Reflection On John 7: 40-53

Jesus came to this world to bring us life, grace and wisdom. It was His mission to lead us to the kingdom of Heaven. One of the indirect proofs that Jesus truly is God that He understands our stupidity and tolerates it in His efforts to teach us at least a rudimentary spiritual way of life. One would imagine that Jesus must have sometimes thought of this world in the vein expressed by George Bernard Shaw. He once said, “From the actions of humankind it seems to me as if this particular planet of ours must be the insane asylum for some other world.”
In this passage Jesus simply wants to teach the people, but they almost immediately become engaged in a major dispute about His credentials. He told then many times He was a prophet, but they refused to believe. His adversaries manufactured various religious reasons why He wasn’t. Humankind is an undisciplined class even for the world’s most outstanding teacher. The passage ends with all the participants angrily going to their own separate houses. How much better it would have been had they all gone to the Lord’s house and talked to God and each other, thus resolving their indifference through mutual understanding.
If we are too rigid about our beliefs, rules and regulations and act upon our guesses alone, we may lose sight of the reality. The Pharisees were so convinced that no prophet can come from Galilee; they never bothered to find the reality; and so they just neglected Jesus whom they thought was a Galilean. They could not tolerate someone who was questioning their very acts. Don’t we too posses this Pharisaic attitude when we are not open to the people who challenge our beliefs, ideas etc?  As Henry Nouwen points out, “Often it is very hard to give up familiar ways and create space for strangers. The temptation to settle down in a comfortable oasis is too strong to resist and frequently we forget the divine call itself.” Let us seek the blessings of the Lord that we may be able and open enough to let grace work in and through us.


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