Text: John 7:40-43
Date: January 3, 2021
Event: The Second Sunday after Christmas, Year B
John 7:40-43 (EHV)
After hearing his words, some of the people said, “This is truly the Prophet.” 41Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Surely the Christ does not come from Galilee, does he? 42Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ comes from David’s descendants and from the little town of Bethlehem where David lived?” 43So the people were divided because of him.
The Truth Divides and Unifies
Have you ever had that uncomfortable conversation with someone who was convinced they were right but they were really, really wrong? Maybe it was a child who had some bad information. Maybe it was a parent or grandparent who just didn’t understand what they were talking about or were conflating two different things. Maybe it was someone who felt they were an expert in your special area of interest or expertise but in reality just knew enough to be dangerous.
These conversations are frustrating because you know better, but to convince the person you’re talking to of that can be really difficult. So, if it wasn’t all that important, perhaps you just let it go because forcing people to acknowledge you’re right is probably not a great thing. Likewise, if it was really important, perhaps you had to sit down with the person and slowly, carefully, and gently explain why they were wrong and about what they thought.
As we’ve gone through the Christmas season, we’ve seen times of possible confusion about Jesus and the events surrounding his birth and how God stepped in through angels or shepherds or faithful believers to explain and extol everything this child would grow to be and do. But this morning we jump ahead a bit to Jesus’ adulthood, to his ministry. He’s been gaining in popularity, although that popularity has recently hit a slide as he made clear his reason for being with the people was not to provide free food, but to provide himself as the solution to their sins (cf. John 6, esp. vv. 66-69).
Jesus was never popular with the religious leaders but at this point the crowd is starting to divide on their thoughts about him too. His teaching clearly had its intended results for many of them. The Holy Spirit worked faith in the hearts of many in the crowd, and we hear their statements of faith at the start of our brief Gospel: After hearing his words, some of the people said, “This is truly the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” They were right on. Jesus was the Prophet God promised through Moses. Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, long promised from the Garden of Eden through all of the prophets. Whether or not the people fully understood the true role and work of the Messiah is another matter, but they were clearly demonstrating their faith in Jesus’ teaching and trusting that Jesus was who he said he was.
But others come with doubt and division: “Surely the Christ does not come from Galilee, does he? Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ comes from David’s descendants and from the little town of Bethlehem where David lived?” Too true! We heard that specific promise in our first lesson from Micah 5: Bethlehem in the area of Ephrathah in the southern region of Judea would be the place from which God’s eternal ruler, the Messiah, would come. Could the Christ really be one who came from the northern region of Galilee, from Nazareth of all places? Nazareth had no connection to King David whatsoever!
Here was issue. They were asking the right questions, but they didn’t go to the right source for the answers. They were relying on themselves and their own presuppositions about who Jesus was rather than inquiring further about him. It certainly might have happened, but nowhere in Scripture do we have anyone questioning Jesus saying, “Teacher, you claim to be the Christ, but the Scriptures say the Christ will be born in Bethlehem.” To which Jesus might possibly have answered, “Wonderful question! Do you remember Caesar’s census some 30-odd years ago…?” It seems likely that this confusion was one of the reasons the Holy Spirit inspired both Luke and Matthew to hammer home Jesus’ Bethlehem birth and very early life.
But rather than inquiring of the truth from Jesus we’re only told the people were divided because of him. Those assumptions and half-truths prevented some from seeing who Jesus really is and what he had come to do for them.
Do we sometimes let our own presuppositions divide us? Do we let our assumptions about what I do or don’t want God to have said or done rule the way I think about my spiritual journey? Do we sometimes place more emphasis on what we want to be true rather than the truth that God has provided for us in his Word? Are we guilty of, at times, wanting to bend God to our will rather than having him conform us to his? Sometimes we approach God’s Word with our fingers in our ears shouting out “lalalalalala I can’t hear you!” when he tries to teach us. Sometimes, we can approach his Word and his truth in these ways and not even realize we’re doing it.
There is plenty of misinformation and an abundance of misunderstandings about Jesus out there. Perhaps you shared a Christmas dinner table or video call with some of them among your own family or friends last week. Someone who thinks Jesus was a good man or an upright teacher but nothing more. Someone who doesn’t think Jesus as he’s presented in the Bible ever existed. Someone who thinks the whole story of a virgin birth, angels and shepherds, etc., is all just a crazy fairy tale. Maybe someone thinks it might be true, but they just don’t care enough for it to interfere with living the way they want to live.
But the reality is that all of Scripture’s accounts of Jesus’ life and work are true. Everything that Jesus came to do he accomplished. The birth we celebrated just a little over a week ago is always pointing us ahead to his death. Simeon made that clear as he took the infant Jesus into his arms as we heard last week. The angel who announced Jesus’ upcoming birth to Joseph had also made his work clear by the name he gave him: “You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
And that’s where the rub really comes, right? It’s not the events surrounding Christmas or Good Friday or Easter that are fundamentally objectionable to people. It’s the truth that all of these events point to. Unbelievers and believers alike do not like to be shown their sin. We as people do not like to be told that we need a Savior. We do not like to be told that we need God’s help, rescue, or forgiveness. We want to do it on our own. But we cannot. We want to believe our own narratives that we construct, but that is not truth.
These truths may cause divisions—dividing us from other people or even causing contradictions in our own hearts. But just because the truth causes these divisions doesn’t make it any less true. Jesus is still who he is whether I want to accept it or not, whether I understand it or not, whether I know reality or not, whether I accept my need or not. We must take God at his Word and give thanks for what he’s done for us.
And that’s still the joy of Christmas. Not in ornaments and lights and treats and presents under the tree. No, the joy of Christmas is that we had a spiritual need that God has completely met in Jesus. Our sins are forgiven by the baby who was born, who would grow, live, and die in our place. Our hearts may not like to hear the truth by nature, but the Holy Spirit has shown us the truth for what it is: our eternal life.
As we enter into the season of Epiphany this week, starting with next Sunday, we’re going to see Jesus more clearly reveal to those around him and to us as well who exactly he is. We will see the truth that might divide us from those around us. We will feel that uncomfortable sensation inside of us as the the truth tells us things about ourselves that we don’t want to the true. But in the end we will rejoice in the truths about our Savior that unify us with the members of our congregation and with all believers of all time in the Holy Christian Church.
May the truth that Jesus has come for you and has saved you unite you with God and your fellow Christians. May that truth fill you with joy in these earliest days of this new year and for the rest of your life. Thanks be to God! Merry Christmas! Amen.
