(remember, these are unedited/draft show notes, not a transcript — listening is always better…and if you listen AND follow along below, you’ll see why)
Focus Question:
What’s the principle of embarrassment?
Intro:
Today in the book of John there is one little detail that most of the time we’d breeze right past…and yet it’s one of those little details that helps us not only have confidence that this ancient writing is true, it’s also easy to explain to someone else.
The idea is called the principle of embarrassment — the idea that the stories or details in the Bible that are hard, or ugly, or flat-out embarrassing are a positive indicator that the writer was more interested in accuracy than reputation. After all, if you were making something up, you probably wouldn’t put in details that make something harder to believe.
The one in today’s reading is one I’m just going to make you listen for. I’ll point it out afterwards, and then in today’s Bottom Line segment I’ll share a couple other nuggets that help you strengthen how you give an answer for the hope that lies within you.
New Testament segment:
Passage: John 7:1-44
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 44
Words: ~945
So what’s the principle of embarrassment? Those little details that you just wouldn’t include if you were making something up.
Today you heard John say “for not even his brothers believed in him.” And given that John is all about the topic of belief — as we heard yesterday, and as he states explicitly toward the end of the book — this is a great example of something you probably wouldn’t drop in. In other words, it’s potentially embarrassing.
Again, in our closing Bottom Line segment I’ll tie that in with a couple other details that’ll help you share why this is a good thing.
Old Testament segment:
Yesterday in our OT segment we got into a section of Jeremiah that is generally known as ‘oracles against the nations.’ Today, it’s about Moab, so to help you have a little context…
… Moab…has been one of Israel’s enemies from the time of the exodus onward (Num 22–25). Located east of Judah on the far side of the Dead Sea, Moab does not side with Judah against Babylon in the days of Zedekiah but rebels in 582 BC, at which time Nebuchadnezzar invades it. Shortly after, Arabs overrun them, and they cease to exist as a nation.(1)
Passage: Jeremiah 48
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 35
Words: ~1037
The bottom line:
So, Jesus’ own brothers (or rather, half-brothers as we might think about them), according to John, didn’t believe him. This gets even better in two ways.
One, Mark says essentially the same thing! In Mark 3, Mark’s making the point about the common people accepting Jesus, but the religious and educated people, the Pharisees and Herodians, reject His authority. And along the way he writes…
20 Jesus entered a house, and the crowd gathered again so that they were not even able to eat. 21 When his family heard this, they set out to restrain him, because they said, “He’s out of his mind.” (Mk 3:20–21, CSB)
Neither Mark nor John mention the brothers by name, but you don’t have to look far to piece together that this includes James and Jude. Both of whom write NT books. So now what?
Well, we know that neither of them believed until after the resurrection. So what might be so dramatic so as to cause a complete turnaround? Oh, maybe having this brother you’ve known all your life, who you know died on a cross, appear to you alive.
James, of course, went on to become one of THE main leaders of the early church. And then there’s one more nugget. In Jude’s short letter, he writes…
5 Now I want to remind you, although you came to know all these things once and for all, that Jesus saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe… (Jud 5, CSB)
What? He just called Jesus God…basically interchanging Jesus & God as the one who everyone knew the Jews credited with miraculously delivering the Israelites from 400 years of slavery in Egypt.
So non-believer Jude didn’t just become a believer, but exhibits one of those elements of saving faith we talked about yesterday…acknowledging Jesus as Lord.
The principle of embarrassment…why would a writer include weird or hard or embarrassing details in what they write? Very arguably because they were most interested in being accurate.
And we have yet another reason to trust.
Love you!
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
(1) D. A. Carson, ed., NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 1370.