Contemplative Bible Reading

John 10:19 (New Living Translation)

19 When he said these things, the people were again divided in their opinions about him.

This is what the people felt about Jesus. Jesus had just finished talking to them about a sheepfold, a gate, thieves, sheep herders, and sheep. Jesus was the gate. Jesus was the sheep herder. The father sent the sheep herder Jesus. Huh? Wait. What are we talkin’ ’bout here?

Some of the people said Jesus was crazy and, “Why listen to a man like that?”

Other people absorbed what Jesus said. They were amazed at wisdom and thought and everything. This was not a divide of ditch diggers on one side and Oxford philosophers on the other. This was a divide of common folk with common experiences and beliefs. Some believed; some didn’t.

I see the same today. People with much in common divide over Jesus. People with little in common unite through Jesus. What are we talkin’ ’bout here?

I find this to be the timeless miracle of the story of Jesus. Some people here a paraphrase of, “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son,” and they life changes. Others study for decades only to walk away shaking their heads.

It doesn’t make sense to me. I guess that is the nature of miracles. I can observe and note them. I can’t explain them. Thank you God.