IS HE REALLY...?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Here He is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to Him. Have the authorities really concluded that He is the Messiah? But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where He is from.”

Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know Me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on My own authority, but He who sent me is true. You do not know Him, but I know Him because I am from Him and He sent Me.”

At this they tried to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. Still, many in the crowd believed in Him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will He perform more signs than this man?”

The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about Him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest Him.

John 7:25-32

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

One of the saddest things about the world we live in today is that there is a clear identity crisis when it comes to Jesus.

The most in the Jewish faith acknowledge Jesus as a Jew but see Him only as a teacher. Some Jews do accept that Jesus is a Messiah but these Messianic Jews and the tenets of what they believe are at odds with conventional Judaism.

Buddhists and Hindus see Jesus as a wise and holy man and teacher, the latter seeing Him even as a god (little “g”).   

Muslims believe Jesus was nothing more than a prophet carrying special messages for people. They don’t acknowledge Him as having any divine nature or lineage to God.

To add to this issue, a recent study shared these harrowing findings: 22 percent of people today feel that Jesus was just some mythical figure while 17 percent are unsure whether He was real or not.

One thing is for sure when we consider this matter of Jesus’ origin and true identity. Many people are pondering open ended question:

Is He really (fill in the blank with any truth about Jesus as found in the Christian faith)?

Now, to a Christian, all the prior information may be deeply troubling but it definitely shows that there is a large segment of the world who are without salvation because they are without a Savior. No other religion or belief system has what Christianity does because no other system holds Jesus as the One sent from God to save humanity, reconciling the sinfulness that keeps them separated from their Master and Maker, the sinfulness that will result in judgment if left unresolved. Thus, there is a lot of work to be done by Christian believers to share the good news of Jesus so that those who misunderstand who He is don’t miss there opportunity to live with Him and the God who created them forever.

Well, as we see in today’s passage from our continuing study of John 7, this problem of who Jesus is wasn’t just a modern day matter. It definitely existed in the early years of His ministry on earth. Look again at these verses:

At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Here He is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to Him. Have the authorities really concluded that He is the Messiah? But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where He is from.”

Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know Me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on My own authority, but He who sent me is true. You do not know Him, but I know Him because I am from Him and He sent Me.”

At this they tried to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. Still, many in the crowd believed in Him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will He perform more signs than this man?”

The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about Him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest Him.  John 7:25-32

Think about how Jesus was viewed during His latter days on earth.

The Jewish religious authorities saw Him as a threat as He drew more and more followers to His new teaching, a teaching that the Bible says carried with it an authority that amazed the Jews who listened to Him. Couple this with how Jesus called them out with the hope of exposing their self righteousness and hypocritical imposition of strict religious standards, even though they were unwilling to hold to those standards themselves. These men were expected to be the ones who knew the scriptures better than anyone and thus all Jewish believers looked to them for guidance. Unfortunately, the advice given was more driven toward supporting their desires than the desires of the God they professed to follow, the God who had foretold the coming of His Son through the Jewish prophets the Pharisees, Sadducees, chief priests, and teachers of the law chose to conveniently either ignore or brush off.

And so the Jewish population wasn’t sure what to believe themselves.

On one hand, they had what the Jewish religious leaders were telling them. On the other, they heard this new authoritative teaching from a man unlike any they had encountered before, a man who was performing miraculous acts like healing the sick and lame, and driving out demons from the possessed.

Stuck in the middle, they had to try and figure out:

“Who is He?”

Indeed the people in Jerusalem, gathered for the hallowed Jewish holiday observance, the Feast of the Tabernacles, were pondering several questions that showed their confused state:

“Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?”

And yet, “Here He is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to Him.”

“Have the authorities really concluded that He is the Messiah?”

However, how could He be the Messiah? Wasn’t the Messiah supposed to come from God and just appear on the scene in a way where no one would be able to tie Him to a set earthly origin?

And yet, “We know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where He is from.”

So many questions. So few answers, although Jesus certainly was doing His best to try and clear things up for them. We know from the words He spoke to the Jews gathered with Him, words to address the many questions swirling in their minds:

“Yes, you know Me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on My own authority, but He who sent me is true. You do not know Him, but I know Him because I am from Him and He sent Me.”

Jesus was trying to clear things up. Yes, He was born of Mary in Bethlehem and ended up residing in Nazareth within the northern province of Galilee. Those listening to His teaching knew where He hailed from but what they failed to know was that He did not come under His own authority but rather the authority of the very God they professed to believe in, the very God Jesus said they did not know.

It was that statement, Jesus telling the Jews who were present that they didn’t know God but He did, being sent from God Himself that got the crowd stirred up into a frenzy. Angered by His words, they “tried to seize Him” but as had happened earlier when He easily slipped through an incensed mob in His hometown of Nazareth, Jesus once again saw no harm occur “because His hour had not yet come”. No one laid a hand upon Him.

So had Jesus clarified things for anyone? Had His words fallen on deaf ears across the board with the Jewish gathering who had listened to Him?

The scriptures tell us His proclamation regarding His connection to His Father God was not wasted but rather somewhat fruitful. For “many in the crowd believed in Him” and said:

“When the Messiah comes, will He perform more signs than this man?”

In other words, they reasoned that Jesus could indeed be who He said He was because no other person who had come into their midst performed amazing acts of supernatural power like He did. Thus, who could do those things if they were not of God Himself?

Some people got it. They opened their hearts and minds to believe.

Too bad the Pharisees weren’t counted in that number for as they heard some in the crowd move toward becoming disciples of Jesus, they decided to take action and send “temple guards to arrest Him”.

Jesus’ time was drawing ever near.

So where does that leave us today as we try to do as Jesus did and try and convince others as to who He really is and what that means to them?

Well, in this passage, Jesus is trying to show us that we simply cannot give up speaking the truth about who he really is, where He really came from, and why He had to really come from heaven to earth. For when we do, although many may reject us, some will receive our words and believe.

And that’s more than we will ever achieve if we just choose to give up and remain silent.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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