There is an expression that many people here would be familiar with. The expression is, “The tension was so thick that you could cut it with a knife.” We use this expression when involved in a tense situation of strong emotions, usually between two sides or people with opposing views. The expression describes a sense of unease and foreboding that is so heavy that it has a thickness that lends itself to being cut by a knife. Most people get uncomfortable when they find themselves in such a tense situation. Many will see if each side can compromise to relieve the tension and the heaviness. It seems reasonable to reach a compromise before the problem leads to hard feelings or ruptured relationships.
The Bible contains many tension-filled and emotionally charged situations, many of which involve Jesus. The tension of the exchanges was thick, as though one could cut through it with a knife. Let’s look at just a couple of examples.
“13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” (John 2:13-18). Jesus created this agitated situation when he chose to cleanse the Temple. People looked on and thought, What is going to happen now?
In another instance, Jesus had been arrested and stood before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. “62 Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” 63 But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you unr oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” 64 “You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” 65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. 66 What do you think?” (Matthew 26:62-66). The tension was thick. A battle was underway between Jesus and the high priest, Caiaphas. You could cut the tension with a knife.
We could go on with many more tension-filled scenes with Jesus. Here is one thing, though, that separates Jesus from most of us. Never once in those tension-filled moments did Jesus seek to relieve the stress and tension that many times came about because of what Jesus said. Jesus never sought a compromise to ease the tension and allow everyone an opportunity to walk away believing they had something. Jesus did not try to strike a compromise in the hope that He might create a win-win situation through compromise. Jesus, who we often speak and sing about as a loving, caring, compassionate, gentle, and understanding God, that Jesus, if he ever owned a knife, never tried to cut the tension with a knife, even if his words and actions created the tension.
So we might ask, “Why did this loving Jesus seemingly create tense-filled situations? Why did this loving Jesus never seek to alleviate tense-filled situations with some soft and comforting words?” Jesus did not do so because the tension was there for a purpose. The tension was there to bring about conviction concerning the truth. The tension Jesus often created or found was not between him and some other group. The tension was between love and truth.
How can love and truth be in tension? Biblically, truth is absolute. Something is either true or false. We read a few weeks ago in the Apostle John’s first letter, these words, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5b). The message here is that in Biblical truth, something is either true or it is false. It cannot be somewhat true because that would suggest it is also somewhat false or dark in John’s terms. “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5b). Truth has no darkness, yet there can be significant tension between truth and love. The Apostle Paul would later write, “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). Why should we speak the truth in love? Paul wrote, “Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).
Jesus was loving to be sure, but He was God. Jesus said of Himself, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). Jesus was loving, but there was no darkness in Him. Jesus spoke the truth in love, a love that sought to heal the sinner and, in doing so, created tension and inner conflict with those Jesus spoke with. As much as Jesus loved people, Jesus could not compromise the truth. As a result, the tension remained in those scenes. Sometimes the tension was so thick you could cut with a knife.
The Apostle John picks up on this theme of love and truth and the tension that can come in expressing the truth. In the last chapter of John’s first letter, John wrote, “5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:1-5). John hit his readers with the truth that is fully light and contains no darkness.
The first truth was that “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1a). If you believe in Jesus as the Christ, the anointed one of God, the Son of God, then you have been born from above. You are not the person you were when you were born to your biological mother and father. You have changed. God is within you, and you are now within God. Do you believe that? You should. It is the truth.
The second truth is that “Everyone who loves the Father loves His child as well” (1 John 5:1b). The truth is if you love God, then John said it must also be true that you love His children, meaning Jesus, yourself, and other Christians because all are God’s children. Do I sense a slight rise in tension when we consider that loving ourselves and other Christians is a sign that we love God? Are we comfortable standing before God if there is love for self and other Christians? However, if we do not adore ourselves or other Christians, we start feeling the tension about our standing before God. You can search the Scriptures, but nothing in the Bible will relieve that tension. Only submission to God’s word will relieve that tension.
The third truth is that we love God by loving his children and carrying out God’s command. To demonstrate our love for God, we must love his children and do what God has commanded us to do. We are expected to represent God well by following his direction. What are those commandments? Indeed, the moral code in the Ten Commandments is part of what God expects. Moreover, we are to love God and others as ourselves, believe and follow Jesus, encourage baptism, make disciples, repent, and pray. Do we have any tension with the truth that we must obey God’s commands as a sign of our love for God?
The fourth truth was that only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God overcomes the world. Our faith in God through the saving work of Jesus Christ is not some academic or Sunday pursuit. Our faith in Jesus is a living transformation of human existence. Through Jesus, our lives are made holy when we walk this path and made eternal before God. John revealed that holiness and eternal life are only for those who believe in Jesus. Period.
The entirety of the truth John talked about rested upon one thing and one thing only. That was the answer to the question, “Who is Jesus?” If Jesus were just some person who developed a following of disciples, then what Jesus said was not the truth. Jesus would have been, at best, a cult leader, who the Romans executed. We have seen cult leaders in our times. Men like Jim Jones of the People’s Temple, Joseph DiMambro of the Order of the Solar Temple, Marshall Applewhite of Heaven’s Gate, and David Koresh of the Branch Davidians were all cult leaders who had their truth, not the truth. Each one of them motivated or coerced their followers into death.
In this final chapter of John’s first letter, John emphasized that Jesus was not a cult leader. John said, “6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement” (1 John 5:6-8). Jesus was not the savior, the Son of God, simply because Jesus said so. Jesus was who he was because the Spirit, the water, and the blood were in agreement.
What did John mean that the Spirit, water, and blood agreed that Jesus was the son of God? This statement by John is one of the more difficult statements for New Testament scholars to unravel. I think we can safely think about John’s statement this way.
The Spirit of God was upon Jesus, giving testimony that Jesus could do the signs and wonders of God, that Jesus was the Son of God. Jesus was divine. That same Spirit descended and stayed upon Jesus at his baptism. John said as much near the end of his gospel account. “30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31). The Spirit of God testified that Jesus was the Son of God.
The blood of Jesus gave testimony that he was the Son of Man. Jesus was human. This Jesus, who was the Son of God, was also human, and he bled and died upon the cross. Jesus’ blood, John said, cleanses the believer from all unrighteousness. The blood of Jesus testified that Jesus was the Son of Man and the Son of God.
Finally, the water gave testimony. As we have been learning in the Bible study, John used water to tell the story of Jesus. Water is found in Chapter 1 with Jesus’ baptism, Chapter 2 with changing water to wine, and Chapter 3 with new birth coming from water and the Spirit. In Chapter 5, Jesus was the living water of God, an imagery recreated in Chapters 5, 7, and 8. I think you get the idea. John highlighted in his gospel the role of water in the story of Jesus. In most, if not all, of these references, the water relates to prophecies or events of the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus was the fulfillment of scripture, showing Jesus was both the Son of God and the Son of Man. The water, therefore, represents the entirety of the Old Testament scripture, the Torah, and it testifies to who Jesus is.
From this point, John said, “9 We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:9-12). Jesus was the truth of God expressed in love. John said whoever does not believe the testimony of God represented by the water, blood, and spirit calls God a liar. There is that tension again. Everything in your life depends upon who you believe Jesus is.
God shared the truth that Jesus is His Son, and if you believe that, you will have eternal life with God. To say otherwise, John says you make God a liar. I hope you believe God. I hope you and I will share this truth lovingly with others, but always without hesitation, reservation, or shame. Let us love by stating the truth. Amen and Amen.