Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent -- April 14, 2011
John 8:51 – 59
“Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”
At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
“You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
In this passage, a common question came to Jesus yet again. “Who do you think you are?” It was another way of asking the identity question.
“Who are you?”
“What is on your insides?”
Jesus responded in a strange way by talking about God’s glory. There are a couple of biblical images for glory that are significant. “Glory” in the Hebrew Scriptures suggested brightness and an overwhelming light. We commonly think of glory in terms of brilliance (shekinah).
Another, more common Hebrew word (chabod) suggested heaviness or weightiness.
So given Jesus’ response to this question of identity, consider what he was saying. The glory evident in his life came from God.
The light in his life was not self-generated. He carried and reflected God’s brilliance.
The weightiness of his being did not come from his self-importance, but arose from his center where he was most unalterably joined to the Father.
This is also the knowing that Jesus had. It is a knowing to which we are invited, but which we often miss. Jesus knew his Source, the One who gave to him brilliance and weightiness. What the religious leaders missed was not only the Source of Jesus’ brilliance and weightiness, but also the Source of their own brilliance and weightiness.
Certainly Jesus was unique in many ways, but what was available to Jesus (God’s brilliance and weightiness) is also available to us. It is available to each of us in one-of-a-kind ways. God initiates and stirs up this knowing within us.
“Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”
At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
“You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
In this passage, a common question came to Jesus yet again. “Who do you think you are?” It was another way of asking the identity question.
“Who are you?”
“What is on your insides?”
Jesus responded in a strange way by talking about God’s glory. There are a couple of biblical images for glory that are significant. “Glory” in the Hebrew Scriptures suggested brightness and an overwhelming light. We commonly think of glory in terms of brilliance (shekinah).
Another, more common Hebrew word (chabod) suggested heaviness or weightiness.
So given Jesus’ response to this question of identity, consider what he was saying. The glory evident in his life came from God.
The light in his life was not self-generated. He carried and reflected God’s brilliance.
The weightiness of his being did not come from his self-importance, but arose from his center where he was most unalterably joined to the Father.
This is also the knowing that Jesus had. It is a knowing to which we are invited, but which we often miss. Jesus knew his Source, the One who gave to him brilliance and weightiness. What the religious leaders missed was not only the Source of Jesus’ brilliance and weightiness, but also the Source of their own brilliance and weightiness.
Certainly Jesus was unique in many ways, but what was available to Jesus (God’s brilliance and weightiness) is also available to us. It is available to each of us in one-of-a-kind ways. God initiates and stirs up this knowing within us.
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