Look Harder

John 7:41 "Others said, " This is the Christ". But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?"

John 7:46 The officers (who were sent to arrest him) answered, "No one ever spoke like this man!"

"I can't find my shoes dad", moans my tired oldest son Cal about every other morning as we are border line late leaving for carpool. "Well, have you looked for them son" comes my reply. "Yes, but I can't find them" is the reply. About 50 % of the time the shoes that are seemingly impossible for him to locate are within about ten feet of his position as he firmly concludes they are lost. The other half of the time they are by his bed or by the couch downstairs where he took them off the night before. After the upteenth speech about looking hard, logically backtracking your steps and making sure that your conclusions are solid before you announce that your shoes are lost, I hand them to him and we pile into the car and head for school and work.

As Jesus hits the scene, there were conflicting opinions of who he was; the Christ? John the Baptist? A Demon possessed man? Elijah? The words of the Jews in John 7:41 above reveal a lack of desire to discover the Truth of who Jesus was. Like my son who is just to tired to really look, they state two scriptural facts that point to and confirm Christ as Messiah yet don't dive into the facts of his life so they assume wrongly that Jesus is not the Messiah. In reading it I often wonder in disbelief that when they saw these acts and miracles that they didn't even send someone to interview the family, or check a temple registration, or census or something, to try and see if the facts of Christ matched the prophecy spoken of Him. Laziness and a lack of desire to know the Truths of God that were unfolding in front of their eyes kept them in the dark, quite literally.

Compare that to the officers who were sent to arrest Christ, we see five verses later the words of men who actually looked and listened deeper to Jesus who ws trying to help men answer the question of the day, " Is Jesus the Messiah?" When these guys returned to the Pharisees who sent them they were asked' "Where is He , Why did you not arrest Him?". There response is one of awe,"No one ever spoke like this man". You can hear their awe of Christ in their words. Once they saw and felt His power and glory they were certainly not going to make an attempt to arrest Him. Why would they? He was pouring out love, truth and life with every breath, action and move. There was simply no grounds to arrest Him except the cowardly jealousy of the religious establishment. As they heard His witness, something moved them to understand Jesus was unique and amazing.

Now look at the contrast between these two groups. The first group is lazy and content to make conclusions based on apparent face value and prevailing thoughts of the culture. The officers actually investigated Christ and were awed by Him. The first group pulled up shy of truly looking harder into the prophecies and facts that were unfolding that would reshape human history. The officers actually bumped into the creator and sustainer of the universe and were amazed at Christ.

These two types of groups still exist today. One group too lazy or blinded to look into the complex fulfillment of prophecies in Christ, and the other group looking deep into Christians being awed by Him at every turn. History confirms prophecy foretold 500+ years before Christ walked the face of the Earth. He is neither a good teacher nor a fairy tell, He is a fact. Fully man, fully God crucified and raised in victory.

Go look for yourself, look hard, look deep, and be amazed.