Just who is Jesus? That was the question that swirled around Him during His earthly ministry, and many different answers were suggested. Some listened to His amazing teaching and said that He was the great Prophet whom Moses promised would come: “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers – it is to him you shall listen” (Deuteronomy 18:15). Others looked at His works of healing and judgment and realized that He was the Christ, the promised Messiah Who would rule and reign over the world forever (John 7:31, 41).

Of course, John reminds us that many of the religious leaders came to a different conclusion. They rejected Jesus because there were things about Him that didn’t fit into their existing belief system. Some thought that when He healed people on the Sabbath, He was doing work, and thus breaking God’s law (7:23). Others noted his residence in Galilee, and came to the conclusion that He couldn’t be the Messiah, Who was predicted to be born in Bethlehem (7:41-42; Micah 5:2).

And many people continue to follow their example today, insisting that if Jesus really were God or that if He really loved them, He wouldn’t have taught certain things or allowed terrible tragedies to happen. Others reject Jesus before bothering to learn very much about Him – after all, He really was born in Bethlehem, wasn’t He (Matthew 2:1)?

But instead of responding to everyone’s questions or trying to straighten out everyone’s wrong ideas about Him, instead of trying to argue anyone into the Kingdom of God, Jesus simply focused on His relationship with the Father Who had sent Him (7:29). And Jesus invites everyone into relationship with God, welcoming all who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness (7:37). And Jesus promises that those who come to Him will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, Who will in turn fill us so full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) that this fruit of the Spirit will overflow onto everyone around us (John 7:38), transforming all of our relationships and making it hard for anyone to deny that Christ is truly with us.

So, instead of trying to understand everything about Jesus, will we take Jesus up on His offer? Will we simply come to Him? And will we invite others to join us as we demonstrate the fruit that His Spirit bears in our lives?

John 7:25-53 (ESV)

25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill?
26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?
27 But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”
28 So 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.
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.
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?”
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’?”
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.
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.
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!”
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.”
50 Nicodemus, 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.”
53 They went each to his own house.