John 7:40

The words have struck home. Many in the crowd, upon hearing Jesus's invitation and promise, are moved to confession. 'This is the Prophet'—the figure spoken of in Deuteronomy, the one like Moses who would come. The identification shows that the crowd has categories for understanding Jesus, even if their categories are incomplete. They do not yet call him the Christ; they name him according to what they have heard in Scripture. The Prophet is himself a form of hope, a promise kept. Yet the crowd does not realize that Jesus is more than the Prophet—he is the Word made flesh, the Son of God himself. Still, their movement toward faith, their willingness to be transformed by what they hear, is the beginning of true understanding. They are on the path.

We too often approach Jesus through the categories we inherit—prophet, teacher, healer, rabbi. These are true, but they do not exhaust who he is. We are invited to let our understanding grow, to be surprised by his identity. As we encounter him more deeply in Scripture, in prayer, in the communion of the church, our faith expands to encompass what at first we could not have imagined.