“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
– John 18:37
Hi James and Ellen,
What would a bad day be like for you? Would a bad day be for you a day when you would have to listen to a pounding surf that is about 200 yards or so away? Would a bad day be for you a day where you would have to watch breaking waves that are about 200 yards or so away from where you are sitting – like where your grandpaa is sitting right now in his room? Even though your grandpaa is enjoying the sounds and sights of waves that he can see and hear from the room in the small hotel that he is staying in for two nights on Bejuco Beach in Costa Rica, he would much rather be back with your grandmaa in Gainesville, Georgia. After your grandpaa was given the okay to fly to Costa Rica to visit the five sites where Adventures In Missions has been assigning the past several years short term ministry teams, the youth pastor for a 50 member Katy, Texas short term ministry youth team that is scheduled to spend a week in Liberia, Costa Rica asked your grandpaa if he could go with him. Your grandpaa wanted to go to the Liberia area in Costa Rica to eyeball the Liberia site and the four nearby sites to be better able to assign each of the seven teams that have already asked Adventures in Missions to facilitate their short term ministry team’s time in Costa Rica this coming summer as well as to update the information that is presently on file for each of the sites and to take photos of each prospective ministry site. After Jeff – the Katy, Texas short term ministry youth team youth pastor, sent your grandpaa an e-mail to let him know the dates that his church had okayed him to block off to be in Costa Rica with your grandpaa – as Jeff wanted to get a good feel of what Liberia was like before showing up there with his short term ministry youth team, your grandpaa purchased his ticket to fly to Costa Rica. A couple of days after your grandpaa had everything in place to fly to Costa Rica – using the block of ten days this month that Jeff gave to him, Jeff contacted your grandpaa to tell him that he needed to be back in his church for a missions activity that is to take place this coming Saturday. Jeff decided that he would fly back to Katy, Texas on Thursday instead of flying back on Saturday. Your grandpaa had scheduled his flight to return at 2:00 A.M. Sunday morning as he did not want to leave Jeff alone in Costa Rica. When a major snowstorm headed for Atlanta – to arrive in the Atlanta area late Sunday night, your grandpaa changed his ticket to fly a day earlier to San José to be in Costa Rica when Jeff arrived – which was this past Monday afternoon. When Jeff told your grandpaa that he was going to fly back to Katy, Texas on Thursday instead of on Saturday, your grandpaa decided that he would go to Granada, Nicaragua to spend a day with an Adventures In Missions missionary couple – Charles and Sarah Kaye, who have been living with their two kids for the past five or so years in Granada. When your grandpaa got an e-mail from Charles saying that he was leaving for the United States – like today, your grandpaa had to ditch that plan. Your grandpaa instead of changing his ticket to fly back to United States with Jeff, decided to spend two days in a hotel on an isolated beach.
Your grandpaa does not like confusion. Your grandpaa likes sticking to a plan that he has made. Have you ever thought about how John may have felt when any plan that he might have thought that his mentor – Who was Jesus, may have had in the works for him and for the other eleven disciples to do went up in smoke when Judas – who was one of the disciples, showed up in the olive grove in Kidron Valley – where Jesus had gone to pray, with a posse of Roman soldiers, Jew priests and angry Pharisees carrying torches, lanterns and weapons to identify Jesus as the guy who the Roman soldiers were to arrest for insurrection. John’s recounting from his perceptive of the events that took place on that fateful night and early the next morning regarding his life coach – who was Jesus, is found in John 18. What do you think that John thought when he saw Peter – in a knee-jerk reaction, use his small sword to slice off the right ear of Malchus – who was the high priest’s servant? John and Peter followed the motley gang of soldiers and Jew officials as they took their bound teacher – Who was Jesus, to be sentenced to death for what He was teaching as what He was teaching conflicted with what Pharisees and Sadducees taught. Because John apparently was well known by the high priest – who would have been Caiaphas, John got Peter into the high priest’s courtyard where they saw Annas – a ‘retired’ high priest, and then Annas’ son – Caiaphas, pass Jesus on to Pilate who . . . how do you think that John felt when he saw Jesus at one point being slapped across the face by one of the Jew officials? Your grandpaa thinks that John was close enough to Peter to hear Peter say three times before a rooster crowed that he did not know Jesus – which Jesus told Peter that he would do. John is precise about who Peter responded to each time when he said that he did not know Jesus. How do you think that John felt when he heard Pilate giving into the Jew mob to release Barabbas – a known rebel and killer, instead of Jesus – Who he had put all his hope into?
Verse 37 has Jesus’ interaction with Pilate about Him being a king, ““You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”” A Christ-follower guy, gal or kid life standard is to make truth known how Jesus exemplified enduring the injustices that come with being a faithful Christ-follower.
John 18 (1126)