Now some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah? Yet we know where this man is from; but when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.” Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.” Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many in the crowd believed in him and were saying, “When the Messiah comes, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering such things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent temple police to arrest him. Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little while longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will search for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.” The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, ‘You will search for me and you will not find me’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?” (John 7:25-36 NRSV)
Why is it that the people here in John think that they will not know where the Messiah is from? Is it written somewhere in Scripture?
My ESV Study Bible has a footnote on verse 27 that tells us a little more details here. “7:27 But we know. Some rabbis taught that the Messiah would be wholly unknown until he set out to procure salvation for Israel. Others, however, were sure about his birthplace (v. 42; cf. Matt. 2:1–6).” Both later in this chapter in John and in Matthew the Messiah is to come from Bethlehem. But some of the rabbis were teaching we would not know where the messiah comes from. But either way if we know or don’t Jesus doesn’t fit because he is from Nazareth, right? So he can not be the one. Because he doesn’t fit what we learned about the messiah and what we have learned is the truth and so it has to fit our understanding our mold. God will not possibly do anything that does not fit what we have learned…
Are we that shallow and that self centered that we want to put God in a box and not allow God to do what God will do? By saying that we have learned it this way and that is the way God has to do it. That is not what happened when Jesus came. He was and is and always will be Christ, but that is not what they had learned the Christ would be or do, but that does not change that is how God did it. So I would venture that God will do it a way we think is wrong again.
Do not confuses the reality of God with what you have learned is how God should act. Allow him to rule and govern your life filling it abundantly with his reality, rather than judging what should be…
aSacredRebel 