John 7:40-44…
When the right thing comes along we will miss it if we are looking in the wrong way. Just as some people had thought John the Baptist might be “The Prophet” (John 1:21) that Moses spoke about (Deuteronomy 18:15), people were confused about Jesus too. This “Prophet” they believed would come was indeed going to come, but He wasn’t who they thought He would be. He had come, but this was not simply going to be another forerunner of Christ, as they thought, this was going to be the Messiah Himself (Acts 3:22, 7:37).
They thought Him special but they were missing the revelation. Sometimes the very thing we really need we dismiss because we are viewing it through sentimental eyes. We think something is nice but we fail to see it fully. Like a sermon. We have a way of thinking that makes God out to be a projection of our best feelings, instead of really understanding the revelation He has given us. Sentimental eyes are the fruit of a “religious spirit” which drags us into smugness and complacency. Instead of striving to move up to Jesus, we bring everything down to our level.
We can also miss what we need when we view things through cynical eyes. While some correctly identified Jesus as the Christ, others cast doubt on that. But they lacked the right information, and they asked the wrong questions. They were right that the Christ would come from Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). But they didn’t realize that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and that the Christ was supposed to be from Galilee also (Matthew 2:23, 4:13-16). Jesus was from the offspring of David (Matthew 1:1 / Romans 1:1-4), but they just didn’t check the facts well enough. Sometimes we look at situations and process our solutions but we create new problems.
Sentimental eyes and cynical eyes can hamper our spiritual vision. What we need to develop are submitted eyes (John 8:30-32). Then we will see the truth as it comes upon us.
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