John 7:28-30

John 7:28-30
Like the Jewish audience of Jesus' time, do we really know Jesus beyond where he is from and who he claims to be? First century Jews saw Jesus as the carpenter's son from Nazareth in Galilee. He was the humble teacher, miracle performer, and amazing uneducated scholar from the poor Jewish town on the outskirts. Jesus answers their skepticism with a shout in the temple: “You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true" (28). The problem now, and the problem then, is that when we hear Christ in Scripture and prayer, when we see Jesus active in our lives changing us, we still doubt and refuse total surrender of self to Him. For instance, when Jesus declares Himself the Messiah of God, "... I am from him, and he sent me” (29), the pseudo-faithful aim to arrest Him, throwing Christ out of their lives. Are there moments when we, too, hear God's voice in our day and aim to arrest and throw Him out of our lives? If we more often listen and allow Christ to work in us, we, too, will become radiant new creations that "cry out" in the temples of our world "I am from him."