Worth Repeating - April 9, 2017

Matthew 21: 10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” (NIV)

Sometimes the best answers to life's most baffling and troubling questions lie not in what God says but in who He is.*

Such excitement! Here comes Jesus riding on a donkey! Why was the crowd making such a fuss over him if they didn’t know who he was? There were lots of tourists in Jerusalem that day and the atmosphere must have resembled New Orleans at Mardi Gras. Everyone was looking for the next party and mass hysteria was inevitable. According to verse 10, “the whole city” asked, “Who is this?” In verse 11, Matthew says that “the crowds answered.” My guess is that the locals provided an answer for the out-of-towners. And who did they say Jesus was? “The prophet from Nazareth.”

Did you know that even Islam teaches that Jesus is a prophet?* If someone asked you who Jesus is, would you know more than the crowd in Jerusalem did? Or a Moslem? Remember when Jesus asked his disciples who did people say he was (Matthew 16: 13)? Their response was to report the rumors that he was a prophet or maybe John the Baptist. So then he asked, “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Not only did Peter get the right answer, it wasn’t something he learned on the street – it was revealed to him by the Father. 

What has the Father revealed to you about who Jesus is? “Who is this?” You can’t answer if you don’t know. 

We don’t come to know God by human reason but by divine revelation.*