John 7:46

The guards respond as honestly as they can. “We have never heard any man speak like this Man—ever!” they confess. John 7:46 EFP 

These poignant words must have been as difficult for the guards to say as they were for the religious leaders to hear. It is no easy confession on the part of the guards to acknowledge their amazement at the Man, Jesus. His words must have pierced their hearts unlike any other discourse they had ever heard, present company included. These words could have cost them their jobs, even their very lives—but the respond to the query honestly.

The priests and Pharisees do not want to hear those words any more than the soldiers want to say them. It confirmed what they had been noticing from their very first encounter with this radical rabbi from the north. It is an indictment of the emptiness of their own public discourses. Yet, rather than admitting their pettiness and being open to the possibility of a word from God, these words only elicit more hatred towards this apparent threat to their religious rule over the people.

There is power in the “red letters” of the Scripture. What would it be like to live by the principles and teachings of Jesus? I wonder if his words would become as offensive to me as they were to the religious bastions of his time. I am being drawn to reconsider their meaning to me today and every day I live. I am left quietly uneasy. It is the Spirit calling me to confess with the temple guards, “There is no one else who speaks to me like Jesus!”