He Came To His Own

“He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.” John 1:11.

I suppose when we read this that we think of Jesus coming to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and being rejected by them. That is certainly the immediate historical context. We wonder how the very people who were looking for the Messiah rejected the very Messiah they were looking for.

Perhaps Paul gives us a clue when he writes concerning his kinsmen, “For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” (Romans 10:2 – 4).

The majority of Jews who encountered Jesus failed to recognize Jesus as the Christ because they did not “subject themselves to the righteousness of God.” The Gospel of John portrays this over and over, the Jews clung to their self-righteousness and in doing so attacked Jesus Christ (John 8:12 – 59).

But what about us who call ourselves Christians? Do we recognize Jesus when He comes to us? Or, like the Jews of two thousand years ago, are we so caught up in our traditions, in our political and economic and social agendas – that we cannot recognize Jesus?

Do we not use Jesus to advance our wants, desires, and agendas? Do we not form Jesus into our own image, just as the Jews created an image of a Messiah? No doubt the Pharisees, had one image; the Sadducees another; the Essenes another, and the Zealots yet another. Have we not traduced the image of Jesus into multiple caricatures – each designed to justify ourselves and our agendas?

Can it not be written of us today, “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not”?