what we think we know

Devotions by Jefferson Vann # 2418

John 7:25-30

Joh 7:25 Then some of the Jerusalemites were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are looking for to kill?
Joh 7:26 Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authorities know he is the Messiah?
Joh 7:27 But we know where this one is from. When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.”
Joh 7:28 While teaching in the temple, Jesus cried out, “You know me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own, but the one who sent me is true. You don’t know him;
Joh 7:29 I know him because I am from him, that one sent me.”
Joh 7:30 Then they tried to arrest him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come.

what we think we know

What strikes me as I read this is the misinformation that the Jerusalemites thought they knew about the coming Messiah. It makes me wonder how much of the Christology that we hold to has come from the biblical text, and how much is a product of our history and culture. If the Jerusalemites had really known who Jesus was, and why he had come, they would not have tried to arrest him. If there is one part of my life that I will never regret no matter how it turns out, it is my biblical studies. I want to really know what’s there. I also want to know him because he is my sender.

LORD, we want to know you as our Savior and sender.