So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” As he was saying these things, many believed in him. John 8:21-30
When the Pharisees asked Jesus who he was they asked a question that has been asked over and over for the last two thousand years. Finding the answer to this question is the most important thing anyone will ever do. At stake is all eternity and where each person will spend it. It is a question each person will have to answer, but it is a question that everyone who seeks to find an answer will be able to find it. God will give anyone seeking who Jesus is the access they need to find the answer.
I have often wondered would it have been easier to recognize Jesus for who He is back in the first century when you would have been able to witness the miracles He performed or to hear as He taught or today when we have the complete Word of God. It seems that in either time some believed he was God and some refused to accept Jesus as the Christ. I have come to believe that it would not matter when you lived; if you are open to belief then you will come to Him. Yet, if your mind is closed then no matter how much evidence is presented to you, you will refuse to believe.
The Pharisees were not capable of believing what they saw and heard. While they claimed to be waiting for God to send His Messiah, they were too invested in their own power and status to accept what was right before them. So today, no matter how much evidence is presented to some, they are not able to open their minds to the possibility of a God who wants to have a relationship with them.
In the case of the unbeliever I always come back to what Abraham says to the rich man when the rich man asks to send Lazarus back to earth to tell the brother to change their lives, “if they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced should one rise from the dead.” (Luke 16:31) In this parable, Jesus shows us that some will refuse to believe no matter what evidence they are confronted with. Even when Jesus was resurrected so many refused to believe.
Have a blessed day,
David
