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THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

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John 4:43-45

43 After the two days he left for Galilee. 44(Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there.

NIV

Somehow John does not include what Matthew, Mark and Luke do about Jesus talking about a prophet having no honor in his own town. They include that Jesus was talking about Nazareth and not the whole of Galilee as within Galilee he did most of his miracles and made most of his converts. Yet what can we learn from what appears to be simply a historic account in the life and legend of Jesus. When he arrived in Galilee those they welcomed him, of course the reason we are told is because they have already see what Jesus had done Jerusalem. We are not told if all the Galileans were there, or some of them and the news spread like wildfire about Jesus and his miraculous power. It is not as if they all knew he was the Messiah, the Son of God who would take away their sin. They only knew of him as a prophet or as some man who could do miracles. They were interested in the supernatural, as many people today are. So many people today follow after those who appear to have some supernatural power, or gifted with some special ability, either to summons the spirits of dead relatives, or foretell the future or some other “spiritual” psycho-babble. These people were glad Jesus was there, for perhaps they would see more of his power, even be the recipients of it, as we will see in the coming narrative. Is life all about welcoming Jesus so as to be a recipient of his blessings? True we are indeed just that because of his taking away our sin, but do we live to see what we can get from Jesus, or do we live to see what we can give to Jesus? We should examine to see if we are like those Galileans who welcomed Jesus because they had seen what he had already done and perhaps expecting more of the same in their area. Although it is true Jesus has done some wild miracles in some of our lives, some to get us to come to salvation, some after we have believed, but all he does is so people will know who he really is and what he is about, so they will turn from the darkness of their own self and live in his light. Yet perhaps some of us still do not welcome Jesus into every portion of our lives, keeping some tiny amount of our own desires, our own passions, or own plans from him. We need to welcome Jesus in every aspect of our lives.