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Monday, May 9, 2016

Contrast

Last week we were in John 18.  Couple of things I noticed.  First, working through the text I kept finding myself in John 19.  The two chapters seem to be better approached as a unit.
Contrast
Second, there is more than one way to look at the content of the chapter but this time through what I notices was the contrast between Peter’s actions and attitudes and Jesus’ actions and attitudes.  I used a matrix chart to compare and contrast them:
State Jesus Peter
Awareness Knew what was coming Did not know what was coming
Involvement In Control Out of Control
Acceptance Did not resist Attacked with a Sword
Obedience Following His Father Following his emotion/will
Entrance Brought in by Soldiers Brought in by John
Declaration I am I am not
Confidence Affirmed His identity Denied his identity
Captor Bound by chains Bound by Fear
Inquisitor Questioned by the High Priest and Pilate Questioned by Slaves and Cold Soldiers
Destination Going to His death Going to protect himself
Immediate End Result Crucifixion Honor Out of the Story Shame
Result Success Failure
I am not thrilled with calling that first column “state” but that is the best I can do right now.

The contrast between Jesus and Peter emphasized for me the intentionality of Christ in obeying His Father in this act of redemption.

What do you see?
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3 comments:

  1. KonstantinMay 10, 2016 at 9:20 AM

    Great observations!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mike CunninghamMay 10, 2016 at 10:47 AM

      Thanks, nothing you could not see for yourself...

      Delete
  2. chuckMay 12, 2016 at 4:22 PM

    Contrast is often a powerful source of insight, and no more so than when contrasting man with God in some way. Checking the dictionary I found that "but" is one word indicating contrast.

    I did a quick search in English in the Bible for "but." There were just a tad under 4000 hits.

    Then I looked at John 17 and 18 specifically, and although the were 20 or so "buts" (maybe more), I really didn't see a correlation with what you listed.

    So what is a potential lesson for the exercise in trivia? Perhaps that there are a whole lot more, maybe significant, contrasts than one word can express and it's not good to get too focused, short-sighted.

    It will take me a while to sort those out; but obviously its a significant concept in Scripture.

    Thanks, Mike.

    ReplyDelete

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