2 April 2014 - from the father

2 April 2014 - from the father

he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.

What Jesus says about his father is shocking to its original audience.  The whole history of the Jewish people is one which resists the temptation of their neighbors to pagan anthropomorphism of deity or to pantheism.  God is wholly other, the Holy other.  We must resist the tenancy to imagine or project human characteristics upon him.  Yet Jesus talks about learning from God as a son who watches his father plying his trade.  He "cannot do anything on his own but only what he sees the Father doing; for what he does, the Son will do also." 

Isn't this projecting something which is all too human onto the lofty LORD of all who can't be contained by the whole universe?  No!  In this era of science we tend to think of lifeless abstracts as higher than persons and relationships.  But it is not so.  The highest reality is personal, is relational!  The Jews know God as a personal God but are still forced to imagine him as a solitude.  There is no danger this way that we project our human failings onto him.  But if he is solitude it means that love, relationship, and community are lesser truths. 

God's relationship with his people always hints that these are more than mere accidental properties. He always shows his people the tenderness of a parent.

Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.

Jesus reveals that this love and tenderness is not just something God does but is rooted in the very truth of who he is.

For the Father loves the Son
and shows him everything that he himself does,
and he will show him greater works than these,
so that you may be amazed.

Jesus reveals the love of God for us.  He does this not so much by explaining concepts as by opening the way for us to share in that love.  God is love.  The Father's love is the very life of Jesus.  This is the love in which we are called to share, the divine life in which we are called to partake. 

For just as the Father has life in himself,
so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself.
And he gave him power to exercise judgment,
because he is the Son of Man.

As we are filled more and more with love ourselves we come to recognize more and more the fact that love is the central truth of God himself.  We come to see him more and more as he truly is.  And seeing this, we can't help but love him.  We can't help but be transformed.

"The Lord is gracious and merciful."  He wants to show us his favor and give us salvation today, not later.  Paul reminds us that the acceptable time is now and that the day of salvation is today (cf. 2 Cor. 6:2) because he knows we'll assume it is tomorrow, the next day, or eventually, but never right now.  Yet it is now that the LORD wants to free prisoners and to shine a light on those in darkness.  He is a shepherd who can't stand to see his sheep hunger or thirst.  His heart aches when he sees us suffering in the scorching wind or the blazing sun.  He doesn't want to wait.  He wants to comfort us right now.  So, "Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, break forth into song, you mountains.  For the LORD comforts his people and shows mercy to his afflicted."

We experience passing from death to life here.  We experience it now.  Only if this life is within us will it carry us beyond death.  No more putting it off until later!

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.

It is true that on the last day Jesus will speak and the dead will rise.  But we do not need to wait for this to be filled with the very fullness of God.  So let us hear the word of Jesus.  Let us believe in the one who sent him.  It's worth everything we have and are!