Today’s reading in the Gospels starts with a hard truth:

“Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:

‘Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’

For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:

‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn – and I would heal them.’” John 12:37-40 quoting Isaiah 53:1 & 6:10

This is one of the more difficult things to understand in Scripture. What does it mean when God says he hardens hearts or blinds eyes so that people cannot turn and be healed? What about other Scriptures that claim God loves all people and wants to save them?

People actually harden their own hearts. They hear truth, reject it and close their hearts to it. Every time they hear more truth and reject it again, their hearts get harder.

God is involved in this process because it’s his truth people reject. God doesn’t want to make their hearts hard, but he’s about truth and they’re about rejecting the truth.

Why Do Some People Reject God’s Truth?

People have lots of reasons for rejecting biblical truth, but it’s not always about the Scriptures. They might not like like the way some believers behave. They think Christians are intolerant and they object to anyone being labeled a sinner. Or maybe they were hurt by a Christian in the past.

Sometimes people don’t like the history of the Church. They think about the Crusades in the Middle Ages, or the cruelty of the religious Inquisitions in Europe. They blame religion for creating turmoil and division in the world. Or they’re suspicious about the ways missionaries relate to people in other countries.

People also struggle with the idea of God’s sovereignty. They want to be in charge of their own lives. They don’t want God to tell them how to behave.

Tim Keller refers to this kind of resistance as “inoculation” against God and faith. People develop spiritual “antibodies” that grow stronger the more they hear Scriptural truth and dismiss it. Eventually it’s easy to reject God, the Bible, the Church, and the people who believe in these things.

Jesus’ Response to Rejection

People rejected Jesus and his teaching everyday, but he didn’t let that sway him. He kept on reasoning with people and appealing to them to believe.

“Jesus cried out, ‘Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.’” John 12:44-46

Throughout the Bible God invited people to believe him, and despite his power, he never forced them to their knees to honor him. He warned them of the consequences of unbelief, but God never overrode the decisions people made for themselves.

Neither did Jesus.

The Word is the Judge

Jesus behaved exactly as his Father had toward unbelieving people. His self-control in the face of ridicule and opposition was awesome. He didn’t react personally; he invited people to listen, decide, and then live with the choices they made for themselves.

“‘ If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.’” John 12:47-50

People’s rejection of Jesus was hard, but he let God’s Word be their judge. He continued to tell them the truth even when they wanted to kill him for it.

“Everyday he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.” Luke 19:47-48

The Fruitless Fig Tree

Jesus went back to his friends in Bethany and spent his nights on the Mount of Olives during his last week in Jerusalem.

On what has come to be known as Holy Monday, the day after what we now call Palm Sunday, Jesus left Bethany and went back to the temple. Along the way he saw a fig tree that should have had some fruit because fig trees produce two crops a year. The first fruit comes in spring, followed by the bigger, ripe fruit that comes in autumn.

“Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, ‘May you never bear fruit again!’ Immediately the tree withered.” Matthew 21:19

The fig tree was like the Jewish religious establishment surrounding Jesus. The priests and teachers of the Law could have been Jesus’ colleagues in the Gospel, using their deep knowledge of the Law and the Prophets to confirm his message, but instead they were like fruitless trees with nothing to offer but their plot to kill him.

John the Baptist spoke about people like these at the beginning of his ministry.

^“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Matthew 3:7-10

Jesus Clears the Temple

Jesus spent part of Monday clearing the temple courts of the merchants and thieves who had set up shop there. He restored the area to its intended use as a house of prayer and then received the needy people who flocked to him.

“The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.” Matthew 21:14

Little children also came and shouted their praises to Jesus at the temple. Imagine that crowd around the Savior. The neediest, and youngest people in society, who were generally overlooked at the temple, took center stage when Jesus was there.

“But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they were indignant.

‘Do you hear what these children are saying?’ they asked him.

‘Yes,’ replied Jesus, ‘have you never read, ‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise?’” Matthew 21:15-16

Jesus cleared the temple of corruption and filled it with praises from some of the people who were most grateful to God. Then he left the city and went back to Bethany for the night.

The Authority of Jesus

Jesus was very disruptive to the religious establishment, but he had a huge following. The leaders in Jerusalem wanted to get get rid of him, so they tried to get evidence against him as a false teacher.

“Jesus entered the temple courts and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. ‘By what authority are you doing these things?’ they asked. ‘And who gave you this authority?’” Mark 11:23

Jesus had three forms of proof that he had the authority to do what he did. He had the testimony of God the Father who had spoken about him from heaven several times. He had the divine miracles that only the Son of God could do. And he had the testimony of the prophet John the Baptist.

The Pharisees dismissed reports about the voice of God, and they minimized the miracles. So Jesus reminded them about the baptism of John, which they had permitted. They themselves had gone out to see John and never stopped him from preaching and baptizing, so Jesus asked:

“‘John’s baptism – where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?’” Mark 11:25

The Pharisees’ Dilemma

The Pharisees couldn’t answer Jesus’ question safely because all around them were people who had been converted to faith by John’s preaching and the baptism of repentance. But if they agreed that God had sent John, Jesus would ask them why they didn’t believe what John said about him.

“So they answered, ‘We don’t know where it was from.’” Luke 20:7

Since the leaders were not willing to answer Jesus’ question, he was not obligated to answer theirs.

Having established that he couldn’t be prevented from teaching, Jesus launched into a new series of messages. During the next four days we will read some of the most challenging things Jesus ever said.