Life-Spark: The question ‘Who is Jesus?’ leaves no place for neutrality. (John 7:40-52)
Hearing Jesus teach, some decided he was a prophet, others said He was the Messiah. Still others, thinking He was born in Nazareth said, “He can’t be the Christ because He wasn’t born in Bethlehem. ”Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.” (John 7:43, NIV)
All over the map about who Jesus was, no one laid a hand on him. Even the temple guards, sent by the Pharisees to arrest Him, went back to the Pharisees empty handed, somewhat won over by what He said and the way He said it. “’You mean he has deceived you also?’.” (John 7:47, NIV)
The Pharisees berated Jesus and said that the crowds who loved to listen to Him were uneducated idiots. None of the upper crust of Jewish society, they crowed, believed in Him. Then one of the upper crust, a man named Nicodemus who had come to Jesus earlier, proposed that perhaps they were judging Him without making an honest appraisal of His actions and His words. At that, the leaders turned on Nicodemus, one of their own, and accused him of being an uneducated hick. The religious leaders, headquartered in Jerusalem, thought of Galilee as ‘Hicksville,’ the wrong side of the tracks. “What? Are you from Galilee too? He can’t be the Christ. He was born in Galilee.”
It amazes me that Jesus didn’t present His birth certificate and show His critics that, just as predicted of the Messiah by Old Testament prophets, His birthplace was Bethlehem. God sometimes refrains from giving evidence to those who wilfully and stubbornly disbelieve in spite of exposure to strong evidence. Jesus didn’t cast pearls before swine. He didn’t answer their questions about His place of origin because they weren’t honest seekers.
So the crowd was divided. Likewise, the Jewish leaders were divided. Nicodemus was separated from the others. Point is, Jesus divides. He did then. He does now. What He says requires all of us to stand on one side of the line or the other. There is no straddling the line. I may think I’m judging the words of Jesus but, truth is, they are judging me.
Life-action: Take a few minutes right now and try to think of one time where God said something that made you decide to obey or disobey.