And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. – Matthew 11:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 24, 2014): Matthew 11

Life is often more about what we are willing to accept than we may think. I am becoming convinced that even our morality is more about what we will accept than it is about wrestling with a Biblical standard. Let me stress this: it is not that I do not believe that a biblical standard exists. In fact, I am positive that one does. Our problem lies in what it is that we are willing to accept of what the Bible tries to tell us. Unfortunately, any biblical elements that exist outside of that level of acceptance are ignored or written off as not important. But the bottom line is this; the ruling expression in our religiosity is not the Bible, it is formed in a morality that we have come to believe that we can accept.

I have often heard Christians wonder how the Jews could have missed the coming of their Messiah. I mean, we make it sound so easy, and in the process I believe that we have devalued Jewish belief and not give to them the honor that they deserve. But the reality is summed up in this one simple principle – we see what we are willing to accept, and absolutely nothing more. For our Jewish brothers and sisters, the idea of a Messiah willing to die on the cross is just simply too much for them to accept, so they can’t see it. Our Islamic brothers and sisters have a similar view of what they can accept with regard to Jesus and that has left them with a picture of Jesus as a great prophet but not the Son of God – that he might be the Son of God is just beyond what they feel they can accept. But for those of us who accept Christ as Messiah, we have a different standard. One that allows us to see the Messiah in the one that died on a cross for our sin.

The people of Jesus time were expecting the prophet Elijah to reappear. After all, Elijah had never died, he had just disappeared as a chariot had taken him up to heaven. The thought seemed to be that Elijah would one day come back just as he had left, this time announcing the coming of the Day of the Lord and the Messiah. And so John makes it clear that he is not Elijah returned in the way that the people expected, he is John Bar Zechariah, the only child of Zechariah and Elizabeth and a man born into this world in the usual way. But Jesus simply comments that for those willing to accept it, John is Elijah. And for those willing to accept that John is Elijah, it is a small step to accept Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah.

What those of Jesus day were willing to accept defined their reality. And what we are willing to accept continues to shape our religious expectations. And it is not that we need to stop listening to the biblical story, but rather that we need to allow the Bible to speak, even of things that we find hard to accept.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 11