(Audio)
"Never before has anyone spoken like this man."
But can we give Jesus a fair hearing? When Jesus calls us to hope more than we have ever dared to hope do still recognize him as the Christ? More likely we begin telling ourselves that we know where he's from and therefore who he is and what his limits are. We've built categories for Jesus that keep him from having the impact on our lives that he otherwise might. We've heard a little about him but are we still listening?
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?"
Jesus is calling us to recognize him as the Christ. When we recognize him, his power to transform us and the world is unleashed. However, there is a part of each one of us that clings to how things were, to the past, and to sin. That part hasn't been able to completely prevent our contact with Jesus. But it will nevertheless be happy if it can prevent any further growth.
"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."
Jesus is in us. But his persecutors are also in us. Their strategy is to stop us from listening. They want us to slide into self-reliance instead of relying on God moment to moment. But we overcome them simply. We need simply listen, and in listening, recognize the voice of the one like whom no one ever spoke.
O LORD, my God, in you I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and rescue me,
Lest I become like the lion's prey,
to be torn to pieces, with no one to rescue me.
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