lie. Look at what He said, in verse 25, "The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep." It wasn’t that Jesus was being coy; it was that they didn’t wish to see it.
If you look back earlier in the book of John in chapter 5, after healing the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda Jesus made it clear that He was doing the work of His heavenly Father. Back then the Jews wanted to stone him because they knew, they knew… what He meant. They did know and understand that ‘He claimed’ to be the Christ of God.
Again in John 6 the Jews grumbled at Jesus when He said He was the bread of life sent down form heaven. They knew what He claimed in that statement; that He and the heavenly father are one and the same. And just before today’s chapter, Jesus was again confronted by the religious leaders regarding being children of Abraham. And there Jesus made it clear that before Abraham was, Jesus was.
When Jesus used the phrase in John 8:58, "before Abraham was born I am’, when He said that; they all clearly understood He was claiming to be equal with God. / And they resented Him for it. They knew that if they believed His claim, if they put their trust in His claim, they should be worshipping Him. But, like the little boy who wanted to keep the nickels and dimes coming in, they knew that if they trusted in Jesus, then their own power and prestige were gone. That was something they choose not to do. People today still want to go their own way and not follow Jesus.
These Jewish leaders wanted to tear this man down, so they were seeking a way to do so that would be publicly acceptable. If they could get Jesus to blaspheme according to their laws and customs, they would have Him trapped and could have Him killed. That was their intention at this point. That was why they were using a lie. By now it was too late for anything to be done quietly and anonymously. Jesus was too well known and He commanded too much respect among people for anything to be done outside the public’s eye.
So they were trying to turn the people against Jesus, that’s one of the reasons to attack Him in this particular place, the court of the gentiles called Solomon’s colonnade. It was here that everyone had access and could come and go. Here is where the ‘public’ was. Anything that transpired in the court of the gentiles would be made known throughout the city and then out into the country side within days. By the way, public ‘spin’ is nothing new, only the speed of it.
If they could publicly ensnare Him in such a way that the public would be offended, then they could simply be doing what was in the public’s best interest / and kill Him. If they could succeed, then everyone would see it, approve of it, and even call for it. With their false question and accusation today, they were seeking insulation from public outcry against them, and to turn public outcry against Jesus.
And so that’s why, with their question and statement, they were lying. Flat out lying – Jesus had made it clear Who He is and they simply are lying as a pretext for their attempt to get that public outcry turned against Jesus as we just said. This is now moving into spiritual warfare territory. They are using the same tactics as Satan uses. They are using lies to confront the truth of Jesus and His word.
That still goes on today. People still lie to confront scripture. People use lies to distort God’s word; they lie to try and deceive God’s people as well as those who are innocent of scripture and what God says there. In the text the Jewish leaders use a lie in an attempt to confound Jesus into giving a bad sound bite.
The use of a lie is a tactic in this case. The thing is, the lie is not what’s important on one hand. What’s significant is using a lie in order to try and trip up someone. They haven’t been able to cause Jesus to embarrass Himself or to blaspheme or to commit any sort of public gaffe that can be used against Him by their use of anything resembling the truth.
The truth can’t be turned against Jesus, because He is the truth! So they turn to using lies and again, remember, this is a tactic. It’s a conscious choice. They are lying and they are lying with a purpose.
Some people are good at lying and can ‘get away with it’ at least for a time. But have you ever known anyone to use a lie and not eventually either tell someone about it or get tripped up in it on their own? Like in this story:
A Parisian weaver some years ago put out an "antique" tapestry for sale which was done so skillfully that even experts thought it genuine. The secret finally came out when his assistant exposed the whole thing. This is how it was done: using special threads, the tapestry was worn away by being dragged behind an automobile, it was given a musty odor by smoking, it was faded with ultraviolet rays and even deftly ingrained with centuries-old dust that had been collected from the crumbling rafters of a church! The tapestry had been sold for a record price. But did you notice that an assistant revealed the whole thing?
One way or another, a lie will be found out. And that’s because either someone isn’t good at it, in which case they shouldn’t try it or because of vanity, like in the story with the tapestry. They ‘got away with it’, but couldn’t keep their mouth shut about it. They were proud of their lie and deception.
We also see it a lot, it seems, in politics. Someone on one side makes an assertion that’s false but it’s done is such a way that the opposition is forced to respond to refute the lie. And in doing that, they get opened up to an attack on that given issue or topic. The important thing to note is that a lie is used as a tactic, just as here today in the gospel lesson. And like the supposedly lost little boy in our opening story.
We can never use lies as a tactic when giving out the gospel. Remember the truth can’t exist beside a lie. Satan is the father of lies, and Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. We can never water down or partially hide the radical nature of who Jesus is and what He has done.
He is both God and man – that is true. And that’s what the Jews objected to in today's gospel lesson. Jesus came to die and take the punishment for man’s sin. That is true. Jesus died on the cross to take that punishment and then He rose again in triumph and victory; all of which is true and should never be lied about.
But to know those things and to believe them is not the same thing. Jesus points that out. Look at verse 25 what does Jesus say there in the very first part of that verse, "I did tell you, but you do not believe." To know and to believe are not the same thing. They chose not to believe the truth about Jesus. And when you choose to use lies, as they did, getting to the truth just can’t happen. The truth is what the Spirit of God enables you to believe.
Before we close, remember, by the gift of faith which God's Holy Spirit gives you, you’re empowered to know the truth and to believe it. A person can know the truth and like the Jews in the gospel lesson today, chose to reject it. But, to believe it, that is a gift of God. Look again that the lesson today. In verse 29 it says, My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. It is by God's gift that we hear and believe the truth about Jesus.
He gives us the knowledge and the power through the Holy Spirit in our baptism to believe in Him. The Jewish leaders only knew about Him and they didn’t like what they knew. To believe in Him includes following Him, which again the Jews in the gospel lesson chose not to do. They chose lies instead.
Jesus says today that He is our shepherd and we follow His voice and His command. If we go astray that’s by our choice, just like those who chose the lies. They chose not to believe, though they understood the truth. They rejected the gift. But in Jesus’ arms, in the arms of the shepherd who calls us and makes us His own, in His arms we can know the truth and by His grace and power we can believe and place our trust in Him. He calls us and makes us His own through His word and baptism. Let’s close by reading His promise to us in verse 28 together 28I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. That is true, it’s His truth and by His grace we believe it. In His name, amen.