He
came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.
John 1:11, Modern English Version (MEV)
It is easy to misconstrue what the Apostle John is stating here. This is not about Jesus coming among His own people and they didn't know Him. It is, in fact, something far more damning. John is stating that Jesus, the Word, the Logos, came to His own creation and, though they knew Him, they did not receive or accept Him. See the difference? In the first case we could write it off as ignorance, but John provides no room for that excuse at all. When Jesus comes to us there is no mistaking Who He is. Whether or not we choose to receive or accept Him is completely up to us.
We find this rather damning information in the College Press Bible Study Textbook Series. It speaks specifically of the Jews of Jesus’ day, but it could just as easily be speaking directly to us, those who proclaim ourselves followers of him:
Joh_1:11
shows the extreme perversity of men in that even when The Light became
Incarnate, His own (generally speaking) rejected Him. The pathos of the
situation comes out in a literal translation of the text—“he came unto his own
nation and they that were his own people did not receive him.” He came to a
nation that should have prepared itself for Him. He should have been welcomed
like a king—but He was rejected. Israel, her people and all her institutions,
existed only for His glory and His eternal purposes (cf. Zec_2:12; Hos_9:3;
Jer_2:7; Jer_16:18; Lev_25:23; Exo_19:5; Psa_135:4; Deu_7:6; Deu_14:2;
Deu_26:18; Deu_32:9).
John 1:11, Modern English Version (MEV)
It is easy to misconstrue what the Apostle John is stating here. This is not about Jesus coming among His own people and they didn't know Him. It is, in fact, something far more damning. John is stating that Jesus, the Word, the Logos, came to His own creation and, though they knew Him, they did not receive or accept Him. See the difference? In the first case we could write it off as ignorance, but John provides no room for that excuse at all. When Jesus comes to us there is no mistaking Who He is. Whether or not we choose to receive or accept Him is completely up to us.
We find this rather damning information in the College Press Bible Study Textbook Series. It speaks specifically of the Jews of Jesus’ day, but it could just as easily be speaking directly to us, those who proclaim ourselves followers of him:
They knew Him all right! The whole history of Israel was a training school (Gal_3:24) to prepare the Jews to receive the world’s Messiah. But they didn’t want a meek, unmilitaristic and uncorruptible Messiah. The Jewish leaders wanted a Messiah that would help them in their graft—the Jewish people wanted a King that would put bread on their tables, and plenty of it. The parable of the wicked husbandmen (Mat_21:33 ff) represents the Jews as killing the Heir, not in ignorance, but because they did know who He was.
Here is the great tragedy: A people that had so long been nursed, disciplined and prepared to present the Messiah to the world for salvation, scorned and finally shamefully crucified the Incarnate Word. This is why Jesus’ body was racked with great sobs over the city of Jerusalem (Luk_19:41 ff) . . . this is what caused Him to wish agonizingly that He could give them His protecting love, but “they would not” (Mat_23:37 ff). What pathos there is in this verse “he came unto his own home—and his own people gave him no welcome,” It happened to Jesus long ago with Israel—and it is still happening today within New Israel, the Church!
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