They replied, "We're stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God."

John 10:33 NLT

What an insight into how we humans are...they didn't seem to be able, or willing, to ask themselves the question "what if Jesus is who he says he is?".

What if he isn't being blasphemous but honest?

Way back in John 1:46 they already had an idea that Jesus couldn't be the Messiah becuase of where he was from. Their cultural ideas were clouding their view of Jesus. 

It can be really hard to step out of our culture to see Jesus. Our cultural ideas of Church, worship,  community, or even of what Jesus looked like (see Isaiah 53:2).

These people wanted to keep Jesus in a box of their own making, so much so that they wanted to stone Jesus right there. They were judge, jury, executioner. 

Sometimes in this complex world I can lose sight of the simplicity of the gospel, of what Jesus said, and the truth of who he is. 

Matthew 22:34-40; here Jesus brings the simplicity of loving God, and loving people at the front. When I focus on that, a lot of the complex stuff of this life gets simpler. 

Jesus is who he said he is. Redeemer, saviour, whanau, God in person. 

Today we can rest in that.

#truthtorestin