“Teaching From The One Who Sends Us!”

“Teaching From The One Who Sends Us!”(Jn.7:14-18).
We cannot underestimate the gains of the missionary movement in Africa. The missionaries sacrificed their lives to ensure that people in far-off places should receive the good news of Jesus Christ. However, in their zeal, they had some lapses. One of the lapses was their fight against other cultures and religions. Even so, they were not completely at fault because “you cannot begin to take in new ideas, except in terms of the ideas you already have.”
Jesus himself sought transformation and Reformation from within. His mission was to fill what was there with new content.
The only new content was, and is the incarnation: the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Yesterday, we read how Jesus stealthily attended the Feast of Tabernacles. This feast was a yearly requirement that took place from the fifteenth day of the seventh month. It lasted eight days; the first and last days being considered as Holy days of rest. During the days of celebrations, all native-born Israelites were to live in booths. This feast was to celebrate the year’s harvest, and living in booths was to remind them that during the exodus, they lived in booths in the wilderness (Lev.23:33-44).
Continuing from yesterday’s reading, Jesus attended the feast and was just lost in the crowd. But halfway through the Feast, he went up to the temple and began to teach. His teaching amazed the Jews who wondered how Jesus had such learning when he had not formally sat at the feet of any prominent rabbi.
Jesus replied them,“My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.”
A lesson to all of us who tell others about Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God:Work for the honor of the one who sent you by standing by the truth. If you speak on your own, you are seeking honor for yourself.
The Lord Jesus Christ does not come as a stranger to any cultural or religious setting. He is already there, albeit as “AN UNKNOWN GOD.” Like Paul, it is our place to explain and clear the ignorance:Now what you worship as something unknown is what I bring to you(Acts 17:22-23).
Ignorance of the preexisting Christ in every cultural and religious context is the reason why “he came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him”(Jn.1:11).
We do not have to shy away from or shun other cultural and religious festivals, but rather attend them, and in the middle of celebrations, we bring the good news!
Prayer: Holy Spirit, inspire us to speak from and seek honor only for the one who has sent us. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
09/01/2025.