Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said,
“This is truly the Prophet.”
Others said, “This is the Christ.”
Jesus made this trip to Jerusalem more as teacher than miracle worker. There were signs that attested to the truth of his message, including the healing of the paralytic at Bethesda, and his works did testify to him. But he did not set about showing off in order to validate his claims. He did not, for instance, tell the Pharisees, "Watch this and then tell me I am not who I say I am", and subject himself to their scrutiny and judgment. Just as he did not jump from the parapet of the temple when tempted by the devil so too here did Jesus refuse to make a reckless display of God's power in order to validate his claim in the in eyes of others. Jesus did not address himself to those who imagined that they sat in judgment over him, but always instead to those who came to him sincerely and in need.
“Why did you not bring him?”
The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.”
If Jesus had come and confronted those who disbelieved with the multiplication of mighty deeds it is likely that it only would have increased the polarization of the crowd. The wounded egos of Pharisees who saw the superficial favor such a performance would create with the crowds would have been all the more eager to arrest him and put him to death. But Jesus knew just how to walk this narrow path of revealing just enough to allow those who truly desired the truth to have it. By not stepping onto the seen like a comic book hero whose power was obvious and evident to all Jesus was able to address himself to people who might never have otherwise heard or responded to his message, including these guards.
“Never before has anyone spoken like this man.”
The Pharisees were supposed to have been the smart ones, the ones who would be the first to recognize the value of true teaching. But their prejudiced opposition to Jesus prevented them from seeing the signs he provided or from hearing the way in which his words were utterly unique. It isn't so different in our own day. We are like the Pharisees in preferring that God would reveal himself in ways that satisfy the scrutiny of our individual judgment, to show up in the scene in ways that we imagine to be undeniable. We too, even we who know it is his MO, tend to struggle with the hidden ways in which Jesus is wont to work. Further, the smarter and more eloquent we are, the more we are already confident of our own understanding of things, the more ready we are to dismiss the words of Jesus. We do not find here a carefully put together philosophical system, nor scientific ideas that we can test be empirical experiments. They are words that can only be proved by hearts that accept them. As one example, his parables seem so simple and mundane as to be worthless to prideful minds. Only hearts that welcome him in humility can see in that simplicity that infinite possibilities for application, and thus transformation. Hence it is to the simple that God has revealed himself while the wise are snared in their own wisdom.
For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the learning of the learned I will set aside" (see First Corinthians 1:19).
It is easy to misinterpret Jesus if we only give a superficial hearing to his words, if we listen only as those who stand in judgment over him. We will then fail to understand the key truth of from where Jesus had his true origin, and not just from where he seemed to come.
Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David’s family
and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
Jesus did in fact come from Bethlehem, unbeknownst to the crowd. But even this was still only another layer of appearance. His true origin was from the Father, begotten not made, from all eternity. Those who came to him with open hearts alone were able to accept this truth. It required at minimum the patience and humility required to listen.
Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them,
“Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him
and finds out what he is doing?”
When God does not work in the way we would prefer, when his revelation of himself is still too hidden for our taste, let us not for this reason reject him in favor of merely human solutions. When his teaching does not confirm we who think ourselves wise in our wisdom but rather unsettles and discomforts us let us not for this reason turn away. Simeon warned Mary that Jesus would be a sign that would be contradicted and Jesus himself confirmed that he would necessarily by a cause of division.
Let us destroy the tree in its vigor;
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name will be spoken no more.
When Jesus refuses to play by the rules of the world, to live up to the world's superficial standards, the world tends to try to silence him and force him into conformity with whatever ideologies are the flavor of the week. We Christians too sometimes try to tame him when he doesn't tow the party line. Let us not try to make ourselves safe from Jesus' influence in this way. CS Lewis captured the untamed reality of Jesus well in the figure of Aslan.
Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good.”
- C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia
When Jesus appears too unimpressive to make a difference, when the way of the cross appears to lead only to failure, we need the faith to which his signs bear witness, to which his words are meant to lead us. We can then surrender our need to understand everything and our desire to be perfectly and exactly in control of our own lives. Walking in freedom from these imagined needs of ours we become able to truly follow him, and not only that, but to find in him the joy he promised.
A shield before me is God,
who saves the upright of heart;
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