How Did They Miss Him?
By Dr. Dennis Kinlaw

You wonder how they missed Him. They had been looking 1,900 years for His appearance. In fact, from the day God called Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees, the thing that made a Hebrew a Hebrew was that he was looking for the Messiah. Every few centuries the expectation took on more specific definition. In Abraham's day the hope was that the Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham a Hebrew in whom all nations would find God's blessing. Moses, perhaps the greatest man ever to live, said, "He will be like me, a prophet, only greater. If you hear Him, you will live. If you do not hear Him, you will not live. He will be the difference between life and death."

Later God gave the Hebrews a king, one after God's own heart. He was named David, "the Beloved." He gave political identity, security and pride to Israel. "The Jews wanted His rule to go on forever. But God said, "I have another for you, David's Greater Son, the Messiah. He will be like David, a king, but more."

So the Messiah was to be a Hebrew, a prophet and a King. Then Isaiah added his priceless words. He said, "Yes, this One will be a King, but a different kind of king. The kings of the world sit atop their political pyramids of power and wealth and feel free to utilize all of that power and wealth for their own and their national ends. But this King will invert the pyramid. He will take the pains, hurts, ills, failures and needs of His people and make them His own. Instead of using His people and their possessions, He will give Himself and His resources for them. Instead of the people bearing Him, this King will bear them. “Hundreds of years after Isaiah, John the Baptist spoke with the most authentic voice in a half millennium. "The masses followed him. God was so obviously with John that people began asking, "Is this the One for whom we wait?" When a temple delegation questioned the Baptist, he quickly said, "I am the one who introduces the One for whom you wait." Then, when John saw Jesus, the Baptist cried out, "This is He. I recognized Him when I saw the Spirit of God descend upon Him. He is the One whom you must follow." Several of John's disciples took John at his word that day and followed Jesus. Andrew and Simon Peter, James and John, and Philip and Nathaniel were among them. But John's witness was not enough. Jesus had to show His authority. And, He did. He began to teach. Multitudes recognized His word of authority. They said, "He sounds as if He knows who we are. He sounds as if He knows where we are. He sounds as if He knows where we ought to be and how to get there. We never heard a man speak like this." And, He added His wonderful works. He delivered demoniacs, healed the sick, restored paralytics, gave sight to the blind and cleansed lepers. The common people said, "If this is not the One for whom we wait, what can another do that Jesus has not done?"

Jesus' life was as flawless as His words were wise. Temple scouts assigned to find a flaw in Him were fruitless. After three years of temple scrutiny, Jesus asked these legalists, "Which of you convicts me of sin?" They had no response. The climax came outside Jerusalem in the village of Bethany, the home of three of Jesus' friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Four days after Lazarus died, Jesus stood before His friend's tomb, crying out, "Lazarus, come forth." And Lazarus, his body already decaying, was restored to life. Since Bethany was only a few miles from Jerusalem, the news soon engulfed the city. The masses cried, "This must be the One!"

Days later, thousands of pilgrims from all over the world filled Jerusalem for Passover. Jesus' name was on every tongue, for the news that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead caused a furor. Little wonder the crowds anticipated Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. When He appeared, riding humbly on a donkey that Sunday morning, people stripped off their cloaks, throwing them in His path along with branches from palm trees to make a royal pathway for the long-expected One. Those lining the way greeted Him with royal acclamation, "Hosannah to the Son of David! Blessed is the King that comes in the name of the Lord." The Messiah had finally come to His people. Then on Thursday night He was arrested. On Friday He was crucified. This is the most inexplicable event in all of human history. It is difficult enough to understand why Athens killed its noblest citizen, Socrates. One is hard-put to explain the fate of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. But in the death of Jesus, there is a qualitative difference. Who were these people who killed Him? You might be surprised to find they were remarkably like you and me. They were religious. No secular humanists or atheists marched in the triumphal procession the Sunday before Golgotha. Their religion was the noblest the world had to offer. Judaism had encompassed the world. Both Jews and Gentile believers worshiped in the synagogues. The Jews were faithful Hebrews. "The Gentiles who gathered with the Jews in their synagogues were the best of their world who, wearied by paganism, attached themselves to Israel's God. They were known as "God-fearers." Israel's monotheism gave an infinitely superior intellectual answer to their questions about God. And the Law of Moses made the Jewish life-style the most appealing in the world in terms of ethics and morality. Those who killed Jesus had the best theology, the highest morality and the cleanest life-style of any group of people in the world. They were the best. Yet, they killed Jesus. Why? I believe there are three contributing factors to consider.

The first reason deals with the form in which He came, the nature He assumed when He came. Israel knew Messiah was to be a divine King. The Jews expected Him to come in majesty, glory and power. They knew He would be different from His creation. He would keep His distance. Jesus did not fit that picture at all. Across the years I have developed a genuine sympathy for the innkeeper in Bethlehem. I suspect he had as much of the milk of human kindness as any of us. And he may well have been religious. Pray, tell me how he could know whom he rejected that night? Anyone in his right mind knows that God does not come in the womb of a teenage Jewish girl. And when Joseph and Mary took the baby to the temple, who could see in the infant the incarnate God? Anna and Simeon did, but it took divine revelations for them to know. No divinity was evident here. He looked just like one of us. No glory! No majesty! No power! No difference! No distance!

John Donne understood that:
Twas much, that man was made like God before,
But that God should be like man, much more.

Wesley pictures it in a Christmas verse:
Our God ever blest, with oxen doth rest.
Is nursed by His creature, and hangs at the breast.

Little wonder that they missed Him. They said, "He is one of us." They could not believe how far God was willing to go to redeem us.

The second reason they missed Him was because they could not understand His method of delivering us. Israel expected a royal deliverer with divine power to reestablish the kingdom of David. They were ready for one who would break the political bonds and free them. Jesus' answer to the human problem was not a palace, crown, scepter and throne. His solution was a bare hill, across, humiliation and death. The unexpectedly radical character of His plan was not acceptable to even His closest followers. Peter, His best, rebuked Him soundly when Jesus first spoke of the cross and death. In the end the eleven still resisted His way. Even they looked for a Christ of power to impose His kingdom. They did not understand His kingdom is one that cannot be forced on others-.His rule must be received. And the only method for its establishment was a cross. How could even those closest to Him know that not even God can save by power? How could they know that the only thing that is ever redemptive is self-sacrifice? He tried to make it clear that a kernel of wheat must fall into the ground and die to be fruitful. They could not understand that for themselves. How could they comprehend its necessity for Him? They could not conceive the depth of their bondage to self-interest, to sin, or to the radical act necessary for its cure. They could not believe now far God would go to save us, they surely could not see how far He had to go to save us. Then when He died. His enemies said, "See! There is the proof that He's an imposter. He dies like one of us!"

Donne again captures the scene:
What a death were it to see God dye?
It made His own Lieutenant Nature shrinke,
It made his footstool crack and the Sonne winke.

The third reason they missed Him may be the most remarkable of all: they felt they did not need what He came to give. All of us know what we want God to do listen to our prayers, especially our private ones. In those prayers, we ask God to do things for us or to give something to us. And Israel was no exception: the poor wanted bread; the sick wanted health; the oppressed wanted freedom. And He met those needs, but He wanted to do much more. Two passages make this clear. The first is the story of the feeding of the five thousand. How impressed the crowd was by His power to feed so many. If they could just keep Him around, the economic problem would be solved. Surely this was the Messiah! So they moved to crown Him, but He disappeared. Perplexed, they pursued Him. Twenty-four hours later they found Him. His response, "You seek me because you ate the loaves and the fish, not because you saw the signs. What you need is not this bread from below but the Bread that comes down from above." Their reply, "Give us this bread." His response, "I am that Bread." You see, they wanted His gifts, yet He came to give Himself. They looked for creature gifts; He came to give to them the Creator-Redeemer. They found His words hard. Sinful man in his blindness always prefers God's gifts to God Himself. The second passage is the one where Jesus discussed the good shepherd. His audience knew all about sheep and shepherds. From time immemorial men have kept sheep for one of three purposes: to eat, to wear, or to sell for someone else to eat or wear. But Jesus said, "I don't keep sheep to eat or wear. I keep sheep so they can eat and wear Me! The good shepherd lays down His life for His sheep. My Father loves Me because I give My life for My sheep. No one takes My life from Me. I came to give My life for My sheep." The crowd responded, "He is mad. He has a devil in Him." They could understand a God who demands sacrifice. They were familiar with gods who sought gifts. They could not believe in a God who came to be the gift of sacrifice Himself. No greater evidence of the blindness of our hearts can be found in human history than this: when God came, man said He was crazed or mistook Him for the enemy. Little wonder when they set out to arrest the One who is the Light of the world, they needed lanterns and torches. They had not recognized God. Nor do we! We may try to disassociate ourselves from those who crucified Him. The reality is, however, that we are the same. He still comes in ways we don't expect, without the power, the majesty, the glory and the difference. The first time He came to me was through my mother. What a dirty trick! What self-respecting teenager wants God to come through his mother? And so, I missed Him. I knew of a bishop whose plight was even worse. God came to him through his mother-in-law! God may even stoop to come through a preacher. That is hard on some sophisticated, secular humanists. They, like us, never even know when they meet Him. It happens in every church service. Many go out and think they have been with the preacher and his people. They never knew God was there. And His way is past our ken. Ours is the day for success and personal fulfillment. Religion is supposed to be the way to peace, power, self-acceptance and self-realization. We are not looking for a Christ whose way is self-sacrifice. We want to know how to gain our lives, not lose them. And so we wear the cross on our persons and miss it and its Christ in our hearts. What about the gifts of God? Just listen to our prayers. We want what He can do for us and give us, not Himself. I sometimes think that the greatest enemy God has in my life is the abundance of His gifts. They are so good they become almost a substitute for Him. But if we ever taste, we find with the psalmist, that He is good. The life He came to give is better than all His gifts. As one has said:

He who only has God [what an only!] is not a whit poorer than he who has everything plus God. And he who has everything plus God, is not a whit richer than he who only has God.

I guess that is why I love the words of Johann Franck:
Jesus, priceless Treasure,
Source of purest pleasure,
Truest friend to me:
Long my heart hath panted,
Til it well-nigh fainted,
Thirsting after thee.
Thine I am, 0 spotless Lamb.
I will suffer nought to hide thee,
Ask for nought beside thee.

What a pity to miss Him! Especially when it is simply because He does not come the way we expect. Have you sensed His coming? It could be even through a tract like this.
 

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