“I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” Psalm 69:8-9
John records that when Jesus drove the moneychangers out of the Temple with a righteous zeal, his disciples recalled this scripture (John 2:17). Perhaps John was thinking of the same passage when he wrote that Jesus "came unto his own and his own received him not" (John 1:11). The religious leaders of his day, who had studied the law and the prophets for generations, did not recognize this "stranger of Galilee" as coming from God. They had their own ideas of what God was like (no doubt more of a reflection of their own self-righteousness and legalism) and Jesus Christ, for all the love, power and wisdom he expressed, was a stranger to them.
If we truly know and belong to God, we will recognize Him, whether He chooses to manifest Himself in a person, or through a situation. "My sheep hear my voice," said Jesus, "and I know them, and they follow me." (John 10:27). Conversely, preconceived notions and a self-saving agenda may blind us to his very presence; we too may dismiss Him as a stranger.
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