Jesus Confounded Would-Be Captors

What Did Jesus Do?

“Where does this man intend to go...What does he mean?”
John 7.35,36

The last thing you want to hear when you have sent a posse out to arrest Public Enemy #1 is that he has given your deputies the slip. Ancient Palestine was not that large a country, suspects could run, but they could not hide. The long arm of the chief priests and Pharisees did not often fail to bring those accused of doing wrong to justice. But when, in response to the muttering of the crowd, officers were sent out to apprehend him (John 7.32), Jesus confounded his would-be captors.

The thing was, neither the posse, nor those who sent it out, got it. And when you don't get it, you don't get Him. Jesus would soon return to where he came, to the Father who had sent him. But since the chief priests and Pharisees did not get that the Father had sent Jesus, they could not accept him as the Son. And, if you don't get who Jesus is, you don't get to go to where he is. It's pretty simple, really, yet quite confusing to the wise (see 1Corinthians 1.20-25), and no one presumed to be as wise as the priests and Pharisees.

Actually, their best guess was that Jesus intended to flee the country, and go to the Hellenized Jews in the Dispersion (John 7.35). But, in truth, they acknowledged that they really had no idea at all what Jesus was talking about (John 7.36). To be fair, his own Apostles were still trying to understand all that Jesus said to them. They themselves did not yet understand that their Master and friend was serious when he spoke of his approaching death and resurrection, but they were learning, slowly.

Were it not for the work of the Holy Spirit, no one in the First Century, or the Twenty-first, or any of the centuries in between, could ever get it, which means without the Spirit no one can get Him. The irony is, while Jesus confounded his would-be captors who rejected him, he made captives of all who received him. It is quite a different thing to be a prisoner of grace, love, and mercy, rather than of hate. It's like this, while those who don't get it don't get Him, He always gets those he seeks.

As believers our job is to proclaim the Gospel to all, to tell the world about the love of the Father who sent his Son so that through him the world should be saved (John 3.17). Some will be confounded by the Good News, but through the Holy Spirit the Good News will also capture many.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4