The Gospels of the New Testament record many of the conflicts that occurred between the Jewish leaders and Jesus. One significant observation about those conflicts is that the Bible only records two incidents when Jesus initiated the conflict. On all the other, numerous occasions it was the Jewish leaders that started the conflict with Jesus.
Whenever, I think of Jesus being in conflict with the Jewish leaders one of the first Bible texts that comes to my mind is Jesus' rebuke of the Jewish leaders in John 5:39-40. On this occasion Jesus was answering the accusations of His accusers after He had healed a man on the Sabbath day. As Jesus sought to open the minds of the elders to their misapprehension of scripture regarding the Sabbath and God's character of love, He diagnosed their spiritual condition with these words: "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; but these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life."
Wow! That's a frightening rebuke. And, friends, I fear that many times the short fall of the Jewish leaders is also our short fall today. Granted our motivations may be different today than they were for Jesus' accusers 2000 years ago, but our mistake is still the same.
Again, and again we turn to the pages of scripture hoping to find life, comfort, and peace there. But friends, the Bible was not given to us to give us any of those things. Scripture was given to us so that we might learn how to go to Jesus. It's only in the Son of God that we find life. It's only in the Son of God that we receive comfort. It's only in the Son of God that we obtain peace.
Please don't think then that we don't need to turn to the pages of scripture. We need the Bible for the same reason we need maps and directions. They help us get where we're wanting to go and find what we're looking for. But the map, as important as it might be, isn't the destination, and the directions, as important as they are, are not the completed task. And neither is the Bible Jesus our Savior.
Today, just as He was 2000 years ago, Jesus is calling to the lost and misguided, and He's begging us to come to Him.