Jeremiah 11:18-20 / John 7:40-52 (2019)
The fastest and easiest way to come to a conclusion is to make an assumption.
An assumption is to take something for granted, a supposition.
Whether it is a correct or an incorrect assumption, we usually begin by saying "I think ..."
But when the assumption is wrong, then the conclusion is also wrong.
In today's gospel, there were a lot of assumptions made about Jesus and specifically about His identity.
In the midst of these assumptions, an unexpected challenge came from Nicodemus.
He challenged the people to give Jesus a hearing and to discover for themselves who Jesus was.
But the assumptions far outnumbered and eventually drowned out the challenge.
We too have our own assumptions about who Jesus is.
We also need to verify our assumptions about Jesus.
It is about moving from "I think that Jesus loves me" to saying "I know that Jesus is loves me".