Joel M Bradshaw

25Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? 27But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” 28So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. 29I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” 30So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”–John 7 (with emphasis)

1. They assumed the Messiah’s origin couldn’t be known. People no doubt knew the prophecy from Micah 5:2 about Bethlehem. By the time of Jesus, though, various rabbis had a theory that the Messiah would indeed be born as flesh and blood, but would simply appear as if from nowhere particular. And thus nobody would tie him to a human family so much as link him to God. Here, they miss the point that Jesus was claiming about Himself. He was in fact both born of flesh and sent from God. They thought because they knew Jesus’ hometown that He wasn’t from God. They however didn’t recognize that the Father sent Jesus and so truly didn’t know where Jesus was from.
2. They assumed the Messiah would do great signs. Isaiah 9:6 used words like ‘wonderful’ and ‘mighty’ for a reason. Here they make a good point about the Messiah. How many signs and wonders had they witnessed him perform? The only thing Jesus hadn’t done that they would have expected would have been a military conquest of the Roman overlords. Part of understanding Jesus is to recognize who His enemies are. In His first coming, Jesus was a sacrifice that conquered the ultimate power of sin and death. His second coming will see Jesus riding a white warhorse as he brings human history as we know it to a close.

What do you assume about Jesus? What do you expect of Him?–JMB