He came to His own

and His own received Him not

If you were here two weeks ago, you might remember how we looking at the opening verses of John's Gospel, ...and how it has been compared with an overture to an opera.

During the overture, (at the beginning of the performance), the audience gets a brief taste of the great musical themes that will be developed as the story unfolds.

And we looked at how the beginning of John's Gospel does just that ...it gives us a taste of the great themes that will be developed in the rest of the book.

Well as you have just heard, today's reading is also taken from John's gospel, ...and it mainly concentrates on just one of those great themes. But before we take a closer look at this passage, lets remind ourselves of how it fits into the overall picture.

Two weeks ago we looked at how the beginning of John's gospel gives us the Christian message in a nutshell.

Before the universe existed, ...God existed. But God the Father was not alone... there was someone else... someone called "The Word".

When God created things ...he did it simply by speaking. God said, "Let there be light ", ...and there was light. ...And God did all this through this person called 'The Word'. And in fact, 'The Word' was part of God himself ..."All things were made through him... In him was life...".

Then the eternal Word, God himself, became a human being, ...and lived among us. He was born as Jesus of Nazareth.

And why did he come?

Firstly, Jesus came to bring light.

From the very beginning God had separated the light from the darkness. But humanity has consistently chosen to stay in the darkness. Humanity has rebelled against God, ...we have gone our own way instead of God's way. We are groping around in the darkness, and so Jesus came to switch the light on.

And secondly, Jesus came to bring life. Because humanity has chosen to live in darkness, we have become spiritually dead. So Jesus came to bring us eternal life.

But then we see the great tragedy. Even though God made the world through him, the world did not recognise him. "He came to his own people, but his own people did not receive him."

But that's not the whole story. A few people did receive him, ...and "to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God." It's a free gift, ...if only we are willing to receive it.

Well that was the overture that we looked at two weeks ago, ...and now we are going to pick out just one of those great themes. And it's found in the verse 11 of the first chapter:

"He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him." (NRSV)

(Repeat)

You can take the whole of John's gospel, and divide it into two distinct parts. The first part, (chapters one to twelve), cover the bulk of Jesus ministry, ...from his encounter with John the Baptist, right up to his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, (just a few days before he was killed). The second part of the book begins with the Last Supper, and covers the last couple of days of his life, his crucifixion, and his resurrection.

The first part has been called "A Book of Signs", because time and again Jesus performed miraculous signs to show people who he was:

He turned water into wine...

He healed the official's son...

He healed a crippled man...

He fed five thousand people...

He walked on the water.

But time and again people failed to recognise him.

It can be hard to recognise people at times, can't it?

Jan was out with Jenny, (my three year old daughter), this week, ...and she pointed to a man who was short, dark haired, a bit bald on top, and was quite tubby. And Jennie said "Look Mummy, that man looks just like daddy!"

But John's gospel drives home the great irony of it.

The person who made the whole universe came to earth, and performed miraculous signs. ...So who would we have expected to recognize him? ...Well I suppose everyone should have.

But of all the nations in the world, which nation in particular would we have expected to recognize him? ...Well I suppose it would be the Jewish nation, (who we also call the people of Israel). After all, they were God's chosen people, ...and already they were eagerly awaiting a Messiah, (which means 'an anointed one'), to appear.

But of all the people in Israel, which group in particular would we have expected to recognize him? ...Well I suppose it would be the Pharisees, and the other religious leaders. After all, they were the ones who had actually read the Bible, and who were supposedly trying to please God.

So what happens when Jesus actually meets this special group people? They object to everything Jesus says and does, and eventually try to kill him!

"[Jesus] came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him."

So let us now focus to today's Gospel reading, which is taken from John chapter eight.

It describes one of these clashes which Jesus had with the Jewish authorities.

We pick up the argument near the end, just after the Jews had accused Jesus of being demon-possessed. And it went something like this:

Jesus said: "If anyone trusts my word and obeys it, he will never see death."

Now Jesus was talking about his gift of eternal life, and saying that there is life beyond death, ...but the Jews took him literally, and exclaimed, "Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Our great prophets all died ...even Abraham died ...and now you're saying that anyone who trusts won't die! Just who do you think you are? Do you think you're greater than Abraham?"

But Jesus replied, "I'm not trying to boast about myself, I'm just telling you the truth. If I didn't do that, then I would be a liar, like you. You mentioned Abraham, ...but Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."

Now Jesus was talking about Abraham's faith. Abraham lived 2000 years before Jesus, but God had promised Abraham that all the nations on earth would be blessed through his offspring (Ge. 22.18). Abraham trusted God, and he looked forward to the time when that promise would be fulfilled, ...And now in the ministry of Jesus, this promise was beginning to be fulfilled.

That's why Jesus said, "Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad." ...But once again, the Jews took him literally, and replied, "How on earth could Abraham have seen you. He died 2000 years ago, and your not even fifty years old!"

And now we reach the climax of the argument, as Jesus is given the opportunity to make a most amazing claim. "I tell you the truth", said Jesus, "before Abraham was born, I am!"

So what exactly did Jesus mean by that? Well, once again we pick up a couple of themes that we encountered in the overture to the Gospel. First of all, Jesus claimed to have existed even before Abraham was born, (thus making him even greater than Abraham).

But more than that, Jesus expressed it in such a way as to imply that he was on an equal footing with God. Hundreds of years earlier, God had spoken these words through the prophet Isaiah...

"I, I am the LORD, and there is no saviour beside me...

I am God, and also henceforth I am He" (Isa. 43.11,13)

And now Jesus said, "before Abraham was born, I am!"

The Jews were in no doubt that he was claiming to be God, and in their eyes this was nothing short of blasphemy. And so in a fit of rage they picked up stones and tried to stone him, (for blasphemy was a capital offence). But Jesus hid himself, and then slipped away.

"[Jesus] came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him."

I want to draw to a close by focusing upon two thoughts for us today.

The first is a rather uncomfortable thought, and it's this. The people who we would have most expected to have recognized Jesus, and received him, turned out to be the very ones who refused to accept him.

There is therefore no room for complacency on our part. The Jewish leaders tried to live good lives, perhaps like us. They were very religious people, perhaps like us. But despite this, they refused to accept Jesus.

As I mentioned two weeks ago, the most important question in the world is this:

HAVE YOU RECEIVED JESUS?

(pause)

And if you are at all unsure about this, I've still got some copies if this booklet called "Why Jesus?", which describes one way in which you can make sure.

Just ask me for a free copy when you leave church.

The second thought concerns a possible reason for the Jews rejection of Jesus.

The Jews placed great emphasis upon what God had done for them in the past. And rightly so! God had given them the Old Testament, and had told them to celebrate the Passover and other annual festivals, precisely so that they wouldn't forget what he had done for them in the past.

However, they were so preoccupied with what God had done the past, that they failed to recognise what he was doing in the present, in sending Jesus.

And perhaps we can easily fall into the same trap. For a Christian, the past is of vital importance. We can received God's gift of eternal life only because Jesus died for us on the cross. And as we celebrate Holy Communion this morning/evening, we are looking back and remembering what Jesus has done for us.

And it is also important that we remember what God has done in the past here at St. Bartholomew's. It is right that we should give thanks for the past, and learn lessons from the past.

But we must never get so preoccupied with what God has done in the past, that we fail to see what he is doing in the present.

And perhaps like Abraham, we also need to keep an eye to the future, and rejoice at what God will be doing then.