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 “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.” (John 5:43)

The context of this verse is loaded. I elected to add this portion of scripture because it is an integral discourse depicting how leaders of the religious industrial complex reject Jesus’ testimony of being one with, sent by, and working in step with God. Despite Jesus’ miracles, healings, and teachings, religion cannot get on board with Jesus’ claims. They see them as blasphemous and deserving of death.

John 5:30-47 is a discourse of Jesus speaking directly to the seat of religious power, and he doesn’t mince words as he contrasts himself to them. This passage reflects Jesus offering undeniable proof of “who HE is” to the religious mind who refuses to accept his proof. It’s also vivid contrast between conversion to religion compared to the relationship of Christ Following.

Jesus about himself:

1. …I can do nothing on my own, as I hear, I judge… (justly) (v.30)
2. …there is another who bears witness about me…and his witness is true. (v.32)
3. …John bore witness about me. (v.33)
4. …the testimony about me is greater than John’s (v.36)
5. …the works the Father has given me, which I’m doing, also bear witness about me. (v.37)

Jesus about the religious:

1. …(The Father’s) voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen. (v.37)
2. …you do not have his Word abiding in you. (v.38)
3. …you do not believe in the One whom He has sent. (v.38)
4. …you refuse to come to me that you may have life. (v.40)
5. …you do not have the love of God within you. (v.42)
6. …I come in my Father’s name and you do not receive me. (v.43)
7. …How can you believe…you do not seek Glory that comes from the only God. (v.44)
8. … Moses accuses you, on whom you have set your hope. (v.45)

I told you this passage was loaded, and after some reflection, I’m not sure a textual deep dive gets us any closer. Jesus’ point is that if the love of God were in the heart of the religious, they would recognize Jesus immediately. Just like the religious, we can “search the scriptures because we think in them we have eternal life” (v.39) but they only testify about Christ and it is in Christ alone that we have eternal life.

This supports the teaching from last week. Jesus is deconstructing religion so that our faith can be in the subjective relationship with the living Christ, and not in an objective, dead, perfunctory religion.

If Jesus were to return again in the flesh, and said: “Stop wasting your time going to church and doing bible studies. I’m here, I’m not the object of your Sunday singing now. Instead, follow me and experience God and His work in the world with me.” How many of our pastors and church leaders would claim that this arrival of Jesus was a false Christ? How many would insist that if God were to do a fresh new work in the world, that it would absolutely need to look, sound, and feel exactly as religion insists it would? How many would be more upset that their work is no longer needed or that the rapture didn’t happen than the fact that Christ was here again? What percentage would close their doors and follow Jesus?

I think we can contextualize this even better if we imagine Jesus saying: “Stop scrolling. There is nothing there for your soul. Instead, come to me. Seek me in silence, and stillness, and humility. Stop seeking news and entertainment, I’m not there. Find me instead existing in and as your very life. My existence is your existence in your nothingness without me.” Now, how many of us will put our phones down. How many of us would rather go 24 hours without food than the same time without wifi?

You see, our world is not less religious than it was in Jesus’ day…it’s more. There are more religions, more deities who seek to name us, and more power dynamics that require our full allegiance. If we scroll for political food, or cannot sit still because we get bored, and we are so addicted to stimulation, distraction, and propaganda, that we cannot follow Christ into a desert with no cell signal without concluding “nothing” is out there, then we are far more religiously aligned than Jesus’ own Sanhedrin.

This is the modern comparison. The god whom our world serves has nothing in common with the Father and His work in whom Christ is still working. Meme culture is as much a shortcut to God as mat carrying and religious compliance. In both cases, the objective behavior makes others happy, but leaves us without the subjective experience with our Maker. Every offers a far-off, way up there god and we are ok with that model of deity. But Christ following is different. If in Christ, God is eminent, and within our midst, as proximate as our next breath, then what do we really believe religion can do for us? Do we really need religion? the Bible doesn’t seem to think so. We do need each other, but religion still wants to control everything. Not much has changed in 2000 years.

Some people in our world have concluded there is no God because, just like the religious of Jesus day, we…the modern religious world, reject the evidence given by Christ himself, through the lens of our own life experience. He has come in the name of the Father and we won’t receive Him, because He requires our silence, our forgetting of everything else, our forsaking or rolling up of our political mat in favor of healing a city comprised of invalids. If we scroll more than we pray, Jesus would tell us that the love of God is not in us. If we care more about likes and follows than who we follow, and how we follow…via cross bearing and self-denial, then we love our idols, not God.

May we receive this better than those in his day? May we possess the name of the Father, I AM who I AM, existence existing in our existence…who saves, as our identity. Christ makes this possible, but we will only experience Him once we forsake our idols.