Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.
It is possible to become inoculated against Jesus. It is possible to be overexposed to religion, desensitized to church.
Which means it is possible to stare Life in the face, and choose to walk away unmoved, unchanged, uninspired. Maybe, like us, they’ve grown cynical with the religion charlatans and church playactors. Yawn.
This might be the biggest miracle of all.
Jesus never strong-arms people. Never overwhelms. Never browbeats. Believing in the Jesus of John’s gospel is never compulsory. Here is the case. Do with it what you want. Piece by piece, John lays out the evidence that Jesus is the God of Israel in the flesh. He turns water to wine. He heals an official’s son. He heals an invalid. He feeds a multitude. He walks on water. He heals a blind man. He even raises Lazarus from the dead.
Jesus lived a persuasive life. In John, he lives to persuade people to believe God. Every action and every word is to that end. And by the time you get to Lazarus, man, if you’re not going to believe after seeing a dead man walking around like nothing happened, nothing’s going to grab you.
It happened then. It happened in Isaiah’s day. As John reminds us, it wasn’t new for Jesus and his disciples. And it still happens today.
John even shows us two kinds of people with blind eyes and hard hearts. One outright rejects him. The second believe, but are afraid to show it. He describes to us people of influence in the community who kept it to themselves for fear of what it would do to their reputation.
That doesn’t happen to you and me, does it?
Father, give us eyes to see and hearts to feel.
What do you think? What do you see?
Fiftyeight 