Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by Me.
— Jn 14:6
When Jesus made such claims of Divinity, we are essentially left with only two options. We could either worship Him or stone Him, as was what most of the Jews did: So they took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple. (Jn 8:59). There’s no middle ground here.
John’s Gospel is mystical. The literal act of stoning is still prevalent today in a metaphorical sense. Whenever we reject Christ or choose to sin, we are essentially stoning Jesus because we are crucifying Him.
When Jesus hid Himself, He wasn’t doing it out of cowardice or fear. Rather, ‘hid Himself’ in a mystical sense referred to Christ being spiritually invisible to them. It is the same result today when we choose to reject the teachings of Jesus.
Jesus will be hidden from our sight and we will never be able to know Christ if we first do not adopt a humble disposition and listen. This is why the proud will never find God.
May we ever choose to worship and love Christ and not choose to stone Him.
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Image: Henrik Olrik, Jesus Christ Preaching the Sermon of the Beatitudes / PD-US