Month: September 2026

Week 37  John 16

Yesterday I noticed that people in the gospels had a hierarchy of connection with the Lord. Circles #1 & #2 & #3 each had a different position on the Familiarity Gradient. Circle #1 people had a close day-to-day tightness with Jesus that decreased in Circles #2 & #3 (the numbers rose as physical distance increased). But the one really unique & rare advantage that all three shared was that every one of them had an actual sensory connection with the human Jesus. Whether closer or more distant all of them had material contact with Jesus. So…I need a fourth circle for people who never saw him.
Circle #4 is numerically the biggest circle and it includes every person who has ever heard Jesus’ teaching and had their soul animated and has decided to follow him (and in that way Circle #4 is similar to Circles #1-3).
The big difference is that no one in Circle #4 has ever had any contact with the physical Jesus. That seems like a disadvantage. Which I think is why Jesus in his last conversation told the disciples: I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you.
The coming of The Counselor was guaranteed to be a definite benefit. Even so none of us in Circle #4 have gotten to see Jesus. Which seems like a liability.

Note: quote from John 16:7 (CSB). See also September 5/26 post ‘concentric circles’.

Week 36  Acts 1

The disciples had to find a replacement for Judas. They were looking for a specific kind of candidate: one of the men who…accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out…beginning from the baptism of John until the day when (Jesus) was taken up.
I wondered how large the candidate pool would be. Small I would think. I figure there were at least three circles of people loyal to Jesus:
Circle #1: the original 12 disciples (Judas excepted)
Circle #2: people who accompanied Jesus ‘all the time’ (that was the stated requirement). The group  included the two candidates in Acts 1 – Joseph Barsabbas & Matthias – and also a few other close & permanent & perpetual & full-time followers (the women named in Luke & the 70 men two chapters later might have been part of Circle #2).
Circle #3: people who were loyal to Jesus but not part of his day-to-day activities. People like Nicodemus. Joseph of Arimathea. The demon-possessed man of the Gadarenes. Zacchaeus. The Samaritan woman. The man born blind. Mary & Martha & Lazarus. Inside the circle…but not as close as the day-to-day insiders.
Anyway…I think Joseph Barsabbas & Matthias were part of that small & tight followership of Jesus that I’m calling Circle #2.

Note: quote from Acts 1:21-22 (ESV). The Circle #2 women are in Luke 8:1-3 and the 70 disciples in Luke 10:1 . Note 2: outside the circles were the thousands & thousands of people who’d had some exposure to the Lord’s teaching & miracles but had made the decision to not get on-board.

Week 36  John 7-21

John does a nice job of identifying the towns & regions where Jesus is travelling. It means I can track Jesus as he moves up-and-down the country between Galilee & Judea. At least I can up until chapter 6. After that the only place names that I find are in the south. It looks like in that last big chunk of John’s gospel – chapters 7-21 – Jesus doesn’t get back to his home territory.
So anyway that idea was in the back-of-my-mind when I noticed there were three religious festivals that Jesus attended in those last 15 “chapters-in-the-south”:
• Feast of Tabernacles
• Feast of Dedication
• The Passover
At first I didn’t think much about it. Then it registered: holidays aren’t consecutive – they’re spaced out. What were the dates of the festivals?
• Tabernacles: late-September / early-October
• Dedication: late-November / December
• Passover: March / mid-April.
If Jesus stayed in Judea during that whole time (which is what John led me to think) then he was in the south more than six months (possibly from October to April).
How likely was it that Jesus never went back to Galilee during those last six months of his life? It’s hard to say. Personally I think he might have returned.  John didn’t say he did. On the other hand he didn’t say he didn’t.
It’s maybe one of those questions that’s worth being aware of. But not really something that needs a definitive answer.

Note: the three festivals are in John 7:2 10:22 & 11:55. Festival dates came from gotquestions.com and my online Search Assist.