Eastertide
May 12, 2019
Scripture Reading: John 10:22-30
At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 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.’ Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.’
Eternal life operates simultaneously outside of time, inside of time, and beyond time – i.e. what gives time its everlasting meaning for the believer through faith yet is also time-independent*.
John is saying that Jesus’ power is the very power of God. God shares with Jesus God’s eschatological [end of the world] power over life, death, and judgment **.
I do not know which is more challenging for humans to grasp that God along with Jesus controls time or judgment. Humans seem to have a definite need to control both and often do neither well. I am a procrastinator unless I am not. It is amazing how long I can justify putting off something I do not want to do and how quickly I do the things I choose, sometimes recklessly. I have read many help books that describes ways to make the best use of time but how to use time in not my problem. The artificial hierarchy of time-use need I carry around in my brain rules my behavior for good or bad. My inherited and personal values create that hierarchy. We rarely take our deep-seated values out and compare them to values defined by God. Now to do so would be a most meaningful use of time.
Judgment is an even thornier issue. The measuring instruments in our brains by which we judge other people have been years in the making beginning at our births. They build up like the grime in our plumbing making us think we know a lot about someone even before we meet them. Such prejudgments can be harmful to our relationships with others as we seek to become one in Christ. When we start to believe that our judgment about others takes the place of God’s ultimate judgment, we enter the dangerous territory of blasphemy, playing God.
Prayer:
Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
forgive our foolish ways;
reclothe us in our rightful mind,
in purer lives thy service find,
in deeper reverence, praise***. Amen.
*https://biblehub.com/greek/166.htm
**The New Interpreter’s Bible: A commentary in Twelve Volumes Volume IX Abingdon Press page 677.
***First verse of Dear Lord and Father of Mankind by John Greenleaf Whittier. See at https://hymnary.org/text/dear_lord_and_father_of_mankind
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.