The plot has him centred for assassination
While reading my Bible this morning I was vastly entertained. An old Saturday Night Live skit, Coffee Talk, flooded my memory along with the song U Can’t Touch This, by MC Hammer. Jesus is in the throngs of an elbow to elbow crowd. Thousands of people have flooded Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles. Jesus takes the rabbi position in the temple courts and he is saying things that people don’t really like in fact, what he says acts as thickener to the plot that has him centred for assassination. With slit eyes and barely concealed snarls, there is grumbling as he speaks and then the murderous ones in the crowd can’t take it anymore and they try to grab him, to seize him. Ha!
Flowing robes but still, no grip?
But no one laid a hand on him… Let us picture the fashions of Jesus’ day, flowing robes. Now imagine people looking up at him and feeling insulted by his bold statements about who he is and who they are not. Imagine the blood rising to their faces in indignation and their hands clenching and unclenching, readying themselves to take hold of him and tear him limb from limb in their rage. He keeps talking and the more he speaks, the more they feel the urge to lunge and grab him:
Lets not pretend, you know who I AM
“Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me” (John 7:28-29). Jesus isn’t just some guy from Galilee, tethered in time and space to an earthy location, he is God, sent by God. Who wants to hear this when in the heart of every man is a desire to be his own God, his own Master? The crowds do not like this one tiny bit but the good news here is that some heard him speak and liked what they heard because they had been waiting for a Messiah “Still, many in the crowd put their faith in him” (John 7:31).
God is funny too, where do you think you got your sense of humour?
Lets go back to why I started writing this piece in the first place! Jesus was wearing a flowing robe and when the crowd got miffed, they couldn’t get a grip! Jesus was like butter to them, they could not seize and squeeze. Forgive me Lord, but I see Jesus dancing on the temple court steps and saying “U can’t touch this, da na na na, na na, na na. Can’t touch this.” I am pretty sure God is super funny. Listen to the song I am mentioning here… MC Hammer actually praises God in the song!
Oh Jesus, you are the best. You are like butter, delicious!
