July 19, 2023
Gaining Favor With the Wrong Person
“Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done.”
John 11:45-46 (NASB)
When I was working at K-Mart in high school, I was a stock boy. I was the only one working each afternoon from 4-9 PM. There was one other employee who worked in the storage area alongside me many times who complained all the time. One day an assignment was given to me to pull a large quantity of items for an endcap display on the main isle. He said it wasn’t his job. I was given a certain amount of time to complete it. Back in the receiving section there was always a large pallet jack. It was never used. It even had dust on it. It was only for special occasions, but no one knew what that meant. That day I decided to use it for large items. It would cut my work time in half. After I finished using it, I put it back. Everyone seemed happy the display was up on time. Later that afternoon I got a call to see a manager. When I met him, he asked me if I used the pallet jack. I said yes. He told me I did not have permission to use it. He said it was for special occasions. I told him I thought the large assignment was a special occasion, and warranted its use. After a few minutes of berating me, I went back to work. Man, I wanted to quit that day. Then I found out who ratted me out. The storage area employee. He wanted favor with the manager…
“many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.” After the miracle, many believed. They genuinely came to saving faith in Christ. The work of God authenticated the Messiah and they believed. He is God, and has the power to raise the dead. Their lives were transformed forever by witnessing this event. They became those who followed Christ. “But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done.” Now, let’s look at the second group. These were not the Jews who had come to Mary in her grief, but some of the Jews who were perhaps interested. “They didn’t have the courage to break with the rabbis without permission. It was a crisis for the Sanhedrin.”[1] So they went “and told them the things which Jesus had done.” They sought the approval of men, rather than authentication of God Incarnate before them. Men are much like this today. These two groups of people are broken into two categories; those who believed, and those who did not.
That day after finishing the assignment at the store I have to admit, I was really angry. I thought I did a good job, yet chewed out. In this life, there are two classes of people who are either happy or not. They see you do good works and rejoice or there are others who want to go back and rat you out trying to gain favor. If it happened to Jesus, it would happen to you. There will be those in the crowd who appear to be happy listening, but they are secretly plotting, even if you did something wonderful. I know my assignment was not even close to the importance (not even close!) to what Jesus performed. I did a job. Jesus raised the dead. But what favor the Jews were looking for with the Pharisees was driven by the same thing people do today. They want to be recognized by higher authority. Jesus is the ultimate authority. His authority is eternal. I am quite sure that employee is not working for the store. How do I know? The store is not there to this day. It closed several decades ago. Make sure you are pleasing the right person…
[1] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Jn 11:46). Broadman Press.