Where's the proof?

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” ’ Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, ‘This is really the prophet.’ Others said, ‘This is the Messiah.’ But some asked, ‘Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he? Has not the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?’ So there was a division in the crowd because of him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, ‘Why did you not arrest him?’ The police answered, ‘Never has anyone spoken like this!’ Then the Pharisees replied, ‘Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law—they are accursed.’ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked, ‘Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?’ They replied, ‘Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.’

- John 7:37-52

So the crowds are stirred up, and divided, and are debating who this man is, this Jesus who has spoken so that no one has heard anything like it. Is he the prophet? Is he the Messiah? And the Pharisees are pushed into a defensive position. They must defend their notions of who is in charge and who has proper authority, and they turn to the law. No prophet is to arise from Galilee, and no authority nor Pharisee believe in him. Nicodemos, the man who has asked what it means to be born again, replies also in the law: that no one is to be judged without a hearing.

The crowds also are stirred up and divided. There are those who ask if he is the the prophet, or the Messiah, and those who say that the scriptures say that the Messiah must come from Bethlehem and be descended from David. And in all of this division the temple police have no idea what they should do. On the one hand, they would arrest him. On the other, no one has ever spoken like this, and their astonishment stands in the way.

So, Jesus, as he will say elsewhere, has brought a sword, and the crowds are divided, the people as a whole are divided. Some are wondering, a few believe, some are adamantly against him and already wish to get him out of the way. But the one sure thing in this picture is the reliance on the law and the scriptures about whence comes the Messiah. He is to be from Bethlehem, from the line of David. And in this surety lies the great fault. Because proof to this crowd of one of the conditions of Messiah status is lacking. Jesus is from Galilee - everyone knows this. And so he has failed to fulfill the proofs, the conditions required, to be the Messiah.

In the gospel of John, there is but one reference to Bethlehem that I could find, and this is it. This is not a gospel of genealogies, or description of Jesus' birth. This gospel instead begins with Jesus' spiritual birth of his public ministry, with the baptism in the Jordan, and we have an entirely different emphasis. It's not "just the facts." In John we are constantly reminded that there is another dimension to life, and it is the realm of spirit and of faith, for which we must have eyes and ears to perceive so that we can understand in fullness. However, the gospel writer knows that those to whom he is writing this book are already aware of Jesus and his birthplace, even if the crowd in this scene is not. They have no proof that Jesus is from Bethlehem, and therefore the law says beyond all doubt that he cannot be the Messiah.

The problem with proofs is that they only tell you what you know, and not what you don't know. If you don't have the eyes to see and the ears to hear, and you rely on proofs for faith, you're going to miss this man who has stirred up the crowds and who has spoken as no one has done before. You're going to miss what the news is, and what he is offering, and the rivers of living water that nourish and replenish the soul. And most of all the heart will not be open to receive -- and even of one's own ignorance as to the facts at hand (i.e. Jesus' birthplace), one will continue to be unaware.