John 6:36
” But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.”
The reason they call a magic trick a “trick” is that the magic is not magic at all. Something happens to “trick” the eye into thinking you see one thing while something altogether different is actually happening. A movie is a good example of this kind of trick. Regardless of whether a movie is recorded on film or electronically, it consists of 24 to 48 pictures, or “frames”, per second. What is shown to us on the screen is a series of still images. What we “see” is a moving picture.
The miracles Jesus did were not “magic” nor were they a “trick.” There was no hocus-pocus involved with anything he did. To the contrary, everything he did and said was keyed around making his message and mission clear to all who would listen.
In this part of John’s Gospel, Jesus is speaking to the crowds who have followed him from the hillsides along the Sea of Galilee where he fed the five thousand. He did not preach at them, he did not ask them to believe, he simply fed them. In doing that, he spoke a language that reached every single one of the thousands of people there in ways that a million words could not have done.
Even though the crowds had seen Jesus heal the sick, even though they saw him feed thousands of people, they still did not believe he was any more than what they had seen.
Q: Imagine you are standing face to face with a man named Jesus who is able to do things that no other human has ever done. How would you be able to see and not believe?
Pride. It is unfortunately common.
Pride definitely Nathan, because that guy would have looked like us and talked like us and we can’t see ourselves on the same level of The Son of God.
Also, I think it is human nature to question reality and what we see because we know the eye can be tricked. I’m sure back in the day in the markets and the all squares are there be all kinds of people doing tricks & “magic”. Society also tells us good anything out of the norm can’t be feasible or is too good to be believed
Phil,
Well said! I imagine that if I were in the crowd back then I might be thinking, “Good meal! I’m full!! (How’d he do that??) What’s next??!!”
I would see Him,..however I believe it would be my heart that wouldn’t be believing,..Jeremiah 17:9,..the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure who can understand,..or something like that,..God can harden hearts and He exposes sin,..I would more than likely be pushed along with the rest of the crowd,..kinda like when I was baptized,..I feel like I did it just to fit in,..the only verse that really stuck with me all my time away from God was John 3:16,..anyway,.. yeah,.. I would probably be part of the crowd,..doing the best I can to get everything I could from this guy that provides for me as long as I am following Him,..really though who wouldn’t back then? I am sure times then were a lot harder and harsher than what we live in today,..things aren’t any different really,..just better toys I guess,..God hasn’t changed He is still the one that opens the eyes to our heart,.. no matter how deceitful it is,..there is no trick about that,..
John,
Nice to hear from you! Yes, the heart is deceitful above all else. Thank God for God!
Just getting back into the swing of things with BSF,..then I am also doing a study on my own called,..Twelve Ordinary Men. So I kinda took a break I guess,..Keep smiling in Christ