John 7:40-53 English Standard Version (ESV)
Division Among the People
40When they heard these words, some of the people said, This really is the Prophet. 41Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Is the Christ to come from Galilee?42Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was? 43So there was a division among the people over him. 44Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
45The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, Why did you not bring him? 46The officers answered, No one ever spoke like this man! 47The Pharisees answered them, Have you also been deceived?48Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed. 50Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does? 52They replied, Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.53They went each to his own house.
Jesus has a way of stirring things up. The dissension and chaos surrounding Him continues to grow. It's pretty easy to notice that people see Jesus through whatever lens they personally possess. Some call Him a prophet, others a Savior. Notice that the views people hold regarding who Jesus is are many and disparate, and grow even more divergent the further removed they are from Him.
When the officers were instructed to take Jesus into custody and returned empty-handed, they had to face the wrath of the chief priests and Pharisees.
Why did these officers not arrest Jesus?
In the midst of the wide range of rumors and opinion of who Jesus was swirling all around this scene, these officers formed a different opinion, an opinion not formed from a distance, for they had spoken directly to Him.
Why did they not arrest Him? Because they listened to Him. They didn't form an opinion of who Jesus was from a distance. They talked to Him.
This, of course, was immediately dismissed by the leaders who concluded the officers had been deceived like everyone else.
And just as we often do when we encounter challenges to the way we see things, instead of embracing the conflict within themselves this had created, instead of surrendering their false views of who Jesus was, everyone simply went home.
They just left.
Don't we often do the same?
Often, when we are invited to live in a new home, a new way of thinking and being,instead of giving up our old way of thinking and being, we simply go back home to what we know.
Everyone simply "went home each to his own house." (verse 53)
To give up their old home, to see Jesus for who He really is, was too much for them.
For reflection...
Jesus is always stirring up our preconceptions of who He is and who we are.
How have you lived your spiritual life with Jesus from a distance? Have you formed opinions of who He is from afar instead of going to Him?
What would it entail for you to listen to who He says He is?
Jesus created you with a vision of who you are in mind. Areyou be able to accept who He created you to be even before you were bornand pack your bags andlive with Him in what He originally had in mind for you? Why or why not?
If you simply want to go home and forget all of this talk of moving, does yesterday's post help you to see that Jesus is with you even in your temporary home?
