Speak up or Withdraw

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

SPEAK UP OR WITHDRAW

John 4:1-3

4:1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2 although in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

NIV

Before we get into the narrative about Jesus and the Samaritan women at the well, it might serve us to reflect on what is going on at this time described briefly here for us. We should remember the Pharisees had sent people to ask John the Baptist by what authority he was baptizing. Why was he introducing this religious rite into the Jewish people, was at the core of their question? He was taking people away from their control. These Pharisees were most likely members of the ruling class, the Sanhedrin. John was upsetting their authority.  So now here comes Jesus and his disciples. His disciples were now baptizing even more people than John. The Pharisees heard about this and surely were already thinking about how they could rid themselves of this Jesus, who, again was performing a religious rite without their permission. The gospel writer makes sure we know that Jesus was not actually doing the baptizing, but his disciples. What we could glean from that is perhaps he did not want some people to think more highly of themselves because they had been baptized by Jesus, while others only by his disciples. That is a supposition, but we believe it makes sense. Now the idea about Jesus knowing of the Pharisees hearing about his disciples baptizing could be of two sources. First, it could have been someone who came to warn Jesus that the Pharisees were so upset with him, they were starting to talk about killing him. Second, the reason Jesus knew about them is that he is omniscient, knowing all things. So Jesus withdrew to the region of Galilee. We know Jesus was not afraid of them, but that is just was not his time yet, and he had work to do before he would allow them to kill him. So what do we learn from this? Can we learn anything we should apply to our lives? Maybe one of the truths is that we should not be so rigid in following the law we establish for ourselves. That is our rules and regulations, even our denominational rigidity, like the Pharisees, had become. Another truth we might learn is from Jesus. There is a time to pick a fight and there is a time to withdraw. Besides, there is a plan and we need to stick to the plan. Jesus had a plan, he came for this reason, and he was going to accomplish the plan of God, no matter what, but he needed to stay with the plan. People needed to be taught the truth, he needed to forewarn them of the plan of God. The people needed to hear of this new covenant. Is that not our mission as well, to tell people of the covenant of God? However, because of some extreme opposition at times, it might be best to withdraw. Although it is true some believers are killed because of their faith, but a dead man never speaks again. There might be some believers who think losing their job or being persecuted because they are always preaching to people about Jesus is a good thing. But then they have lost the opportunity to share the message, perhaps in a different way. Sometimes we might have to withdraw temporarily until the right time is at hand. Jesus knows the best time, so as we listen to the Spirit, we too will know when to speak, and when to withdraw.