Who Is This?

And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?" So the multitudes said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee" (Matthew 21:10-11).

The words harken back to John’s prologue, He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him (John 1:10-11). It is hard to imagine that the Passover pilgrims, of whom many came from Galilee, Perea, Judea, Syria, even Samaria, wondered who Jesus was. Maybe there were many who hadn’t heard of Him, but I doubt that. Thousands had followed Him for 3 years. Hundreds, if not thousands had encountered Him, even been healed by Him. Even the Gospel records tell us His reputation spread throughout the all the regions (Matthew 4:24; 9:31; Mark 1:28).

I doubt many of us will ever understand the damning power and effect that blinded eyes and hardened hearts have on the soul. I think we tend to believe at any time we choose, we can ‘open’ our eyes to the truth and be changed by it, that we supervise our spiritual condition, we call the shots. We are so mistaken.

The Lord said to the prophet Isaiah (6:9-12), “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed.’ Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, the houses are without a man, the land is utterly desolate, the LORD has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.”

The words of the Lord are haunting. They should shake us to the very core of our being. Spiritually dead people cannot see, they cannot hear, they cannot understand God or the ways of God. Unless the Holy Spirit opens the eyes and ears and mind, we can never take in the things of God. We can never know Him or Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

Jesus preached, He healed, He ministered, and He taught thousands. Still, they didn’t know who He was. Millions of people have heard the Gospel, heard the Name, seen the effect He has had on countless individuals, and, as the Apostle said (Hebrews 6:4-5), have been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. But unless that person is willing to yield to the work of the Holy Spirit in these thing, he/she will continue to ask as the Passover Pilgrims asked, “Who is this?”

“Holy Spirit of God, open our eyes to the reality of the world we live in - a world that is blinded to the Person and work of Jesus Christ, a world that is hardened in heart to the grace, love, and mercy of our Heavenly Father, a world that is closed minded to the truth of the Gospel, a world that is condemned in sin and will be judged for that sin. Be merciful again. Be gracious again. Open our understanding to Jesus. Amen.” 

Pastor