I find verse 12 fascinating. What do you think of Him? I bet Jesus is in the crowd and people are whispering about Him. Very rarely are people what we make them out to be. We speak of their goodness or badness, but ultimately people are never as good or as bad as we make them. People are complex and our views of people are often skewed. Look at the Tiger Woods' deal – everyone expects him to be perfect and to be a great golfer, father and husband. He should be, but he has been hiding so many things for so long and getting away with it – until he didn't. People might think I am either good or bad – but they don't know the real me, not really. If they could live with me they would see that I am neither – and without Christ I would be worse! Jesus, however, is every good thing we attribute to Him. He is sinless and holy. He may not be a giant or a magician, as I am sure some in the crowd had heard. They didn't even know what they were looking for, and He was in their midst, saying what they thought of Him. How do you think of Him? How do you perceive Him? I wonder if we are much different than that crowd.
One of my favorite parts of John is that Jesus keeps walking through the crowd without being caught. I think this is so cool, for "His time had not yet come."
I would encourage you to go read about the Feast of Tabernacles, and see why Jesus' statement on the "last and greatest day of the Feast" was so important – go ahead, do it!
http://www.bible-truth.org/Feasts-Tabernacles.html
ReplyDeleteWhen Jesus speaks of himself as the water of life and the pouring out of it from himself he is referencing what the ritual of pouring water from a golden vessel in the Feast means. He's saying he will give/pour out the Holy Spirit to those who believe. The ritual in the Feast is about him. He is the Messiah.
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ReplyDeleteI find it interesting the two separate points of error that are made in terms of attempts to identify Jesus as the Messiah. In vs. 20 the Jewish people reason that since they knew where Jesus came from, he could not be the Messiah (whom they assumed no one would know of his origin.) They were ignorant of the OT Scriptures since Micah predicts that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem. (Mic 5:2) Then in 41-42, the crowd argues because they do agree the Christ should come from Bethlehem but they think Jesus can't be him because they think he came from Galilee. Here the people knew the Scriptures but didn't take the time to know the Messiah.
ReplyDeleteI wonder which of these errors we might fall into. Are we quick to assume God isn't who He says He is or won't fulfill a promise He's made to us because we are ignorant of Him as He's revealed Himself in Scripture? Or do we know a lot of head knowledge about Biblical truth but fail to truly know the Person who is the fulfillment of that word- especially when He shows up in our daily lives?