John 14:7-14
Jesus in verse 6,
- i.e the verse just before todays reading, has identified himself as the Way – the Truth – the Life.
- i.e the fullness that we need to attain to be in the Fathers presence.
- To be in the Father’s presence means to have an identity.
- We like the Prodigal Son, have cut ourselves away from the Father
- And everything to do with the Father.
- When we are in the Father’s Presence
- we have fullness of joy and fullness of life – meaning everlasting, perfect and complete life
- This is the truth about humanity
- And like the Prodigal Son, we Need to accept this
- and get on the way back to go to our Father’s House
- For us this way is Jesus
- So we need to life our lives according to the values, teachings choices and instructions he has made.
In John 6:7-14, Jesus now explains why he is the Way – the Truth – the Life.
- He is the image of the Father and come down from heaven
- Meaning he is the Son of the Father
- meaning he is the same substance and essence of the Father
- and like a Son who is an extension of his parents
- he is an extension of God the Father – in the sense that he is God himself.
- And thus we have seen God and we have lived
- because we have seen Jesus
- And this is the most important thing that
- we have seen God and lived,
- while we were still sinners,
- because of God’s awesome love for us
- Jesus is then God among us and with us.
- He is the Shepherd
- He is the new Moses
- Who herds his flock to the Promised Land/Presence of God.
- Jesus then goes back to a very important point, which the Evangelist John is harping in his Gospel
- God at last has completed his promises
- he has saved Man
- it is now up to man, to still continue living in the Land of Egypt (i.e. away from the Presence of God)
- or to make the decision, put his/her trust in Jesus and thus Believe
- and begin the Journey to God’s Presence.
- The Key is Believe!
- In John 3:16 we are told of God’s Love for man
- that he himself comes and died for man
- to redeem him from the slavery that he is in
- and so have eternal life (i.e. the freedom of God’s presence)
- for this Man needs to believe in Jesus
- But John 3:36 makes one thing
- Belief in Jesus means
- to openly acknowledge Jesus as God, Lord and Saviour
- of our lives
- and of all humanity
- And show this belief in action
- Not lip-service
- but to do and live life
- according to our verbal confession of Jesus being God, Lord and Saviour
- There should be no contradiction in what we believe and how we live.
- Belief in Jesus means
Let us then pray…
Lord we believe help our unbelief
Reflection on Matthew 13:54-58 :: Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth (Solemnity of St. Joseph the Worker)
Jesus came into this world to reveal the heavenly Father’s love for all people. Jesus moved all parts of the country and proclaimed the Kingdom of God. Many of the Gentile people believed in him and accepted his teaching and received salvation. However his own people, the Jews still did not have belief in him and rejected his teachings and the salvation he offered.
Let us reflects on the word “unbelief”.
In the early Christian community, the Apostles did many wonders in Jesus’ name as they believed there is power in the name of Jesus. The name Jesus means to save or to rescue. During persecution, sickness, demon possessions, war, famine the believer put his trust and faith in Jesus believed in Jesus. And thus they experienced wonders and miracles taking place in their life.
In the bible we have examples of such people
1) Daniel and his friends believed God would rescue them from the burning furnace and accordingly their lives were saved.
2) When Daniel was in the lions den, he believed God would rescue him and accordingly his life was saved.
3) The Prophet Simeon believed that before he died, he would see the saviour of the world and accordingly he saw the infant Jesus, and accordingly praised God.
Yes, friends today amidst this current civic situation, we are believing the word of world and running behind what the world is saying. We are believing what the experts are saying and living our lives in fear. This shows we are totally unchristian since we have unbelief in us. We have forgotten the Word of God. John 14:18 Jesus says to each one of us
“ I will not leave you orphaned”
This is Jesus promises to us through scripture. Should we than be worrying about our current situation. If we believe in Jesus we will see the glory of God in our lives. We will be walking above the waters and Storms of life, in accordance to God’s Word. In this than the world will see what it means to be a Christian. On the other hand, if we do not believe in Jesus and his promises, it means that we are rejecting Jesus, just like when he was rejected by his own home town people, in today’s Gospel.
Answer this question then, ‘Do I believe in Jesus and the word of God?
