John 2:24-25

“But Jesus on His part did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all people ²⁵ and needed no one to bear witness about man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”

            Last week we saw how there were many who believed in Jesus. These numbers themselves might seem good on the surface, but that verse ends with why they believed—because of the signs He was doing. In this half of the chapter, Jesus had gone into Jerusalem and revealed the hypocrisy of what was going on there. The Jews had their money changing tables in with their house of prayer. When Jesus did something about that the Jews demanded a sign to show His authority. Jesus said the sign they would get was He would raise the temple in three days. He refused to give them the signs they were asking for because such signs were the only reason some believed at all. We finish this passage this week with John specifying that it is not always about belief, but why somebody believes. John is foreshadowing the rest of the book where Jesus performs many miracles, but he is establishing that it is not about the miracles, but about what He said.

            John said that Jesus did not entrust himself to the many that believed because of the signs. Jesus knows what is in the heart of man and He knew that these people did not come to see Him because of His being God; they came because He did signs. John showed here that Jesus was holding Himself back from the crowd and not giving all of Himself to them because He knew they were not really with Him. This is something important to remember with the rest of the gospel and some of the interactions that Jesus has where it might seem like saying something might attract more people, but John explains that He knows perfectly well how to attract people to Him because He knows all people.

            John also said in the next verse how He knew all people. He did not need anyone to bear witness or tell Him how people could be because Jesus knew what was in man. John was careful to explain this so there is no misunderstanding. Jesus was not just good at reading people, He saw through them and inside to what was really going on in their minds and spirits. Jesus knew that the heart of man was evil and most of these people were not there to follow God; they were there because they were hoping to get something out of Jesus. Jesus has the power to give everything someone wants because He is God, but the fact is that is not what people need. This will be the story of the rest of the gospel—their only true need was God and Jesus.

            For Christians, we need to build our whole lives off Jesus—not as a piece of our lives but as the base. He is the reason that we do spiritual disciplines such as praying or reading the Bible. We must continue to rely on Him in those moments because only through His power can we even accomplish those simple tasks in a way that is pleasing to God. It is through His power that we can live, breath, and find our meaning and we need to be honest with Him because He already knows. When we open up with Jesus we are really opening up to ourselves and Jesus can start to work even deeper in us on those parts He already sees.

            For non-Christians, there is not a part of you that Jesus does not already see. He knows you and has known you since before you were conceived and He does not demand you to do anything but truly let Him in and surrender yourself to Him not because He will clean up your whole life and change you from who you were into something better but because Jesus is God and demands all of you.