“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”

John 3:19-20

Today is Tuesday of Holy Week. Jesus spent the few days between the Triumphal Entry and his Crucifixion talking with people, voicing his message, going over the highlights one more time, sharing God’s truth with everyone – even those who wanted to shut him down.

“They sent spies,” John reports in his account, “who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. So the spies questioned him… But Jesus saw through their duplicity… They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answers, they became silent” (Luke 20:20-26).

The Master could always see right through the people who pile on the lies. Because they expected others to be just like them, and mistrust breeds mistrust. But Jesus’ straightforward approach and refusal to play games always threw them.

Liars have a hard time dealing with people who hold to the truth. Truth makes liars nervous. What’s sad is that truth also has the capacity to heal, to love, and to set people free, But – as Jesus said – people who choose to operate in the dark are pretty much scared of the light.

“This is the verdict,” John wrote, “light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light…”

Those who were trying to manipulate the message could not – and cannot today – begin to understand the Savior. The truth simply could not and would not resonate in them.

But understanding Jesus isn’t really possible outside of surrender.

The proper response, for us, is to love people the way that Jesus loved them – the way that Jesus loves us. Love is our mandate. Love says something critically important to this world about the kind of God we profess to follow.

Prayer: We are so grateful, Lord God, that love was the mandate of Holy Week. You gave everything to offer us the chance to experience wholeness. Amen

Today's post is - mostly - excerpted from REACHING TOWARD EASTER pp 117-118

DEREK MAUL