In today's reading from John 7:37-52, some who hear Jesus become convinced that he must be the Messiah. But others raise an objection. "Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he?" Now we may want to quickly dismiss this objection by pointing out that Jesus is born in Bethlehem and not Galilee. However, the gospel of John makes no mention of this. It makes no attempt to explain away this objection. Rather, the fact that the Messiah cannot come from Galilee is simply one of those things that is "known" by the teachers and leaders of Judaism. And what they "know" prevents them from seeing what is right in front of their faces.
In my own faith life, I often want to get things all figured out. I want to get my theology and doctrines all neatly arranged, and I'd just as soon God not go around doing things in ways that mess up my neatly ordered theological and doctrinal precepts. And here I find kindred souls in the Pharisees of John's gospel.
I've probably raised the following question before in this space, but I think I need to hear it over and over again. How many times do I miss what God is doing in my very midst because I "know" that God wouldn't do things that way, wouldn't work through those folks, or wouldn't go against my understanding of Scripture?
What do you think?
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