A writer
for The Washington Post conducted an experiment to test people’s
perception. He asked a famous violinist to perform incognito at a train station
in the nation’s capital one January morning. Thousands of people walked by as
he played, but only a few stopped to listen. After 45 minutes, just $32 had
been dropped into the virtuoso’s open violin case. Two days earlier, this
man—Joshua Bell—had used the same $3.5 million Stradivarius for a sold-out
concert where people paid $100 a seat to hear him perform.
The idea
of a person not being recognized for his greatness isn’t new. It happened to
Jesus. “He was in the world,” John said, “. . . and the world did not know Him”
(John 1:10). Why
did people who had been expecting the Messiah give Jesus such a cold reception?
One reason is that they were surprised. Just as people today don’t expect
famous musicians to play in railway stations, the people in Jesus’ day didn’t
expect Messiah to be born in a stable. They also expected Him to be a political
king—not the head of a spiritual kingdom.
The
people in the first century were blinded to God’s purpose in sending Jesus to
this world. He came to save people from their sins (John 1:29).
Receive God’s surprising gift of salvation that He offers freely to you today.
God broke
into human history to offer us the gift of eternal life. (RBC)
