Mark 14:53-65
Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?"
"I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."
That’s it! This trial is over now. Jesus is quickly condemned for blasphemy!
However, at the beginning perhaps many of them secretly wonder. Maybe, just maybe, this Jesus is the promised Messiah – The Christ.
But any hopeful seeds of faith evaporate the moment Jesus claims to be a part of heaven. Their conception of the coming Christ included many things but Deity was not one of them!
Amazing! God is standing right in front of them and yet He is under their radar! A stealth invasion from heaven they can’t detect.
None of them had the faintest idea the future Savior they hoped for would in fact be God Himself. It was beyond their wildest imaginations that God would come incognito! Disguised in flesh!
Today, the world still can’t receive Jesus because they don’t expect God! For them Jesus can be a good man but not a God-man! A great moral teacher, but not God coming in human form to instruct us!
This is the reason most do not receive the sacrifice of Jesus for their sins. They aren’t looking for God. They don’t recognize Him.
And this is the reason many do not become serious students of Jesus. They don’t engage the process to become more like God because they don’t believe God ever became like them!
Very insightful, Denny.
ReplyDeleteRay
With the mob mentality of those gathered (in the evening, not in the day when most were around nad Jesus could have been found teaching in the temple) and the falese witnesses that were trying to convict but rather contradicted each other, it is no wonder that they missed the obvious: Jesus was innocent of blasphemy because he was (is) God!
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree with your thoughts, Denny, and appreciate them. There are 4 main reasons I see people reject Christ: they don't think He cares for them, they don't think he can relate with them (as Denny mentioned), they doubt his ability to forgive someone like them, or they don't want anyone telling them what to do.
If you admit He is who He is, then you must submit yourself to Him. I think this might have been some of the case with the religious leaders of the day.
It's easier for some to say "He can't really be who He claimed to be" than to admit He is right and follow His ways.