S: John 7:25-28, 41-52
25 At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”
28 Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”
…
41 Others said, “He is the Messiah.”
Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? 42 Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” 43 Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. 44 Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.
45 Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
46 “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.
47 “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. 48 “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, 51 “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”
52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
O: Many people didn’t accept Jesus because he broke their preconceived notions. Some of their preconceived notions were non-Biblical — e.g., the idea that “when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.” But some of them were Biblical, e.g., “Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” – and therefore they figured Jesus could not be the Messiah because he was from Galilee, being unaware that he was in fact born in Bethlehem. As for the Pharisee’s claim “a prophet does not come out of Galilee,” there is no Scripture that prohibits it; in fact, the prophet Jonah was from Gath-hepher, a town in Galilee.
This is a warning to us about our own preconceived notions about God.
For example, I used to think “No, you must use the King James Version, because all the other translations are corrupted – they leave out the blood of Jesus in a lot of passages and have other corruptions.” Later, I realised that, actually, the King James Version is different because it was translated from the Textus Receptus – i.e. “received text” – which was copied over the centuries by monks, and not because the modern translations were maliciously corrupted. It is a pretty good copy, but there are various minor differences (and some larger passages, e.g., the end of Mark) compared to earlier manuscripts that have since been discovered.
Another example is how I used to believe that Catholics cannot possibly be Christians because they have all these unbiblical doctrines that “clearly contradict scripture”. When I was doing my Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, I ended up in the Graduate InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, which at that time was 30% Catholic, and I was confronted with so many Catholics who were on fire for Jesus. I also discovered that many of my old prejudices against them were unfounded.
A third example is how I used to think that you had to believe that the universe was created in literally 6 days and it’s really only 6,000 or 10,000 years old “because the Bible said so” and that modern scientific understanding was clearly unbiblical and incompatible. I have since come to realise that the incompatibility wasn’t between the Bible and a scientific understanding of the universe, but with particular interpretations of both the Bible and scientific understanding.
A: I need to continue to keep an open mind, even as I test new ideas against Scripture – realising that sometimes my preconceived notions about what is scriptural might need to be adjusted.
But at the same time, I need to be led by the Holy Spirit so that I don’t go off into heresy even as I might have to adjust my theology.
P: Father, please continue to lead and guide me into all truth. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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