November 5, 2019 Bible Study — Jesus Refuses to Meet Our Expectations

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 6-7

After Jesus fed the five thousand, the crowd began to think He was the Messiah and about to lead a revolt against Rome.  In fact, they were prepared to begin that revolt immediately.  Even after Jesus had cooled their blood by withdrawing from them and crossing the lake, the people sought what Jesus could do for them rather than what they could do for God.  In a similar manner to which Jesus had told His disciples that doing God’s will was nourishment for Him, He told people that they should eat His flesh and drink His blood.  That is, He told them that they needed to internalize His teachings and allow them to transform their lives. 

After this, Jesus stayed out of Judea, because He knew that His preaching there at this time would have set off a rebellion against Rome.  When it was time for the Festival of Shelters, Jesus delayed going up to Jerusalem.  As best I can tell from what is written here this was to avoid leading a large group into Jerusalem.  Jesus then went up to Jerusalem secretly, only beginning to teach openly in the Temple after He arrived.  As He taught, there was much debate among the people.  Some thought He was the Messiah, while others were convinced that He could not be.  When the Jewish leaders began to sense that the crowd thought He was the Messiah, they sought to arrest Him, but refrained from doing so because they feared that doing so would set off riots.

I wrote all of the above hoping it would come together to express the meaning I feel from this passage.  It did not, largely because I was not quite sure how to express that meaning.  Ultimately, Jesus refuses to meet our expectations.  Rather, He insists that we strive to meet His.