Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent - March 30, 2012
John 10:31 - 38
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’? If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came — and Scripture cannot be broken — what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
I've come to believe that God's nature is to be endlessly Self-giving. God is generous with God's Self, giving away the peace, love, mercy and compassion of God to humans. It is characteristic of God to give away what it means to be God.
So in creating human beings, God created us in the image of God. Within every human person is something of the image of God. I think of this as the God-seed that is planted within each person, the deep soul-connection we each have with God. Something of God is woven into our DNA.
This is a basic, fundamental truth of humans beings. Our first truth is not our sin or distortion or alienation. Our first truth is the image of God within us.
When the Jews attacked Jesus with stones, they accused him of claiming to be God.
Of course, what they said was true. Jesus was the fullness of God, the fully human man who fully realized and lived into the image of God within him.
Jesus did not deny their charge; rather, he quoted Psalm 82:6 and said that what was true for him was also offered for them.
He said to them, "The Father is in me, and I in the Father." And any of those who accused him could have said the same thing. They, too, were in God and God was in them. But for the most part, those persons lived oblivious to the life of God within them.
And that is true in our day as well. Most people in our world are oblivious to their true nature, oblivious to the life of God that is within every human person.
I don't believe Jesus was claiming anything for himself in this passage that a person conscious of their own connection with God could not claim, also.
For today . . . what does the phrase, "The Father is in me and I in the Father" mean to you? You might affirm that the words are true for Jesus . . . can you also believe that they are true for you?
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’? If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came — and Scripture cannot be broken — what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
I've come to believe that God's nature is to be endlessly Self-giving. God is generous with God's Self, giving away the peace, love, mercy and compassion of God to humans. It is characteristic of God to give away what it means to be God.
So in creating human beings, God created us in the image of God. Within every human person is something of the image of God. I think of this as the God-seed that is planted within each person, the deep soul-connection we each have with God. Something of God is woven into our DNA.
This is a basic, fundamental truth of humans beings. Our first truth is not our sin or distortion or alienation. Our first truth is the image of God within us.
When the Jews attacked Jesus with stones, they accused him of claiming to be God.
Of course, what they said was true. Jesus was the fullness of God, the fully human man who fully realized and lived into the image of God within him.
Jesus did not deny their charge; rather, he quoted Psalm 82:6 and said that what was true for him was also offered for them.
He said to them, "The Father is in me, and I in the Father." And any of those who accused him could have said the same thing. They, too, were in God and God was in them. But for the most part, those persons lived oblivious to the life of God within them.
And that is true in our day as well. Most people in our world are oblivious to their true nature, oblivious to the life of God that is within every human person.
I don't believe Jesus was claiming anything for himself in this passage that a person conscious of their own connection with God could not claim, also.
For today . . . what does the phrase, "The Father is in me and I in the Father" mean to you? You might affirm that the words are true for Jesus . . . can you also believe that they are true for you?
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