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Who Is This Jesus? (John 7:25-36)

 Some of the people knew that Jesus had begun to get an infamous reputation, and that some of the leaders wanted to kill him. Maybe they were taken aback by his gentleness, or they wondered why the leadership would hesitate, if they were so set in their opinions against Jesus.

Some leaders thought they knew where Jesus had come from, because they knew his family. They could not account for his special knowledge, which he did not get from studying; he got it from His divine nature. Jesus once more speaks of his special relationship with the Father, and that he is the one whom the Father has sent. To say this is not very prudent, because it is not an accepted custom for an Israelite to speak about God so intimately. St. John tells us that the reason why the leaders could not lay hands on Jesus is that his hour had not yet come. This means that everything that will happen in Jerusalem is a spiritual mystery that will unfold according to the Father's plan, and not a moment before.

Some holy citizens start to recognize that the coming of the Messiah will bring miracles, and they ask the natural question, "Will the Messiah do more miracles than this man?" It's a good question. It's not necessarily the case that every miracle worker is the Messiah, but it was generally believed that a person who did miracles was most likely sent by God for some purpose.

As you might expect, growing support for Jesus among the people did not go over well with the religious and political leadership of the nation. Jesus is well aware of what is happening, but he also knows that they won't succeed in arresting him until the Father permits it. He is speaking in a spiritual way about his death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. But again, without the grace to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, everything Jesus says would sound completely crazy.

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