He came to his own, and his own received him not;
He came to the one nation God had prepared for Him, and they turned Him away. Two questions follow: what were "His own," and why does John report this refusal on his very first page?
The one English word "own" covers two different forms here — one for a place, one for people.
But He had one place on earth which He was pleased to regard as His own possession (ta idia). There He came. And His own people (hoi idioi) — it does not say they did not know Him, but that they did not receive Him! It was rejection, not ignorance.
Refusal did not leave Him homeless.
The first word "own" in John 1:11 could be rendered "own home" — and John 19:27 does translate it that way. Refused His rightful place among His own people, He still had a home. To it He would invite the two disciples who asked, "Master, where are You staying?" His home was always in the bosom of the Father's love.
Israel had every reason to know Him when He came. Their own words show what they did instead.
On this earth, the people of Israel, the seed according to the flesh, were of all mankind in the best position to receive the Lord. The world around them did not know Him... That people had the law, the promises, the covenants, the oracles of God. According to the promise, the Lord was to come among them — and among them He came... But when the Messiah appeared, the Jews did not receive Him, even though His coming fitted the predictions of their own prophets perfectly. It is true, they said, and rightly, "This is the heir"; but because they hated Him, they added, "Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours."
Not receiving someone sounds mild. What Israel gave Him was worse than that.
And, worse still, His own — that favoured nation to whom God had spoken in the law and by the prophets, who boasted that they were God's people — did not receive Him when He came to them. They loved the darkness and not the light, because their deeds were evil. The Creator was a rejected stranger in His own world, and not rejected only, but hated.
It started at His birth and never eased.
When He was born a baby in David's city, there was no room for Him in the travellers' inn. Later there was no place for Him in Jerusalem or in its temple. Even among His own people the Lord of all had nowhere to lay His head. What a comment on human religiousness! And what an explanation: you may train human nature all you like — even train it by the law of God — and fallen humanity still has no heart for that life which was always with the Father, and which appeared in the person of Jesus.
Why put this refusal on the first page? The answer lies in how John's Gospel differs from the other three.
The first three — Matthew, Mark, and Luke — present Christ to man to be received, with proofs of power enough to remove all the effects of sin. But behind it all you find the difficulty: man is in the flesh, and the mind of the flesh is hostile to God. John's testimony starts here — men did not receive Him, and so He came in that grace which rose above all the rejection... so God comes out in grace... and so His Gospel all through is election and grace.
Israel's refusal did not stop God's purpose. It opened the door to a wider circle.
He came to His own, and they rejected Him. So condemnation closed their final responsibility. Still, grace in purpose would have a new set of people called "His own," taken out of the world. They are not limited to the chosen earthly nation, but include all who receive the Son, or in other words all who "believe on His name."
- Own things, own people. The first "own" points to what belonged to Him — a home, a place, rights; the second to the people connected with them.
- Not ignorance — rejection. The world did not know Him. Israel would not have Him. Knowing more made the refusal worse, not better.
- Not indifference — hatred. No room at His birth, no place in Jerusalem, a cross at the end. Religious training produced no heart for Him.
- Rejection first, then grace. John opens with the refusal. Everything after it comes as pure grace, given over man's "no."
- A second "His own." What one nation refused opened a new family. It takes in all who receive the Son and believe on His name.
but as many as received him, to them gave he [the] right to be children of God, to those that believe on his name;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.