This passage got me thinking about the situation Jesus faced:
John 24
22 The Jews therefore said, “Will he kill himself, because he says, ‘Where I am going, you can’t come’?” 23 He said to them, “You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. 24 I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am‡ he, you will die in your sins.” 25 They said therefore to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. 26 I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you. However, he who sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these I say to the world.”
Maybe that passage alone is not what made me realize that the essential problem of the Israel people is that they were shown who God is and they saw miracles across the history of Israel yet they, in this scene, did not know God or have faith toward him. We see that in John 17:3 "This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ. "
The people did not have hope that God would come on their behalf. Thus also they did not have faith toward the Father or Christ. (There were exceptions noted such as those mentioned before the birth of Christ into the people praying and anticipating his arrival in the early chapters of the gospels.) The works of the law were more of a cultural obligation for them with the sense of a task-master god over them. Even the Pharisees who studied scripture had adapted to the place in the empire that they did not seek God for all that was prophesied.
It seems that even people who go to church gatherings can fall into that same concept of just doing the tasks that seem obligatory while following what seems like a maintenance mode -- just gain through the "sacraments." That is all they expect. I suspect that limited ritual is why many people find more in evangelical Christianity than they experienced in Roman Catholicism.
Effectively the problems in Jesus's day were a lack of awareness of the true God and consequently a lack of faith.
John 24
22 The Jews therefore said, “Will he kill himself, because he says, ‘Where I am going, you can’t come’?” 23 He said to them, “You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. 24 I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am‡ he, you will die in your sins.” 25 They said therefore to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. 26 I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you. However, he who sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these I say to the world.”
Maybe that passage alone is not what made me realize that the essential problem of the Israel people is that they were shown who God is and they saw miracles across the history of Israel yet they, in this scene, did not know God or have faith toward him. We see that in John 17:3 "This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ. "
The people did not have hope that God would come on their behalf. Thus also they did not have faith toward the Father or Christ. (There were exceptions noted such as those mentioned before the birth of Christ into the people praying and anticipating his arrival in the early chapters of the gospels.) The works of the law were more of a cultural obligation for them with the sense of a task-master god over them. Even the Pharisees who studied scripture had adapted to the place in the empire that they did not seek God for all that was prophesied.
It seems that even people who go to church gatherings can fall into that same concept of just doing the tasks that seem obligatory while following what seems like a maintenance mode -- just gain through the "sacraments." That is all they expect. I suspect that limited ritual is why many people find more in evangelical Christianity than they experienced in Roman Catholicism.
Effectively the problems in Jesus's day were a lack of awareness of the true God and consequently a lack of faith.
