For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
John 18
How does Jesus explain himself to the high priest? To Pilate? What do you learn about Jesus and his Kingdom from these exchanges? Pilate’s remark to Jesus caught my attention. “What is truth?”, he said. (Jn. 18:38a). It doesn’t come across to me as a sincere question, but rather a snide remark, as if to say the word has no meaning and the question no answer. I see a lot of people on that same track in today’s world. People make a pretense of searching for truth. In reality, however, they don’t have any understanding at all of what they claim to be searching for and don’t even really believe that it exists.
All of that leads to the fact that, instead of searching for truth, these people are really just looking to make up their own definition of it. The question becomes, “What is truth to me?” And that is a HUGE misnomer, because truth has absolutely nothing to do with any of us. Jesus spoke the truth because He spoke only what God gave Him to say. God’s word is truth. Jesus came as proof of that. Those who belong to God know the truth because they know God. Everybody else believes a lie because there is no other truth.
Zech. 11-12
More messianic prophecies. Compare 12:10 with John 19:37, Revelation 1:7. The book of Zechariah is chock full of Messianic prophecies. They tell of both the person and the work of Jesus Christ. They show Jesus as the pivotal point of God’s redemption plan for the world. It is Jesus who changes the way God relates with His people and His people with Him. Take the simple statement in Zechariah 12:5 as a great example. “Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the LORD Almighty is their God.’” That tells of God’s plan to remove our proud hearts of stone and replace them with soft hearts that boast in God alone. It tells how we will no longer trust in our own strength, wealth, or wisdom, but will give ourselves fully to God. All of this because of Jesus.