Part of the process of ordination in NSW & ACT Baptist Churches is to attend a day-long interview with the Committee for the Ministry - the interviews are held at Morling College. Most of the time the committee is divided into small subcommittees that meet with the candidate and their spouse to cover a range of issues to do with theology and ministry. But at the end of that day there is a time set aside for the candidates to preach a short sermon to the whole committee, and then answer some questions in that larger context.

When I was invited to attend one of these interviews, the text that I was given as the subject of my short sermon was this:

This text comes in the middle of the gospel passage that we've just heard read to us.

As you can imagine, it was a fairly daunting exercise to expound upon these couple of sentences from the mouth of Jesus in front of a group of Baptist heavies and in the middle of a Baptist theological college. After all, "searching the Scriptures" is what any Baptist church or college worth its salt is supposed to be on about.

Very early on in studies of basic Baptist beliefs and principles there is a stress on the authority of the Scriptures. And we would hope in our church that we are encouraging the study of the Bible in the pulpit, in the Sunday School class room, in our small groups and in each of your private devotions. And yet in this passage from the gospel of John it seems that Jesus is criticising his listeners for this very diligence.

It is important to see these verses in their broader context. We have to go back even earlier in the chapter to find that Jesus was in conversation with "the Jews" who had questioned his action of healing a man on the Sabbath. Clearly the gospel writer is referring to Jewish synagogue authorities, who were closely associated with the Pharisees: the teachers and upholders of the law.

The chapter begins by setting Jesus in Jerusalem at the time of a festival. It is not stated explicitly what festival was being celebrated, but some have suggested that it could have been the Feast of Pentecost. Originally this was a harvest festival - a thanksgiving festival at the ingathering of the first of the wheat crops. So it was an opportunity for Israel to express its dependence on God and give thanks for daily bread - the main product of wheat. It was a popular pilgrimage festival where people would come from all over the land to the temple at Jerusalem. In time as the Israelites were dispersed among the nations Pentecost lost its primary focus as a harvest festival and became a feast celebrating the giving of the law. But you can see the connection can't you? Scripture Union names its bible reading notes "Daily Bread" - we sing "break now the bread of life" and mean the Scripture, or confess that the word of God is "living bread from heaven". Pentecost as the "feast of the giving of the law" was based on calculations that the law was given to Moses 50 days after the institution of the Passover. And the church feast that we know as Pentecost - what we may call the birth of the church - took place 50 days after that Passover feast where the living bread was broken on the cross offering life to all those who believe on the Word of God. So it would be entirely appropriate that on an earlier Pentecost Feast Jesus uses the occasion to challenge those around him about their attitude to the Scriptures. Because of course it is not at all surprising to find the Pharisees and the teachers of the law in Jerusalem for the festival. After all, they were known amongst the Jewish community for devoting their lives to the study and interpretation of the Scriptures.

They probably could have recited, for example, the whole of Psalm 119. It is a wonderful composition - an acrostic psalm with 22 verses of eight lines each, composed so that each line began with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet starting with aleph and going through to tau in the 22^nd verse. It looks wonderful in the Hebrew bible. The overall theme of this long psalm is that the word of God and the law of God are the decisive factor in every sphere of life. There are eight different Hebrew words for the law: the English translates them with words such as ordinances, testimonies, precepts and statutes, and almost every one of the 176 verses contains a reference to God's word. The psalmist claims that the law is the source of joy, the goal of knowledge, and the standard of the believer's conduct in life. Even in the little section we read we find words like "delight" "goodness" "justice" in connection with the words and promises of God - and the belief that from God's word comes life.

Religious Jews in Jesus' day could probably have quoted the whole psalm. But it seems that this positive focus on the law had been transformed into a legalism and self-righteousness that squeezed all of the joy and life out of the law. Even at festival time they were more intent on argument than celebration.

"The Jews" in John's gospel probably understood that it was their job to challenge anyone who acted against the law - and Jesus had done that by healing on the Sabbath. But we are told that what concerned them most was Jesus' claim that when he acted this way he was doing the work of God, and calling this God - the great God of the Law - his Father. Listen to verse 18: "the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God."

And so the healing on the Sabbath leads to a significant chapter in John's gospel on the identification of Jesus with the person and authority of God the Father. In it Jesus answers the challenge of the Pharisees on their own terms. One of the laws of the Torah was that at least two witnesses were needed for a testimony to be believed. Well, Jesus gave them four. That he was doing the work of God had been witnessed to by John the Baptist, by his miraculous works, by the Father himself, and by the Scriptures.

And his challenge seems to be that the Pharisees, the ones honoured as leaders of the people and teachers of the law, these should have been the first to discover this truth - that the Scriptures had been fulfilled through the person of Jesus. Otherwise all their attention to Scripture was a waste of time. If they had not found the love of God and concern for the neighbour in the Scriptures then they had not been looking hard enough.

Or had they? When Jesus said "You search the Scriptures" he used a word meaning diligent and careful study. But what if they were not looking for the right thing? Were they looking for, and expecting, a reward for their diligence? Jesus went on to say "You think that in them you have eternal life." Was this their focus - eternal life - with no connection to the reality of their present? Or were they, in fact, clinging to the past? Where they couldn't connect the character and actions of Jesus with the God they felt they knew. Their preconceived notions meant that for them Jesus was offensive as a revelation of God. They were unable to conceive of Scripture being fulfilled in a new way. The Old Testament community believed that God's blessing on life was best remembered through keeping the Sabbath. When Jesus broke the Sabbath law by working, even though the work was healing, he was throwing out a challenge: could they understand the connection between life and the Sabbath in a new way?

But before we are too critical of the Jews of Jesus' day we should ask ourselves whether we seek in the bible the wrong thing. Whether we search the Scriptures for that which will make us comfortable. Looking for words to back up our own theories. Do we allow ourselves to be open to the newness of God? Or do we cling to our old interpretations? Do we come to Scripture expecting to find a connection between what we study and the reality of the world around us? Or do we hide away, focused only on a future reality of reward and escape?

If so, we need to hear Jesus' offer of life as much as the Pharisees. We need to regain the confidence and joy of the psalmist who found the word of God as the source of life. The word of God in the flesh said "Come to me to have life." John's gospel speaks of the life offered by Jesus as abundant, overflowing, refreshing and new; a celebration. Think of the flowing wine at the wedding of Cana! Think of the woman at the well being promised water that would never end! Think of the signs of healing after decades of illness! Think of the abundance of multiplying five loaves so that 5000 were fed and many basketfuls were left! Like in all of these examples, Christ invites us to come in the midst of life. We don't have to wait until the end of this life to experience eternal life - it is offered now.

This offer of life itself witnessed to the identification of Jesus with God the Father. He was only going about his father's business. Like any Jewish son of the first century his trade was learned from his father. So what was this trade? The giving of life. Hear the words of Jesus earlier in this passage: "Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes." (v 21) In the beginning God had breathed life into Adam, God had breathed life into a barren couple to create the nation of Israel. God breathed life into the dry bones of an exiled people. And on into the New Testament. God breathed new life into a crucified body, God breathed life into the gathered believers to start the Christian church. Going about his father's business. Fulfilling his father's plan. But being in the family trade wasn't an easy task for Jesus. Ultimately the father's plan meant giving his life so that all the children of the Father would have life.

The giving of life was only one part of the father's business. Also Jesus was involved in the giving of judgement: back in verse 22 he claimed "the father has given all judgement to the Son" Judgement is the result when someone refuses the offer of life, so Jesus says to those opposing him: "You refuse to come to me and have life." You refuse to see God at work in a new way.

Some have suggested that John's gospel was written especially to support and encourage Jewish Christians who were no longer welcome in the synagogues. To such these words of Jesus would have had particular relevance. "Don't hide in the past, come to me and openly show your faith. Don't miss out by refusing to come and join in the abundant life I offer. Come and let God breathe my life into you."

"Come to me" - these words were offered to the Pharisees, the members of John's Jewish Christian community, and now are offered to us. But it is not just we who are offered this personal encounter with Jesus. Our world needs the presence of God to be a reality. It is no good to just talk about, read about, and write about faith; our world needs to experience the life that is being offered. Surely this is what it means when we claim Scripture is inspired. It is breathed into with the life of God. And the world around us will only experience this life of God as we share it with them.

In recent years there has been a whole spate of movies where classic literature has been reformulated for the big screen. It's a great way to be introduced to the classics - they really come alive when acted out on the stage or the screen. In fact two of my favourite movies would have to be Kenneth Branagh's "Much ado about nothing" and Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo and Juliet". If only I'd had access to Shakespeare in that form when I was at school! Even the archaic Shakespearean language seems to be alive and relevant in the mouth of Denzel Washington or Leonardo Di Caprio! The film writers themselves have done some analysis of this. Did you see "Shakespeare in Love" when it was a big hit a couple of years ago? What interested me about that film was the theory that William Shakespeare could not have written his passionate sonnets and the tragedy of love that became "Romeo and Juliet" unless he had been inspired by a real experience of love and passion. His writing was lifeless and his creativity empty until his relationship with Viola had an impact on him. But afterwards the play he wrote was filled with such life and newness that even the stern and implacable Queen Elizabeth was moved.

We do not want to stop searching the Scriptures. But what will ensure that they come to life for us? Will we find Christ in them? Will we be open to the newness of God, coming to us in unexpected ways? Will we take what we find and share its life with others? On this national Bible Sunday and in fact every day each one of us is invited again to come to the Scriptures and in them meet the reality of Jesus, to be breathed into with his life, and to share with him the father's business - the giving of life to those who are willing to accept it now. Let us hear the words of Jesus again: "Come to me. and I will give you life."

Rev. Jeanette Mathews
22 July 2001