Mixed reactions

John 7 : 40 - 53

...there was a division among the people over him....

I do not think it is any easier for people to believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ today than it was when he walked our world clothed in human flesh. In Jesus' time, people who actually heard him teach responded with varying degrees of belief. Some came to view him as a prophet and others as the Christ....and even the officers could detect something 'more' in the way he spoke. So they did not arrest him. But not all responded positively. It was the Pharisees, the guardians of religion, those who believed they knew best, who declared that the crowd's view was in a way, 'heresy'. After all, the common people were ignorant - not schooled in the law - of course they had not been to 'seminary', and carried no religious titles, so who were they to make judgments on such weighty matters? In fact, the common crowd were lost in sinfulness and their view counted for nothing.

The arrogance of the very ones supposed to be 'religious' reminds me that we ought to examine ourselves if and when we begin to hide behind our own religiosity. "We know it all" is a common attitude; for after all we have studied the Bible well and can make 'foolproof' ("Biblically proven", of course) statements about various matters related to morality and beliefs. And being 'right' gives us every right to make judgments on the spiritual state of others.

But the Pharisees got it all wrong. Not because they were evil or atheistic, but because they were looking for God in the wrong places. I believe we can get it wrong too if we believe that we can label, classify and neatly define everything about God - which means there is no room to ask questions, to seek honestly and to experience God in unique ways. In his day, Jesus often caught people off guard, he had no 'orthodox' doctrines to uphold, he came to people who, in their neediness had space for him in their lives. Those too full of their own counsel of course had no place in their hearts to receive him. And we could be there too today, unless we remain open and attentive to his surprisingly gracious appearances in our lives.

In "Abba's Child", Brennan Manning speaks of the Pharisee as the 'religious face of the imposter'...the false self that prefers legalism to the freedom and joy of living as God's beloved child.