Thank You for today, Father. Thank You for Your inspiration yesterday, and every day for that matter! You are an awesome God!
John 18:19-24 (<<click here to read the passage)
Most of us are probably familiar with the idiom “grasping at straws,” but just as a point of clarification. Idioms Online states that the phrase means to be willing to do, say, or believe anything that offers even the slightest hope in a desperate situation, even though there is almost no chance for success.
The idiom is said to have come from a proverb found in “Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation” written in 1534 by Thomas More – a prominent lawyer and statesman in England in the early 1500s. (He served King Henry the VIII – and that didn’t work out so well for More!)
The proverb states, “A drowning man will clutch at straws” which refers to the reeds that would grow alongside a river. If you’re drowning, you’ll grab for anything that might save you, no matter how hopeless doing so might be.
And that’s what Annas, the priest, and all the other Jewish leaders were doing. They hated Jesus with a passion and even though He was now in their clutches they had absolutely no grounds on which to prosecute Jesus. They were grasping for straws. They were trying to nail Jell-O to the wall with not much success!
Just reading verse 19 clearly shows they had no idea what they were doing. All they knew was that Jesus was a splinter up their fingernail and they wanted Him gone. Verse 19 says,
…the high priest began asking Jesus about his followers and what he had been teaching them. NLT
Like, duh! Jesus’ retort pointed out the foolishness of Annas’ questioning,
“Everyone knows what I teach. I have preached regularly in the synagogues and the Temple, where the people gather. I have not spoken in secret. Why are you asking me this question? Ask those who heard me. They know what I said.” vs21-22 NLT
But as the above definition states, they were willing to do, say, or believe anything that offered even the slightest hope in the desperate situation in which they found themselves, even though there was almost no chance for success, at least from a human perspective.
They wouldn’t have gotten this far, but again it was only because it was all part of God’s plan! These events had to transpire for Jesus to be able to offer Himself willingly in our stead. Even with all their hate-motivated conniving, they had no power whatsoever to take Jesus’ life – He gave it willingly.
Remember Jesus said back in John 10:17-18,
For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My [own] life so that I may take it back. No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down voluntarily. I am authorized and have power to lay it down and to give it up, and I am authorized and have power to take it back. This command I have received from My Father.” AMP
The Jewish leaders were both shallow and empty. Their self-satisfying mentality had caused them to totally miss out on God’s greatest gift to mankind. They definitely pulled the short straw on that one…
Oct 26th, 2021, Tues, 6:26 pm
