Recognizing God

Message:  In Matthew 21 the people of the town had begun to accept the idea that Jesus was the Messiah so they began to celebrate and honor him throughout the city. As I read about this I started thinking about the fact that it all unraveled so quickly. As quickly as the celebrated him, they also turned their backs on him. The problem wasn’t that Jesus wasn’t who they believed he was. The problem was that Jesus as the Messiah was not behaving the way that they had expected. They had plans of their own for the Messiah. They had heard scripture and prophesy their entire lives about how the Messiah would come to rule and reign. It didn’t appear that Jesus was going to do that. Their minds were on the human kingdom they were living in. It was terrible and they badly wanted a redeemer to come in and take over. Jesus kept telling them that his kingdom was not of this world but they couldn’t see the kingdom he was talking about. When Jesus was crucified they were disillusioned. This didn’t look at all like they were expecting it to look. I also thought about the Scribes and Pharisees. They were the religious elite and they knew every scripture and every prophesy about the Messiah. So why didn’t they recognize him when he came? They were blinded by their pride and their own agendas. They weren’t living in heart obedience to God because they were using their position as a platform to promote their own selfish agendas. They didn’t recognize the Messiah when he came because their hearts were not submitted to God. As I read this I thought about how easy it is to believe we are on track. We know scripture, but are we submitted to God? To we know his heart? Would we recognize him if he walked among us, or are we too busy trying to use his name to promote our own ideas, agendas and even political persuasions?

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