We have been transported back in time to 1st century Palestine. We’ve found Jesus by following the crowds who are inexplicably drawn to Him. We’ve seen Him show compassion to the masses and drive out demons from the demon-possessed. We’ve heard some of His teachings, and we’ve observed some of His miracles. We know that He is a great teacher, and His miracles have convinced us He is from God. But will we believe He is God?
When observing Jesus, we have been looking at Him from our distant 21st-century vantage point. We need to come a little closer and look at Him from a 1st-century Jewish vantage point to understand what we are about to hear from Jesus.
JESUS CLAIMED TO BE GOD
As we come closer and listen closely, we hear Jesus say, “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30). From our 21st-century American vantage point, these words don’t mean the same thing as from a 1st-century Jewish vantage point. To the Jewish religious leaders who heard them, these words were blasphemy. As soon as Jesus said them, the people picked up stones to kill Him. When Jesus asked why they wanted to stone Him, they replied, “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You a mere man, claim to be God” (John 10: 31-33).
On another occasion, Jesus warned unbelievers that “unless you believe that I AM who I claim to be, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). When Moses asked God what he should tell the people of Israel, God’s name was, God, replied, “I AM WHO I AM, Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:13-14). There was no doubt in the Jewish mind about who Jesus claimed to be.
JESUS SPOKE WITH AUTHORITY
We also notice that Jesus spoke with authority when He taught, unlike other rabbis who appealed to the authority of other teachers by quoting them or naming them. Philip Yancey, in The Jesus I Never Knew says that Jesus “was not so much seeking truth as pointing to it, by pointing to himself” (p. 96). In other words, Jesus made Himself the ultimate authority. We heard this when He said, “You have heard the commandment that says, “You must not commit adultery. But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Jesus was not changing the law but lifting it up to the level that God intended it to be when he gave it to Moses. “He was the source, and as he spoke, he made no distinction between his own words and God’s (Yancey, 97).
JESUS NEVER REBUKED PEOPLE FROM WORSHIPING HIM
Matthew tells us that after walking on water in front of His disciples, He and the other disciples worshiped Jesus. They exclaimed, “You really are the Son of God!” (Matthew 14:33). Later, we find out that after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to His tomb, where an angel appeared to them and spoke, saying that Jesus had arisen. As the women ran from the grave, they met Jesus, and “they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him” (Matthew 28:8-9). Worship is only acceptable if it is the worship of God. This is shown clearly in Acts 10:25-26 when Cornelius fell at Peter, the disciple’s feet, and worshiped him. Peter pulled him up and rebuked him, saying, “Stand up! I’m a human being just like you!” Jesus, on the other hand, never condemned anyone for worshiping Him.
There is no doubt that Jesus claimed that He was God. The Pharisees did not believe His claim and instead accused Him of blasphemy. They wanted Him stoned. Others, like His disciples and Mary Magdalene, believed He was God. They worshiped Him. Ultimately, the Pharisees got their way as Jesus was put to death on the cross for blasphemy.
I BELIEVE
I’d like to think that upon hearing Jesus say that He was God, the great I AM that I would have believed Him and fell at His feet in worship. I’d like to think that witnessing His miracles and hearing His teachings would have been enough to change my heart of stone into a heart of flesh. I’d like to think that I’d have been one of His disciples sitting at His feet holding on to every one of His words quietly anticipating what he’d say next.
I cannot know for sure what my reaction to Jesus would have been if I had met Him in first-century Palestine. But I do know that right here, and right now in the 21st century, I believe that Jesus is God, the great I AM. He has changed my heart of stone into a heart of flesh. I worship Him, sit at His feet and hold on to every one of His words. Centuries may separate me from Jesus in the flesh, but Jesus in the Spirit is enough for me. I believe!
One Response
I would like to think that I would believe Jesus back in the first century, however Isaiah 53 says this about him
My servant grew up in the LORD’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
How many of us actually turn our cheak from a homeless person or someone who doesn’t fit what we think is a prim and proper person?
Would we be drawn to him because of the Miracles he performed, out of pity for the way that he looked or appeared, or would we be drawn unto him because of the spirit within us drawing us to him?