WAS JESUS TOO NICE?

“Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about Him. Some said, ‘He is a good man.’ Others replied, ‘No, He deceives the people.’ But no one would say anything publicly about Him for fear of the Jews.” John 7:12-13 (NIV).

People will always have divided opinions about Jesus. No one can ignore Him because, if what He taught about God and Himself is true, we must do something about it. If not, then He was the biggest liar that ever walked this earth.

What the people said about Him must have been very difficult for Him. “He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.” John 1:11 (NIV). The Message Bible says, “He came to His own people, but they didn’t want Him.”

Why was it so difficult for people to receive Him and His message? Was it because He represented someone who was too “nice”? Many of them were happy to receive what He did for them, but they did not want to listen to what He said and showed them about God, His Father. Not even His brothers trusted Him although they had grown up together.

Why are people so suspicious about God’s goodness? Is it because Adam traded his oneness with God for oneness with the devil and now does what he wants? He is a liar and a deceiver and destroyer, and we are all born with his nature. When we have been “born again”, it will take a lifetime to rebuild our trust in God and get rid of our suspicion so that we can become confident in the reliability of God’s word and His ways.

We are all so self-conscious that we look at God through our own unreliable natures and our experience of other people. We think God is like us.

Jesus’ own family and everyone else around Him were hostile towards Him. Some made a feeble attempt to defend Him but, overall, they dismissed Him as a phony. They accused Him of being in league with the devil and doing the devil’s work. Some even thought He was mad.

Perhaps what Jesus said and did was just too good to be true. People were afraid to put their faith in Him in case He let them down and He turned out to be a fraud. With their hopes of Messiah so high and their hatred of the Romans so great, they could not afford to trust someone who might fail them. Their disappointment would be too great.

God’s counsel to Jeremiah when he was hated and rejected was, “Don’t change your words for them. Let your words change them.” This is how Jesus approached the situation. He made no apologies for what He said, and He stuck to the truth. He was not put off by their rejection of Him because He was representing the truth.

Despite people’s attitude to Jesus today there are still those who listen to Him and follow Him. They find that was He promised is true, forgiveness, peace and real life.