Day 17 – Could he be the Christ?

John 7:25-52

Then some people from Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this the man they want to kill? Look, he is speaking openly, and they say nothing to him. Could the leaders have judged that this really is the Christ? No, we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”

So Jesus schooled them in the temple, crying out, “You do know me, and you know where I am from, and I have not sent myself. But the one who sent me is true, and you don’t know him. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”

At that, they tried to arrest Jesus; but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come. But many from the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Christ comes, will he do any more miracles than this man?” The Pharisees heard the masses murmuring these things about Jesus, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.

Then Jesus said, “I will be with you a little while longer, then I depart to the one who sent me. You will seek me and won’t find me. Where I am, you cannot come.”

So the Jews said amongst themselves, “Where will this man go that we won’t find him? Will he go to our people scattered amongst the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What is this word he said, ‘You will seek me, and won’t find me;’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

Now on the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink! Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from their bellies will flow rivers of living water.” He said this about the Holy Spirit, which believers were about to receive. But the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

When they heard these words, many of the crowd said, “This is truly the prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “What, does the Christ come out of Galilee? Hasn’t the Scripture said that the Christ comes from David’s descendants, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” So the people were divided because of Jesus. Some would have arrested him, but no one laid hands on him. So the officers went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this man!”

The Pharisees answered back, “You haven’t been taken in too, have you? Have any of the rulers or any of the Pharisees believed in him? No, but this mob that doesn’t know the law is cursed.”

Nicodemus, the one of them who went to Jesus at night, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and finding out what he has done?”

They answered him, “Are you from Galilee too? Look into it and you will see that no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”

For reflection

Imagine you are full of food and drink at the end of a festival – how do you react to Jesus offering more? Are there things you still need and want from him?