Day 24 - John 7:25-36
07 Mar 2017
At the end of the last passage Jesus offered a challenge to the crowds - “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgement.” As John turns his attention to recording what the people were thinking, we see that their judgement was seriously flawed.
The people are puzzled that the authorities are letting Jesus teach so openly. Does this mean that they recognise he is the Christ? Yet, they don’t believe. Why? Because they have preconceived ideas about what Christ will be like. They can’t square the fact they know about his human origins (his birth in Bethlehem, his childhood in Nazareth) with the fact he has come from God.
They also have preconceived ideas about what the Christ will do when he comes. Their question in verse 31 seems very strange considering all the signs Jesus has already done - yet they are not enough for them.
The Jewish leaders continue their rejection of Jesus because they have preconceived ideas about what Jesus means when he speaks. Jesus speaks to them about returning to his Father, but this is lost on them. They can only imagine that Jesus is talking about leaving Israel and travelling to other countries.
No one here is “judging with right judgement” - which means humbly listening to Jesus and believing him. How are we listening to Jesus?