It was 11 p.m. and she had to be at the office an hour early the next day. Knowing that she was almost out of gas and not wanting to stop on the way to work, she wondered how much gas might be in her husband’s car. “He would never miss a little”, she thought, as she chose to sneak out into the garage and siphon a few gallons from his car into hers. No big deal, problem solved!

The next night, noticing that his tank was almost empty, he, thinking to himself that he would fill his car later, proceeded to do the same thing – siphon gas from her car. This worked fine until both were out of gas with no more to siphon, and neither now had a way to go to the filling station.

It’s an absurd story, isn’t it? What if it wasn’t gas but something else that the two were “siphoning” from one another?

Continuing my journey through the gospel of John, I’m still in chapter 5 at this point. My mind is blown by the religious leaders who never paid attention to the man who had been crippled for thirty-eight years until he had been healed by Jesus. Only in that moment did they choose to “see” him – and not to rejoice because he was now whole, but to condemn because he was now breaking a Sabbath law by carrying his pallet. You can’t make this stuff up!

A discussion soon follows where Jesus is telling the religious leaders a thing or two. They could not believe He had the audacity to make Himself equal to God. Jesus response in verse 41 caught my attention:

“I do not receive glory from people.”

Then he turns the tables and asks them a poignant question: “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”

Let’s flip back to the story about the husband and wife who were siphoning gas from one another. What if the gas in this story represented glory, and the filling station represented God? How far down the road will we get when we seek glory from one another rather than glory from God Himself?

Have you been to the filling station lately?