Read John 5:31-6:14
"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." John 5:39-40
You’ve got to wonder what Jesus has to do for the religious leaders to believe. It’s almost as if they’re searching the Scriptures NOT to believe. Jesus says “Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”.
The Jewish leaders regarded Moses as the definitive word. However, what they are not paying attention to is 2 big Moses moments: 1) Deuteronomy 18:18 “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account”, and 2) The last time God’s people saw the miracle of bread in the wilderness was with Moses himself”.
The Jewish leaders remain at a distance, but the crowds who have seen the miracles and are following Jesus. What they can see is that a great prophet has arisen and by the time this passage ends will have performed the miracle of bread in the wilderness. In fact, after they receive and eat the crowd “saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
After his resurrection Jesus will invite Thomas to touch the nail holes in Jesus’ hands. But then he said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29
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