NAHAN THE PRIEST
32 AD – Confrontation – Temple Mount, Jerusalem, Judea
Nahan then noticed the expressions of the crowd and saw that most were frowning and not happy with his words. He was losing the crowd and looked nervously back at his superiors. At the same instance, he saw that Jesus on the other hand was a picture of calm and serenity still sitting on the top of the steps politely allowing the other to make his point.
Nahan needed to illustrate that Jesus is a false teacher, so he brought up one of Jesus’ controversial lessons that he gave some months back in the synagogue of Capernaum.
“Was it not you who declared, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ What nonsense is this?”
“Then you continued on by outragiously saying that, ‘…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” [John 6:34-58 NASB]
“The nerve of this man!” Nahan exclaimed quite dramatically. “Do you not see how ridiculous the things that this man teaches? Again I ask you all, how has this man become learned, having never been educated?”
Jesus then stood up quite calmly. Somehow, though this Jesus did not seem impressive, Nahan suddenly felt a sense of dread.
“My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me,” Jesus said. “If anyone is willing to do his will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but he who is seeking the glory of the one who sent him, he is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him.” [John 7:16-18]
Jesus then directly points at him but shifts his gaze towards the leaderships.
“Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill me?” [John 7:19]
There were angry murmurs coming from the crowd.
“You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?” cried Nahan.
Jesus answered, “I did one deed, and you all marvel. For this reason Moses has given you circumcision not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers, and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” [John 7:22-24]
The High Priest and a number of the leadership angrily walked back into the temple. Nahan would have followed but he was instructed to stay.
Meanwhile, the crowd was busily debating among themselves on whether Jesus is the Messiah or not. Some of the people therefore, were shouting, ‘This certainly is the Prophet.’ Others were saying, ‘This is the Christ.’ Still others were saying, ‘Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was from?’ So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.
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