Wednesday, April 29, 2020

29 April 2020 - not rejecting anyone



Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.

Jesus has a heart that mirrors and reveals the heart of the Father. It is a heart that does not reject anyone who comes to it. The project of the incarnation was not something selfish which Jesus did for his own sake. It wasn't as though he insisted that we follow his lead and take up our crosses because he needed us to do that to boost his own ego. Rather, everything was for us. He came that we might have life to the full (see John 10:10), to seek and to save the lost (see Luke 19:10), and that the world might be saved through him (see John 3:17). This is what it means when Jesus said he came to do the will of him who sent him. He was perfectly secure in the Father's love. His existence is, from all eternity, a perfect offering back to the Father. It is this Trinitarian power source that enables him to love us selflessly. 

Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.
Thus Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.

Philip was plugged into the Trinity for the source of his love. That is why persecution did not deter him. It is the reason why he, a Christian from Jerusalem, was not reluctant to preach to the crowds in Samaria. It wasn't for his own sake, or for his pride. This is why he was powerful in what he said and did, and why the crowds couldn't help but pay attention.

With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.

Paradoxically, it is this lack of self-direction that allows Jesus to be the very source of life for those who come to him. From a human perspective it seems that only those who hoard and stockpile have anything to give. Yet it seems that in the Kingdom of Heaven that opposite is true.

I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.

Our own plans have been scattered by the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Are we able to respond, even a little, by allowing ourselves to be used in the new situations in which we find ourselves? Are we able, even a little, to become bread for others?

Only the Trinity has a love that is able to bridge the gap of our selfishness that separates us one from another, each from God. Only such love can feed a hungry world. This is true at all levels, physically, emotionally, and even spiritually. These three hungers come together when we receive flesh and blood of Jesus. Therefore, in them, we become one bread and one body ourselves.

Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.


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