What if we just manage to make our church more like the Pharisees than like Jesus?! You'll recall that that the Pharisees 'knew the Scriptures cold.' They could probably recite huge chunks of them; they’d learned them from early days and throughout their youth, studied them in the equivalent of our seminaries, had traveled with and sat at the feet of rabbis who taught and explained the sacred texts.

O they knew all about the Scriptures: what would surely happen, what to expect. But Jesus came and surprised them all; and that turned soon to anger in their attitude towards Him.  He wasn’t doing it right, nor saying it right, if indeed He was Messiah. How and what He did things, those with whom He hung out - well it was just wrong, to their minds. He kept saying and doing things that put them right off; pulled them way off track.

Again, they knew the Old Testament cold (or thought they did) – but they missed Jesus in the Scritpures which speak everywhere of Him.

It’s possible to be in the midst of a work of God – and not see it – to miss it (and God) entirely - through sheer ignorance and unawareness, through stubborn unbelief and apride-full heart that says:  ‘We already know what should happen, how it should go down – and this – this aint it!’

God does new things; God surprises. He keeps His Word but expands and develops it so that we need God's Spirit to see and understand - and hearts and minds and wills that can melt, be maleable and are willing to be changed.