John 7:28-44
I don’t usually cover such a large chunk, but as I read through Chapter 7 I felt the same themes were repeated throughout these verses.

This section starts with the statement by Jesus that indeed the people knew who He was as a person and where He was from. Then He said something that they must have considered extraordinary. He said He was not there on his own and the person who had sent Him was true. He then told the people that they did not know the one who had sent Him but Jesus did because He came from Him. This must have led to a bit of head scratching because it does sound like a riddle. It is easy for us, standing this side of the cross with 2,000 years of history behind us and a good knowledge of the story of Jesus, to understand this. For the people of Jesus’ time had no idea what He meant. There were those who had heard Jesus speak before and knew he was referring to God. These were the ones who tried to seize him.

Notice the Bible says that no one laid a hand on Him because His time had not yet come. When Jesus’ time had come the leaders had no trouble grabbing Jesus and doing terrible things to Him.I find that statement really powerful. Nothing was going to get in the way of God’s plan for this fallen world and for us, the fallen people. It adds a whole layer of meaning to Luke 23:35 when Jesus hung on the cross and those passing sneered and said “He saved others; let him save himself if He is the Christ of God, the Chosen One” (NIV). How ignorant can you get! Had it been Jesus’ will He would have saved Himself. But His will was to do the will of His Father and that was to die on the cross for our sins.

There are many other aspects of these verses I will discuss in the next blog.

John 7:25-27 continued.
The other comment Matthew Henry made about these verses is the statement the people made that no-one would know where the Messiah came from and they knew where Jesus came from. But what did “not knowing where the Messiah came from” mean and was that scripturally true?
In Micah 5:2 Bethlehem is identified as the birthplace of the anticipated Messiah. There is nowhere in the Old Testament where it says no-one will know where the Messiah comes from. Some Jews of the time believed that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and others believed his origins would be unknown, even though there was nothing to say that was so. Certainly, people did not understand His divine origins so it could be argued that they did not know where He came from. Matthew Henry accused these people who said they would not know where the Messiah came from as not knowing the scriptures. That is an interesting point. We all fall for that one in our lives. We hear it said that something is wrong or we should do something a particular way, yet the scriptures say nothing about those things. I think this is a good warning to be careful to study the scriptures before jumping in with pronouncements.
To complete the discussion on these three verses it is interesting to note that the people were aware of how much the Jewish leaders wanted Jesus dead. They were remarking here that the leaders were doing nothing about it. I am sure they wondered about this. He was here in Jerusalem, why not kill Him now? The only answer to that is that His time had not yet come. If Jesus’ time had not come then God would have stayed the hand of the leaders and prevented them from killing Him. History is full of inexplicable delays in a particular action being carried out that has allowed certain people to escape. One example is the events surrounding the evacuation of Dunkirk in World War II. The German Army stopped before the final assault on Dunkirk and allowed thousands of troops to escape. They had not valid reason for stopping. Could it be that God stopped them to allow the escape to happen? Never underestimate God’s power to intervene in today’s world, just as He did in Biblical times.

Sorry about the lateness of this posting. I was at an all day counselling workshop Saturday. Thought I would be able to sit down and write my blog when I got home but realised I did not have the time to sit with God, an essential part of writing.
One sad comment I heard at the workshop was in a group discussion about how to counsel lonely callers. One lovely counsellor said she always refers lonely people to a local church. Our manager, an inspiring man of great faith, replied that he would not refer them. His explanation was that “churches are cliquey places. The bigger the church the worse the cliques. The only time a newcomer will be welcomed into a church is if there is an outgoing person in the congregation who sees it as their ministry to welcome newcomers”.
I felt really sad about that. Even though I know from my own experience, and that of others, that his statement was true, I worry that the church does not do what Jesus intended it to do. It should be the best place to direct a lonely person or a new Christian. Instead these vulnerable people are pushed away from God by the unwelcoming reception they receive from the people in the church. Looking at this lovely counsellor and listening to her talk, I realised this lovely lady had a severely limited experience of life. She was one of those Church attendees who looks askance at a poorly clothed person, or one dressed like a prostitute and who cannot see past foul language to the person in need. She is a prime example of many in the churches who so surround themselves with the safety of church walls that they fail to walk among the people as Jesus did.
In previous blogs I have talked about the leaders of Jesus’ time building walls of rules around the people to prevent them from sinning. Their focus became the adherence of the rules instead of God. They lost sight of all that God was and ceased to have a relationship with God. In the same way, many in the modern church have become like that. They wrap themselves in their church doctrine, their church cliques and their “you must only mix with Christians or the world will corrupt you” and forget that this is not what Jesus called them to do. The most obvious verse on this subject is Matthew 28:19-20 when Jesus told his disciples to go out into the world and make disciples of all the nations. If you look in the New Testament, both in the gospels and in the other books, you will find constant references to God’s call to us to do as Jesus’ commanded.
We must not hide behind the church, or doctrine, or false doctrine that says we must never mix with non Christians. We must not allow ourselves to be corrupted by harsh judgementalism. We must follow Jesus’ lead and go out amongst the people and interact with them. When God created Adam and Eve, he created them to be in relationship, both with Himself and with each other. Jesus demonstrated this by the way he interacted with all people he came across. He didn’t walk down the footpath with his eyes averted, ignoring the people he went past, as so many people do these days. He didn’t ignore the people in His street. He didn’t go to worship on the Sabbath and stick in His little clique. He went out into the world, acknowledging and sometimes even seeking people out. As western cultures have become more focused on the individual, the church has happily followed. Most Churches are no longer the source of Jesus’ love. There is no longer an open, welcoming, loving spirit in these churches. People no longer have others concerned to help them. People no longer feel moved to reach out to others. Instead they say “I don’t feel led to pursue this ministry”. God will always place in a church those who are gifted to pursue all ministries. This means people are ignoring God, and pastors are not encouraging those in the congregation with the gifts of hospitality, welcoming and supporting to use them.
I will continue my discussion of John 7:25-27 in the next blog.

John 7:25-27
In these verses, people who lived in Jerusalem and were apparently aware of the plans of the leaders to kill Jesus noticed He spoke freely, without hindrance, in the temple. In verse 26 they made the comment that maybe it is because the leaders have concluded He is the Christ. This is an ironic comment and was no doubt accompanied by much laughter. After all, they knew where He came from and when the Christ arrives, they won’t know where he comes from!
There are a lot of interesting comments and reflections to make on these verses. For this, I will be drawing my inspiration from Matthew Henry’s commentary on the Bible.

The first comment Matthew Henry made was that those in Jerusalem were the most prejudiced against Jesus. He considered this was due to the fact that, contrary to what we would naturally conclude, those who are closest to the source of knowledge (in this case the temple) often have the least faith. I found that an interesting comment. Reflecting on that I can see there is a lot of truth in that. I don’t know whether it is ‘familiarity breeding contempt’ or, as Matthew Henry remarked, that those with the greatest access to the knowledge and grace of God are more commonly made worse because of complacency not better because of faith. Matthew Henry quoted a proverb “the nearer the church the further from God”. In Englishclub.com it is explained as implying “that those who are most involved in any religious system, its organizers and high priests, are in danger of separating themselves from God”. It can also be “a warning about placing too much importance on material buildings, and a reminder that God is everywhere”. That saying and its definition is fascinating. Matthew Henry’s commentary was written in 1706, and it reveals that there have always been Christians unhappy with the way the Church of Jesus is being overtaken by secular interests. It has always happened and will probably continue to happen. I find it sad that, if I meet a new Christian in need of mentoring and guidance and I am not in a position to mentor them myself, there is no physical church that I know of that I can direct them to. This is not to say there aren’t good churches out there. It is just that at this moment in time I am not aware of any, and that makes me sad. I would refer them to the internet and The School of Christ, but I would also like to be able to refer them to someone who can be physically present as well.

I will continue discussing these verses in the next blog.