Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

John 8:12-20

It is appropriate reading this passage a few days after the time change, as the longer evenings are still something of a surprise.

We find today Jesus, as he is often depicted in the Fourth Gospel, speaking about himself, and speaking with authority. This is very different from what we often find in the other Gospels, where Jesus is frequently trying to keep his special identity secret. 

What’s interesting to me, though, is that in some way Jesus’s words associating himself with the Father can challenge our tendency to fixate on Christ as the object of our faith. Is that what Christianity is all about? Certainly Christians, from early on have revered and worshipped Jesus. But that wasn’t the whole content of their faith. I believe that the living Christ isn’t a static idol, but the means through which we are brought into communion with the Triune God, and with one another. With the Holy Spirit in our hearts we are brought into that love that unites the Father and the Son. 

So when we read passages such as today’s, with a Jesus speaking unabashedly about his relationship with the Father, consider the significance of being welcomed into that relationship. Notice also, that today’s story takes place in the treasury of the Temple. What a dramatic place to put this event! Its setting perhaps hints at the need for our faith to transcend worship and the spiritual life as a predictable, passive transaction, and instead, see it as an exciting, surprising, life-giving encounter rooted in love.

- Matthew Kieswetter