Jesus had an amazing way with words. For myself, all to often I am in conversations of various sorts only to think of the choice words a day later. But Jesus always had the perfect words for his audience, seeing into our hearts with the wisdom that only God has. One noteworthy record of Jesus' words is in John Chapter 7. In this passage Jesus 'cuts to the quick' like no one or nowhere else in the history of the world.
Jesus therefore answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or if I am speaking from myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. Didn't Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?"
The multitude answered, "You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?"
(John 7:16-20 WEB)
This is a most striking exchange and worth reflection.
Jesus has asked various hardball question to us throughout his ministry, but this question, this question is the question of all questions. Jesus asks, "Why do you seek to kill me?" Let's first assume that Jesus is God as he says he is, and as I believe. If so, Jesus knows everything and so he does not ask the question to get an answer for HIS OWN edification. If you or I were being attacked by a madman, and there was a pause in his attack, we would no doubt be curious and ask "Why do you seek to kill me?" because we would not know why and would like to know why before our attacker killed us. At least we would have the satisfaction of knowing why someone hated us enough to kill us as we drew our last breath. However, in Jesus case we can safely assume he knows why we seek to kill him, but he asks us the question for OUR OWN edification. His question is driving us to reflect on the reasons why we hate him. Jesus is the great physician, revealing a deadly cancer in our lives for cleansing, cure, and healing.
That said, there are several possibilities as to why we hate Jesus.
1) We hate Jesus and DO NOT know why.
2) We hate Jesus and DO know why, or
3) we hate Jesus and DO know why, but CANNOT admit the reasons to ourselves.
Perhaps there are other reasons, but one reason that cannot be on the list is a valid grievance against the Lord. Read the Biblical accounts of his life yourself, and you will see that he healed, loved, forgave, spoke against injustice, and finally returned good for evil when we crucified him on a cross, when he could have commanded the armies of heaven to destroy us. Jesus was and is a good man, a good God.
Has his grace given you the wisdom to understand and boldness to confess the reasons you seek to kill Jesus?
