In his essay, “What Are We To Make of Jesus Christ?” C.S. Lewis suggests that that question really is absurd on the face of it. He said that the question is not, “What am I to make of Jesus Christ,” but, “What is Jesus Christ to make of me?” He also said that that question, “What am I to make of Jesus Christ,” is like a fly looking at an elephant and saying, “What am I to make of this elephant?”

That’s a really good point, and yet, it is an important question: “What am I to make of Jesus Christ? Who is Jesus Christ to me?” After all, Jesus asked His disciples this very question in Matthew 16:15, “Who do you say that I am?”

It was also the question on everybody’s mind at the Jewish Feast of Booths when Jesus went up to Jerusalem in the beginning of chapter 7. In fact, the reactions Jesus received there ran the gamut from rejection to acceptance. Even so, the reactions Jesus received then are precisely the same reactions He receives today.

In our text this morning, we will see four reactions to Jesus. As we look at these, I hope you will look closely at your own heart and ask yourself, “How am I reacting to Jesus right now?”

The first reaction we see this morning is a rejection of Jesus based on a faulty assumption of understanding. Last week we saw Jesus go up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles. He begins to teach and His teaching elicits strong and often conflicting reactions in the crowd.

²⁵ Some 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?

A portion of the crowd suspects a kind of political intrigue. Why is Jesus preaching unopposed? Regardless, this portion of the crowd moves on to an expression of their main reason for rejecting Jesus:

²⁷ But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”

In light of all that we’ve seen in John thus far, this is an astounding assertion. They reject Jesus because (a) they believe they know where He comes from and (b) they believe that the origins of the Christ, when He comes, will be unknown. Again, this is astounding, but mainly because it is so patently false. Jesus has already demonstrated time and again that the crowd has no idea from where Jesus comes. They clearly do not know his origins so at least their first assumption is mistaken. In other words, their rejection of Christ is founded on a faulty assumption of understanding. They think they know more than they know.

Jesus’ response in verse 28 contains a certain measure of restrained sarcasm:

²⁸ So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from?

Translation: “Oh, really?! You know me, and you know where I come from?” I should point out that sarcasm is not inherently sinful. It can be used in an appropriate way to undermine a notion that is untrue or absurd. This is what Jesus is doing. The notion that the people know Jesus is absolutely absurd. They clearly do not. Jesus continues:

But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. ²⁹ I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” ³⁰ So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.

Not only do they not know Jesus, they do not know His Father, the God they profess to be worshiping at this very time. They claim to know more than they actually know and Jesus rightly calls their hand on it.

It is a tragedy when a person rejects Jesus. But arrogance is piled onto the tragedy when a person rejects Jesus on the mistaken notion that they know Jesus when they don’t. There are people all over Arkansas who think they have rejected Jesus when, in reality, they do not know Him or the gospel accurately enough to reject Him

I once took a group of young people to camp. On the trip was a fifteen-year-old boy who claimed to be an atheist. He was very strong in his opinions and had read widely in atheist writings. One night at camp he and I sat and talked for about three hours. He told me that he had rejected Christianity because he had studied it and found it unconvincing. I told him that I was glad he had studied Christianity so that he and I could have a common starting point. But first, I pressed him a bit on his knowledge. I began to ask him basic questions about Christian theology and the Bible. After a while it became clear that his claims of knowledge were based on a faulty assumption. Finally I told him that, honestly, in my opinion, he did not know enough about Jesus to reject Him. He was rejecting a Christianity that I had never heard of.

Have you ever experienced that feeling? Have you ever experienced the sensation, when speaking to lost people, that if God really were like the God they claimed to reject, you would reject Him too? Most of the time when I hear atheist or non-Christian reasons for rejecting Christianity I think, “Well, if what they are saying about Christianity were, in fact, true, I too would reject it.”

The people were rejecting Jesus on the assumption that they knew Him, but, in all honesty, they did not know Him at all. This happens frequently today. Let me give one example.

I believe it is oftentimes the case that people with overbearingly and suffocatingly religious parents eventually come to reject what they think is Christianity. But, on closer inspection, what these folks are really rejecting isn’t the faith, but the heavy-handed way that their mom or dad forced it upon them. So, in truth, many people who say they have rejected Jesus have really only rejected their own parents. The fact is they may never have actually known Jesus at all. All they ever really knew was the force-fed gospel of their parents. If asked, they would say, “I have rejected Jesus.” But this is only because they associate the name and person of Jesus with terrible memories of the religious abuse they received as kids. (As an aside, there is a difference between raising your children in the Lord and abusing your kids with religion.) They have a faulty assumption of knowledge which is based on their own pain and hurt.

I would suggest, when a person tells you that they have rejected Jesus, that you ask them to describe the Jesus they have rejected. You may find that you, also, have rejected that Jesus, and that the Jesus they have rejected is not the Jesus of the New Testament at all. I would suggest, when a person tells you that they do not believe the gospel, that you ask them to explain what gospel they are rejecting. You may find that they, like the people in the verses we just read, are operating on a faulty assumption of knowledge.

Another group rejects Jesus because they approach Him and His teaching with carnal, shallow, worldly thinking:

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. ³³ Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. ³⁴ You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” ³⁵ The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? ³⁶ What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

How many times have we seen this exact scenario play out in the gospels? Jesus proclaims something on an upper-story, spiritual level, but the people attempt to receive it and interpret it on a lower-story, carnal, worldly level. So, for instance, when Jesus proclaims that He has food to eat that they know nothing about, the disciples want to know if somebody has slipped Him some bread. This kind of ships-passing-in-the-night moment happens almost repetitively in the New Testament.

Many people reject Jesus because they lack the imagination, courage, and, of course, spiritual ability to think beyond that very small sliver of reality they consider to be “the truth.” They craft their world around their own provincial assumptions and attempt to filter all that they see and hear through that grid. That’s what’s happening here.

Jesus proclaims that He will be with them for a little while, “and then I am going to him who sent me.” That is a powerful, divine, spiritual truth. It is an upper-story, spiritual truth that anticipates His salvific work on the cross, His resurrection, and His ascension. He is proclaiming to them His very reason for coming. They are privileged to have front-row seats to an astounding display of divine truth.

Yet, they reject this truth because their minds are carnal and bound to the earth. So they ask provincial and foolish questions: “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does this man mean…?” Those asking these questions felt that they knew truth and reality well enough to pass judgment on Christ. But in truth they knew very little of the truth or reality!

Again, what Jesus is saying does not fit into their self-contained and self-constructed worlds. The truth is right in front of their faces, but they will not receive it because they will not think beyond their own paltry limits. Human beings oftentimes are unable to see past themselves to something amazing that challenges their perceptions of reality.

For instance, history records for us some amazing rejections of people and ideas and inventions at whom and at which we now marvel. Perhaps you’ve received some of these lists on email or have seen them online. Here are a few examples[1]:

“Balding, skinny, can dance a little,” they said of Fred Astaire at his first audition.

Beethoven’s music teacher declared him “hopeless” at composing.

Albert Einstein’s parents feared he was sub-normal.

An invitation was extended to witness one of humanity’s most historic moments – the Wright brothers’ first flight in their heavier-than-air machine. Five people turned up.

Walt Disney was fired for “lacking ideas.”

Thirty-eight times, publishers turned down Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind.

“All his discourses are redolent of bad taste, are vulgar and theatrical…” said a newspaper. Another paper described his preaching as “that of a vulgar colloquial, varied by rant … All the most solemn mysteries of our holy religion are by him rudely, roughly and impiously handled…” They were referring to C. H. Spurgeon, the man routinely hailed as the prince of preachers.

“Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” –Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” –Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

“I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.” –The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

“But what … is it good for?” –Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” –Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” –Western Union internal memo, 1876.

“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” –David Sarnoff’s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

“The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible.” –A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

“Who…wants to hear actors talk?” –H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

“I’m just glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.” –Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in “Gone With The Wind.”

“A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make.” –Response to Debbi Fields’ idea of starting Mrs. Fields’ Cookies.

“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” –Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” –Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

“You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can’t be done. It’s just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training.” –Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the “unsolvable” problem by inventing Nautilus.

“Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy.” –Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

“Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.” –Marshall Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” –Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

“Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction”. –Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

“The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon”. –Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

“Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.” –Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

Indeed, an unwillingness to think beyond our own feeble grasp of reality has oftentimes hindered humanity and rendered our own understanding foolish in the end. Nowhere is this fact seen more clearly than in the case of Jesus.

Let us be perfectly clear on the challenge of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come to reduce Himself so that He fits nicely into your little world. No, He came to expand your world, change it, transform it, and turn it upside down so that you might receive Him. Many reject Christ because what He says and who He is just doesn’t fit into their world. But the problem isn’t His greatness, it’s our smallness.

St. Augustine once prayed that the Lord might expand his heart so that there would be room for Christ in it. That is what these people refused to do, but it is precisely what we must do.

The third reaction to Jesus is perhaps the most pernicious and distasteful. It is the religious objection to Jesus. It is occasioned by the Lord Jesus calling the people to come to Him for salvation:

³⁷ On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'” ³⁹ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

He has said this before, of course. To the woman at the well He spoke of living water. In chapter 6 He spoke of being the bread of life. Jesus consistently called people to come to Him and live. The reaction to this teaching was powerful and divided:

⁴⁰ When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” ⁴¹ Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? ⁴² Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” ⁴³ So there was a division among the people over him. ⁴⁴ Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

Throughout history, the reactions to Jesus have remained consistent. Some believe Him, others want to destroy him. In the midst of the confusion, those who had been sent by the Pharisees to capture Jesus return empty-handed:

⁴⁵ The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” ⁴⁶ The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”

I suspect this protest (“No one ever spoke like this man!”) was voiced rather sheepishly, but it was a challenge nonetheless to the Pharisees’ hatred of Jesus. This protest elicits from the Pharisees an almost venomous religious objection to the very idea that Jesus might just be who He claimed to be:

⁴⁷ The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? ⁴⁸ Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” ⁵⁰Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, ⁵¹ “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” ⁵² They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

Both to the officers and to Nicodemus, the Pharisees pour out the full brunt of their detestation. Their rejection of Jesus is based on their sense of religious entitlement, religious superiority, and religious power. In short, they try to pull rank here. They claim that the true religious experts reject Jesus so the common people should as well. We can almost envision their framed PhD’s in religion hanging over their shoulders as they rebuke the officials and Nicodemus (who had, of course, conversed with Jesus earlier).

It is a chilling moment. Those who should know Jesus best, those who had devoted their lives to the study of the Law and the Prophets, those who should have been most in tune with the divine truth of Jesus reject Him on the basis of religious offense and outrage. In fact, the religious leaders are rarely depicted in a positive light in the New Testament.

It is a verifiable fact that religious people are oftentimes the most hostile to Jesus. I will go a step further. It is sometimes even the case that those who claim to know Jesus take religious offense at Him when they are confronted with who He really is. I honestly believe that there are people in Baptist churches who, if you were to show them the truth about who Jesus really is, and if you could get them to be really honest, would literally hate the Jesus of the New Testament. I repeat: it is possible to be a good “American Christian” and actually not love the Jesus of the New Testament at all. Many have simply created a Jesus in their own image and love that Jesus instead. But we are not called to love our image of Jesus. We are called to love Christ Himself.

Another religious danger is the threat Jesus poses to our religious observances. Some people are so enamored by their religious work and their religious duties that they miss Jesus in the process. Some people are so busy loving the church that they fail to love Christ. Henri Nouwen once said that nothing conflicts with the love of Christ like service to Christ.[2] It’s an astounding idea, but also a true one.

Do your religious observances assist or hinder your devotion to Christ? Does your religion draw you closer to Christ or further away? Let us honestly assess the very real danger of religion. It blinded the religious leaders of the time to the truth of Jesus and, if we are not careful, it can blind us as well.

But we should also notice a minority reaction to Jesus. It was a minority reaction in the first century and it is a minority reaction today. I am speaking of those who accepted Jesus as Savior and as Lord. Three verses in this lengthy text speak of those who accepted. We find the first in verse 31:

³¹ Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

I love this way of putting it: “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?” These were people who had seen the evidence of divine power in the life and person of Jesus and who were won over to faith by what they had seen. To these people, it was inconceivable that that Jesus was not the Christ.

Others believed because of the power of Jesus’ teachings:

⁴⁰ When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” ⁴¹ Others said, “This is the Christ.”

Within this congregation today, we undoubtedly have both of these groups represented. Some of you came to Christ because you have seen the power of Christ. Perhaps you saw the power of Christ miraculously transform the life of a person that you previously considered beyond hope. Perhaps you saw the power of Christ save your marriage. Perhaps you witnessed some miraculous display of God’s power. Regardless, there are those of you here this morning who believe because of what you have seen.

Others of you have believed because you have seen the power in the words and teachings of Christ. The message of the gospel and the teachings of the Kingdom rings true to something deep within you. When you hear the gospel you know that you are hearing words of life and truth. You are gripped by the message of Jesus just as the people in our text this morning were gripped and you have said with them, “This really is the Prophet. This is the Christ.”

Again, those who accept Christ are tragically few in number compared to those who reject. Even so, this number spans the globe. There are people all over the world who have rejected the worlds’ rejection of Christ. There are people all over the world who have dared to believe that which seems unbelievable to lost humanity. There are people all over the world who have seen and have heard and know that Jesus is indeed the Christ.

I plead with you this morning to come to Christ if you have not. Come to Him as He is and bring yourself as you are. Reject Him no more. He stands with open arms for you.

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