Category: bible

John 11:17-27 (NRSV)

¹⁷ When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. ²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” ²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

Jesus is good friends with this family, and before he does anything else, he talks with each sister. The first is Martha, and their conversation is intellectual and theological.

Her questioning and her interactions with Jesus are a beautiful model of faith. She tells Jesus he could have stopped this bad thing, and that she knows that God will still do what Jesus asks.

When Jesus promises he will live again, she likely assumes that he means this will happen in some distant future, but she agrees with Jesus that this good news will happen.

I like Martha. She’s smart, she’s patient, and she has hope, just four days after her brother’s death, which is remarkable.

She also gives us a window into part of what this rich Hebrew word “Messiah” means. This word, which literally means “anointed”, the one marked with oil, represents “God’s chosen one” and is translated into Greek as “Christ.”

Here, Jesus and his friend Martha tell us that Messiah means that death is impermanent, that the greatest curse and fear we face doesn’t have the last say. Even death is “but a flesh wound.” 

 

John 11:1-16 (NRSV)

11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. ³ So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” ⁴ But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ⁵ Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, ⁶ after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

⁷ Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” ⁸ The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” ⁹ Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. ¹⁰ But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” ¹¹ After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” ¹² The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” ¹³ Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. ¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵ For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” ¹⁶ Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Why didn’t Jesus go? Why did he wait two more days, rather than hurry on to Lazurus’ bedside when he heard he was ill? What does this say about Jesus? And if Jesus represents God to us, as John says he does again and again, what does this say about how God sees our pain?

Twice Jesus says something that might make us wonder if God just doesn’t care all that much about us. He says he is waiting because this illness is “for God’s glory” and later tells his apprentices that he’s glad he wasn’t there “so that (they) may believe.”

In my early encounters with this passage, I made the quick logical leap. Jesus must deliberately let Lazurus and his whole family suffer the awful pain of not just his death but the two days preceding it so that he could raise him from the dead and make God look good. Then his apprentices, and we the readers, will trust more in the power of God.

Except that if that’s so, that makes God seem a little sick. And callous to our pain. Why would God need to earn a good reputation at the cost of our suffering?

Now I find this reading unsatisfying. And not just because of my view of God, but because of what the text itself says. Later, when Jesus encounters the grieving family, we’ll read that he wept. He is torn up by their suffering and loss, even as he’s about to do something about it. In this section, John also says that Jesus loved the family deeply. He is moved by their pain.

So why does he delay his help?

The truth is that I don’t know, of course. The most obvious reading would be that Jesus didn’t know he was going to die. Those of us that have a high view of Jesus’ divinity read the gospels like he’s not quite one of us – some kind of super-powered superhero. But even superheroes usually can’t predict the future accurately, and the gospels and the New Testament generally make it quite clear that Jesus was fully human. At one point, his god-human nature is explained by saying that he “emptied himself“, what theologians call kenosis, Jesus’ self-emptying of his divine nature to fully share in our humanity. There’s no reason that Lazurus’ death couldn’t have shaken Jesus in the speed with which it came.

Whether this is the best reading or not, I find it more helpful and  more true to the God I trust and worship, to understand Jesus never as causing evil, but as bending it toward good, turning all things for good in time, wrenching goodness out of horrible suffering again and again.

Because he loves us.

And because God is just glorious like this.

John 10:22-42 (NRSV)

²² At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³ and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. ²⁴ So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” ²⁵ Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; ²⁶ but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. ²⁷ My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ The Father and I are one.”

³¹ The Jews took up stones again to stone him. ³² Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” ³³ The Jews answered, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.” ³⁴ Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? ³⁵ If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’—and the scripture cannot be annulled— ³⁶ can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? ³⁷ If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. ³⁸ But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” ³⁹ Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands.

⁴⁰ He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. ⁴¹ Many came to him, and they were saying, “John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” ⁴² And many believed in him there.

This is some way to celebrate Hanukkah! It’s Winter Solstice, and so it’s time for the Feast of Dedication, which commemorated the re-dedication of the Jerusalem temple after it was ruined by the Selucid Empire, who had placed a statue of Zeus in the temple and sacrificed pigs there. This holiday was also called the Feast of the Maccabees, after the Jews who led the revolt that recaptured the temple. Today, post-temple life, we call this holiday Hanukkah. Apparently, for Jesus and his contemporaries, it’s a perfect day for a religious dispute to turn violent!

On the surface this is a dispute about who Jesus is – Messiah (chosen ruler of God) or not, uniquely in union with God or not. Jesus says it is so: he is inside of God (whom he calls Father) and Father God is inside him – total oneness, mystical union. This is too much for some to imagine – how could that be?

For Jesus in John, it’s just the start. Later in John, Jesus will pray that his followers will go where he is and have this same experience of union with God. He drops a hint here that he’s not alone in his spirituality. Quoting Psalm 82, he says that God is in communion with lesser beings called “gods.” This short psalm utilizes an image, or rhetorical device, or theological concept – hard to say if it’s one or all of these things – called the divine council, in which God is shown in conversation with other great spiritual beings. Often these are considered to be something like angels.

Jesus is at least one of these beings, he says, so everybody should chill out when he talks about being one with God. Theologically, most followers of Jesus have elevated his god-ness even higher, to believe (as John did) that Jesus fully shares the very being and essence of God.

Perhaps even the more radical hope is that to be fully human is to participate in this life and being, without ever ceasing to be human and without ever becoming gods. Our human destiny and inheritance from Jesus is to be in perfect union and connection with God, to experience the presence and love of God fully and to do the works of God as well.

What aspect of this experience would you hope to taste and see today?

John 10:1-21 (NRSV)

10 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. ² The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” ⁶ Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

⁷ So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹ I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³ The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. ¹⁴ I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷ For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. ¹⁸ No one takes^[a] it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

¹⁹ Again the Jews were divided because of these words. ²⁰ Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him?” ²¹ Others were saying, “These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

In comes Jesus with a set of agrarian metaphors. Best as I can tell, the sheep – even though they’re still sheep – are people now, and Jesus is very protective of them. There are other people that want to take people and eat them or sell them or do whatever bandits would generally do to sheep. And Jesus starts his teaching by saying I am not like that. I am not a thief.

He starts by repeating, I am the gate. I protect people, and I’m the way to safety (as the sheep come in through the gate) and I’m the way to nourishment (as sheep come out through the gate). Only good things ever happen because of me.

Awesome – Jesus appears to be a shepherd in the wool trade, not the lamb meat industry, so vegetarians, thumbs up for Jesus here.

But then he takes the analogy home, for people, because he has a name for all these good things sheep get as they walk in and out through him – he calls it abundant life. And then in the second half, Jesus says not only am I not like a thief, but I’m also not like that summer employee you hire at minimum wage just to keep a warm body in the shop.

I have ownership in this.

This is my life.

I’m dedicated. I take care of the sheep. I put myself between the sheep and any harm. I will lay my life down for them, he says, and not just generally, as a group, but one by one, for each one, because I know them all. They’re my people, or my sheep. They’re my friends.

This is a journey with Jesus that involves no violence and no coercion and calls for us vs. them tribalism.

Instead, the only task of the sheep is to be as persistent and dedicated as possible about recognizing and listening to the voice of Jesus, who will lead us well into life.

Invite Jesus, if you like, to help you learn to recognize his voice, and to distinguish it from the voice of the hired hands and thieves who don’t care about you or who would even seek your harm.

John 9:35-41 (NRSV)

³⁵ Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” ³⁶ He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” ³⁷ Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” ³⁸ He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. ³⁹ Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” ⁴⁰ Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” ⁴¹ Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

Jesus makes explicit the theme we explored yesterday. Jesus helps a man to flourish by restoring his sight. He does it because he wants to, it gives him pleasure. And he does it to demonstrate that God is for flourishing.

Jesus also, though, has another goal from this healing and the encounters that follow. It’s a kind of embodied truth telling, a project of exposing things as they are. There are blind people who see. There are sighted people who are fundamentally blind, when it comes to the important things of life.

To say that we have vision, and be blinded by our own fear or legalism – even the fear or legalism that we don’t invent but inherit from our culture – is to miss the mark, or to use the Bible word for being off-center, to sin.

It is also to be under judgment. Judgment in John isn’t so much punishment or threat of punishment. It’s more like a spotlight that shines brightly and reveals the truth of how things are. It’s exposure, clarity. Like The Boston Globe investigative project of that name, the spotlight highlights our lack of full humanity, encouraging renewal and change, if we’ll have it.

Today, I invite you to do something courageous. However much you do or don’t pray, however clear or muddy your conception of God is, ask God to expose where you see clearly, where you are dedicated to your own and others’ human flourishing, and where you’re missing the mark on that.

If anything comes to mind, invite Jesus to renew you and to help you see clearly and live mercifully.

John 9:13-34 (NRSV)

¹³ They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. ¹⁴ Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. ¹⁵ Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” ¹⁶ Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. ¹⁷ So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”

¹⁸ The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight ¹⁹ and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” ²⁰ His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; ²¹ but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” ²² His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. ²³ Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

²⁴ So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” ²⁵ He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” ²⁶ They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” ²⁷ He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” ²⁸ Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. ²⁹ We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” ³⁰ The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. ³¹ We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. ³² Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” ³⁴ They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.

Have you ever missed something really important, even when it was sitting right under your nose? I have. Once, when I was a high school administrator, I expelled a kid for bringing a bag of weed to school. It was an open and shut case, possession of drugs in school with the intent to sell. I could have referred him to the police and given his age, he might have seen jail time. I didn’t notify the police. I thought I was merciful.

But looking back years later, I realized the family had a boatload of problems, some of which I knew about, or could have easily inferred. I knew some of the kid’s story too and knew enough to know that he wasn’t malicious, he was needy. But I didn’t know how to help, didn’t have a lot of resources. I know I was scared by the politics of the situation – I would have been crucified (well, not really – bad choice of metaphor for a Jesus blog, I suppose) had I not done the “tough on crime” thing. I also was stressed out in life for my own reasons and didn’t spend a moment of time that year trying to find creative solutions for this guy’s life. Maybe I could have, maybe I couldn’t. But I didn’t try. And that’s one of my regrets of my career in education.

It’s easy to judge the Pharisees in the gospel accounts. I mean, everyone here is not seeing what is right in front of their eyes.

Except the blind/formerly-blind man. He seems exasperated trying to deal with his inquisitors. “I was blind, now I see.” Isn’t this of interest to you?!?

Nope. His parents are afraid of the politics. The religious authorities are offended that Jesus, by their standards, is a law breaker. That’s all they can see.

And if I’m honest, I’ve been like them too.

God have mercy on each of us, that we can see clearly what is most important in our lives and in our surroundings. Jesus have mercy to take away our blindness and help us see clearly, so we can be people of mercy as well.

John 9:1-12 (NRSV)

9 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ³ Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. ⁴ We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. ⁵ As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” ⁶ When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, ⁷ saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. ⁸ The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹ Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” ¹⁰ But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” ¹¹ He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” ¹² They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

I have a really optimistic friend who likes to remind people of the old adage, “Every problem is an opportunity in disguise.”

Jesus seems to have this attitude about life.

I used to be a little uncomfortable with the set up of this passage. How in the world would people blame the blind man or his parents for his blindness? That used to seem like a horrible first century attitude. Until I realized that I think this way all the time. I see someone down on their luck and wonder what they or their parents did to put them in that position.

Jesus thinks this way of blaming and explaining and analysis isn’t helpful when people are in front of us.

I also don’t think Jesus is saying God curses people with problems so that God can fix them and show how great God is. That seems like a perverse way to read Jesus’ line about God’s works being revealed.

Jesus just sees an opportunity. Someone’s going to be healed today, and people will see the goodness of God.

What would it be like to see our problems today, and see the problems of the people we encounter with this attitude, asking what would love look like here? How can this be an opportunity for someone to see the goodness of God?

John 8:39-59 (NRSV)

³⁹ They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, ⁴⁰ but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. ⁴¹ You are indeed doing what your father does.” They said to him, “We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself.” ⁴² Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me. ⁴³ Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot accept my word. ⁴⁴ You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵ But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. ⁴⁶ Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? ⁴⁷ Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God.”

⁴⁸ The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” ⁴⁹ Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. ⁵⁰ Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the judge. ⁵¹ Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” ⁵² The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ ⁵³ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?” ⁵⁴ Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ ⁵⁵ though you do not know him. But I know him; if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. ⁵⁶ Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” ⁵⁷ Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” ⁵⁸ Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” ⁵⁹ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

A reminder of the context we’re in – most of John chapters 6-8 is a collection of conflict discourses between Jesus and the cultural and religious leaders of Jerusalem. John calls Jesus’ opponents “the Jews”, and Jesus conflict with them reaches its climax here, just before Jesus is driven out of the temple.

This passage, particularly verse 44, has an especially virulent anti-Semitic history of interpretation, which thankfully, in the 20th century, the church finally stopped teaching. It’s good that our reading of the Bible can change over time.

At this point, what are some helpful things we can hear from this passage. Some ways it speaks to me:

-My status doesn’t mean much to God. Neither my religion nor my race nor my nationality nor my job have much weight in the kind of person I am today and that I will become tomorrow. How I love and how I listen, though, that will matter a lot.

-Lies come from evil, truth from God, so truth doesn’t need to be threatening. People that are lying, though, however positive they claim their motives or aims are, have lost their way. The ends to not justify the means to Jesus.

-Things really take a turn for the worse here when Jesus’ opponents call him a Samaritan (something like a “misguided bastard” to them) and say he has a demon. Attacking someone you don’t understand looks all kinds of ugly.

-Jesus is quite insistent that he is the perfect representation of God and that he has been so forever – “before Abraham was, I am.” This reminds me of an overarching theme of John, that anything I ever hear or learn about God, I should ask myself, “Does this sound like Jesus? Does this look like Jesus?”

On today’s image: perhaps our openness to receive and tell the truth is part of our journey toward childlike faith.

John 8:31-38 (NRSV)

³¹ Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” ³³ They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”

³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵ The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. ³⁶ So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷ I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word. ³⁸ I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.”

Slaves or sons, chattel or children, adopted or objects?

The slavery language is provocative for us, with our country’s awful legacy of slavery and our trouble with ongoing human trafficking today. But I think Jesus was likely aware of just how provocative this language was in his context as well.

That said, what Jesus seems to be driving at is that you don’t need external bondage to lack inner freedom. Jesus suggests a psycho-spiritual dynamic people live under where our lack of belonging creates insecurity and impermanence, and where our misplaced actions and allegiances create cycles of obligation and habit that diminish our lives.

As someone who has full confidence in his beloved identity with God and who lives full-time in truth and goodness and beauty, Jesus suggests that his words take us away from our diminishment and toward his experience of full humanity.

The way there is to make a place in our hearts and minds for Jesus, and for Jesus’ words and truth.

Take a moment of reflection, if you are willing and able, and ask Jesus what truth you need to hear today? Ask yourself if you will make room for this.

John 8:12-8:30 (NRSV)

¹² Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” ¹³ Then the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not valid.” ¹⁴ Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. ¹⁵ You judge by human standards; I judge no one. ¹⁶ Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is valid; for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. ¹⁷ In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid. ¹⁸ I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf.” ¹⁹ Then they said to him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” ²⁰ He spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury of the temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

²¹ Again he said to them, “I am going away, and you will search for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” ²² Then the Jews said, “Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” ²³ He said to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. ²⁴ I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.” ²⁵ They said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Why do I speak to you at all? ²⁶ I have much to say about you and much to condemn; but the one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” ²⁷ They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father. ²⁸ So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. ²⁹ And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.” ³⁰ As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

I am the light of the world.

I am going away…. where I am going…

I am from above…. I am not of this world….

…unless you believe that I am… you will realize that I am.

I am, I am, I am.

It’s almost like poetry and it’s absolutely unsubtle.

Jesus shares the name of his Dad – the Creator God, known to their ancestors by the breath-like Hebrew name of Yahweh, the “I am.”

Jesus is the ground of all being, the center of all existence, the illumination of all things, in all times.

Unlike his opponents, he doesn’t judge, even though he could. He says instead look at me, follow, and listen.

Instead of trying to understand Jesus today, instead of asking questions about why he said what he said, instead of wondering if all the things the Bible say about him are exactly as they report, imagine Jesus as the fixed point around which you rotate, the gravity that holds you, or simply – as he says – the light of the world.