The Jews were and are very intelligent people. Their performance and achievements have been very outstanding among humanity. Despite all kinds of hardship, they manage to strive and survive and thrive. However, in the eye of Christianity, they fail miserably before they rejected Jesus Christ.
In the gospel reading today (John 5:31-47), we find Jesus' negative comments on their performance. All these are summarized into one sentence, "But I know that you have not the love of God within you." (5:42) That was devastating! Of course, that was not final. Humanity is capable of change and transform. I am sure that devastating sentence does not apply to all Jews. After all, the first disciples of Jesus were all Jews.
I still admire the Jews. They are path-finders. The mistakes they made and which cost their lives are treasures for us all. They set up counter-examples, warning us what pitfalls humanity might fall into when they seek God. The key issue is: do we have the love of God within us? No wonder John kept on speaking about love and concluded that God is love (1 John 4:8). In short, if we do not have love in our hearts, do not have God in our hearts, we fail to go to Jesus and have no life. God is watching over us with a pair of loving eyes. Most of the time, we turn our sight away from Him and commit sins. We are not responding to His love.
Heavenly Father, fill our hearts with Your love so that we may have life. Amen.
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