In John 2:20, the Jews ask Jesus a follow up question that proves they are far from discerning what Jesus was saying and that is because even the components of the redemptive plan of God are folly to the natural mind. Paul taught this exact truth in 1 Cor. 1:22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The religious system of Judaism had become a man-made religion, void of the power of God and thus void of the blessing of God. It made sense to the natural mind—”do these religious things faithfully and you can get right with God.” That’s equivalent to false religion of our day, such as the teaching of the Roman Catholic church, which officially states that one gets right with God by faith in Christ plus works. No one needs the Holy Spirit to believe that! That is the default belief system of everyone. However, to believe that you have a righteous standing before God based on faith alone in the finished work of the Son of God on your behalf—that is hard to swallow; in fact, it is impossible to truly believe in without the Holy Spirit opening one’s eyes to the sufficiency and exclusivity of Christ and Christ alone.
But isn’t it true that we must beware of this mindset once we become Christians as well? If we desire to process life only in the natural realm and only with the use of our natural senses, including our own reasoning capabilities, then we will be confounded and miss out on what God is doing. Sadly, sometimes we operate like this: “If God wants my wholehearted worship and trust, then his plans must make sense to me and thus must not require true faith. I’ll step forward in obedience as soon as he proves himself to me by changing my circumstances.” The extreme form of that was what led these Jewish leaders to continually miss the Messiah in their midst and thus they could not benefit from the promises of God. Without faith it’s impossible to please God, so it’s futile to attempt to come to him any other way. Let us not miss Christ this Christmas by refusing to believe.