(Audio)
“This is truly the Prophet.”
Others said, “This is the Christ.”
To see Jesus clearly is to recognize who he is. When we turn to him he reveals himself to us. But too often when we are confronted with Jesus we turn aside to our preconceptions and expectations of Jesus. We think of Jesus, but through the lens of something else.
But others said, “The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he?
Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David’s family
and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
It is easy to get lost in our own ideas and the ideologies with which we agree. From these we gets tests against which we can measure Jesus, or what Jesus is asking us to do now, to see if we're going to accept him and what he tells us. But we can short circuit this defect in our awareness if we recognize ourselves beginning to shift focus from Jesus, as he lives in the here and now of each moment, to our own thoughts, our own preconceptions or ideas. Our minds tend to be dominated by unhelpful habitual patterns of thought. But when we recognize Jesus, and our turning from him to these, we begin to desire and immediately receive healing for our minds. It's a gradual process. But each time we catching ourselves succumbing we gain by grace greater ability to recognize and respond next time.
The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.”
Jesus spoke with authority that could be recognized when it was heard. The humble were able to discern it. The lofty were the ones who often had trouble. They had the greatest preexisting commitments to the structures of this world. They didn't want Jesus to overturn their way of thinking which compelled them to have those commitments.
Those who read and write blogs about Jesus are more likely to be among the lofty than the lowly. We are among those more likely to have created habit patterns of thought that resist Jesus and his transformation. Still, no matter how tightly we cling to these, the LORD's truth when eventually be vindicated.
Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause!
But the sooner we receive that vindication in ourselves the sooner and the more completely we will be open to Jesus and to what he is saying to us. We can avail ourselves now, through faith, of the victory of that vindication.
no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed,
and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment (Isaiah 54:17)
We receive this victory by the Spirit who then opens our ears to listen.
“Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him
and finds out what he is doing?”
Our old self always condemns before listening. Our new self is free and open to listen.
Speak LORD, we're listening.
O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.
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