14 Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”
16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.
This is a straightforward passage, but the thing that sticks out to me is the last verse: we can discover whether Jesus is truly God by the words that he said. I have found this to be the case in my own life. Now, I love to read. As in LOVE. My favorite authors - Dickens, Bronte, Austen, Tolkien - are absolute masters of the written word. They have made me bawl like a baby, snort drinks out of my nose, and punch my armchair, all because their words are so powerful.
But the words of Jesus have sort of a life of their own, and it's like nothing else I have ever read. The Word is alive, and anything - anything - you could ever want to know about yourself and any knowledge you could want to obtain can be found in scripture if only you look hard enough. It's convicting and life-changing and real. It reaches out for you. Jesus says his words speak for themselves.
Matthew 7:28-29 says, "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law." You may not be able to describe authority, but when you hear or see it, you know it. It's like substitute teachers: you may not be able to pinpoint what separates the good ones from the ones that end up with kids hanging like chimpanzees from the florescent lighting, but you know it when you see it. The crowds knew his authority when they saw it. And so can we, through the power of the Scriptures.
It makes sense, since it's the words of the One who created language, and the voice of the One who created speech. There are no words for that.
For an extra goody, watch this completely awesome video created by the New Zealand Bible Society with Casting Crown's incredible song The Word Is Alive:
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