Some of the crowd, hearing this, began to say ‘This man is really the Prophet.’ Others were saying ‘This man is the Christ.’ but still others said ‘No. The Christ does not come from Galilee, does he? Did not Scripture say that the Christ has David as an ancestor, and comes from the village of Bethlehem, where David was.’ So a split happened in the crowd because of him.
Some of them wanted to arrest him, but nobody laid their hands on him.
O Lord Jesus Christ, stay beside me to defend me, within me to guide me, before me to lead me, and above me to bless me, that with you and in you, I may live, and move and have my being, for ever and ever. Amen.
On the last day of the feast , the most important, Jesus was standing and cried out:
‘If anyone is thirsty let them come to me and let whoever believes in me, drink. As the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his core. ‘
(He said this about the Spirit, which he was about to give to those who believed in him. For the Spirit was not yet present, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)
God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
The Pharisees heard of the crowd murmuring these things about him and the Chief Priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
Then Jesus said ‘I am with you for only a short time and then I will go to the one who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me, and where I am you cannot come. ‘
So the Jewish leaders said to one another: ‘Where is this man about to go that we will not find him? He is not about to go to where our people live among Greeks, and teach the Greeks, is he?’ What is this saying: “You will seek me and you will not find me, and where I am you cannot come?”’
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that thou art – Thou my best thought, by day or by night; Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
Some of the people who lived in Jerusalem were saying ‘Isn’t this the man they are seeking to kill?’ and ‘Look he speaks out publicly and they say nothing to him. Can it possibly be that the authorities have actually realised that this man is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from. But when the Christ comes, no-one will know where he comes from.’
Then Jesus cried out in the temple courts, teaching: ‘You know me, and where I come from. I have not come on my own authority but it is true about the one who sent me, whom you do not know. I know him, because I am from him; that one sent me.
So they sought to arrest him, and yet no-one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. In fact many of the crowd believed in him and they said ‘When the Christ comes, he won’t do more signs than this man has done, will he?’
Lord, you have given me so much, I ask for one more thing – a grateful heart.
The crowd replied ‘You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill you?’
Jesus replied : ‘ I did one thing, and you all are amazed because of it.
Moses gave you circumcision – not that it came from Moses, but the Patriarchs – and you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me because I made a whole man healthy on the Sabbath?
Do not judge by first impressions, but judge with right judgement.’
Be thou a bright flame before me, Be thou a guiding star above me Be thou a smooth path below me Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me Today – tonight -forever Amen.
When the festival was already halfway through, Jesus went up to the Temple courts and he began to teach. Then the Jewish crowds were wondering and said ‘How does this man have so much learning, not having been trained?’
Jesus answered them ‘My teaching does not come from me but from the one who sent me. If anyone chooses to do his will, they will know about my teaching whether it is from God or whether I speak on my own authority.
The one speaking on their own authority seeks their own glory. The one seeking the glory of the one who sent them – that one is truthful and injustice is not in them.
Did not Moses give you the Law? Yet none of you keeps the Law. Why do you seek to kill me?’
O Love, O God who created me, in your love recreate me. O Love, who redeemed me, fill up in me whatever part of your love has fallen into neglect within me. O Love, O God, who first loved me, grant that with my whole heart, and with my whole soul, and with my whole strength, I may love you.
For the next six months Jesus was walking about in Galilee. For he chose not to walk about in Judea, because the Jewish leaders were looking for a chance to kill him.
The Jewish Festival of Sukkot was near. So his brothers said to him ‘You should leave here, and go to Judea, so that your disciples will see the works you do. For nobody does anything in secret and yet seeks to be well known. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. (For not even his brothers believed in him.)
Jesus said to them ‘My time has not yet arrived.But your time is always ‘now’. The world cannot hate you, it hates me because I bear witness that its works are evil. You go up to the festival, I am not going up to this Festival because my time has not yet come.
After he said these things he stayed in Galilee.
When however his brothers went up to the festival, then he also went up; not openly but in secret.
So the Jewish leaders sought him in the festival and said ‘Where is that man?’ And there was murmuring about him among the crowds. Some said ‘He is a good man’, but others said ‘No he deceives the crowd.’ However nobody spoke openly about him for fear of the Jewish leaders.
Teach us, good Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do thy will, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
From this moment many of his disciples went back and walked with him no longer.
So Jesus said to the twelve ‘Surely you do not want to go away too, do you?’
Simon Peter replied ‘Lord, to whom would we go to? You have the words that lead to resurrection life and we have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God. ‘
Jesus answered him ‘Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And one of you is the devil. ‘
He said this about Judas son of Simon Iscariot. For he was about to betray him, though one of the Twelve.
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that thou art – Thou my best thought, by day or by night; Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
Then many of his disciples hearing this said ‘This saying is hard to take. Who can understand this?’
Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling because of this, said to them: ‘Does this cause you to stumble? So what if you see the Son of Man going up to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh achieves nothing. The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But among you are some who do not believe.
(For in fact Jesus knew from the beginning some were unbelievers and as well as who would betray him.)
And he went on to say ‘This is why I have said “Nobody can come to me unless the Father has granted it to them.”‘
Lord, you have given me so much, I ask for one more thing – a grateful heart.
Then the Jews there quarrelled with each other saying ‘How can this fellow give us his flesh to eat?’
So Jesus said to them : ‘Truly, truly I say to you if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood then you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has resurrection life, I will raise them on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood stays in me and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live through the Father so the one who eats me will live through me. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, not like the bread your ancestors ate and died. The one who eats this bread will live into the resurrection age.
He said these things as he taught in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Be thou a bright flame before me, Be thou a guiding star above me Be thou a smooth path below me Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me Today – tonight -forever Amen.