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12 friends have opened a study shared with them.
I spent the morning talking to a skeptic. A friend and I answered question after question and presented layer upon layer of evidence. Eventually, he told us that no matter how strong the case was, he didn't think the eyewitness testimony about Jesus would lead him to the truth.
Read John 12:37-50
Isaiah walked into the Temple and it shook with the glory of God. Smoke snuffed out sight. He wailed, "I'm ruined!" In the presence of God's glory, he disowned his own glory. Seeing God, he volunteered to be sent by him: "Lord, here am I. Send me." The glory of God has returned to the Temple. Lazarus is walking around in the daylight, visible to the restored eyes of a formerly blind man. But Isaiah's prophetic heirs cannot see him. Instead of saying "Woe is me," they cursed Jesus. Some claim to believe. Jesus sifts their belief by the cost they pay. They saw what Isaiah did: their peers had blinded eyes and hardened hearts. If they told others what they saw in Jesus, they knew they'd be thrown out of the synagogue and lose their livelihoods. They traded the glory Isaiah saw for a cheap replica: the praise of their peers. In college, a friend told me they wished they could see what Isaiah saw. I agreed. Wouldn't that be awesome? We never realized we just needed to look at Jesus. We certainly didn't think about surrendering our lives to God's mission. We wanted the spectacle without the sacrifice. I often feared that maybe Jesus would send me to Siberia. Now, I think that was too innocent. Jesus didn't ruin Isaiah, and he doesn't plan to ruin us, either. He gave his life so that we could have his life, now and forever. He didn't intend to offer himself in vain. He isn't looking to judge us. Jesus is holding up a mirror: "I don't judge you, but do you judge me?" The judgment we make about Jesus will be what sentences us. Our unwillingness to believe can start with a mild indecision that seems reasonable. But unbelief sours quickly, and eventually we become unable to believe. After Isaiah made his confession of faith, the seraphim announced to Isaiah, "Your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for." Six hundred years later, Jesus makes the same offer to his contemporaries, and now, to us. It's his final words to the crowd. He won't speak to them again until he's lifted high on the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Isaiah saw God's glory and said, 'I'm ruined.' The leaders saw Jesus raise Lazarus and wanted him dead. What do you think made the difference?
Where do you avoid talking about Jesus to avoid paying a cost?
What would it take for you to say, "Here am I. Send me"?
Ask God and a friend to help you answer this question: "God, where are you sending me?"
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